Foothills Brewing – Carolina Blonde w/Mango

The birthplace of worthy ideas often reflects the environment in which they will be most useful. A scientist, for instance, will habitually get good ideas in his lab. A coach gets inspired on the field of play. Base jumpers get their good ideas . . . wait, base jumping’s not a good idea period.

So it happens that the idea for our latest beer came up while our pub brewer and head chef were . . . having a beer.

These are two people only recently thrust together in their respective ‘labs’. Shane Moore, our executive chef and namesake of the #Shanewich, creates culinary wizardry in our pub kitchen, while Matt Dick was only recently named our head pub brewer, moving over from our main brewing facility.

Anyway, the two of them have become brothers in arms, or food, or beer, or perhaps all of the above. One day while quaffing Foothill’s finest, Shane happened to mention he’d found a great deal on a truckload of mangoes (presumably it wasn’t from a guy selling them out of his station wagon in the parking lot). After creating a chutney, some hot sauce, and a few other kitchen miracles, Shane wasn’t sure what to do with his leftovers. Enter Matt, ever the resourceful brewer, who suggested they add the remainders to our Carolina Blonde Cream Ale, for a tropical fruit take on one of our most refreshing summer beers.

So in went 60 pounds of mangoes, and about a gallon and a half of fresh mango puree, to 4 barrels (about 8 kegs) of Carolina Blonde. The tasty result will be on tap this Friday at ourpub (opens 11am) and tasting room(opens 4pm) only . . . with only 8 kegs there’s not enough to send out in the market. And I’ve tasted it; it won’t be around long anyway.

Come try this great idea if you can — while you can.