brewery tours
get to know your local beer makers
Assistant Brewer Kyle Butusov
flat branch pub & brewing
L
arry Goodwin can make the heat disappear from 50 pounds of peppers. This trick might seem a magician’s work, but Goodwin has no background in conjuring illusions. He’s the head brewer at Flat Branch Pub & Brewing, where the recipe for chili beer has been a staple almost since the brewpub opened in 1994. “We’re shooting for flavor and little heat,” he says of Flat Branch’s popular
top 10 most profitable american breweries: 64
Green Chili Beer, which claims one of the top three spots at the brewpub each week. Goodwin chops up 50 pounds of Anaheim peppers for each 265-gallon batch of the beer and adds them to the fermenter to extract the flavor. The result: a light-colored brew with all the bittersweet notes of a pepper and none of the spice. In a business already so engraved in the Columbia community, Goodwin says simplicity is key. Patrons expect
consistency in what he brews, so the chili beer is about as adventurous as he gets. “Most people who come to Flat Branch aren’t looking to drink on the fringes,” he says. “They’re looking for traditional beers.” This atmosphere is the product of being a brewery that also serves food, he says. If you’re coming in for dinner, you don’t want a beer that will overshadow the food. If peppers aren’t your preference, try the Honey Wheat or Katy Trail Pale Ale.
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inside columbia october 2013