How Suzie Ford works her magic at NoDa Brewing Company
When the beer is already flowing at 8:30 a.m., you know you’re in for a special morning.
On Sept. 2, Suzie Ford, co-founder and co-owner of Charlotte’s own NoDa Brewing, poured beers and dropped knowledge at the monthly CreativeMornings/Charlotte meeting at Warehouse 242. Speaking on the topic of “Magic,” Ford shared her story of how she and her husband, Todd, helped establish the Charlotte brewery scene and the challenges involved with creating … and then surviving … success.
Thanks to the Charlotte Star Room, you can watch the video of her 20-minute talk here:
Like any great brewer, Suzie truly stirred the pot, exciting the CreativeMornings crowd and generating more questions than she had time to address. So, she agreed to answer a few more here, including whether she thinks there’s a Charlotte beer “bubble,” the importance of the Craft Freedom movement and what she’s drinking when she’s not drinking NoDa.
Want to hear more insight from Suzie — and enjoy the last keg of NoDa’s CreativeMornings-inspired Morning Muse Coffee IPA? Join us for the CM/C5 “After Party” Wednesday, Sept. 14 We’ll raise a glass (or two), take a private tour and continue our discussion about magic. It’s free, but there are a limited number of tickets available. RSVP here!
Why was Charlotte a great place to start a brewery?
“It’s the people. They embrace local and opened their arms and hearts to us when we started. With being a ‘foodie town’ as well, Charlotteans have a great palate and understand craft beer’s complexity.”
Is there a brewery “bubble?” What kinds of challenges does the influx of new breweries make on NoDa and the Charlotte beer scene?
“I believe there is a bubble and we are getting very close. Even though Charlotte has a large population, there are still only so many tap handles to capture and shelf space in stores.
“The challenge for any brewery — especially a new brewery — is to make good, consistent beer. We just have to keep true to ourselves and not worry about others.”
What’s your favorite NoDa beer experiment? Which one didn’t work as well?
“Honestly, not just saying this, probably the Morning Muse Coffee IPA, the beer we created for the CreativeMornings/Charlotte meeting. I had never had a coffee IPA before — I’m not really an IPA fan — but, thought it sounded fun and tasty, plus it fit the theme for Creative Mornings. I just had no clue how awesome it would be.
“Thankfully we haven’t really had any bombs or beers that didn’t work so well. All of our beers have been popular and someone’s favorite beer. I equate it to a bad movie, even “Ishtar” (remember that?) was probably someone’s favorite movie. That’s what I love about beer. It brings people together and there’s something for everyone.”
Tell us more about Craft Freedom. Why is it important to Charlotte breweries?
“Craft Freedom is not only important to Charlotte breweries, it’s important to the entire state. There’s a law in place that says at 25,000 barrels (an arbitrary number), breweries are no longer allowed to self distribute their beer. At that level of sales volume, they have to hire a middleman/distributor to do this, thus laying off their entire sales and delivery force. In our case, that’s 12 people currently.
“If this were to happen to us, the distributor not only begins selling and delivering our product over the 25,000 (barrels), but they take over ALL sales and distribution back to barrel one. Everything we have built will be turned over to them at around a 30 percent discounted price and it’s added to their portfolio of 250+ other brands. Who are they going to decide to sell? This isn’t a beer issue, this is a small business/commerce issue, it just happens to be beer right now. The state should not regulate at what point you hire a distributor. It’s a business decision. You can learn more about it at CraftFreedom.org.
If you’re not drinking a NoDa brew, what Charlotte beers do you drink?
“My go-to is OMB’s Captain Jack when I’m not drinking NoDa and even though this isn’t a Charlotte beer, I love RJ Rocker’s Son of Peach from South Carolina.”
Photos: Courtesy of NoDa Brewing Company; Heather Liebler
Video: Charlotte Star Room
This story was originally published September 12, 2016 at 12:02 AM with the headline "How Suzie Ford works her magic at NoDa Brewing Company."