The transformation of Hi-Wire Brewing’s South Slope specialty brewery is finally complete.
Over the last year, the North Carolina-based company has worked to rededicate its original brewing space in downtown Asheville to the exclusive production of wild and sour beer.
And this Saturday, the company will officially launch its new experimental beer program with the release of two bottle conditioned beers: a 7.65 percent ABV Sour Blonde Ale aged in American oak red wine barrels and a 6.75 percent ABV Wild Rye IPA.
In an interview with Brewbound, Hi-Wire co-owner Chris Frosaker said capacity constraints and increasing demand for the brewery’s more traditional beer styles led the company to invest in a new, 27,000 sq. ft. brewery and taproom about a year ago. When that facility opened last summer, Hi-Wire’s owners began discussing ways to reimagine the original space.
“We thought it was important that we still made beer over there,” Frosaker said. “With two distinct locations, we thought it was the perfect environment to start a sour program.”
Confining its sour and wild ale program to the South Slope facility will allow the brewery to limit the risk of unintentionally infecting clean beer, Frosaker said.
The cost to launch Hi-Wire’s sour and wild program was about $40,000, which was used to upgrade brewing equipment as well as to purchase wooden barrels and a foeder, Frosaker said.
“It’s a very expensive endeavor for a small brewery to make,” he said. “One, you’re brewing beers that if you’re doing things right, they aren’t going to see light of day six months to a year. You have ingredient costs. You have to pay your brewer. You have to buy new equipment.”
The South Slope facility has the capability to produce about 800 to 1,000 barrels of sour and wild beer, he added.
“In 2017, we’ll probably put out half of that,” Frosaker said, adding that he wants to start slow, learn and build buzz for the program.
As part of its new sour and wild program, Hi-Wire will also introduce a year-long, limited-membership V.I.P. Beer Club. For $200 a year, the 100 members in the club will receive five club-exclusive sour and wild ales. Those beers must be picked up at South Slope in North Carolina. Other perks include one-time barrel tastings of in-progress sour beers, the opportunity to buy bottles and cans of all Hi-Wire releases a day prior to their public releases and more.
Frosaker credited head brewer Luke Holgate and specialty brewer Jonathan Parks for the development of Hi-Wire’s sour and wild program.
“This has always been a dream of his,” Frosaker said of Holgate. “But we never had the space or time to do it.”
Beers from Hi-Wire’s wild and sour program will also be released across its four-state distribution footprint — North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia — beginning Monday, November 21. The company anticipates selling about 50 percent of its sour and wild beers through the taproom.
“We want people to come into our taprooms to experience these beers,” Frosaker said. “This is kind of a growing program with a life of its own. There are no boundaries. Really it’s going to be what those guys can come up with at the time, and hopefully 10 months to a year later, it’s going in the right direction.”
Meanwhile, Hi-Wire anticipates selling about 10,000 barrels of beer from its “Big Top” production facility in 2016, Frosaker said. The company is forecasting growth of about 75 percent next year. The production brewery has a fermentation capacity of about 14,000 barrels, and Frosaker said there are plans to grow to 17,000 barrels in 2017.
Hi-Wire joins a growing list of craft outfits — including notable companies like Two Roads Brewing, Sweetwater Brewing, Wicked Weed Brewing, Upland Brewing and Destihl Brewery, among others — that have recently invested in brewery locations dedicated to the production of sour beer.