The Best of Ellijay, Blue Ridge & Jasper Funpaper issue 7 | Page 23

Story by Thia - Pictures by Robb

obb and I aren't big drinkers.
Generally we have a glass of
wine with friends. That
changed for Robb a few months
ago when he was at the Pourhouse
and the owner, Josh told him he
should try a new local brewed beer
by Fannin Brewing Company.
Robb had one and was hooked!
Now when we go traveling around
making our stops, there are a few
special places, like Johnny's Pizza,
Jilly's Pub, Cucina Rustica, that
carry this craft beer. So Robb doesn't always order his usual diet coke
anymore. Fannin Brewery company
impressed Robb enough that we
needed to learn more and do a
story, as unlikely as it would seem
for us, non-beer drinkers, on beer.
And I'll tell you what else… After
we spent time with Tom Fennell,
owner of the company, and learned
all about how you make beer, and
drank some beer with him, I too,
have been converted. After a few
sips of Pumpkin Spice Pecan beer, I
can tell you that there is no comparison between the beer you buy
in the grocery store and a cold mug

R

of Fannin Brewing Company's beer
that you have fresh from the tap. I
now know what hand crafted beer
tastes like. And I would love to
have one right now!
Thia: So you own the brewery?
Tom: Yes. Pat Walker owns the restaurant,
the Blue Ridge Brewery, and when he expanded a year ago, we went into cooperation
on this space. I wanted to start a brewery up
here in Blue Ridge and he said, “I’m going to
expand my space and they changed the laws
in Georgia where you can now sell as a brew
pub.”, which is what this is. This is a brew pub
because it serves food. It has a different license, that now you can sell 5,000 barrels of
beer, which is a lot, outside the restaurant,
which is what I wanted to do. I wanted to sell
in the restaurant and outside the restaurant,
incubate my brewery and then move out,
which I’m in the process right now of moving
out. I’m moving out to a big location, here in
Blue Ridge
Thia: Congratulations.
Tom: Thanks. I brew for the restaurant; I
have 3 beers on tap and then Pat has 3 on
tap, and then I sell outside the restaurant to
about 25 restaurants in our area. There is a
list on our website www.fanninbrewingcompany.com.
Thia: Why did you decide that you wanted

to make beer? Why, of all things, did you
decide that you wanted to make beer?
Tom: There are a couple of reasons. I started
out actually as a wine maker and I had my
own vineyard at my house up here in Blue
Ridge; I put in about 100 vines. Also, with my
job, I traveled a lot to Germany so I was going
to Munich and Berlin, but mainly Munich;
spent a lot of time in the bier gartens there.
Thia: Sounds fun
Tom: Yeah. Spent a lot of time with Germans
and learning about German beer and all that
kind of thing. I just love beer. I love making
beer.
Thia: So tell me how it works. You buy
grain?
Tom: Yeah. Most of the grain I buy comes
from Germany, the US and Canada. You create recipes, just like you’re baking.
Thia: And what kind of grains? Is it a mix
of grains?
Tom: So beer is made from barley, wheat,
and rye, but mainly barley. Think about it like
coffee; it all comes in the same as barley. But
then like coffee, this is then roasted to at least
a hundred different styles.
Tom: And then you grind it, I won’t go into
the whole molting process of grain but,
Thia: Nah, that would be too over my
head.
Tom: It’s too much. It comes already ready to
go but, they have to do things. They have to
molt it, they have to roast it, all those kinds of

things, but I don’t do all these; I just buy it already done.
Thia: So then you mix the recipe you
made?
Tom: I mix all of these together and then we
put it in this grinder and we grind it and it
comes out like this because if I were to try to
make beer out of that, it’s like making beer
out of the seeds, because that’s what those
are; they are the seeds and nothing would
come out because it has a hard shell and
nothing would get extracted so you have to
grind it so that way, when we mix it with
water, we get the essence out; the sugar.
Thia: You’re coffee analogy is good because that’s the only thing that’s making
me understand what you’re saying because you can’t just put coffee beans in a
coffee maker, you have to grind them.
Tom: Exactly. So, anyways, then you grind it.
We scooped it out already, we take that and
we put it in here and add hot water at a very
specific temperature and then we soak it for
about an hour and then we pour it out, then
we pump it up into here. You can go ahead
and get up in there, just be careful. This is
boiling right now.
Thia: So, you boil the grain in the water.
Tom: We take the grain and we soak it in hot
water, and then we bring over just the juice.
What we leave behind is called ‘spent grain’
and spent grain is pretty much what it sounds
like. It’s grain that we have extracted the

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper; and half never voted for president… one hopes it is the same half. - Gore Vidal

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