5907 Triangle Drive
Raleigh, NC 27617
919-782-2099
E-mail: info@rothbrewing.com
Website: http://www.rothbrewing.com
Hours: Monday–Saturday, 4 P.M.–10 P.M.
Tours: Thursday–Saturday at 5 P.M., 7 P.M., and 9 P.M.
Owners: Ryan and Eric Roth
Head Brewer: Eric Roth
Opened: 2010
Regular beer lineup: Raleigh Red, FoeHammer Barleywine, Dark Construct
Seasonals: Forgotten Hollow Cinnamon Porter, Mi Mei Honey Plum Hefeweizen, Sex Viking Dunkelweiss
Roth Brewing Company holds the distinction of being North Carolina’s first nanobrewery.
How small is it? Its kettle makes just two barrels of beer per batch, and its mash tun is so tiny that it looks like something intended for a restaurant kitchen, not something that creates dozens upon dozens of kegs of beer each month for a commercial brewery. Roth has four-barrel fermenters that stand about as tall as the Roth brothers themselves. In order to fill the fermenters, Roth needs to brew twice. Normally, it does this in one day. In all, Roth brewed over 200 times in its first year of operation. And at the end, it made as much beer as some larger North Carolina craft breweries do in a week. It’s a tough business model, but Roth is turning it into a success.
The brewhouse and fermentation operation at Roth Brewing Company
The company is owned and operated by the Roth brothers, Ryan (the CEO) and Eric (the head brewer). They started the brewery almost on a whim. Their first foray into homebrewing was in April 2008, and they were instantly hooked. By December of that year, they had formed their company and were working full speed toward starting a brewery.
“We were probably the least-prepared people to start a brewery ever,” jokes Ryan Roth. “We’ve never worked at a brewery before, we never knew anybody that worked in a brewery, never owned a business, and nobody in our family ever owned a business. Without the resources available online via the SBA and the plethora of books available, we wouldn’t be here right now. If we had tried to do this 25 years ago, it would have been a different story.”
Ryan’s background is in engineering. After graduating from North Carolina State University, he started working in a naval shipyard in Virginia, doing submarine repair for the Department of Defense. But he was miserable at his job. “There was no room for creative engineering,” he says. “You can’t really try something out or do something new. If you make a mistake when you’re repairing a submarine, people can die. You do things by the book.”
Ryan Roth of Roth Brewing Company
A brewery, however, gave him room to stretch his wings. “By this point, I guarantee that you could put any size brewhouse into that space and we could make it work.”
Eric Roth was, at the time of this writing, still in school at N.C. State, wrapping up a degree in agriculture business management. He plans to graduate in the spring of 2012.
The brothers credit their small-sized operation for their success, saying they essentially interned at their own brewery. They had room for error. “At worst,” says Ryan, “we dump two barrels of beer. We haven’t done that in a really long time, and I don’t think we will again.”
The brewery is tucked away among tech companies in the northern end of Research Triangle Park—technically North Raleigh. It sits back off International Drive at the end of a parking lot in a metal garage. Once patrons get inside, though, it stops being part of an industrial park and looks a lot more like a combination pub and party pad.
Roth’s taproom is small but inviting. As visitors walk in the door, the first things they see are low-slung couches surrounding a coffee table, an old box television, and a vintage video game system. A few tables dot the floor between the couches and the bar. The room is dark, decorated in black and red. The Roth brothers are friendly young guys who have a penchant for hard rock, role-playing games, and Vikings. They like to have fun, and their taproom shows it.
The brewery is tiny, and the low ceiling in the space makes it look even smaller. Roth’s two-barrel brewhouse and four-barrel fermenters fit into a space about the same size as the taproom—just a few hundred square feet. The cold room stretches in back of the fermenters, and kegs line the walls. A workbench sitting kitty-corner to the brewhouse showcases the brothers’ woodworking—they make their own tap handles out of ax handles that they drill, sand, and paint on the premises. It all fits into a space about twice the size of a two-car garage.
The Roth brothers don’t plan on staying small forever. They want their brewery to last. They are proud to have given it their last name and talk about it being around for years to come. They plan to expand in 2012, right in time for Eric to finish his degree and be able to devote himself full-time to the brewery. They hope to have a much larger brewhouse with bigger—and more—fermenters, which will mean a lot more beer and a lot more fun.
• When it happens: April
• Where it happens: Moore Square in downtown Raleigh
• Ticket prices: Around $40 for a regular ticket or $75 for VIP admission
• Features: Exhibiting breweries from around the country, along with most North Carolina breweries; live music; food; educational sessions led by the staff and founders of All About Beer magazine
• Notes: Arrive early to find a place to park, and be prepared to walk a good distance to the festival.
A rep from Natty Greene’s talks to a festival-goer.
Boylan Bridge Brewpub in front of Raleigh’s skyline
The bar at Boylan Bridge Brewpub
