E-Malt.com News article: USA, FL: Khoffner Brewery USA to launch in Fort Lauderdale

Khoffner Brewery USA’s co-founders Rauf Vagifoglu-Khoffner and Evan Kagan are planning to revolutionize the craft beer scene in Florida, New Times Broward-Palm Beach reported on August 24.

As chief brewmaster for Khoffner Brewery USA, Vagifoglu-Khoffner says his mission is to amass the area's largest selection of German-style craft ales, and he's doing it in Fort Lauderdale.

"Here in the U.S. there are a lot of breweries doing amazing things, but the brewing scene in Florida is still evolving and maturing. I came here to start a revolution," said Vagifoglu-Khoffner. "I'm bringing my family knowledge and experience, and my goal is to make some of the best European and craft American beer around."

The son of esteemed German brewer Karl Hoffner, brewing beer is in Vagifoglu-Khoffner's blood — a family tradition that spans three generations, beginning with his grandfather. The family name earned notoriety when his father left Germany in 1933 to brew for the Turkish government's Bomonti beer factory. With the permission of the German Brewers' Guild, Hoffner moved his family to Turkey and began production of German beer, a position he held for over four decades.

Now, Vagifoglu-Khoffner — who named his original Turkey-based brewery after his family's German surname spelling — is looking to take the South Florida craft beer scene by storm with his father's old-world brewing techniques and more than 300 family recipes.

Vagifoglu-Khoffner says he began learning about the brewing process at a young age. In his early teens, his father taught him to brew according to the German Beer Purity Law — known as Reinheitsgebot — a 500-year-old regulation created by the Holy Roman Empire and later instituted in Germany that stipulated only water, barley, and hops could be used in the production of beer. In 1993, the law was replaced with the Provisional German Beer Law, which allows ingredients such as yeast, wheat malt, and cane sugar.

"My father worked under those original laws and brewed with just three types of malt and five varieties of hops. In those days, no experimenting was allowed," says Vagifoglu-Khoffner. "I was fascinated by this. I wanted to experiment, mix different ingredients to get new tastes, new colours, new aromas — something we couldn't do in Turkey or Germany. Today, my only goal is to continue in my father's footsteps, but in my own way."

"Never ask me what I put in my beer. Never ask me how I make it. Just tell me if you like it or not," Vagifoglu-Khoffner said. "That's all that's important."

The 5,000-square-foot brewery is currently home to a production bottling system and a small army of brewing tanks, custom-built equipment that includes eight 30-barrel tanks, several 15- and 20-barrel tanks, and five five-barrel tanks that will be used to brew Khoffner's four flagship families of beer, as well as limited-edition and small-batch brews.

"I want to show Europe that America can also produce high-quality, German-style beer," said Vagifoglu-Khoffner. "Most of all, I care about the quality of the beer, and about tradition. It's my goal to put Florida on the map for good beer in the U.S."

Khoffner Brewery USA is slated to begin production brewing in October. An opening date has not been set.


26 August, 2015