| 04/24/09 11:09 AM |
#55
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Alta Mae Marvin
About Jennifer Boynton
Below is an article from THE STATE I cut and paste; the article is about Jennifer's beer that will be available in August.
ADAM BEAM - abeam@thestate.com
Jennifer Boynton hunts wild hogs with a bow and arrow and kills turkeys with a Beretta double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun because it makes her feel like a woman.
And while her hunting buddies open up a Budweiser after a kill, Boynton celebrates by drinking beer she made in her kitchen and stores in old Newcastle bottles with the labels peeled off.
Not that Boynton would ever drink beer from a bottle.
Jennifer Boynton bottles beer in her backyard that she brews at home. Columbia City Council members have approved microbreweries in the city. Boynton, an avid turkey hunter, has brewed her own beer for years. She calls it ÒTurkey Hunter Ale,Ó because Òevery time I kill a turkey I drink a beer.Ó She started brewing a few years ago over a dispute with her turkey hunting buddies. They all drank light beers, like Budweiser, while she favored dark beers like Newcastle. She brewed a dark beer for all of them to drink, and has been doing it ever since.
- C. Aluka Berry/caberry@thestate.com /C. Aluka Berry
Jennifer Boynton bottles beer in her backyard that she brews at home. Columbia City Council members have approved microbreweries in the city. Boynton, an avid turkey hunter, has brewed her own beer for years. She calls it ÒTurkey Hunter Ale,Ó because Òevery time I kill a turkey I drink a beer.Ó She started brewing a few years ago over a dispute with her turkey hunting buddies. They all drank light beers, like Budweiser, while she favored dark beers like Newcastle. She brewed a dark beer for all of them to drink, and has been doing it ever since.
- C. Aluka Berry/caberry@thestate.com /C. Aluka Berry
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“My grandmother always said a lady drinks out of a glass,” she said.
Boynton’s concoction — dubbed Turkey Hunter Ale, because “every time I shoot one, I drink one” — will be available locally in August.
That’s when the city’s first brewery, Three Rivers Brewing Co., opens on North Main Street. It follows Columbia City Council’s approval last month for those businesses in the city.
Nationwide, microbreweries are the industry’s fastest-growing business with a nearly 11 percent growth over last year, said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association.
Their popularity can be traced to a consumer trend of looking locally for food and beverages.
“The large brewers are now headquartered in Belgium and London, England. That money has wings on it,” Gatza said.
“In this economy, people are making a connection: If we spend our money locally, that money stays in the community.”
Three Rivers Brewing Co. owner Doug Aylard is a former wine distributor from Ohio who thought Columbia needed a beer it could call its own.
“The kind of people who are here, we drink a lot,” he said. “We need something that reflects local character.”
Columbia has brew pubs and restaurants that brew their own beer. But the only way to get their beer is to go to the restaurant.
Aylard’s brewery — a microbrewery, because it will brew fewer than 15,000 barrels of beer each year — will sell to independent grocery stories, bars and restaurants.
“At brew pubs, the attention is split between making good food and making good beer,” Aylard said.
“I just want to make good beer.”
The Three Rivers Brewing Co. will be in a building off North Main Street owned by developer Chris Barczak.
The company will brew beers from locals, like Boynton, and a few of Aylard’s own creations, including:
• The “Half-wit hefe weisse,” because “people think I’m stupid for doing this.”
• The “Spiderbite,” made from scorched wheat or rye (the recipe is not finalized yet), named after Aylard’s 1970 Fiat 850 Spider.
• The “Broken Down,” a wheat beer that is an homage to people who like to fix old cars.
Other beers being considered are a Lizard Man beer and a pepper beer Aylard would like to name “Famously Hot,” after the city’s tourism slogan.
Boynton created her beer three years ago, in response to a challenge from her turkey hunting buddies that she couldn’t brew a beer they would like.
Now, Boynton said, her fellow hunters are constantly calling her asking whether the next batch of “Jen’s Hooch” is ready.
“We were skeptical for sure,” said Ted Faller, a fellow geologist and hunting partner. “But it was good. Surprisingly good.”
Boynton grew up in the Lowcountry before earning degrees in marine biology and geology. She started brewing beer in college while dating an English major who liked to make mead “because he was into Beowulf and everything.”
Her Turkey Hunter Ale is a dark beer she describes as malty and “ever so slightly sweet.”
It took her about six months to get the recipe — which exists only in her mind — just right.
The taste caught the attention of Eddy Johnston, front house manager of the Blue Marlin in The Vista, who said the beer would do well in Columbia.
While her beer will be on store shelves, Boynton will likely be out in the woods chasing turkeys in what she calls the “ultimate feminist sport.”
“I kill five turkeys a year, and every one is a turkey coming to what he thought was some hot little chickity,” she said. “Like all men, they aren’t thinking about what they ought to be thinking about.”
And afterward, you can bet she’ll kick back with some Turkey Hunter Ale.
“Life’s too short to drink beer I don’t like,” she said. “When I sit down and I’ve killed a turkey and I open a beer and the sun is shining, I say, ‘Damn, that’s good beer.’
“And it is, too.”
Reach Beam at (803) 771-8405.
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