Matt Russ
The work of growing hops couldn’t be more different from running a coffee shop, but Matt Russ, who with his wife, Ann, owns and operates Tate Street Coffee House and a farm in Ashe County, sees a common thread.
“As with this business, where we were able to provide a good cup of coffee for the community, I wanted to play a hand in providing a good glass of beer as well,” he said during an interview at the coffee house.
He noticed microbreweries popping up all over the state and saw an opportunity. Almost no one in the state was growing hops, one of the building blocks of beer. Why not provide locally grown ingredients for locally brewed beers?
A little more than two years ago, he ordered and planted 10 different varieties. The Cascade, Chinook and Nugget hops thrived. Although that first year didn’t produce much – only a few handfuls of the flower cones used in beer – it was enough for Matt to take a sample to Natty Greene’s, the Greensboro-based pub and brewery. The brew master encouraged Matt to bring him all the hops he could.
Last summer, Matt was able to deliver a few pounds, enough for a small batch beer, Piedmont Organic Ale, which lasted about six weeks on tap at the downtown bar. This year, the beer should be ready by the end of August.
“It’s a lot of work, but it’s all worth it when you sit at the bar with a glass of beer that you helped to make,” he said. “It’s even better when the person next to you is ordering a second one and talking about how much they like it.”
This year, Matt added two more rows of the plants that climb like morning glories. Now there are seven rows, 10 feet apart, each row about 80 feet long. Twine staked to the ground leads the vines onto wire trellises. While he enjoys farming, he isn’t sure he has the necessary toughness: He couldn’t bring himself to kill the daisies that grew around his hops.
Working on the farm provides a good contrast with working on Tate Street, where he keeps up an almost constant patter with customers and employees. The two jobs are like yin and yang, or, well, coffee and beer.
“This is very rewarding and very social,” he says, looking around the bustling, buzzing coffee house. “I go up to the farm, and it’s just me and the dirt. I can’t talk the dirt out of the hole, y’know? There’s no talking. I listen to the birds in the trees. That gives me a nice sense of balance. I’m really lucky to get both.”
