Brewmaster Nick Fowler creates craft beer tastes for Omaha Brewing Co.

A: We started production for distribution in 2014 and we started with Columbus, through B&B Beverage Co. That’s our main distributor. There’s a three-tier system in Georgia. We brew it and have to sell it to a wholesaler or distributor and they sell it to the retailers, which is on-premise bars or package stores or whatever. We went with B&B to open up our production and we only started with a handful of accounts. Now we’ve got about 20 accounts in Columbus and we’ve got over 50 accounts in Atlanta. We’ve got some in LaGrange. We’ve got some in Valdosta. We’ve got some in Albany. And soon to be we’ll have East Alabama distribution.

A: Within the next few months. We want to make sure that our accounts don’t get deprived because we over distribute. What we’re noticing is Omaha Brewing Co. is very well received by everyone. Our two big products that we produce are the IPA (India pale ale) and the Hefeweizen. Those are called Hannahatchee Creek IPA and Nada-Banana Hefeweizen. We produce a lot more beers than that. In our tap room we’ve got 16 unique beers, but we distribute anywhere from two to six beers depending on what territory you’re in. Columbus gets the most variety because it’s closer to the brewery. It’s easier to do small batches and distribute it.

A: Maltitude, 11^th and Bay, LV Bar and Grill and there’s a handful of others. Wild Wing Café started selling pretty well. Locos, Black Cow, the list goes on.

A: The move into Atlanta happened about a month ago and that’s through Atlanta Beverage Co., and next week we’re actually delivering to Eagle Rock. Those are the two big craft distributors in Atlanta.

A: Absolutely. And you’ll see why we had to build such a big brewery when I show you the two breweries that we have here on site.

A: It’s pretty stiff because you’ve got to make sure you continue the flow of your product or you’ll lose your tap handle. Tap handles are at a premium, especially in the locations that we’re in in Atlanta. We’re in a lot of Taco Macs and Porter Beer Bar in Little Five Points, Ormsby’s is a good spot, Holeman and Finch. A lot of big accounts.

A: It’s to get folks down here to check us out, kind of drive the economy of Stewart County a little bit ... We have Richland Rum and we have Omaha Brewing Co. in this county. So I guess you could say that we’re trying to develop that into something. We haven’t finalized anything yet, but we would like to do some kind of tourist package. We’ve also started a partnership, and we don’t know how that’s going to be finalized, with Whitewater Express. We’re going to basically work on getting a rafting trip plus a brew tour, and then a rum distillery tour, maybe Providence Canyon State Park. It could be something to promote the area down here a little bit better.

A: We’re expecting 500 people this weekend, coming from Atlanta, Columbus. I’ve got a bunch of distributors and retailers coming down to check this out. We’ve got a bunch of our parts providers and can providers and keg providers. Everybody who’s had a hand in this. They haven’t seen the full buildout yet, so we’re pretty proud of it. It’s kind of a way for us to welcome them in to what they’ve helped build.

A: Basically it allows me to produce what I used to produce in one year, in a small brewery, in about a week. So it’s exponentially grown our production, which therefore increases the footprint of our distribution. That’s why you see the acquisition of new distributors and new markets being tackled.

A: Right place, right time, and also too much of a good thing to pass up. A lot of people say, why Omaha, and I say, why not Omaha. We own our own water source and when you’re producing beer it takes about six gallons of water to make one gallon of beer. If you don’t have to pay for water that’s a huge levy off of your pocketbook. Our water, speaking on that, we have artesian well water and we get it tested once a month in both breweries to make sure that it is, one, quality water and, two, something that we can brew repeatable beers with. If we do need to adjust it with minerals, we do so. The other thing is we own the land here. We don’t owe anybody for the land. We don’t owe anybody for rent. We own the buildings. It’s just, why not Omaha.

A: Oh, I’ll be here for a while. I’m not going anywhere. This is a dream come true for anybody that is in the craft brewing industry, to be able to have an investor that you have a great relationship with, and really only one investor, that’s a big thing. You’re not answering to a bunch of people. He and I talk everyday. Him giving me the freedom to brew the recipes that we know do well and that people like, that was huge. So nobody else was dictating what the product was going to be, except for the market. You know, it’s just a lot of creative freedom and we’ve done pretty well with that formula.

A: I have. When I first got hired on, Dr. Lee sent me to Chicago and Germany to the best brew school in the country and internationally one of the best schools to get a brewmaster’s degree. It’s basically a six-month course that trains you theoretical and practical brewing in Germany. So I worked in a little brewery in Germany for awhile before I came back over here. And that was after working in a production setting at Red Brick in Atlanta for three years. So that’s a lot of experience. Between me and all of the brewers here, we’ve got over 30 years of experience in brewing.

A: One brewers barrel is 31 gallons. We’re on track to produce about 3,000 barrels this year, and we’re trying to get to about 15,000 barrels in the next four years.

A: That’s pretty ambitious, but it’s doable with the equipment that we have now and the distributors that we have. That’s a big part of it, is signing with the right distributors right out of the gates because you don’t get a chance to reconsider. Once you’re signed with them, that’s like a marriage. You’re in it for life. (laughs) So unless something very bad happens, which so far nothing has and we don’t anticipate that, getting the right distributors and buying the right equipment up front is a very huge part of doing it right.

A: I really don’t want to give that information out. It’s pretty sizable. It’s more than a million, much more than a million.

A: The new facility, we broke ground in April of last year, and we started brewing with it in January, so eight or nine months.

A: Oh, yeah. The system we started the company on was a 10-gallon pilot system. I was brewing, when we first started, three batches a day just to get one brewer’s barrel and it took me about 14 hours. It was mainly just for festivals. We would go to those and basically get our name out to the public and give away T-shirts. That’s kind of how we got our start before we moved into the other brewery.

A: It’s figuring out what works the best and trying to get repeatability. As a brewmaster, you’re working as a mathematician, a cook and a chemist all in one. So you’ve got to calculate what you think you’re going to get and from there you basically adjust. It takes a few trial and error runs at it to get it right. But you just try to be as efficient as you can and brew the same product repeatably as much as you can.

Absolutely. We have software that does that and I can also do it the old-school pen and paper way if I need to.

A: They can be. To be honest with you, the attitude that I take into it is I put the ingredients that I brew with on the can. I don’t give you the percentages. I don’t give you the exact recipe. But craft beer lovers love to see that. They like to see, oh, he used that dry hop recipe or this malt or this yeast. I promote trying to have home brewers replicate those recipes. I think that’s really cool if you can take something that we’re doing, if you like it that much, and try to do it on your own system and scale. It’s kind of what the business is all about, promoting variety and promoting growth in the industry by teaching and showing.

A: Exactly. A lot of people say it’s a brotherhood. There is some competition (commercially) and it’s pretty stiff, but we’re pretty open with it because it’s a hard enough business as it is. Honestly, if you want to try to brew what I can do in one day on a 30-barrel system, good luck. Most people can’t. Most people don’t have the system to do it. I wouldn’t even fathom another craft brewery trying to do a recipe that I did and vice-versa. We’re all very independent and we’re all very creative. That’s why we’re in this business. I don’t think anybody worries too much about having a recipe stolen.

A: The creativity. It’s definitely a labor of love. There’s always problem solving. There’s a lot of engineering that goes into it. There’s a lot of exploring new ingredients. Working toward that final product is what I guess I enjoy the most about. Working with other people, training with them, and trying to grow our team to be the best that they can be so that we can continue making the best beers that we can.

A: I don’t do much small batch anymore. I’ve got a wife and a new baby, so I really don’t have time for that. (laughs) I am a member of the Columbus Hopheads. I guess I’m an allied trade member if you will, whatever you want to call it. Basically, it’s the local home-brew club in Columbus and we meet at least once a month and brew a beer on a Sunday. There’s about 30 of us and I try to be involved in that community and help them out when they need it. Like I said, I feel responsible with the role that I’m in here in the area. It’s kind of my job to promote and develop the craft brew industry now that we’re the big dog in town.

A: Oh, yeah. We’re brewing a custom beer just for 11^th and Bay. It’s a rosemary and sage saison, which is a kind of French Belgian style of farmhouse ale. They just kind of gave me free rein with that one, and I made a recipe that would go well with the Southern table atmosphere. I eat there often, so I think this would go well with a lot of their meals or dishes.

A: I don’t know. We’ll find out. This is the first one we’ve done. We’re planning on doing one for Callaway Gardens and possibly one for the new bar that Maltitude is building next to the Bradley.

A: It’s very technical. But I just try to put things into terms that the average person who doesn’t know as much about beer can understand, because I could really get beer geeky and just lose a lot of people. (laughs) It’s easy to just keep it simple and explain to people that when you crack malted barley and mix it with hot water, that’s called a mash. Then when you put it in a boil kettle and boil it and that hops, that’s called boiling and hopping. Then when you move it to the fermenter, that’s fermentation. When you move it to the bright tank, that’s bright beer, or finished beer, that’s ready to be carbonated and packaged. That’s the scheme of everything in a nutshell.

A: If we’re doing ales, it will take anywhere from two to five weeks, depending on what we’re brewing. And for lagers, anywhere from a month to two-and-a-half or three months.

A: Nope. You won’t get me on tape saying that. Hell no. What I do appreciate about the big breweries, though, is their ability to brew consistently across the United States, taking a different water table and making it the same. For example, the St. Louis factory for Budweiser has a product that’s very consistent. I can appreciate that, but I don’t like their beer … It’s just boring. There’s nothing to it.

A: There’s no way that I can answer that. I like a lot of different styles. If you see our tasting room, we’ve got anything from a Berliner Weiss, which is a German-style sour, all the way up to an American Imperial-style aged in whiskey barrels. I go from the left end all the way to the right end of the spectrum. There’s some that I like more than others. I kind of lean towards the IPAs, the hoppier beers. It really kind of depends on the season. Right now, I like a good clean lager, a craft lager. So it changes. Taste buds change with the season.

A: I generally get them to start with the lightest thing. We brew just a good ol’ clean yellow beer. We call it Gnat Knocker. Down here below the gnat line we get a lot of gnats in the summer, so it’s just a good clean yellow craft lager. You’d start them off with something like that, and then you would work them in slowly to the hoppier brews, and then the darker stuff.

A: Basically, in one week, I now can brew more than we brewed in the first year. Right now, in the small brewery, we can brew about 300 barrels a year, which is pretty good for that size of a brewery. But I can do that in a week on this new system, easily. I’m pretty proud of that. Our system is a four-vessel, 30-barrel. Just because there’s more vessels, it can do more in one day than Red Brick. Red Brick can do about 100 barrels a day. They do two batches on a two-vessel, 50-barrel system. This right here — a four-vessel, 30-barrel — we can turn this about four times a day if we’re running nonstop. When we get really large, that’s the goal. We’ve got a 12-year plan to hit 40,000 barrels. That would put us as a regional brewer.