USA, NC: Hoptown Brewing Co. to open its doors in Mooresville after St. Patrick’s Day

Hoptown Brewing Co. will soon open its doors in Mooresville, and the owners are already looking to bring the concept to another city, the Charlotte Observer reported on February 24.

Scott Plemmons, who is opening the brewery with his wife, Sandy Plemmons, said the new spot will be the first of at least three Hoptown locations, with the plan to bring the neighborhood brewery model to underserved areas that aren’t as brewery-dense as Charlotte.

“We don’t see ourselves going into larger metropolitan areas,” Plemmons said. “We like to be the bedroom town type of brewery that would be able to pull from a large city but also support the local community. Our model is more about local.” While Mooresville’s location will be the first Hoptown, it will not be Plemmons’ first brewery.

After years of homebrewing, Plemmons started Hootenanny Brewing Co. from his 12-acre farm in Mooresville, at first with the simple goal of supplying his wife’s yoga studio with beer. Word about the beer spread, though, and soon Hootenanny was doing tap takeovers at the local Lowes Foods and on draft at places like Ultimate Ales, The Kilted Buffalo and Sky Mountain Coffee.

Plemmons kept hearing the same question: “When are you going to open a taproom?”

After looking into it, he realized he couldn’t register the Hootenanny name since it was used by a brewery outside of North Carolina. Which was all well and good, since Plemmons needed a more universal name for his next venture.

“We want to open additional locations, so we needed a name that would apply wherever we decided to go,” Plemmons said. “So we decided on Hoptown. We just felt like Hoptown represented what we were about. We’re going to continue running our philanthropic initiatives out of the brewery and eventually outside of the brewery, as well.”

The brewery will pick four local charities to support each year, with proceeds from certain beers or events supporting those charities. Look for the first four charities to be announced soon.

Scott and Sandy Plemmons will be the brewery’s managing partners. Manning the brewhouse is Turner Humphries, who grew up in Charlotte but got his first taste of professional brewing at Moon Dog Craft Brewery in Melbourne, Australia. The brewery had just added a production facility, and Humphries worked with two other brewers to get it up and running.

Once his work visa ended a year later, Humphries moved back to North Carolina and became a shift brewer at Oskar Blues Brewery in Brevard. There, he learned “the intricacies of brewing just one style of beer and everything that goes into making that beer the same time and time and time again.”

A year after that, he moved back to Charlotte to work at Triple C Brewing as a shift brewer. He eventually worked his way up to lead brewer. He brewed core beers like Baby Maker, Golden Boy and 3C IPA, but he also had the chance to develop his own recipes and to experiment with barrel aging and wine/beer hybrids.

“It’s been a great fit for me to go from the unique brewing experience I’ve had previously to being able to kind of go off on my own and lead the charge developing beers and doing everything required of a head brewer,” Humphries said.

Humphries prefers classic styles, and plans to brew a variety of approachable beers to fill Hoptown’s 20 taps. And, given the brewery’s name, you can expect a few IPAs for good measure. The brewery’s tanks are filled with a West Coast IPA, a hazy IPA, a sour IPA and a double IPA, as well as pale ale, hazy pale ale, blonde ale, milk stout and coffee vanilla porter.

“I’m a big believer that high quality raw materials will lead you to make high quality beer when coupled with sound brewing practices,” Humphries said.

“I think water, malt, yeast and hops can make really beautiful beers if you know how to work with those ingredients and showcase those characteristics. That doesn’t mean that you’ll never see an adjunct stout or a fruited sour here. We’ll certainly dabble with those beers, but I think what I’m most passionate about is really showcasing what the basic ingredients can produce.”

Humphries has already secured a range of hops he’s excited to work with, from popular varieties like Citra to more experimental hops.

Hoptown’s beers will only be available on draft and in Crowlers initially, though the brewery plans to distribute cans later on. When additional locations open, those taprooms might share some beers while also having offers that are unique to those taprooms.

Hoptown has yet to set an opening date, but Plemmons said the plan is to open the doors after St. Patrick’s Day.

Once the Mooresville location is up and running, Plemmons and his team will continue their search for a second location with plans to build that one next year.

25 February, 2021