Photo by Frank Couch.
Red Hills Brewing Company
Eric Baumann walks in front of stainless steel tanks in December inside Red Hills Brewing Company in Homewood.
As equipment rolls in, Joe Pilleteri is waiting on one thing to open Red Hills Brewing Company — the brewery’s alcohol license.
Once he has that in hand, Pilleteri and master brewer Eric Baumann can put their equipment to use. For now, they have started brewing small-scale test batches of what they may one day serve at Red Hills. Their main goal is to provide a place where people can drink and enjoy themselves, but still drive home safely at the end of the night.
“That’s our biggest focus on all the beers that we’re doing as our year-round beers, is that you’re able to sit down and have a session with your friends for a few hours, drinking more than two beers and being OK,” Baumann said.
While high-gravity — or high alcohol — beers are popular, Baumann said, some of the “shiny newness” of those beers is wearing off.
“I mean, everybody wants their alcohol, and they want the bang for their buck, but you want to be able to sit down and not be hammered,” he said.
Pilleteri said when it comes to alcohol content, they will stay true to the style of beer they are brewing. An India Pale Ale (IPA) might be 6 or 7 percent alcohol because that is what the style calls for. A hefeweizen, or wheat beer, is more delicate and means the alcohol content should be kept closer to 4 or 5 percent alcohol.
“I think drinkability is the big thing for both of us,” Pilleteri said. “Even if you’re going to do a high volume alcohol beer, it’s got to be drinkable. We could make a 30 percent alcohol beer, but it’s going to taste like rocket fuel.”
One hurdle for a fledgling brewery is obtaining the right ingredients. For example, there are a finite number of hops at any given time, Pilleteri said, while the number of breweries continues to grow. Most breweries get their hops on a contract basis, but hop growers usually don’t want to establish a contract in a brewery’s first year or two, Pilleteri said, and it can be difficult to get the exact hop you need.
“The first year is a little rough,” Pilleteri said.
Some hop growers will offer similar hops if they’re out of a particular kind, but Pilleteri said it’s always a bit of a risk. The beer could change completely, or there could be no difference in taste.
“In a start-up, it’s harder to get in the hop craze and get a bunch of funky hops,” Pilleteri said.
These limitations have led Pilleteri and Baumann to be selective in which style of beer they brew and led to some experimentation with different brews.
Baumann, a chef by trade and former assistant brewmaster at Avondale Brewing Company, hopes to keep the taproom interesting with small batch or limited release beers. IPAs at Red Hills, for example, will probably be quarterly.
“I want variety,” Baumann said. “I don’t want just one straight down the road, middle of the lane IPA just to say we do it.”
There are also opportunities for infusing beers or adding a nitrogen tap, which makes a creamier or smoother beer.
“It’s all with trial and error also,” Baumann said. “None of these breweries really have what they started with as their beers. Their beers have evolved and changed over time — that’s something we’ll be doing as well.”
By not focusing on high-gravity beers and opening in Homewood rather than downtown Birmingham, Pilleteri said he hopes the brewery will be a family-friendly place. They hope to create in-house sodas for kids who accompany their parents, and Pilleteri said the location makes it a little more convenient for families.
“I have two kids at home — I can’t get downtown all the time,” he said. “But I can make a trip to Homewood.”
Red Hills Brewing Company
WHERE: 2821 Central Ave.
ON THE WEB: redhillsbrewing.net and facebook.com/redhillsbrewing
