Throwing Down with Throwback Brewery’s Nicole Carrier

The New Hampshire craft beer scene has been growing insanely as of late, which means there are now a lot of new and cutting-edge breweries turning out some great beer. And one of those is Throwback Brewery. Nicole Carrier and Annette Lee helm Throwback and they’ve got some lofty goals for the future. Here’s what I found out when I caught up with Nicole and chatted with her about brewing in the Granite State and what’s in store for them…

How did you come up with the name Throwback Brewery?

We spent quite a long time thinking about the name and throwing different ideas around, so not sure who first came up with the name, but it was probably Annette. We took a while figuring out the name because we wanted it to reflect our brand and what we stand for – which is creating fresh beers from ingredients around us and serving that beer to our surrounding communities.

The name Throwback is definitely a nod to our mission as a company. We are a throwback to the pre-prohibition era, when there were numerous local breweries making beer, some even malting grain, all using materials available around them. The name also has a double meaning, which is to “throw back” a beer. We love the shared experience of throwing back a tasty craft beer or two with our friends, families, and our community, so that aspect of the name is important to us as well!

You’re a big proponent of brewing with locally grown resources. What percentage of your ingredients is locally sourced currently?

Yes, our vision as a company is to make beer that is 100% sourced from ingredients within 200 miles of the brewery. This is a vision we our passionate about, and it gives our team something to strive for.

More specifically, we are trying to create our own beer-oir — yes, this is a term that we made up but a concept (terroir) that has been around for years with wine. Terroir reflects the unique characteristics and flavors imparted on wine as a result of its geography, regional vines, soil, and weather conditions. In striving to create our own beer-oir, we aim to create delicious and interesting beer that reflects its taste of place.

How close are we to this goal? Well, it depends upon the beer (and also upon the availability of the malt from Valley Malt), but we are between 65 to 95% of the way there. To help us meet our goal, our beers are designed to make use of what is around us. A few popular examples include Maple-Kissed Wheat Porter (using local NH wheat, ME oats, and NH maple syrup), Spicy Bohemian (with local jalapenos), and Rhubarb Wit (with local rhubarb, wheat, oats, coriander, and chamomile).

The craft beer industry is still largely a male-dominated field. What was the reaction by your male counterparts when you first opened your brewery?

Yes, this is definitely a male-dominated field, but with Annette’s background in engineering and mine in software/IT, we are pretty used to working in fields that have more men than women. Our peers in the industry – brewery owners, brewers – have been extremely supportive. In fact, being a women-owned business in this industry has been a great asset to us. For example, I think some of our female customers feel more of an allegiance to our brand since we are women. Also, one of the best feelings is having a woman pick up one of our business cards at an event like a brewfest, and to see her eyes light up reading that we are the founders of a brewery. I don’t think that will ever get old!

There are some challenges with being a woman-owned brewery – but that has more to do with our height than anything else! Most brewery equipment isn’t made for folks that are five feet tall!

You and Annette announced that you bought a farm in North Hampton and will be moving the brewery to this location. Can you tell me about the move and what fans can expect when the brewery opens at the farm?

About a year ago, we won an auction for the historic Hobbs Farm in North Hampton, NH. This is a truly amazing and unique property that includes 12+ acres, with a grand Victorian era home and a large barn with an attached carriage shed. What makes it so unique (besides housing Jericho the donkey – the town’s unofficial mascot) is that it is open farmland right on Route 1 – a highly trafficked area. Our goal is to move the brewery over there in the next year or so – probably in the fall of 2014.

We also intend to start using the land as farmland again – growing hops, fruit, and other adjuncts used in our beers (like rhubarb). We have already planted a small orchard, and we will add to that over the coming years. The beautiful barn will be used for events, such as weddings and farm-to-table dinners. Our tasting room will also be bigger – two floors, with the upper floor that can be used for smaller events and parties.

There is so much character in the barn and this farm that we hope to maintain the rustic barn feel, even as we modernize what we need to meet code and to make great beer.

Throwback beers are currently only available in New Hampshire. Will you be adding new states in the near future?

With the move to Hobbs Farm, we will move from a 3-barrel to a 15-barrel brewery, giving us the capacity needed to add new states. Since we want to keep it local, we forsee Maine and Massachusetts as the only two states we will distribute to.

What is your most popular beer?

Two years into this, and we definitely thought by now we would have a flagship beer – but we don’t. Our batches are very small (3 barrels), which means that when we brew a batch, it goes pretty quickly. I think one of the reasons why our customers like us is that we have a big variety of beers, which means we tend to have something for everyone.

In terms of the most popular beers that we make regularly (based on sales), that would probably be our Hopstruck (red IPA) and, in the summer, Love Me Long Time – our Bohemian Pilsener.

In terms of overall buzz and people asking us for the beers, that would be two: Fat Alberta, our Chocolate Peanut Butter Imperial Stout, which we only have available in the Nov – March timeframe, and Spicy Bohemian.

The craft beer industry has experienced enormous growth over the last decade. Do you think the industry can sustain this?

It certainly has been growing fast, but, to put it in perspective, craft beer only makes up 6.5% of the volume of beer sold and 10.2% of the revenue. So we have a lot of growing to do/share to take!

I think that the trend for consumers to eat and drink local will support the growth in the craft beer industry – with some caveats. First, if some of the new craft breweries start producing bad beer, then that won’t help anyone in our industry. Second, we need to keep educating folks on craft beer in order to help us take some of the 90% share from the big guys!

If you could go on a beercation where would you go?

Oh…probably Belgium. I’d love to get lost in the history and the craftsmanship/artistry of the brewers and the idyllic surroundings. I probably wouldn’t mind the beer either.