What’s Brewing: An Interview with Hugh Sisson, founder of Clipper City Brewing
It is an exciting time for craft-beer drinkers in the Southeast. The market is expanding faster than anywhere else in the country and Southeast brewers are experimenting with a variety of styles and ingredients, making myriad tasty beers. Every month we’ll feature a craft brewery or brewpub in the Southeast and chat with the brewmaster about his or her craft. If you have any suggestions (a brewery or brewpub in the Southeast), please email Jamie by clicking here.
In August, we talked with Brian “Spike” Buckowski at Terrapin Beer Co. in Athens, Ga. Then it was Paul Philippon, founder of The Duck-Rabbit Brewery in Farmville, N.C. This month we interviewed Hugh Sisson, longtime brewer and restaurateur in Maryland. We hope you enjoy it. Cheers!
SU: How did you get started in brewing?
Sisson: I was a college student that didn’t like beer. In 1974, I went to study in London for six weeks and started drinking beer. Low and behold I liked beer, I just didn’t like the beer they were forcing on us in the States. That’s why I think there was certainly a potential market of folk who were interested in flavor, they just had never had the opportunity to experience it yet.
SU: When did you begin brewing you own?
Sisson: I’m kind of one of the old men of the industry in some respects. I was in the restaurant business from 1979 to 1994, restaurant bar business with my family. The bar we positioned early on as being a “beer destination point.” We converted the bar in 1989 to the first brewpub in Maryland. Got legislation passed that made it legal, etc. I was the original brewmaster at the brewpub. I started brewing, craft-style beer back in 1989. I left that company in 1994 to start this. We started operating Clipper City in December 1995. This December it will be 13 years of operations.
SU: How available was craft beer at the time?
Sisson: We were so far out in front. In 1980-81 we had a hundred different kinds of beer available in bottles. I believe my restaurant was the first draft Guinness account in the state of Maryland. You see there weren’t any American alternatives back then. You might occasionally get a case of Anchor Steam because they were before then. I remember when the new guy on the block might be able to get a case of Sierra Nevada. I remember when the first Sam Adams products started showing up. There was no craft beer scene when we first started doing this stuff. It was pretty much just an import scene.
SU: What did bar patrons first think of the new styles?
Sisson: People were still scratching their heads trying to figure out what we were doing. It’s funny I remember in 1989 we had just started brewing beer at Sissons, which was the name of the pub. The cool thing was I was able to get that process down fairly quickly. We were making pretty good beer, pretty quickly. I just remember watching some guy come out of the pub that obviously hadn’t had anything beyond Budweiser his entire life, and he came to me and said, ‘Your beer it’s just not right. I’m not saying its bad. It’s just not right. It’s just not right.’ That gives you a pretty good indication that this might be an uphill battle.
SU: What craft beer styles did you originally offer?
Sisson: I did a sort of American-style Pale Ale. There was nothing earth shattering, in retrospect. At the time it was pretty radical. We had a nice American-style Amber Ale. That did well really. I did a Golden-Style Ale. We could never figure out if we wanted to take that in the direction of a Kolsch or take that into the style of an American cream ale kind of thing. It didn’t seem to make any different people bought it. It was pretty well done. All that stuff was radically. People hadn’t seen that unless they had been to Europe and been to England and tried English Ale or been to Germany and tried German lagers. Or been to Belgium and had those funky beers. They just didn’t know it. It’s truly remarkable when you look at what has happened to American beer culture in the last 20 years. It’s staggering.
SU: What styles were most popular?
Sisson: The craft beer consuming public is significantly more sophisticated than they were ten years ago. I mean it’s pretty interesting. We do a lot of brewery tours here. I talk to a lot of consumers. And it’s pretty interesting you can actually have intelligent conversation about differences between a Porter and a Stout. Ten years ago unless they were true certified beer geeks there was no chance that conversation even took place.
The American public has finally figured out that there is this huge portfolio of styles that are available to them. That’s not mainstream. If all of sudden someone figured out there were 31 flavors, and not just vanilla, that doesn’t mean it’s mainstream that just means there is a whole lot more out there that I didn’t know about.
SU: What is the significant of Budweiser’s American Ale?
Sisson: It’s recognition that the market is changing. I don’t know how successful those products will be because I think that from a certain standpoint the consumer who’s seeking out what I’m doing is also in some respects almost intentionally thumbing their nose at AB. Having said there has been an enormous amount of success for the Coors Brewing Company’s Blue Moon. That’s Coors. Extremely popular. If you go to their Web site, it doesn’t say Coors anywhere. That’s a quasi-craft beer, a macro-beer in sheeps clothing. It would be very foolish for anybody who’s involved in my side of the business to underestimate AB, Miller and Coors. I think part of the success of craft beer is little local guys. AB will never be perceived as being the little local guy.
SU: How would describe Clipper City’s portfolio of beers?
Sisson: We have three brands. We have our Clipper City brand, which is part of our local suds product line. We really only distribute those in the local market, Maryland, D.C., Delaware and Virginia. Though three out of the four of them are Great American Beer Festival Winners. Then there is Heavy Seas which is higher gravity beer: 7 percent alcohol by volume and up. Bigger beers. Winter Storm is our current seasonal release. That’s actually the World Beer Cup medal in the International Pale Ale category. The Winter Storm is the best International Pale Ale in the world for the next two years.
SU: How do you describe the Heavy Seas Winter Storm?
Sisson: It’s a fairly big beer, 7.5 percent alcohol by volume. You’re going to find a rich ruddy hued color. You’re going to get some pretty good floral hoppy aromas up front. Although it’s not a big IPA, which says smack me over the head with a bag of hops. It’s a little more subdued than that, but it’s got this great midlevel rich maltiness and finishes with this lingering crisp bitter finish that goes on and on and on. It’s a mouthful of chewy beer.
SU: What foods do you pair it with?
Sisson: Match it with some really good cheese, a sharp cheddar and French bread and you’re off to the races. You’re going to have some fairly gutsy foods. It’s good such wonderful malt components. I don’t think it would work with some spicy things. You’re going to do better with some more savory things. We did a fondue for a TV shoot a few weeks ago. That was wonderful. A great combo.
Review:
Mr. Sisson is right. The judges of the World Beer Cup are too. Winter Storm is one of the tastiest seasonal beers on the market. The autumnal coppery, redish, amber color is beautiful. Though it leads you to assume this beer might be a little weak for the season, its nose is sturdy, definitely floral and a little citrusy. The favor is good beginning, middle and end. It is an excellent strong ale.
For more information visit: www.ccbeer.com