4150 Sycamore Dairy Road
Fayetteville, NC 28303
910-867-9223
E-mail: gm@themashhouse.com
Website: http://www.themashhouse.com
Hours: Monday–Thursday, 4 P.M.– midnight; Friday, 4 P.M.–2 A.M.; Saturday, noon–2 A.M.; Sunday, noon–midnight
General manager: Jennifer Washburn
Brewmaster: Zach Hart
Opened: 2000
Regular beer lineup: Natural Blonde, Hefeweizen, Irish Red, India Pale Ale, Brown Porter, Stout
Seasonals: Seasonals and fruit beers rotated
Award: 2001 GABF Silver Medal for “Hoppy Hour IPA”
The Mash House is a member of the Rocky Top Hospitality group, a small North Carolina–based chain owned by Dean Ogan, who was named the 2011 Restaurateur of the Year by the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association. Back in 2000, Ogan created The Mash House Brewery & Chophouse in Fayetteville as a cross between fine and casual dining. The menu ranges from gourmet fusion to burgers and sandwiches. The Mash House uses as many North Carolina–grown products as possible and consistently ranks among the best restaurants in Fayetteville.
A grain silo at The Mash House Brewery & Chophouse
Brewer Zach Hart is a native of Texas. He began brewing in his backyard and soon found himself volunteering at Big Horn Brewery in Arlington and wondering if making beer was what he wanted to do with his life. After getting his feet under him, he attended the University of California–Davis. He subsequently graduated with a degree in brewing science and engineering and received an offer to brew at a large-scale brewery in Chicago. He turned it down in favor of a job in Fayetteville at a startup called Cross Creek Brewing Company—now The Mash House—where he was given the exciting opportunity of beginning with a blank slate, making all of his own recipes from scratch. Soon afterward, he was rewarded for his decision when he received a Silver Medal at the GABF in one of the most highly populated, and thus difficult, categories: IPA.
Hart brings an eye for quality and creativity to The Mash House, creating a wide array of beers ranging from classic styles to experimental seasonals and fruit beers. Recently, The Mash House added a line of barrel-aged beers, including an imperial stout aged in Jack Daniel’s barrels.
Growlers of award-winning Mash House beer
It might seem silly, but buying beer isn’t as easy as just picking a bottle off a shelf. Like any other perishable product, beer can go bad. Unpasteurized craft beer (i.e., most of it) has a shelf life of about 90 days and should be kept cold at all times. Unfortunately, due to a lack of shelf space, most beer stores—even the really great ones—keep beer at room temperature, which can severely shorten its life span.
Here are some quick guidelines for making sure the beer you buy is (almost) always awesome:
1. Check for dates on bottles, and make sure you’re buying something less than 90 days old. Some high-alcohol beers (over 6 percent), especially dark beers, can age exceptionally well. But as a general rule, beer should be consumed soon after it’s made. Hop character diminishes over time, so be sure to buy any hoppy beer as fresh as possible.
2. Never buy beer that has been sitting in direct sunlight. Sunlight (and many fluorescent lights) can cause a photochemical reaction in beer that creates an aroma like skunk urine. Professional tasters call such beer “lightstruck,” but almost everybody else calls it “skunky.” Clear bottles and green bottles allow beer to become lightstruck in a matter of minutes. Brown bottles are more protective, but prolonged exposure can still cause damage to beer.
3. If you’re unsure how old a beer is, hold the bottle up to the light and see what the beer looks like. If it contains flakes or large chunks, the bottle is probably old. Over time, proteins and calcium settle out of the beer and create unsightly flakes in the bottom of the bottle that are fairly easy to stir up. Some beers are meant to be hazy, and some are bottle-conditioned and contain yeast. Yeast should look like a fine dust in the bottom of the bottle.
4. Check the area around the bottle cap for rust or lines of yeast. When beer is bottled, foam pours down the side of the bottle, and a cap is placed on top. A bottle that hasn’t been well rinsed may have yeast or beer residue around the crown that can grow mold or bacteria, which in turn can infect the bottle through the seal of the cap and create unpleasant flavors. If bottles have been stored in a moist environment after bottling, caps can sometimes rust, leaving rust around the lips of the bottles.
5. Check the fill level in bottles. Bottling machines leave a wide variance in fill levels, but beer should always be inside the neck of the bottle to some degree. Exceptionally low fills can be dangerous because of built-up pressure within the necks of bottles, or it can be a sign of a poor cap seal, which means that the beer has either leaked or evaporated from within the bottles, and that the remaining beer is probably sour or infected.
Beers on the shelf at a well-stocked bottle shop
Huske Hardware House in Fayetteville
