Bittersweet Farm Brewery embodies the microbrewery concept.
Hop Yard’s brewery in Franklin is housed inside a converted school bus.
Dustin Wood launched the business in late 2022 with co-owners Josh Youngs, Sheri Youngs, and Josh’s sister Jessica.
“I’m a partner (at a local brewery) and I met them because they were starting a hop yard,” said Wood, who lives in Franklin. “This was probably seven or eight years ago, we had a hop yard and we used to help each other out with picking hops and farming, and when I left[the brewery]When we contacted them, they were still growing hops, but they were in the same situation as five years ago and said, “This is great, but what’s the next step?” So I went to them with an interest in starting another brewery. That was at the end of 2022. ”
Bittersweet products are produced in Franklin and there are plans to expand, Wood said.
“Right now, we don’t have a taproom. It’s a bus right now,” he said. “We will soon have a canning machine, so we can can beer and sell it to stores and sell kegs to bars, but our main business is buses to events. We are dismantling old school buses. I repainted it and added a few things.
“We hope to grow enough to build an actual brick and mortar taproom,” Wood continued. “Where we are has been home to families for several generations and was a dairy farm. We want to maintain that character. I think people, especially families, really enjoy that environment. Perhaps in the spring, when the beer bus rolls out for events, we’ll be serving beer outside the brewery and have an outdoor taproom.”
Wood said Bittersweet is focused on quality.
“We’ve brewed three times so far, so we don’t know our brewing identity yet, but part of being a New York farm brewery is that we have to use 100% New York ingredients. That theme I will follow,” he said. “And my personal quirk is that I’m a plant geek, so I try to use other plants and herbs and other things that can create unique characteristics in the beer.
“We brewed pale ales, IPAs and dark lagers,” Wood continued. “I don’t know if the trends around the world are going back to light beer, but it seems like a lot of people like light beer. That’s what we’re trying to do, we’re just gonna keep it simple.” What customers want. ”
Wood said the initial response to Bittersweet has been positive, although he’s still getting a feel for the company’s vendor-style setup.
“We’ve only had two offerings so feedback is limited, but people seem to really enjoy our lightest beer, which is a traditional hoppy pale ale,” he said. Ta. “Both (events) were held in Sydney, one at Gavins and one at Austrac.”
Wood said Bittersweet Farm Brewery has booked events and is “actively promoting a Halloween event.”
He said the bus could be used for various events targeting local customers.
“We’re going to try to hit western Delaware County,” he said. “So, Franklin, Walton, Derry, Deposit, Hancock, everywhere from there. Our hope is that the beer bus will generate year-round interest. If you need a beer vendor at a ski resort, we’d love to go there. We want to do weddings and private parties and canned food will be important to our business because we want to generate local interest in our products and get our name out there. Because I want you to know.”
Beyond good beer, Wood said he and his partners want to deepen the connection between people and the process.
“We love growing hops and we love experimenting with things,” he said. “Brewing beer is an experiment every time. Even if you want to do something consistently, it’s great to have the science right in front of you. And we love brewing beer.
“The other thing is, if you’ve done this before, you like the social interaction,” Wood continued. “You meet a lot of different people and discover things you didn’t know[about the area]. I grew up around here, and there’s always things around you that you didn’t know, and that’s always fun.”
For more information or to schedule a brewery bus at your event, search for “Bittersweet Farm Brewery” on Facebook or follow @bittersweetfarmbrewery on Instagram.
