BREWING
Lookout Farm beers and cider are served in a tasting room that was the old country store with a greenhouse that has been converted to indoor seating
an idea for a beer or cider, he simply talks to the farmers. “It’s cool to go to the people that grow the fruit and say, ‘this is my idea,’” he says. The brewing was started to add a further reason for people to visit the farm. The beers and cider are served in a tasting room that was the old country store with a greenhouse which has been converted to indoor seating. Brewing its own beers means when events are held here like weddings and parties, the farm can be one step closer to being totally self-suf cient in terms of alcohol. The farm also helps local breweries – it rents out the tunnel pasteuriser to friends or sells fruit to other breweries like Trillium. Before I leave, Mateychuk and I stand on the top of the steps that over- look the vast elds of fruit trees. “You can’t get stressed at this job,” he says, “look at your environment.”
The beers brewed are some no-brainers: Hold Your Horses is a hazy New England IPA but Mateychuk likes to call himself ‘old school’ when it comes to brewing. Big Red Barn is a red ale named after the barn on its property. Made with American ‘C’ hops, it’s one of Mateychuk’s favourites. “I love red ales,” he sighs, almost nostalgic for a different brewing era. Mateychuk started brewing in 1992 and is happy Lookout Farm has made the leap to producing beer. The brew- ing/cider facility is in the middle of the sprawling farm. The brewery is a 20hL system while the cider is fermented in 47hL steel conical tanks. The cider side has a tunnel pasteuriser to keep residu- al sweetness low. It uses a mobile canner and has recently converted to 100% cans – a sign of the times. When Mateychuk has
he’s looking for can’t be found on the farm, Mateychuk nds solutions locally. He gets cranberries from a privately- owned bog –“one of the few not owned by Ocean Spray,” jokes Mateychuk – and brews with chocolate from Mast Broth- ers, a well-known chocolatier in nearby Somerville. The cider is back- sweetened from the farm’s own honey. This is self-suf ciency on a grand scale. To further connect to its historical roots, Lookout Farm brews a ‘1651’ cider aged with American heavy char oak spirals, a 21st century brewing technique with a 17th century mindset. Other ciders include experimenting with saison and champagne yeasts. Hop Up is a dry-hopped cider with El Dorado hops. Mac the Knife is a Macintosh apple cider with a Riesling wine yeast strain. The best seller is a cider with a habanero pepper kick.
Lookout Farm has over 50,000 trees of all fruits including pear and stone fruits and 3,900 heirloom trees from all over the world, including English Harry Master Black trees and varieties like Jonah Gold.
BREWER AND DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL ● 2
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