56 Commerce Street
Waynesville, NC 28786
E-mail: froglevelbrewing@gmail.com
Website: http://www.froglevelbrewing.com
Owner and brewmaster: Clark Williams
Opened:2011
Frog Level, says brewmaster and owner Clark Williams, is a reference to the frost line on the mountains that rise around Waynesville. Above the frost line, frogs can’t live, but below the line, they thrive. In the bottom of the valley along the banks of Richard Creek, where Frog Level Brewing Company makes its home, it must be very froggy indeed.
Another story says that the Frog Level section of Waynesville is so nicknamed because of historical flooding. It’s a part of this small mountain town that’s been going through a resurgence, and Williams is in the middle of it with his brewery.
Williams is a retired marine who has his priorities in line. “Beyond my wife and family,” he says, “I have two loves—this town and this state. I’ll do whatever I can to help the things I love. If having a brewery here means that five guys who have never been to Waynesville before come into town to try a beer, go next door and get a cup of coffee, and head down the street for a sandwich, well, that’s five guys that weren’t here before helping the community.”
The brewing system at Frog Level Brewing Company
Frog Level Brewing Company is a nanobrewery, and one of the state’s smallest. Williams brews on a system built out of half-barrel kegs, making 10 gallons of beer at a time. He brews twice a day, three days a week—an enormous amount of work for such a small amount of beer, but he’s happy about it. He came up with the idea while traveling with his wife on a vacation to New Mexico. “I kept coming across all of these small breweries,” he says. “Just really small places—though not this small—with guys working their butts off, but they were happy. When we came home, I realized, I’ve got to do this.”
The beautiful space he occupies in Waynesville—in the Frog Level section—once served as a carriage house and stable for the Vanderbilts from nearby Asheville. It’s a long, century-old building with rough, exposed bricks along one side and deep red walls and brightly polished timbers along the other. A high bar runs around the brewery toward the back of the building and empties onto a large back deck that overlooks Richard Creek. The large pieces of art that span the walls and flow up into the space came from a local gallery that had to close. Williams couldn’t bear to see the community lose the business, so he offered up his wall space. The art adds to the comfortable atmosphere of the tasting room and shows the close connection between this brewery and the Frog Level community.
The long hallway leading from the street to the bar at Frog Level Brewing Company
