MONROE - The Beach Family Farm has been operating along Honey Creek Road south of Monroe since 1901, most recently as a beef cattle and grain operation. That is, until fifth-generation farmer Jeremy Beach came up with a new idea for the fields: beer.
Beach's new project, Cheese City Beer, is intended to emphasize the importance farming has on consumer products - including beer. Beach is planting hops and barley, fueled by a successful season in 2015 selling his hops to Freeport microbrewery Generations Brewery.
Now he hopes to document the process online as he creates his own label of "farm-to-keg" beer through the use of his website cheesecitybeer.com. He said the documentation should also serve as a tool for learning as his project progresses.
"I'm trying to tie into place of origin," Beach said. "All of these ingredients in this beer are grown right here and it's a few miles from Monroe and Monroe's great tradition cheese producing and beer production in Wisconsin and Monroe. I'm making a beer on my parents' family farm. It's something, to my knowledge in the Midwest, hasn't been done before."
Beach previously worked for the United States Department of Agriculture. He traveled across the country for work, which took him to cities such as Portland, Oregon and most recently, Washington D.C. for the past five years. However, he wanted to try something new.
Now 32, Beach wanted to return home and honor the beginning of his agricultural roots, with a bit of a twist.
"My parents are grain and beef farmers, but that's something I didn't really see myself doing," Beach said. "With this interest in beer and the ingredients, I figured, "why not try that out?' It's becoming more and more popular as a specialty crop throughout the country."
Planning takes time. At the beginning of April, the weather was not conducive to planting barley in the fields, but Beach was able to organize the hopyard. Just under two acres, 1,700 hops roots were planted to be grown over the summer months. Beach used both honey locust and black locust trees, 102 total, to serve as poles and anchors for the perennial plants. This week, the sprouts, which resemble a more flexible version of asparagus, were only a foot out of the ground, but they should grow to 20 feet by the end of the summer. They will grow upward toward cables stretched across the trees. Beach said the elongated hops plants are called bines, and once fully grown should look somewhat like ivy creeping along the side of a structure after tied with twine to the cabling.
"They're a very labor-intensive type of crop," Beach said. "It's a lot of maintenance, but I've got great help from my family."
On April 15, Beach and his father loaded up the planter used on the farm for the last four decades, and headed out to a sunny field to lay down barley. The weekend provided perfect weather to plant 15 acres of barley using seed from plants Beach harvested last year. Hops are the component of beer malted into alcohol and causes the yeasty texture of the beverage while barley creates more of the bitter aroma, which can be balanced in different ways to create different types of beers.
Beach said to make Cheese City Beer, he has been in talks with a Madison-based brewer which will contract brew the beer for him using the hops and barley he grows.
Beach said he hopes Cheese City Beer, which will most likely be sold in southwest Wisconsin, does well with beer drinkers in its initial year.
"I want to try to get the word out there and show people this can be done here and hopefully teach them a thing or two," Beach said. "Let them come and see and smell, taste, touch the actual ingredients that will go into the beer."
Beach's new project, Cheese City Beer, is intended to emphasize the importance farming has on consumer products - including beer. Beach is planting hops and barley, fueled by a successful season in 2015 selling his hops to Freeport microbrewery Generations Brewery.
Now he hopes to document the process online as he creates his own label of "farm-to-keg" beer through the use of his website cheesecitybeer.com. He said the documentation should also serve as a tool for learning as his project progresses.
"I'm trying to tie into place of origin," Beach said. "All of these ingredients in this beer are grown right here and it's a few miles from Monroe and Monroe's great tradition cheese producing and beer production in Wisconsin and Monroe. I'm making a beer on my parents' family farm. It's something, to my knowledge in the Midwest, hasn't been done before."
Beach previously worked for the United States Department of Agriculture. He traveled across the country for work, which took him to cities such as Portland, Oregon and most recently, Washington D.C. for the past five years. However, he wanted to try something new.
Now 32, Beach wanted to return home and honor the beginning of his agricultural roots, with a bit of a twist.
"My parents are grain and beef farmers, but that's something I didn't really see myself doing," Beach said. "With this interest in beer and the ingredients, I figured, "why not try that out?' It's becoming more and more popular as a specialty crop throughout the country."
Planning takes time. At the beginning of April, the weather was not conducive to planting barley in the fields, but Beach was able to organize the hopyard. Just under two acres, 1,700 hops roots were planted to be grown over the summer months. Beach used both honey locust and black locust trees, 102 total, to serve as poles and anchors for the perennial plants. This week, the sprouts, which resemble a more flexible version of asparagus, were only a foot out of the ground, but they should grow to 20 feet by the end of the summer. They will grow upward toward cables stretched across the trees. Beach said the elongated hops plants are called bines, and once fully grown should look somewhat like ivy creeping along the side of a structure after tied with twine to the cabling.
"They're a very labor-intensive type of crop," Beach said. "It's a lot of maintenance, but I've got great help from my family."
On April 15, Beach and his father loaded up the planter used on the farm for the last four decades, and headed out to a sunny field to lay down barley. The weekend provided perfect weather to plant 15 acres of barley using seed from plants Beach harvested last year. Hops are the component of beer malted into alcohol and causes the yeasty texture of the beverage while barley creates more of the bitter aroma, which can be balanced in different ways to create different types of beers.
Beach said to make Cheese City Beer, he has been in talks with a Madison-based brewer which will contract brew the beer for him using the hops and barley he grows.
Beach said he hopes Cheese City Beer, which will most likely be sold in southwest Wisconsin, does well with beer drinkers in its initial year.
"I want to try to get the word out there and show people this can be done here and hopefully teach them a thing or two," Beach said. "Let them come and see and smell, taste, touch the actual ingredients that will go into the beer."