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Fueled by Hops: Arrowood Farms Brewery and Distillery Crafts Beer From the Ground Up

A farmhouse brewery

After moving to the Hudson Valley for my brewing internship at Sloop, it wasn’t long until I became hip to the entity of Arrowood Farms. My first experience was the quaint tasting room located in the town of New Paltz, but I eventually made my way to their farm and taproom after a lengthy hike at Minnewaska State Park.

As I entered the property through the rustic, wooden archway, I was greeted with an abundance of wildflowers and the sight of people enjoying themselves on a gorgeous piece of property – beyond that, rows of hop bines, plots of growing grain and some chickens clucking around in their pen.

Arrowood Farms is a true farm brewery and distillery in the sense that it proudly commits to sourcing local, New York-grown ingredients, with the intent of producing quality products. While they admit this path is a little more challenging at times, they find it to be more rewarding. “Beer is agricultural,” says Matt Schultze, head brewer. “I think somewhere [the industry] lost that message.” Jacob Meglio, co-founder and managing partner of Arrowood Farms, adds, “Yeah, everything in the brew process is a plant, aside from the yeast.”

The farmhouse brewery strives to reflect the terroir from which they operate while attempting to rebuild the local economy and give opportunity to farmers to remain on the land their families have lived on for generations.

Speaking of terroir… on the farm are multiple hives, which are sporadically extracted for honey, but Arrowood recognizes that doing it too often is selfish and will disrupt the hives. Jacob shares, “Going around to all the flowers within 20 miles, grabbing small amount of sugar from them, bringing them back to the bees, where they are fermenting it in the hive, which is an actual active ferment, then we’re taking that already fermented product, fermenting it again, and very often using it to condition our beer. Honey is the most terroir thing.” He finishes by saying, “It doesn’t get more meta than that.”

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