USA, NC: Husband and wife to launch Triskelion Brewing Company on New Year’s Eve
Triskelion Brewing Company will become the area’s newest brewery when it opens New Year’s Eve, a modern place to grab a beer that its owners hope will become a catalyst for more positive development along Hendersonville’s historic Seventh Avenue, BlueRidgeNow.com reported on December 20.
Longtime Henderson County residents, Jonathan and Becky Ayers have been homebrewing for 10 years, six of those before planning to open a commercial brewery. Jonathan Ayers worked for more than 20 years in construction before deciding that what he really wanted to do full-time was brew.
The brewery has been a long time in the making. The Ayers have meticulously planned every last detail in the last four years.
During that time, Jonathan attended Blue Ridge Community College, starting with night classes for one semester. He aced his classes that first semester and earned a General Brewing Certificate, Cicerone Certification Certified Beer Server, and Beer Steward certification, but he also learned how much he didn’t know and decided then to enroll in the full two-year program.
While homebrewing may teach a lot about brewing beer, it doesn’t necessarily translate into a successful taproom and full production brewery, the Ayerses said.
“It’s been a long process to get us to where we’re finally at today,” Jonathan Ayers added. “It’s challenging, but really fun.”
On Seventh Avenue by the soon-to-open Marco’s Pizza and next to Underground Bakery, Triskelion is taking shape in the form of two buildings: a brewing production facility that will also serve as a taproom for the first few months until the other building, a two-story “taphouse,” opens around April or May.
The brewhouse, a smaller, already painted building butting up against Highway 64 at 669 Maple St., is outfitted with the latest equipment, a glycol system and a fully computerized brewing system.
Currently, Triskelion is a three-and-a-half-barrel production brewhouse scaled for 14 barrels to come out of the system. They have seven seven-barrel fermenters ready to go. That system allows the brewery to create everything from a small one-off batch to a full quadruple batch of 14 barrels.
Becky Ayers compared their brewing system since moving from home brewing to Triskelion to moving from a Volkswagen Beetle to a Mercedes.
On one end of the building is an area for barrel aging. Jonathan Ayers said by the time it’s totally built out, hopefully in five to seven years, Triskelion will be producing around 5,000 barrels per year in kegs and cans.
The taphouse, with its main entrance off Seventh, will feature two bars with redundant taps, one on the first floor and one on the second, with plans for 20-30 taps, mostly Triskelion beers but with local cider, too, and even local mead.
Windows on the second floor look out over the avenue and the mountains in the distance, while on the other side, views look down on the brew house and the Historic Depot.
There won’t be many TVs, just a couple on the second floor are in the works presently, and a walled-in space in the rear of the building will feature mostly covered seating, with space for dogs and kids and a “giant stage.”
Jonathan Ayers says he wants it to be a major entertainment space as well as a place to build community. They have plans to rent out the top floor for business meetings, sports events, crafting or whatever, for just $30 for a four-hour block, so cheap that it gets used all the time.
The upstairs seating will also work toward that goal, with sofas and close, communal seating, and without barstools at the bar. The point, he says, isn’t to sit and talk to the bartender.
The Ayerses knew they wanted to stay in town and looked all around Hendersonville while scouting for locations, including downtown, the Kanuga Road area and others. But when they found a vacant lot on Seventh, right across the street from M&M Meat Locker, their search was over.
“We got really lucky,” Jonathan Ayers said, explaining that the empty lot in the midst of the historic district provided a unique opportunity to create a new, modern piece in the oldest area of the city, an area that’s recently started climbing back out of its stigma as a dangerous, crime-ridden neighborhood. Becky Ayers said that when she first got her driver’s license, she wasn’t allowed to drive in that area for fear of crime.
The area has come a long way since then, they point out. Now it’s evolving into a thriving business center with two breweries, multiple places to eat including Marco’s Pizza and Daddy D’s Suber Soulfood (which Becky says makes fried chicken as well as her grandmother), local icon M&M Meat Locker, a recently announced brandy bar, bakery, salon and more.
The other brewery in the area is Southern Appalachian Brewery. While the couple has been asked whether they have concerns over competition being so close, they say the more the merrier. They noted that there are 24 breweries in the city limits of Asheville, and all of them make money.
Craft beer drinkers enjoy variety, and bring in visitors and other related business, Becky Ayers said. She added that there’s a friendship that exists among brewers.
“For years and years, the stigma had always been, you know, one day, Seventh Avenue is going to change; one day things are going to get better,” Jonathan Ayers said. “The reality is nothing changes until you stand up and do something about it. And that’s what we did. We put our money where our mouth is.”
They hope their brewery will be a shot in the arm for the area, one that will help draw other businesses there. With no requirements on building a historical-style building, they went out of their way to build something completely modern.
“It’s going to change the mentality of Seventh,” Jonathan Ayers said, a modern, brand-new feature on a historic street featuring old buildings in different states of repair.
Becky Ayers explained the interesting backstory behind brewery’s unique name.
When they started the venture, they worked two names through the trademark process and when their first choice - Stag’s Head Brewing - got caught up, they went with their second choice, Triskelion Brewing Co.
A triskele, or triskelion, is a design of three conjoined spirals, dating back 6,000 years or more, Jonathan Ayers said. The brewery’s logo features that triple-spiral design as well as the three crucial beer ingredients: water, barley and hops.
The design that eventually spread across Europe and even into Asia speaks to the natural cycles of life, whether it’s birth, middle age and death, planting, growing and harvesting or, as the Ayerses see it, past, present and future.
“We’re always trying to honor the past, stay in the present and look to the future,” he said.
In beer, that means staying strict with old styles like the their favorite Scotch Ale and London Porters, making good contemporary styles like the Northeastern and American IPAs and looking toward what the next generation may be drinking, like the new Argentinian IPA they’re excited to get out.
Why that name was chosen is a story that hits much closer to home. The design is strongly related to Celtic tradition. Both being of Scotch-Irish descent, the Ayerses are in tune with their heritage.
In the early days of their relationship, around 2001, they were in a little shop in Fletcher when Becky spotted a small silver pendant featuring the triskele design, which became the first piece of jewelry Jonathan ever bought for his future wife.
When the doors open on New Year’s Eve, Triskelion plans to have seven beers on tap, “The Magnificent Seven,” as he dubbed the lineup — a wide variety of styles ranging in alcohol content from 4.5 percent to 10.5 percent.
On the lighter end of that spectrum is Angel’s Taint, a 4.5-percent creation of Becky Ayers that started out as a simple blonde ale but became something different with a few interesting tweaks.
The closest description she could offer is a “tart, blonde raspberry ale,” describing her process of adding a certain malt to add tartness to the flavor, and dry hopping at the end of the fermentation process with Lemon Drop hops to add the aromas without the bitter taste. Finally, raspberry puree is added at the end of the process.
Then there’s a light craft lager and a London-style porter, a wee heavy or strong Scottish ale, and the IPAs, a Northeastern IPA focused on citrus flavors, and a new Argentinian IPA, which uses only two base grains, Pilsner or Two-Row, and wheat, like a German Kristalweizen brewed like an IPA, Jonathan Ayers said.
“It’s a weird little beer but they are so tasty,” he said, describing a fruity-cereal smell the wort gives off.
And on the high end of the spectrum is a Russian imperial breakfast coffee stout.
From there, they’ll keep working on new beers and styles, Jonathan Ayers said, including Belgians and Saisons in the spring and a continual revisiting of one of his favorites, London-style beers like an Extra Special Bitter and more IPAs.
“If it can be brewed, we’re going to brew it,” Jonathan Ayers said.
22 December, 2017
