Red Hare Brewing Company is heading to the coast and opening their second brewery in Shallotte, North Carolina — just up river from Ocean Isle Beach. This new brewery will primarily focus on barrel aging and open fermentation, while serving as an experimentation station for the ever-increasing diversity of beer flavors and brewing processes. Red Hare Founder and Managing Partner, Roger Davis, and Bobby Thomas, Co-Founder and Head Brewer, were heavily influenced by a recent road trip to visit breweries on the coast of Oregon last year. “We saw what cool things you can do with open fermentation, coupled with a coastal climate and salty air — so Bobby and I set our sights on the Southern coast,” Davis shares. “We couldn’t be more excited to increase our presence and expand into North Carolina!”

New Brews from the Beach

Red Hare has been aging and experimenting with beers in barrels for some time now, but is running out of adequate space to do so in the Marietta facility. The new Red Hare brewery will be located in the 111-year-old former Coastal Drug Company building on the Shallotte river — providing plenty of space and an authentic environment for the development of new barrel aged and wild fermentation beers. Any beers brewed here will have taste characteristics that can’t be achieved inland. Red Hare will begin working with coolships (broad, open-top, flat vessels) that allow wild yeast to naturally ferment, cultivating truly unique styles of beer! Wild yeast is far less predictable than yeast grown in a lab, but Red Hare is excited to see what the coastal climate, native wild yeast, and naturally occurring bacteria does for their beers. “We can’t wait to start experimenting at this coastal location,” says Thomas. “With open fermentation and wild yeast in the mix, we can continue to bring unique craftsmanship to our line up!”