,Background – Fonta Flora Brewery
Drive about 45 miles due east of Asheville or about 80 miles northwest of Charlotte to find this 3.5-barrel boutique brewery on a quiet corner in the mountain town of Morganton. Brewmaster Todd Boera with business partners David and Mark Bennett opened Fonta Flora Brewery in October 2013.
Boera, who started in the industry as an assistant brewer at nearby Catawba Brewing Company, uses wild ingredients whenever possible. He also relies on the surrounding farms for the fruits and vegetables he uses to create his unique beers. The brewery was named after an African-American farming village that was flooded when nearby Lake James was created.
Experience
We visited Fonta Flora Brewery on a pleasant rainy day. We were greeted by Todd who actually took our picture in front of his pride and joy. It’s a cozy little brew pub with a nice wooden bar and a few tables in the front and a back room with a communal table and shuffleboard. Barrels of aging beer and the brewing equipment are in plain sight of the tasting room. The tap handles appealed to me as they were little metal leaves of different varieties to fit right into that Blue Ridge Carolina Forest feeling.
They had several of their own beers on tap, all of them very interesting and creative. We enjoyed Saisons (From Scratch), IPA’s (Pulp Free), and the smoked Broken English. A bottle of Razzmatazz Vol 2 Barrel aged black raspberry sour beer also called to us and was delicious. We left with a bottle of a GABF winner, Beets, Rhymes and Life. They also have a few snacks available, we opted for the cheese board which included locally-sourced cheeses, salami and crackers.
In a recent announcement, Fonta Flora will soon be growing their own fruits and vegetables for the brewery. The brewery will join with the Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina to purchase the Whippoorwill Dairy Farm, a 48-acre plot near Lake James State Park, just three miles from the original Fonta Flora farm settlement. The conservancy will donate 40 acres to the state park, while Fonta Flora Brewery will use eight acres for a true farmhouse brewery, with hops, grains, vegetable gardens, and orchards. The existing buildings of stacked river rock will house the brewery, a barrel-conditioning facility, and a tasting room. Visitors will be able to taste the beer with the Pisgah National Forest as the backdrop.
There is no nearby lodging but there are a few hotels in the small town.
