10 Great American Farmhouse Breweries
Beer starts in the soil. From grains to hops, beer is as much an agricultural product as wine. But unlike the typical winery, most breweries do not grow their own ingredients. The grains, hops, and yeast are purchased via a network of national and international suppliers. That’s why the concept of terroir—the unique characteristics imparted by soil and climate—is typically reserved for coffee, tea, and wine.
However, in recent years brewers have returned to the land, reviving farmsteads, installing brewing equipment in barns, and planting fields of barley and rows of hops climbing high into the sky. The result is beers with singular flavors that speak of the ground from which they’re grown. With harvest season in full swing, here are 10 of our favorite farm-based breweries in America.
1/10Weeping Radish Farm Brewery: Grandy, North Carolina
In 1986, Uli Bennewitz opened North Carolina’s first brewery, an operation that, over the last three decades, has grown to encompass a 14-acre farm and butchery in the Outer Banks. Benneweitz’s German roots are evident in beers such as the kölsch-style OBX Beer and Black Radish schwarzbier. (Credit: Courtesy Weeping Radish Farm Brewery)
2/10Abandon Brewing: Penn Yan, New York
Slated to open in New York’s Finger Lakes region, Abandon is perched on farmland overlooking Keuka Lake. Here, Travis Fisher, Garry Sperrick, and Brewery Ommegang vet Jeff Hillebrandt refurbished a broken-down barn and planted apple trees, a vineyard and a hopyard, which will flavor beers such as a spicy rye ale, Belgian pale ale, and mocha porter. (Credit: Courtesy Abandon Brewing)
3/10Logsdon Organic Farmhouse Ales: Hood River, Oregon
After several decades wrangling brewing yeast, Wyeast Laboratories cofounder David Logsdon debuted his eponymous brewery in 2011, quickly earning accolades for his all-organic lineup of saisons, witbiers, and Belgian-inspired sour ales made with locally grown hops and fruit. (Credit: Courtesy Logsdon Organic Farmhouse Ales)
4/10Milkhouse Brewery at Stillpoint Farm: Mount Airy, Maryland
When Milkhouse opened this year in the Maryland countryside, it became the state’s first licensed farmhouse brewery. At Stillpoint, owners Carol McConaughy and Tom Barse oversee apiaries, board horses, tend to sheep, and grow the hops used in their Milkhouse beers. The unfiltered releases range from the malty Stillpoint Harvest Pale Ale to the Dollyhyde Farmhouse Ale, which is crafted with farm-grown wheat. (Credit: Courtesy Milkhouse Brewery)
5/10Hill Farmstead Brewery: Greensboro, Vermont
For eight generations Shaun Hill’s family has laid claim to this farm located in the state’s Northeast Kingdom. Armed with well water and heaps of hops, Hill concocts complex saisons, stouts, wild ales, IPAs, and his Ancestral Series of offerings that bear family members’ names. Hill’s cultish beers are regularly rated some of the world’s best. (Credit: Courtesy Hill Farmstead Brewery)
6/10Agrarian Ales: Eugene, Oregon
Just north of Eugene you’ll find Agrarian Ales, which sits on the Tilley family’s 25-acre Crossroads Farms spread. When brothers Nate and Ben moved back home about a decade earlier, the clan planted hops and herbs, which form the backbone of Agrarian’s certified-organic saisons, IPAs, porters, and pepper-infused ales. (Credit: Courtesy Agrarian Ales)
7/10Rogue Ales: Independence, Oregon
On its farms in Independence and in the Tygh Valley, the Oregon brewery grows barley, rye, hops, pumpkins, honey—all the necessary ingredients for fashioning the Chatoe Rogue line of crop-to-cup beers. To date, the releases have included the roasty Dirtoir black lager, smooth Single Malt ale and the Pumpkin Patch Ale. (Credit: Courtesy Rogue Ales)
8/10Ruhstaller: Sacramento, California
In the late 19th century, Swiss immigrant Captain Frank Ruhstaller ran Sacramento’s preeminent brewery, relying on locally grown hops and barley. More than a century later, Jan-Erik Paino pays homage to the pioneer with the revived Ruhstaller. Like the Captain, Paino uses California grain and hops in beers such as the 1881 California Red Ale and Gilt Edge Golden Lager. Recently, the brewery planted its own hopyard. (Credit: Courtesy Ruhstaller)
9/10Oxbow Brewing Company: Newcastle, Maine
Due to the brewery’s location in a renovated barn on a farm, it’s fitting that head brewer and owner Tim Adams focuses on farmhouse-inspired Belgian beers. Saison yeast drives the dry and citrusy Farmhouse Pale Ale, while the addition of funky Brettanomyces fuels the rice-infused Sasuga Saison. (Credit: Courtesy Oxbow Brewing Company)
10/10Rockmill Brewery: Lancaster, Ohio
Matthew Barbee’s Southeast Ohio farm shares one important trait with Belgium’s famed Wallonia brewing region: a nearly perfect match to the water’s mineral and bicarbonate makeup. In a converted horse barn, he crafts hand-corked, bottle-conditioned organic beers including a dubbel, tripel, witbier, and saison. (Credit: Courtesy Rockmill Brewery)
