NewsOctober 14, 2016
Scratch Brewing partners forage in surroundings to create one-of-a-kind beers
Scratch Brewing Co. in Ava, Illinois, is not your run-of-the-mill microbrewery. With a name based on the concept of their products being "made from scratch," the business is anything but ordinary, incorporating natural ingredients from the land around its location off the beaten path...
Scratch Brewing Co. in Ava, Illinois, is not your run-of-the-mill microbrewery.
With a name based on the concept of their products being "made from scratch," the business is anything but ordinary, incorporating natural ingredients from the land around its location off the beaten path.
Originally opened in March 2013 by Marika Josephson, Aaron Kleidon and Ryan Tockstein, Scratch Brewing has since evolved into a partnership between Josephson and Kleidon, along with the help of their farmers who care for the property's gardens.
Josephson says the location for the brewery, which is on Kleidon's family land, was a natural choice, considering many of the ingredients they incorporate into their beers are sourced from the nearby woods.
From carrots to ginger, day lily and dandelion, Scratch's beers focus on naturally grown ingredients to create an earthy and organic product. Josephson mentions foraging for pawpaws, sweet green fruits grown from the Asimina triloba tree, which are currently in season.
"A lot of times we preserve stuff to brew with later, or if we don't collect enough at one time we'll kind of keep collecting until we have enough to do a whole batch," she says.
They've used hickory tree bark, leaves and branches.
"A lot of the trees around us, too, maple, oak, cedar -- we use all different parts of the trees in different parts of the beer," Josephson says.
They also use chanterelle mushrooms and black trumpet mushrooms, and had a beer on tap in September that incorporated hen of the woods mushrooms, which grow in clusters at the bases of trees. Josephson says Kleidon typically forages every day or every other day to find new components to add to their menu.
"Sometimes it's just walking out through the woods and smelling something and thinking, 'How do we capture that in a beer?'" she says.
A new plant the pair is trying out is hyssop, and they've made several beers so far this year using marigold. Josephson adds they have been brewing a basil beer every year since they've opened.
"We grew three different types of basil in our garden this year for the first time, so our basil beer this year is, I think it's the best that we've made because we have all three different kinds of basil, and they all give a little bit of different flavor and aroma to the beer," she says.
Considering Scratch has a relatively small brewing system, not only are the ingredients in the beers unique, but each batch also is one of a kind, and according to Josephson, as soon as it's gone, it's gone.
"As soon as one beer is done, we put something new on, so it changes all the time," she says.
Josephson says some inspiration for Scratch's out-of-the-ordinary beers comes from reading about historic beers and wanting to emulate a recipe or technique.
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"There are a lot of different styles that have kind of gotten lost over the years … and lots of plants were used before the advent of hops that people kind of stopped using when hops became more prominent in beer making, so we're often inspired by just looking back at old historical recipes and stuff," she says.
They also are inspired by how certain plants are used medicinally or in cooking practices.
Josephson says she and Kleidon strive to support local farmers and growers in creating Scratch's food and beer menus, so they create lists of options that allow for the majority of their items to be sourced by themselves, local businesses and farmers.
"That was a big thing for us on the beer and the food side, was that we wanted to be able to support our local farmers," she says. "That was becoming, when we were opening, more and more important for me, just in my food life, that I wanted to be eating more stuff that was grown locally. So as a business owner, I wanted my business to reflect that, too, and be able to support farmers through our business."
Josephson says the brewery hired farmers this year to help grow as many plants as possible and to help experiment with the growing of certain ingredients. The farmers also will conduct some experimental grain farming for the brewery.
"Grain is a big part of brewing, but a lot of the knowledge of growing some of the grains has been lost around here, partly because it grows a little bit better farther north, like barley and stuff," she says. "It's exciting to us to be able grow some of that stuff around here and have the grain be local again. We're trying to support other farmers who are doing that, too."
Nestled in the woods and surrounded by greenery, Scratch is a place for guests to come and enjoy a beer with organic components in a nature-based location.
"It's really awesome to see people out here enjoying the beer and the environment. That's one of the things that we really wanted to cultivate out here, was just a place people wanted to come and spend a few hours and talk to friends and family and just enjoy themselves while they're here," Josephson says.
All self-taught, the owners of Scratch learned how to brew by reading books and teaching themselves how to use plants around the area and beyond. Once they realized a broader need for a brewing-related botanical guidebook, they decided to compile that information and share it with others.
"We just thought it would be a great thing to give back to home brewers who are interested in pursuing that in their home brewing, to write a book and talk a lot about what we've learned over the years," Josephson says.
The book, called "The Homebrewer's Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to Making Your Own Beer from Scratch," was released in September and is available for purchase on Amazon.com.
Scratch Brewing Co. is open from 5 to 10 p.m. on Thursdays, 4 to 10 p.m. Fridays, noon to 10 p.m. Saturdays and from noon to 8 p.m. on Sundays. For more information and current beer and food menus, visit scratchbeer.com.
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