From Seed to Suds

Ask Minnie and Brian Sprague for a tour of their award-winning brewery, and the first place they’ll take you is outside to the fields.

This is where the beer-making begins at Sprague Farm & Brew Works, an old dairy-farm-turned-craft-brewery just outside Venango, Pa., about 30 miles south of Erie. High school sweethearts now in their 50s, Brian and Minnie planted their first barley crops in 2011 and have been growing hops for five years. They also malt their barley harvest, an intensive, multi-step process.

All the hard work has allowed the couple to do something quite rare in an industry that has become highly mechanized —  create a true “estate brew,” which means the beer is entirely crafted on-site.

Longtime home brewers, the Spragues had talked for years about operating their own craft brewery. When an old dairy farm went up for sale in 1997, they bought it on a handshake deal for $75,000. They had plans to make beer there, but spent years saving money, remodeling and getting the necessary licenses before they were ready to brew in 2006.

Their success at the brewery convinced them they could make a go of a brew pub as well, so they opened the doors to an accompanying brew pub in 2009 that they named Bierhalla. The complex also includes Sleeping Leaf Lodge, a 110-year-old farm house, which can be rented by those who want to extend their visit.

The place is easy to miss. You can’t see much more than the lodge — an old green-and-white farmhouse with weeds growing from its roof — from the two-lane country road that leads to the brewpub. The pub itself is housed in the century-old barn. There’s the sign to lead you in, of course. There’s also a hard-to-miss massive horse, carved from wood by Brian, an award-winning chainsaw carver.

On the day we visit, Joel Hunter, whose long white beard makes him stand out, is the first person we see. He’s busy working, winding green vines — young hops — onto strings that stretch from the ground to the upper deck of the barn. It turns out that Hunter, an agronomist with Penn State Cooperative, was so integral in helping the Spragues plant, harvest and malt the barley that they named the estate brew in his honor.

  We follow his directions into the barn and — hallelujah — light streams through a stained-glass window highlighting old tables and an eclectic mix of chairs. A raw wood stage covered by an Oriental rug hosts bands every weekend. It’s not unusual for 200 to 300 people to pack the place on weekend nights.

Bars and stools line the walls, where patrons can thumb through propped-up old yearbooks or photo albums of kids hunting for hellbender salamanders in a nearby creek. There is also an eclectic collection of antiques, including masts from a replica of the U.S. Brig Niagara, now used to hold up the bar in the pavilion. “All this old stuff fits because we’re on a farm,” Brian says. “We didn’t need drywall and chrome.”

On nice days, visitors can be found wandering around outside admiring the many woodcarvings scattered on the property. Most were done by Brian, who has a collection of 20-plus chainsaws in the chilly basement of the barn, which he uses to create his art.

The Spragues knew making beer from seed would be difficult, but they didn’t realize how intensive, time-consuming and expensive the process would be.

They got their first inkling when they could find no one to malt their two to three tons of barley. “It was too small a crop for anyone to take on,” Hunter explains.

So the Spragues purchased their own used John Deere combine, a testy piece of equipment more than 30 years old, to harvest their barley. Then they malted it themselves, a laborious undertaking that during the steeping and germinating processes required it being tended every few hours, including in the middle of the night.

“Like a baby,” Minnie sighs.

But the hard work more than paid off, with Sprague Farm and Brew Works’ first estate brew, called H.I.G.H. PA. The H.I.G.H. stands for Hunter Indigenous Grained and Hopped. Getting a beer named after you here is a high compliment. Hunter is not the only one who has earned the accolade. Kenny Brown, a fixture at the tavern who works in roles ranging from bartender to dishwasher, also has a beer named for him. What makes Brown stand out? He won’t accept a check for his work.

“That’s not the point,” Brown says. “These are great people and we have a lot of fun here.”

The Spragues, who grew up in this part of Pennsylvania, have been able to count on friends like Hunter and Brown again and again when they’ve needed a helping hand. “We’ve had a group of family and friends who have made this thing happen,” Brian says. “We’ve had very few naysayers out there.”

It helps that they treat their staff like family and friends — mostly because they are. Luke Steadman, 24, shares the head brewer title with Brian. He is not related to the Spragues, but grew up with them and calls them aunt and uncle. When he leaves the farm, on his way to a wedding, Minnie pulls him close for a kiss on the cheek. “Be careful,” she says. “Love ya.”

Relationships like this keep the Spragues moving forward. “It would be nice to make money,” Brian says. “But so far that’s been second to being able to do something I love.”

In all, about 10 percent of the 575 barrels of beer the Spragues produced in 2011 under 25 names was made from barley and hops grown on site. They plan to increase their crop in the future. “Apparently we keep looking for harder things to do,” Hunter says.

This year’s crop of hops and barley will be ready for harvest in early fall and the 2012 estate brew ready for drinking by late winter.

“We’re making pretty good beer here, no doubt about it,” Brian says.

  One crop at a time.

Info to Go

Sprague Farm & Brew Works

22045 U.S. Highways 6 and 19

Venango, Pa., 814-398-2885

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