A visit to Foothills Brewing in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

After a hike around Pilot Mountain, why not drink some Pilot Mountain Pale Ale?

I went to Foothills Brewing at 638 West Fourth Street in Winston-Salem, N.C., after spending most of Sunday at Pilot Mountain State Park with two of my daughters.

Of course I ordered the Foothills Brewing sampler, which included six of the microbrewery's standards in 10-ounce glasses for $7.99. The server offered me the option of adding the seasonal brew to the sampler for $1, so I did.

Here are my notes:

Salem Gold: This ale was the lightest offering. It had a pronounced wheat flavor and a crisp, clean finish.

Pilot Mountain Pale Ale: A swallow of this gave me one of the cleanest finished I've had from a pale ale. Definite hints of grapefruit and lemonade.

Torch Pilsner: Not strong. Complete and pleasant. I thought it had a slightly lighter body than other pilsners, but that's probably just me.

Hoppyum IPA: As advertised, Hoppyum IPA has "citrusy hops." It is strongly hopped but not extremely hopped like some IPAs these days. Definite presense of grapefruit. Maybe some orange peel in the aftertaste.

Rainbow Trout ESB: Accessible and very drinkable, with a touch of tartness. Yet I thought it didn't have quite as much traditional ESB character in its flavor. I couldn't put my finger on it. It definitely had a hint of roasted-nut in the finish; the sampler placemat had said "nutty chocolate finish." I enjoyed it.

Hurricane Hefeweizen: This seasonal was clean and dry -- perhaps even a bit drier than other hefeweizens I have tried. I thought I tasted a touch of bubblegum in the yeast. No hints of banana, which some hefeweizens have.

Total Eclipse Stout: This was an amazing stout. It's the closest thing to cold coffee I've ever tasted in a beer. If you've had high-quality coffees before, you'll know that some have a rich, almost liqueur-like touch to them. That's what this is like. The richness had me drinking more; the robust, coffee-like bitterness had me looking for the sugar!

Most accessible: Salem Gold, Torch Pilsner, Rainbow Trout ESB

Biggest surprise: Total Eclipse Stout

Visit Foothills Brewing online at http://www.foothillsbrewing.com/. The site includes a list of other eateries in the Carolinas that serve Foothills Brewing beers.

-Colin Foote Burch

At the N.C. Zoo on Saturday

How German Beer Came to the Carolinas: A True Story

This is a great story that I was lucky enough to report for my column in this week's Weekly Surge.

IMPORTING A TASTE OF DEUTSCHLAND

By Colin Burch
For Weekly Surge

When Werner Hoppe helped build the Georgetown Steel Mill in 1969, the crates of equipment from Germany often held a special reminder of home. The good-hearted workers in Germany stashed German wine or beer into the shipment, he said.

But then, one day, the United States government did what it does best. It stole the joy of Hoppe and other Germans working on the mill. Customs agents discovered that alcohol was arriving in the equipment crates, and said, in so many words, "You can't do that."

So Werner Hoppe went down to the customs office and found out about the procedures for importing alcohol into the U.S. Soon, the native of Cologne, Germany, decided to set up his own import business in Georgetown.

W.H. Company started with German wine, and eventually added beers including Bitburger Pils, Maisel's Weisse, and more, even some English brews. He continued working with the Georgetown steel mill until 1975, when he went into the import business full-time.

His son, Andy Hoppe, a tennis coach at Carolina Forest High School and Georgetown native, said it took some effort on his father's part to get the company off the ground. "It was a lot of hard work at first, trying to learn how alcohol is bought and sold in this country," he said.

But Werner Hoppe figured it out. He got his own warehouse in Georgetown and trucks for distribution. He had distributors up and down the East coast, Andy Hoppe said. When the orders for German imports became big enough, the exporters were able to deliver directly to the distributors, so the warehouse and the trucks were no longer necessary. Werner Hoppe was able to run the import business from his home.

Werner Hoppe has scaled back his operations in recent years. He stopped carrying wine 15 years ago. More recently, he returned the rights to sell Bitburger to the brewery back in Germany. In a technical sense, he still oversees Bitburger's import into North Carolina, but he is no longer involved with the marketing.

Today, W.H. Company imports only Maisel's Weisse in two varieties, the original which includes yeast, and the filtered version called Kristallklar, which was hailed by the late beer expert Michael Jackson as one of the best beers in the world. And W.H. Company only brings Maisel's Weisse into two states, working with Southern Wine and Spirits in South Carolina, and two distributors in North Carolina: Highland Distribution Co. and Mutual Distribution Co., said Andy Hoppe.

So if you drink Maisel's Weisse in the Carolinas, thank Werner Hoppe.

Still speaking with a strong German accent, he scaled back his import operation because he wanted to do other things at this stage in his life. He recently wrote a book, "Justice Comes After Death," which is available at Horst Gasthaus in North Myrtle Beach and River Room in Georgetown, where the purchase of the book comes with a free Maisel's Weisse glass. The book is also available at My Sister's Books in Pawleys Island, at which a book-signing is tentatively scheduled for January 15.

Despite his new endeavors, Werner Hoppe didn't sound like he wants to stop with the two Maisel's Weisse brews. He said a Maisel's Weisse sister brewery has a lager that he'll probably add to his imports.

Andy Hoppe said he'll eventually take over the business.

I asked him what he and his father think about the big American domestic beers. "We tend to avoid those whenever possible," he said with a laugh.

HAPPY NEW BEER

I'm taking a couple of weeks off. Let's keep all the Surge readers out of the slammer - don't drive after you've been drinking, and have a Happy New Year.

- Contact Colin Burch - the Beerman - at beerpour@yahoo.com.

Eating & drinking in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.

Another married couple invited my wife and I to spend a weekend in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., recently.

We met them on a recent Friday at the Giggling Mackerel at 65 Causeway Drive.

We found the Giggling Mackerel, and climbed a couple of flights of wood stairs to meet our friends on a deck bar above the restaurant.

Stepping onto the top reoriented the entire day - the breeze blew, the sun set, and the music played. The girl barkeep was cute and friendly. We could see the Intracoastal Waterway and the cars passing over the bridge.

The hostess called our names for dinner downstairs. We made it without tumbling down the steps, and I went for the Red Stripe. It was $3.75 per bottle, and could have been a couple of degrees colder, but a wedge of lime and a rack of ribs for $16.95 made up for it. The Giggling Mackerel also had seven domestic beers for $3 per bottle, and four other premium bottles for $3.75.

The next day I got a properly chilled Pabst Blue Ribbon at Sharky's at 61 Causeway Drive. Sharky's also had outside seating, but we opted for inside that afternoon. The PBR bottles, at $3 each, were very cold, thank God. We also got a half-pound of fried shrimp for an appetizer, $13.95. And then we had another.

Then the server told us the last chilled PBR had been served (to us), so instead of drinking a warm one, my buddy got a Pacifico for $4. I got Summer Bright Ale from Breckenridge Brewing in Colorado, at $2.50 per bottle. I had never seen this American Wheat Pale Ale before. It had a touch of that hop spiciness that hinted toward an India Pale Ale, giving it an interesting flavor with a light enough body to drink all the summer-day long. That one's definitely a keeper.

Our group decided that a pound of fried shrimp didn't make a dinner, so we went over to Cinelli's Pizza & Ristorante at 14 Causeway Drive. We sat at tall tables near the seven-seat wood bar with colorful hanging lights. Here I ordered a pint of Anheuser-Busch's Skipjack Amber. To get an idea of what this American All-Malt Lager tastes like, think of Yuengling and then take the malt a little more toward caramel, and make the hops a little bit crisper. Good stuff, $3 a pint.