House of Fermentology added to Nordic Farms ag/food operations
Charlotte’s Nordic Farms continues to diversify its agricultural projects with the recent addition of House of Fermentology, a small beer blendery from Burlington’s South End.
“To have that barley malted right in house where we’re located and being able to use that in the beer that we’re making is going to be outstanding,” said Todd Haire, who co-founded Foam Brewers, then House of Fermentology with Bill Mares.
Nordic Farms is rethinking the Vermont landscape by transforming a former dairy farm into a collection of agricultural and food operations. Haire said he is excited that craft beer is a big part of the new venture.
It was just last December when Clark Hinsdale III sold the nearly 600-acre farm to the owners of Hotel Vermont and Peterson Quality Malts. Owner Andrew Peterson’s first step was to plant barley to produce malt to supply a variety of Vermont craft brewers. His company based in Monkton already grows barley at a variety of locations around Addison County for the Vermont beer industry.
As first reported in Seven Days, the Charlotte farm along Route 7 attracted House of Fermentology as a spot where it could expand its production and continue to cultivate its unique small-batch beers.
The brewery began four years ago as an offshoot of Foam Brewers – located on the Burlington waterfront – and specializes in mixed culture, oak-barrel fermented beers.
It uses yeast captured natively in Vermont from sources like apple blossoms and honey to create sour beers and wild ales. It also has a unique “house culture” that has developed over the past four or five years, according to Haire.
“When you drink within your local region you really know that there’s a face behind that beer, a story behind that beer. And that’s the cottage industry we live in here in Vermont with craft beer and I think that truly fresh beer is meant to be that way,” Haire said.
Once House of Fermentology’s transition is complete, it will begin producing beer at Nordic Farms, experimenting with new blends and expanding beyond its current production of just 400 bottles every two months, Haire said. The finished product will still be sold at Foam Brewers in Burlington.
This year, Nordic Farms has continued to evolve by adding other food producers to its mixed-use agricultural development. One unique addition this summer was the start-up of Sweet Sound Aquaculture which is using tanks to raise shrimp in the former calf barn. The shrimp so far are being served at Hotel Vermont and will be marketed to local restaurants.
Another addition in the works is a move by Jeffersonville’s Slowfire Bakery, a familiar vendor on the farmers market scene, to Nordic Farms where it plans to mill flour and produce its rustic loaves.
Peterson has said he envisions growing other small crops and even raising some animals in Nordic Farms’ future. And Haire said he and Mares, who met through beekeeping, are considering starting an apiary as part of their operation.
