Draft Equipment

Seeds of entrepreneurial inspiration

New year, new you, right?

If you're thinking about ways to improve your eating in 2012, consider adding hemp seeds to your diet. The seeds, which are gluten-free, are packed with fiber, vitamins, minerals and the heart- and skin-healthy fatty acids that can also help balance hormones. They have almost twice the protein as flax seeds and a higher percentage of protein than beef. They are also a complete protein that delivers a set of amino acids that our bodies can't produce on their own.

"Even though the food has been around since 8,000 BC, most people don't know about it," says Tako Miko Grayless, who moved to Austin last year to launch her hemp seed company, Happy Hemp. She spends most Saturday mornings at the downtown farmers' market explaining the nutritional benefits of hemp seeds, how to cook with them and the crop's interesting role in American history.

Even though the Declaration of Independence was likely drafted on hemp paper and hemp fibers were used during World War II to make uniforms and rope, people often associate hemp with what Grayless calls "the black sheep" of the Cannabis sativa family: marijuana. According to the North American Industrial Hemp Council, both hemp and marijuana are members of Cannabis sativa, a species with hundreds of varieties, but industrial hemp is bred to maximize fiber, seed and/or oil, while marijuana varieties seek to maximize THC. Even though hemp is legal to sell and eat (and use to make clothing, oil, paper and even particle board), because of the botanical connection to marijuana, you can't grow it in the U.S. without a Drug Enforcement Administration permit, so Grayless works with farmers in Canada to source her product.

You can eat the seeds raw, but Grayless has found a number of ways to use them in everyday cooking and baking. She posts three or four new recipes a week on her blog, happyhemp.wordpress.com. "I try to be as informative as possible and make recipes that aren't complicated like chicken salads, turkey burger and chocolate chip cookies." She even has a recipe for hemp seed dog biscuits that she feeds her three rescue dogs.

Once you've opened a bag, the seeds will keep in the fridge for up to a year. You can buy the hemp seeds in 2-, 8- or 12-ounce packages (prices start at $6 for the smallest bag) at all four People's Pharmacy locations, the downtown farmers market on Saturdays and online at happy-hemp.com.

Chicken Salad with Hemp Seeds

1 lb. leftover chicken, pulled apart

1 green apple, chopped

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/4 cup hemp seeds

1/4 cup mayonnaise

Salt and pepper, to taste

In a skillet over medium heat, lightly toast the almonds, stirring frequently. Pull them off the heat when they are golden brown, but before they start to burn on the edges. In a large mixing bowl, combine almonds with the rest of the ingredients. Serve on toast, lettuce, crackers or alone.

— Happy Hemp owner Tako Miko Grayless

Adelbert's lets beers condition in the bottle

The Central Texas craft beer scene is evolving at breakneck speed, and the latest brewery to open, Adelbert's Brewery, is finding a way to stand out in a crowded field by offering Belgian-style, bottle-conditioned beers. "I didn't see the need to put out another amber ale, IPA or porter," says Adelbert's owner Scott Hovey, so he set out to make the kind of beer that you could serve at a fancy dinner or put in a cellar to age, just like a fine wine.

Last month, Hovey released the first two beers: the Scratching Hippo, a Biere de Garde ale, and the Rambler, a Belgian-style blonde ale. Both are available at several markets and bars around town, including Sunrise Mart on Anderson Lane, Rosedale Market, Hyde Park Market, Flying Saucer, Whip-In and Draught House. In coming weeks, Opal Divine's, Alamo Drafthouse and Homefield Grill will also start carrying the beer in kegs, and in the retail markets, you'll find them in 750 ml bottles. The dubbel ale — named Dancin Monks — and Tripel B, a tripel ale, will ship in February.

Hovey is encouraging customers to hold on to some of the bottles to age them. Because Hovey uses hops that can withstand the aging process, over time "the floral stuff will fade out, but you'll get more of that earthier, more complex flavor, kind of like a well-aged cheese." 568-1462, adelbertsbeer.com.

Fermentation suits my son-in-law, Roger. Guess he comes by it naturally; his brother is a highly regarded winemaker in California's Russian River region. Instead of grapes, though, Roger works with apples.

Back in mid-November, we pressed over 500 pounds of apples, most of them from my trees. The mix included Jonagold, Melrose, Golden Russet, Calville Blanc, Gala and several mystery varieties from my own and a friend's orchard. All these fruits were hand-picked; no windfalls went into the juice.

From the yield of juice, Roger set aside about five gallons for making hard cider. He'd not made hard cider before, but had recently purchased a cider kit from Olympic Brewing Supplies in Bremerton. He recalled spending about $60 for the kit which included a five-gallon fermenting bucket, airlocks, yeast, sulfite (to prevent the growth of wild yeasts and bacteria) and potassium sorbate (to stop the fermentation process).

Before starting the process, Roger consulted his brother, Jeff. Jeff impressed on Roger the need to use only squeaky clean equipment; this to keep undesirable microorganisms out of the fermenting juice. Thus warned, Roger began the fermentation. Ultimately, he made about 1½ gallons of still and 2½ gallons of sparkling cider.

On December 27th, I opened a bottle of still, not knowing what to expect. Its color was a pleasing gold. The first surprise was its aroma. Through the smell of fermentation, there was a definite and attractive apple nose. A swallow established the cider as medium-sweet or medium-dry, neither bone dry nor sweet, with a pleasant though transformed taste of apple. The second surprise was the aftertaste, reminiscent of a fresh, unfermented apple.

So enjoyable was Roger's still cider, it started me thinking. Why not acquire my own fermenting kit and increase production next year? Why not design a family label? Why not cobble up some original recipes using the product?

Back to apples. What went into Roger's cider are all considered eating apples. Traditionalists don't favor such ciders, arguing that special cider apples make for more complex flavors. Specifically, the traditionalists want the inclusion of bitter-sharp varieties like Kingston Black or Foxwhelp and bittersweet varieties like Michelin or Yarlington Mill. If I grew cider varieties, they'd certainly go into our mix. But I confess to being satisfied with what Roger made from the sweet, sharp and aromatic varieties we had on hand.

The most important conclusion I draw from Roger's experiment is that it's possible to make high quality hard cider at home without major outlay for materials and equipment. In that sense, it's analogous to making beer at home. Making wine is far trickier, and in my opinion, best left to the professionals if you crave a high-quality product.

If hard cider is new to you and you're curious to sample some, I suggest you begin with the products of local, artisanal producers. Here are contacts for a few of those producers: eaglemountwinery.com in Port Townsend, finnriver.com in Chimacum, redbarncider.com in Mount Vernon, vashonwinery.com on Vashon Island, westcottbaycider.com on San Juan Island, and wildfirecider.com in Port Townsend. Once you're familiar with the varied tastes of hard cider, you can more easily decide the ones you like. Whether you buy them or make your own, that familiarity should help.

© 2005 - 2012 Swift Communications, Inc.

© 2005 - 2012 Swift Communications, Inc.

© 2005 - 2012 Swift Communications, Inc.

As 2012 looms, I have three wishes to begin the year. First, I wish success for new local breweries, which will undoubtedly offer unique and flavorful beers. Second, I wish for more big bottles; 22-ounce bombers are just the right size for sharing with a friend or two over a meal. For my third wish, because I enjoy finding and sampling one-offs, I hope there will be even more opportunities at our local breweries, brewpubs and taphouses to sample those special limited batches that change on every visit.

Here are a few of the brews and events to watch for in 2012.

Ale Asylum broke ground in early December for its new location on the north side of Madison. The brewery hopes to have its 45,000-square-foot brewery open by summer. This new facility will allow Ale Asylum to distribute some of its mainstays like Madtown Nutbrown and Hopalicious to more areas of the state. It will also allow brewmaster Dean Coffey to introduce new beers into the seasonal rotation. He's been planning some small specialty brews that are sure to appeal to beer scavenger hunters who seek out the limited one-time releases. When the brewery opens its new taproom, look for an Imperial Stout. Among the guaranteed seasonals in 2012, Ballistic IPA just started turning up in stores, Sticky McDoogle is planned for a February release, and Bedlam will be back in April.

Not only this Madison brewery expanding in 2012, but you will be seeing, hearing about and tasting the products of at least two new breweries in southern Wisconsin. Sweet Mullets Brewery, based in Oconomowoc, is hoping for a February opening. Brewmaster Mark Duchow is no stranger to our area. He's the former brewmaster at the Grumpy Troll brewpub in Mount Horeb. He and his partner, Barbara Jones, have an ambitious goal to make nearly two dozen beers a year. To help them get off to a good start, their first couple of beers will be produced in collaboration with Scott Manning, brewmaster at Vintage in Madison.

In the Wisconsin Dells, Port Huron Brewing should be on track for a great year in 2012. Tanner Brethorst learned brewing first-hand while working part-time at Tyranena, Lake Louie and Capital breweries over the past few years. He spent much of 2011 building his own brewery in a warehouse on the city's north side. In November, he was firing up his brew kettle with test batches. While Port Huron's main market will be the Dells, I hope his beers will find their way to special tap houses in Madison.

House of Brews in Madison has ambitious plans for its first full year of brewing. After opening last September, the east-side brewery introduced a half-dozen beers through well-known venues like the Malt House and the Old Fashioned. A partial beer schedule for 2012 includes a barley wine, saison, dark farmhouse ale and an imperial pumpkin ale. Owner Page Buchanan just purchased fermenters that had been used by O'so Brewing in Plover, and he's signed with a distributor to help him keep up with demand. Buchanan is still planning to launch the community-supported brewery (CSB) side of his business, in which shareholders get a monthly supply of beer. It's hoped that CSB members will be getting beer by March.

Lake Louie Brewing added additional fermenters in its brewhouse this past year. The extra capacity will allow the brewery to extend its distribution statewide in the new year. You might say that Lake Louie beers are on the fast track; to promote his beers brewmaster and owner Tom Porter recently purchased two rail dragsters and had them painted with his brewery's logo.

Capital Brewery in Middleton gave us the first batch of Eternal Flame in 2011. This year Brewmster Kirby Nelson is thinking about how he might top that brew. He's talking about adding a special bottler that will allow him to offer 22-ounce bottled beers. One beer he is considering is a special hopped version of his fall classic, Autumnal Fire.

Central Waters Brewing Company in Amherst celebrates another year in business in January. Around the brewhouse, the beer to mark the occasion is called "Fourteen-point-two," a beer aged for 14 months for the brewery's 14th anniversary. While we may not see much of it in Madison, it's a good reason to attend the brewery's birthday party on Saturday, January 28, when it'll be available in the taproom.

At the Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company, look for a Belgian dark ale in the weeks ahead. Collectively, the Great Dane brewers are developing a caramel weizenbock for release in 2012. You may also remember that in 2009 the downtown Great Dane and Capital brewmaster Kirby Nelson teamed up to make a high-alcohol beer using only malted grains. They fell short by a few percentage points of their 17 % ABV goal. Look for another attempt at this big beer recipe in 2012. It could be 2013 before we know if Rob LoBreglio and the Great Dane team have succeeded, because it takes a long time to ferment to reach such a high level of alcohol.

The Grumpy Troll in Mount Horeb will expand its seasonal lineup in 2012 to include a lager. In the spring, Mark Knoebl plans to make the brewpub's first bock beer. He's also looking to go more local, increasing the use of Wisconsin-grown hops and barley.

Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee just started a new series of beers called "My Turn," that are designed by longtime brewery employees and will carry their names. The beers will be released approximately on a quarterly basis. First up in 2012 will be Brad's Scotch Ale, named for Brad Spring, the brewery’s packaging supervisor. My Turn beers are available in 22-ounce bomber bottles.

Lithia Beer, a brew with ties back to 1848, was reintroduced in southern Wisconsin this past year. By next winter, the brewery hopes to bring back a holiday tradition with its Christmas Beer, a dark brew based on a historic recipe that included additions of brown sugar and molasses.

New Glarus Brewing has two of at least four Thumbprint Beers scheduled so far for 2012. This winter's Barley Wine should be on shelves now. Dan Carey chose the hop fields from where the Styrian Golding, Willamette and Columbia hops were harvested for this brew. In March, Carey will release a cherry stout in his special signature series of beers.

This will be the breakout year for O'so Brewing in Plover, which recently relocated to a new building just off Interstate 39. The facility will double production to over 5,000 barrels in 2012. Brewmaster Marc Buttera says that his India Pale Ale called Hop Whoopin' will be offered for the first time in bottles by late February. He's also planning a new summer beer called Third Wheel, as well as a fall brew called Memory Lane (part of the proceeds will be donated to Alzheimer's research). The brewery's additional capacity will allow Buttera to focus on a new monthly series of one-batch beers that will be released on draught only. He intends to make an oak-aged Belgian pale ale with rose hips and a full-bodied wee heavy.

The Potosi Brewing Company will make its Czech Style Pilsner -- which took top honors as my favorite beer of the year -- available on a year-round. It first appeared in bottles as a spring seasonal in 2011, but it'll be joining Potosi's standard offerings in 2012. Fans of Potosi might also want to watch for some special draught-only releases from Potosi, like a java stout and a Belgium abbey ale. By late next year, the brewery hopes to release a pumpkin ale in 22-ounce bottles. Potosi is also beginning a barrel-aging program that takes advantage of the caves that the original Potosi Brewery used in the 1800s.

The beers of Stevens Point Brewery are likely to be more plentiful in 2012. The brewery has hired a new brewmaster, Gabe Hopkins, a native Oklahoman, to join John Zappa in the brewhouse. It's poised for 25% growth in capacity, which will push its annual production to over 100,000 barrels.

In Lake Mills, Tyranena Brewing is planning special releases in its Brewers Gone Wild series, including the imperial rye porter named Dirty Old Man in late winter, and its HopWhore imperial IPA in late summer. Tyranena is also planning a number of special tasting room events; the one I'm really looking forward to surviving is the Armageddon Party on 12/21/12, when according to the Mayan calendar, the world will end.

Vintage Brewing Company will be offering another opportunity in 2012 to try its summer treat, Hibiscus Saison. And its 2011 silver medal-winning Wee Heavy returns this March. The west-side brewpub is planning a modest expansion; a new fermenter and bright tank will allow Scott Manning to increase production by as much as 75% in 2012. His off-recipe approach to making beer occasionally puts him in the "extreme" brewing category, well out of the mainstream. In 2012, he'll be working on a gruit, a historical version of beer that predates the use of hops. Manning jokes that he's calling it "Wisconsin Roadside Gruit" because he intends to take advantage of the flavors and aromas of local flora and fauna for its spices.

As 2012 looms, I have three wishes to begin the year. First, I wish success for new local breweries, which will undoubtedly offer unique and flavorful beers. Second, I wish for more big bottles; 22-ounce bombers are just the right size for sharing with a friend or two over a meal. For my third wish, because I enjoy finding and sampling one-offs, I hope there will be even more opportunities at our local breweries, brewpubs and taphouses to sample those special limited batches that change on every visit.

Here are a few of the brews and events to watch for in 2012.

Ale Asylum broke ground in early December for its new location on the north side of Madison. The brewery hopes to have its 45,000-square-foot brewery open by summer. This new facility will allow Ale Asylum to distribute some of its mainstays like Madtown Nutbrown and Hopalicious to more areas of the state. It will also allow brewmaster Dean Coffey to introduce new beers into the seasonal rotation. He's been planning some small specialty brews that are sure to appeal to beer scavenger hunters who seek out the limited one-time releases. When the brewery opens its new taproom, look for an Imperial Stout. Among the guaranteed seasonals in 2012, Ballistic IPA just started turning up in stores, Sticky McDoogle is planned for a February release, and Bedlam will be back in April.

Not only this Madison brewery expanding in 2012, but you will be seeing, hearing about and tasting the products of at least two new breweries in southern Wisconsin. Sweet Mullets Brewery, based in Oconomowoc, is hoping for a February opening. Brewmaster Mark Duchow is no stranger to our area. He's the former brewmaster at the Grumpy Troll brewpub in Mount Horeb. He and his partner, Barbara Jones, have an ambitious goal to make nearly two dozen beers a year. To help them get off to a good start, their first couple of beers will be produced in collaboration with Scott Manning, brewmaster at Vintage in Madison.

In the Wisconsin Dells, Port Huron Brewing should be on track for a great year in 2012. Tanner Brethorst learned brewing first-hand while working part-time at Tyranena, Lake Louie and Capital breweries over the past few years. He spent much of 2011 building his own brewery in a warehouse on the city's north side. In November, he was firing up his brew kettle with test batches. While Port Huron's main market will be the Dells, I hope his beers will find their way to special tap houses in Madison.

House of Brews in Madison has ambitious plans for its first full year of brewing. After opening last September, the east-side brewery introduced a half-dozen beers through well-known venues like the Malt House and the Old Fashioned. A partial beer schedule for 2012 includes a barley wine, saison, dark farmhouse ale and an imperial pumpkin ale. Owner Page Buchanan just purchased fermenters that had been used by O'so Brewing in Plover, and he's signed with a distributor to help him keep up with demand. Buchanan is still planning to launch the community-supported brewery (CSB) side of his business, in which shareholders get a monthly supply of beer. It's hoped that CSB members will be getting beer by March.

Lake Louie Brewing added additional fermenters in its brewhouse this past year. The extra capacity will allow the brewery to extend its distribution statewide in the new year. You might say that Lake Louie beers are on the fast track; to promote his beers brewmaster and owner Tom Porter recently purchased two rail dragsters and had them painted with his brewery's logo.

Capital Brewery in Middleton gave us the first batch of Eternal Flame in 2011. This year Brewmster Kirby Nelson is thinking about how he might top that brew. He's talking about adding a special bottler that will allow him to offer 22-ounce bottled beers. One beer he is considering is a special hopped version of his fall classic, Autumnal Fire.

Central Waters Brewing Company in Amherst celebrates another year in business in January. Around the brewhouse, the beer to mark the occasion is called "Fourteen-point-two," a beer aged for 14 months for the brewery's 14th anniversary. While we may not see much of it in Madison, it's a good reason to attend the brewery's birthday party on Saturday, January 28, when it'll be available in the taproom.

At the Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company, look for a Belgian dark ale in the weeks ahead. Collectively, the Great Dane brewers are developing a caramel weizenbock for release in 2012. You may also remember that in 2009 the downtown Great Dane and Capital brewmaster Kirby Nelson teamed up to make a high-alcohol beer using only malted grains. They fell short by a few percentage points of their 17 % ABV goal. Look for another attempt at this big beer recipe in 2012. It could be 2013 before we know if Rob LoBreglio and the Great Dane team have succeeded, because it takes a long time to ferment to reach such a high level of alcohol.

The Grumpy Troll in Mount Horeb will expand its seasonal lineup in 2012 to include a lager. In the spring, Mark Knoebl plans to make the brewpub's first bock beer. He's also looking to go more local, increasing the use of Wisconsin-grown hops and barley.

Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee just started a new series of beers called "My Turn," that are designed by longtime brewery employees and will carry their names. The beers will be released approximately on a quarterly basis. First up in 2012 will be Brad's Scotch Ale, named for Brad Spring, the brewery’s packaging supervisor. My Turn beers are available in 22-ounce bomber bottles.

Lithia Beer, a brew with ties back to 1848, was reintroduced in southern Wisconsin this past year. By next winter, the brewery hopes to bring back a holiday tradition with its Christmas Beer, a dark brew based on a historic recipe that included additions of brown sugar and molasses.

New Glarus Brewing has two of at least four Thumbprint Beers scheduled so far for 2012. This winter's Barley Wine should be on shelves now. Dan Carey chose the hop fields from where the Styrian Golding, Willamette and Columbia hops were harvested for this brew. In March, Carey will release a cherry stout in his special signature series of beers.

This will be the breakout year for O'so Brewing in Plover, which recently relocated to a new building just off Interstate 39. The facility will double production to over 5,000 barrels in 2012. Brewmaster Marc Buttera says that his India Pale Ale called Hop Whoopin' will be offered for the first time in bottles by late February. He's also planning a new summer beer called Third Wheel, as well as a fall brew called Memory Lane (part of the proceeds will be donated to Alzheimer's research). The brewery's additional capacity will allow Buttera to focus on a new monthly series of one-batch beers that will be released on draught only. He intends to make an oak-aged Belgian pale ale with rose hips and a full-bodied wee heavy.

The Potosi Brewing Company will make its Czech Style Pilsner -- which took top honors as my favorite beer of the year -- available on a year-round. It first appeared in bottles as a spring seasonal in 2011, but it'll be joining Potosi's standard offerings in 2012. Fans of Potosi might also want to watch for some special draught-only releases from Potosi, like a java stout and a Belgium abbey ale. By late next year, the brewery hopes to release a pumpkin ale in 22-ounce bottles. Potosi is also beginning a barrel-aging program that takes advantage of the caves that the original Potosi Brewery used in the 1800s.

The beers of Stevens Point Brewery are likely to be more plentiful in 2012. The brewery has hired a new brewmaster, Gabe Hopkins, a native Oklahoman, to join John Zappa in the brewhouse. It's poised for 25% growth in capacity, which will push its annual production to over 100,000 barrels.

In Lake Mills, Tyranena Brewing is planning special releases in its Brewers Gone Wild series, including the imperial rye porter named Dirty Old Man in late winter, and its HopWhore imperial IPA in late summer. Tyranena is also planning a number of special tasting room events; the one I'm really looking forward to surviving is the Armageddon Party on 12/21/12, when according to the Mayan calendar, the world will end.

Vintage Brewing Company will be offering another opportunity in 2012 to try its summer treat, Hibiscus Saison. And its 2011 silver medal-winning Wee Heavy returns this March. The west-side brewpub is planning a modest expansion; a new fermenter and bright tank will allow Scott Manning to increase production by as much as 75% in 2012. His off-recipe approach to making beer occasionally puts him in the "extreme" brewing category, well out of the mainstream. In 2012, he'll be working on a gruit, a historical version of beer that predates the use of hops. Manning jokes that he's calling it "Wisconsin Roadside Gruit" because he intends to take advantage of the flavors and aromas of local flora and fauna for its spices.

Story Published: Dec 29, 2011 at 7:56 PM EST

Story Updated: Dec 29, 2011 at 7:56 PM EST

You've heard of micro-breweries, right?

They're small scale efforts to make beer. They tend to be labors of love, done by beer enthusiasts who get deeply interested in the process of making beer.

Apply that same spirit to coffee, and you get Tim Gardner.

Gardner, of Baker Road in Lisbon, has turned his garage into a 'micro-roaster' business, making small runs of coffees with names like 'Jazzy Java' and 'Jamaican Me Crazy,' and marketed under his brand, 'St. Lawrence Valley Roasters.'

Gardner started about as humbly as you can imagine: he used a popcorn popper to roast his coffee. He graduated to a small, but 'real' coffee roaster, and with a small loan from St. Lawrence County's local develoment corporation, he now has a larger roaster.

It goes with his larger business.

Gardner told 7 News reporter John Friot the business is making money, though he wouldn't talk specifics.

Bags of unprocessed coffee beans line Gardner's small garage. The beans are then placed in the roaster and heated to a specific temperature. Once the roasting process is complete the beans are either ground, flavored or left as is and then vacuum packaged for delivery.

He's selling wholesale to grocery stores in Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, and under his brand to several north country stores, including Nature's Storehouse in Canton, the Potsdam Food Co-op, the Wanakena General store and the Mustard Seed store in Watertown.

Gardner is also doing business on line at www.stlawrencevalleyroasters.com.

In the past year Gardner produced between 12,000 to 15,000 pounds of roasted coffee with his sales up 25 percent over what they were in 2010. He has shipped to customers as far away as Hawaii, California and Georgia.

Gardner describes micro-roasting as both "a science and an art".

Story Published: Dec 29, 2011 at 7:56 PM EST

Story Updated: Dec 29, 2011 at 7:56 PM EST

You've heard of micro-breweries, right?

They're small scale efforts to make beer. They tend to be labors of love, done by beer enthusiasts who get deeply interested in the process of making beer.

Apply that same spirit to coffee, and you get Tim Gardner.

Gardner, of Baker Road in Lisbon, has turned his garage into a 'micro-roaster' business, making small runs of coffees with names like 'Jazzy Java' and 'Jamaican Me Crazy,' and marketed under his brand, 'St. Lawrence Valley Roasters.'

Gardner started about as humbly as you can imagine: he used a popcorn popper to roast his coffee. He graduated to a small, but 'real' coffee roaster, and with a small loan from St. Lawrence County's local develoment corporation, he now has a larger roaster.

It goes with his larger business.

Gardner told 7 News reporter John Friot the business is making money, though he wouldn't talk specifics.

Bags of unprocessed coffee beans line Gardner's small garage. The beans are then placed in the roaster and heated to a specific temperature. Once the roasting process is complete the beans are either ground, flavored or left as is and then vacuum packaged for delivery.

He's selling wholesale to grocery stores in Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, and under his brand to several north country stores, including Nature's Storehouse in Canton, the Potsdam Food Co-op, the Wanakena General store and the Mustard Seed store in Watertown.

Gardner is also doing business on line at www.stlawrencevalleyroasters.com.

In the past year Gardner produced between 12,000 to 15,000 pounds of roasted coffee with his sales up 25 percent over what they were in 2010. He has shipped to customers as far away as Hawaii, California and Georgia.

Gardner describes micro-roasting as both "a science and an art".

Reporter: Jeremy Mills l Videographer: Ira Quillen

Lexington, VA - One of the charter members of Nelson County's Brew Ridge Trail is set to begin sending its beer all over Virginia. Devils Backbone Brewery has built a new production center in Lexington.  Brewers are staying busy making beer and filling hundreds of kegs. In a few weeks, they'll be sent to restaurants and bars in Lynchburg and Roanoke.  And this is just the first step for one of the country's fastest growing beer companies.

It's Nathan Olewine's job to make sure the batch of beer comes out just right.

"For me, it's kind of a dream come true because I've always wanted to brew beer in Virginia," said Olewine.

The former Virginia Tech Hokie just returned to the area after working in breweries up north.  He plans to make 12,000 barrels this year but could pump out up to 50,000.

"It's the consumer that ultimately drives how much we're going to end up making here and so far people are really interested in what we are doing here," said Olewine.

Devils Backbone could eventually go national but one step at a time.

"Right now we need to be able to own Virginia first and be able to get that notoriety out there and start expansion down the Atlantic Coast," said Brian Coe, Devils Backbone Pathfinder.

Starting in March, the brewery will begin bottling six packs that will go to area groceries.  They say it's another step toward their goal.

"Sell good beer, brew good beer and make people happy," said Coe.

Olewine believes people will like what he is making.

"If people are drinking it, then we're making it and that's a good thing to see some growth in the industry," said Olewine.

Devils Backbone has several kick-off parties for its introduction to the local market.  That includes a January 17th tasting at The Cavalier on Rivermont Avenue.