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Today's Front Burner column in Extra (below) is all about the new craft beers being brewed at Awful Arthur's at Towers Mall. Have any of you tried the beer yet? If so, what did YOU think?

The New Hometown Brews

By Lindsey Nair

About two years ago, Patrick Kennerly of the Star City Brewers Guild said it would take someone "with know-how and business savvy and experience" to open a successful microbrewery in Roanoke.

Our city hasn't had a brewery since the Blue Muse and the Lone Star Cantina & Brewery in downtown Roanoke both failed in quick succession during the early '90s.

Now, someone with a heap of business savvy, if not the brew pub experience, is concocting that long-awaited product: a brew that Roanokers can call our own. Todd Lancaster, 45, owner of four Awful Arthur's restaurants in Roanoke, Salem and Blacksburg, has opened a brewery at his Towers Mall location and is already serving five craft beers made on site.

"It's sort of been sitting in my box of things to do all these years," Lancaster said, "and Sean was the nudge. Everybody has to have a nudge."

"Sean" is the new brewmaster -- Lancaster's buddy, Sean Osborne, 28, of Troutville. A former insurance auditor, Osborne has been brewing at home for about three years. Now he has his dream job.

But he and Lancaster knew it would take much more than a little home brewing experience to launch a brew pub, so they called in an expert -- a scruffy, twinkly-eyed consultant named Ben Pierson, who has made a living helping to launch nine breweries across the country.

"You gotta love it," Pierson said recently as he gestured to a row of shining fermentation tanks in the brewery at Awful Arthur's. "You gotta hug the tanks. The Germans taught me that."

"We hug them when we come in," Lancaster replied. "Seriously."

Familiar equipment

On a recent Thursday, assistant restaurant manager Travis Sorrells hefted 55-pound bags of malted barley up to Osborne, who stood on a stainless steel platform about 5 feet off the floor. Pierson, 58, of Greenville, S.C., measured out hops pellets into a clear plastic container.

Osborne was positioned between two massive copper tanks, the kettle and the mash tun. Osborne poured 400 pounds of grain into the hot water in the mash tun. Later, after it had steeped, he strained off the liquid into the other copper tank, the kettle, and added hops and seasonings for flavor and aroma.

Customers sitting at the long side of the bar can watch the entire process through a glass window behind the bar. The kettle and mash tun, collectively known as the "brewhouse," sit in what was once a big walk-in cooler.

Osborne probably wouldn't have been able to make this beer without Pierson's guidance. Making five or 10 gallons of home brew is apples to the oranges of huge, 30-gallon tanks.

"You can have the best beer in the world at home," Pierson said. "It's a quantum leap to transfer from barrels to these tanks."

Fortunately, Pierson could tell Lancaster and Osborne how to design the layout of the brewery and develop recipes for the beer. In addition, he happened to know this equipment especially well.

He first came into contact with what is now the Awful Arthur's brewing system back in the early '90s, when he ran Wolfgang's in Ofallon, Ill.

That was the equipment's second home. It was installed brand-new in the Back Alley Brewery in California in the mid-'80s.

When Wolfgang's closed, a friend of Pierson's bought the brewing system and mothballed it for 12 years. When he was finally ready to open a pub, Pierson reconditioned the equipment. But the friend ran out of money before his brewery got off the ground.

The equipment went up for sale and Osborne caught wind of it.

It was the spring of 2007, and he and Lancaster had been talking about starting a brewery for several months already.

"I was like, 'Are we really going to buy this equipment?' " Lancaster said. "There's no turning back after that. I mean, I could buy a whole new house for the cost of this equipment."

They went ahead and purchased it anyway -- the brewhouse, six fermenting tanks and seven serving tanks -- even before they knew Les Cheveaux salon was not going to renew its lease next door.

When the salon vacated the storefront beside Awful Arthur's, everything suddenly fell into place.

2nd brewery starting

The microbrews at Awful Arthur's were officially unveiled last week, but several have been on tap there for weeks. They are selling for $2.50 and $3 a pint.

But although customers have been ordering the white wheat ale, American pale ale, India pale ale, amber and winter warmer porter, the beers still don't have an official name.

Don't expect it to have anything at all to do with Awful Arthur's.

"Someday, our plan is to split this thing off and let it have wheels of its own," Lancaster said.

At this writing, a second brewery in Roanoke is about to start brewing and selling beer. But Roanoke Railhouse Brewery, on McClanahan Avenue, will not have a restaurant attached.

If his brewery is a success, Lancaster would like to be able to sell his beer to other restaurants around Roanoke and beyond, something that might be difficult if it's named Awful Arthur's beer and competing restaurants are on the purchasing end.

Conversely, if the brewery concept does not fly for some reason, it won't drag the restaurants down with it.

Lancaster knows firsthand the challenges of running restaurants, particularly in these harsh economic times. His strategy with the brewery was to know all of his costs up front to avoid surprises midway through the project.

One mild surprise did come when he and Osborne realized they were starting a brew pub in the midst of a worldwide hops crisis. Some small-time brewers have had difficulty finding and affording the hops they need because of a serious shortage. The shortage has been attributed to multiple factors, including bad weather in Europe and the rush to produce more corn for alternative fuel sources.

Pierson earned his consulting fees yet again at that point, altering the recipes with substitutions for hard-to-find hops. He also advised Lancaster to purchase as many hops as he could all at once in case the shortage gets worse in the future.

Lancaster estimated that his first order of hops, which should last the year, cost him about $15,000.

"I'm an inventory freak," he said. "I hate having inventory on hand that I'm not using, but that's what we did."

He and Osborne have tossed around a few names for the brewery itself, but they aren't ready to announce one just yet. As for each beer, those must be named too. Lancaster has partnered with K92 for a naming contest that allows listeners to text in their name proposals for the individual styles of beer. The winning name will go on the pilsner.

"We are hoping that we get a really wide range of responses," Lancaster said.

Osborne, who Pierson called "a great student," is getting a feel for working in what his mentor refers to as a "living laboratory."

"The ratios, all of that stuff changes, and it doesn't translate into what you think it should," Osborne said.

He said even though October is over, he would like to make an Oktoberfest beer to sell in November. He plans to add seasonal brews to the tap a couple of times a year.

Feedback from customers has been generally positive, Lancaster said. And if one particular beer is not popular with the clientele, there's no saying it's got to stay on tap.

"It's got to be good," he said. "The recipes are not engraved in stone anywhere. And that's what Sean is anxious to hear about."

Taste test

Roanoke Times “Good Libations” columnist Gordon Kendall had a tasting of Awful Arthur’s new microbrews. Here’s what he had to say about each one, along with his rating of each beer on a scale of 1 to 5.

White Wheat Ale — Barley and wheat malt spiced with coriander, chamomile and orange zest. Light-bodied and refreshing. Comparable to Blue Moon Belgian White. Gordon’s take: “They didn’t overuse the spices. This is well-made for the style.” His rating: 4

American Pale Ale (APA) — Medium-bodied, light copper colored beer. Made with U.S.-grown barley and caramel malts with domestically grown hops and California yeast. Gordon’s take: “It has a dry hoppiness on the finish. Lots of people would like this [but] this is the kind of beer you could drink all night and not remember what you drank.” His rating: 3

India Pale Ale (IPA) — Full-bodied, malty and heavily hopped. Made with two row barley, British crystal and chocolate malt and East Kent Goldings hops. Has a long, dry hop finish. Gordon’s take: “Lots of hop bitterness. It’s bracing, with lots of flavor. It really wakes up your palate.” His rating: 4.5

Amber Ale — Full-bodied amber-colored beer with a nice balance among the malt sweetness, rich caramel flavor and the dry hop bitterness and aroma. Gordon’s take: “Nice, malty rich flavor balanced by just the right amount of hops. Light and refreshing.” His rating: 4

Winter Warmer Porter — Two row barley, chocolate, caramel and black malts make a rich, dark ale with big chocolate, coffee and nut flavors. At 8.5 percent alcohol, it packs the biggest punch of the bunch. Gordon’s take: “It has lots of chocolate and coffee notes. You don’t really taste the alcohol. If you had a big meal, this would be good by itself as a dessert.” His rating: 5

Rate 'em yourself Have you tried the new beer at Awful Arthur's? How was it?