Page 10 - SYNC 10.28.15

The next brewery to open in the area will likely be Flyway Brewing in North Little Rock. Construction is nearly complete on the Maple Street location, brewing equip- ment has been installed, and the taproom is quickly coming together. Co-owners Matt Foster and Jess McMullen both got their first beer-making experience in Asheville, North Carolina’s massive craft beer market and plan to bring a little of that culture to central Arkansas.
“We saw the Asheville scene blow up; we were there in school when Highland [Brew- ing Co.] first got started,” McMullen says. “We started by making recipes and seeing if people liked them. We gave away a lot of beer. And people did. So we started a second phase, getting our permitting and see what it’s like to sell commercially. And that led to the third phase, which is this, and we decid- ed that if that happened, I would move out here with my family.”
If there’s any one thing that is going to separate Flyway from other breweries, it’s the owners’ plans to make the taproom as family-friendly as possible. Both McMullen and Foster have children, and they are de- termined to make Flyway a place everyone can enjoy.
“Everybody has different opinions about what a tasting room should be like, and the places that I went to in North Carolina, Asheville and Charlotte, were extremely family-friendly places,” McMullen says. “It doesn’t mean that kids were running around screaming, but kids were welcome along with their parents. And that’s what we want. So we want to have a couple of special sodas on tap that we make in addition to the beer, like root beer, sarsaparilla and cream sodas.”
Flyway will feature a small front patio that’ll seat about 20 people, along with a re- laxed taproom that can hold roughly 70. The bar will feature 12 taps, 10 of which will be used for Flyway beer and other brews from around town. The other two are reserved for specialty sodas.
Flyway’s 10-barrel system is nearly opera- tional in the back of a building that used to be a pool hall and a BF Goodrich. McMullen says the team hopes to be brewing beer in the next couple of weeks. Already, the walk- in coolers are running, lighting is installed, and the building’s HVAC is humming along. Flyway has begun selling some of its beer at Little Rock restaurants and will continue that part of its business after the taproom opens.
“It remains to be seen how much we’ll sell out of the taproom,” McMullen says. “But we are going to keg and wholesale. We’ll be ready in the brewery before we’re ready in the front [of house]. So no matter what, we’ll be able to distribute. We just don’t know how much yet.”
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Also nearing completion is Flyway’s kitchen, which will be making food specif- ically designed to pair with the brewery’s own beers. McMullen doesn’t want to reveal any particulars about the menu just yet but promises something that will be unique to Flyway.
“W hatever we do food-wise, it’s going to be about the beer,” McMullen says. “So for example, if we wanted to sell $2 cups of chili in February, it’s going to be small, and it’s going to be all about the beer.”
An undertaking as massive as opening a brewery requires a lot of support. Speaking on what would become a common theme among many breweries, McMullen says that Flyway has benefited tremendously from a helpful craft beer community in central Arkansas.
“There’s a brotherhood and sisterhood in brewing that is consistent throughout the
country, and it’s here in Little Rock, as well,” McMullen says. “Little Rock’s in its infancy still; there’s a lot of room for more craft beer here. And we’ve been over at Stone’s Throw, those guys helped us with our glycol lines and washing out our kegs. Russ [Melton] at Diamond Bear has been a big help. Lost For- ty helped with our grease trap. I really love the brewing community here, and I hope it stays that way because there’s plenty of room for everybody.”
Given the progress of construction and getting final approvals, McMullen is an- ticipating the brewery being open by this winter.
Flyway Brewing beers (others planned):
Migrate pale ale
F ree R ange brown ale Early Bird IP A
S hadow H ands stout
It doesn’t take long talking to Rebel Kettle Brewing head brewer John Lee before you realize this brewery won’t be satisfied making just another beer.
“We wanted to build a brewery centered around, you know, not your average beer,” says Lee, who has been making beer off and on for 20 years. “We wanted to create some- thing a little different. And that’s where the name comes from, Rebel Kettle. We wanted to create a rebellion against the average beer.”
The building that will become Rebel Kettle’s home is on Sixth Street, just yards from Lost Forty Brewing and Yellow Rocket’s headquarters. And while the two companies share an obvious passion for beer making, their approaches vary drastically.
“The styles of beer that I do aren’t always styles,” Lee says. “They’re kind of off the wall.