Matt Foster says he’s “laying low” this summer when it comes to Flyway Brewing Co., his downtown Little Rock “pico brewery” that first started serving beer to the public in October 2013.
His Free Range Brown Ale, long a mainstay on a tap handle at South on Main, is currently not on tap at the restaurant. But his Free Range and other brews will be available at special events throughout the remainder of the spring and summer, including a barley harvest party at the Dunbar Community Garden Project this Saturday night.
Why the slow down in production? Well, as Foster says, he’s got “a lot going on,” but the news is not quite ready for the public. “I can’t say a whole lot right now,” he says. Just know this: Flyway is working toward its first expansion.
That’s pretty big news for a brewery that grew out of Foster’s passion for homebrewing, which started when Foster began teaching English at Central High School. (He just completed his 12th year at the school.)
Foster moved from Asheville, North Carolina, to Little Rock, and back in Asheville he enjoyed what he and his friends called “good beer,” craft beers such as Highland Brewing Co.’s Gaelic Ale. “When I moved here, I continued to drink what I call ‘good beer’ — what I could get my hands on,” he says. “A friend of mine got married and asked me to be in the wedding, and I brewed my first batch of beer (a lager) for his bachelor party. That friend and I started brewing special occasion brews after that on a semi-regular basis, and in the last three or three and a half years, I’ve just gotten consumed by [beer brewing]. It’s a hobby gone crazy.”
Several years ago during a spring break in Asheville, Foster was visiting with old friends, drinking some of his homebrewed beer, and the conversation turned to whether the beer could find a niche in Little Rock. That was the very beginning of Flyway.
Over the course of about three years, Foster slowly grew Flyway from homebrewing to serving his beer at community events to today. “It sort of started grassroots and just grew,” Foster says of Flyway. “That’s the way I decided to do it.”
Beyond working on Flyway’s first expansion and serving beer at special events, Foster is also focused this summer on his work with the Arkansas Native Beer Project, an effort to create a 100 percent Arkansas-sourced beer. Foster is part of the collaborative endeavor with local community gardens, agronomist Jason Kelley of the University of Arkansas System’s Cooperative Extension Service and others. The group is in the process of harvesting the barley now, but small batches of a completely Arkansas grown, harvested, malted, mashed, boiled, brewed, hopped, fermented and carbonated beer could be available in the summer. (The upcoming barley harvest party at the Dunbar Community Garden Project this Saturday is part of the effort.)
“[The Arkansas Native Beer Project] is the big focus of the summer,” Foster says.
So, “laying low”? Not quite. Foster and Flyway have a lot going on.
For updates on Flyway Brewing Co. and where its beers will be available this summer, check out facebook.com/flywaybrewingcompany.