“What Is Your Favourite Brewery of the 12 months?” After we posted that query on Instagram a pair months in the past, we had no concept what to anticipate. We simply needed to listen to extra from all of you in regards to the breweries you really liked in 2022. We actually didn’t assume one identify—Fox Story Fermentation Undertaking—to pop up once more…and once more…and once more.
“Hmm, by no means heard of them,” I assumed to myself. So I did what all good journalists do these days.
I Googled them.
Think about my shock after I found Fox Story Fermentation had arrange store in San Jose, a mere forty-five-minute drive from me. So I reached out to co-founders Wendy Neff and Felipe Bravo and began planning a visit right down to the South Bay.
Which is why my spouse and I discovered ourselves tucked right into a tiny storefront on San Jose’s mainstrip the day earlier than Christmas Eve, sipping on beers like a golden ale with macadamia nuts conditioned on toasted coconut and pandan leaves. Or a saison with sweet cap mushrooms that smelled like maple syrup 🤷♀️ (belief us, it’s so cool).
And gorging down dishes like candy potatoes caressed with warmth from the oven and habanero peppers. Or a kimchi bowl brimming with black garlic white kimchi, heirloom black rice, combined salad greens, rainbow carrots, and watermelon and purple daikon radish.
“That is probably the most colourful desk I’ve ever seen,” my spouse gleefully remarked earlier than shoveling in a forkful of fermented cabbage.
As at all times, my spouse was proper.
But it surely wasn’t simply the beers and meals that exploded throughout a fantastical spectrum.
Spend any period of time speaking with Neff and Bravo and also you’re enrobed in a rainbow of richly hued ardour. Their frenetic power and creativeness permeate all the pieces from the air to the meals to the beer.
Stroll inside Fox Story’s tiny shotgun-style store and also you’ll be magically transported down a rabbit gap.
One you’ll wish to get misplaced in and possibly by no means depart.
Down the Rabbit Gap with Fox Story Fermentation
Nonetheless undecided what strolling into Fox Story Fermentation is like?
“We’ve been advised by a number of folks it looks like a tavern in Harry Potter,” laughs Neff. “It’s cozy, it’s house, it’s impressed by our own residence in quite a lot of methods.”
Stroll in and also you’ll instantly discover a beautiful wall mural by artist Brittni Paul with a cornucopia of produce erupting out of its story.
See, Neff unnoticed that Fox Story Fermentation can be magical. Contained in the brewery there’s an air that something can occur.
Or to place it extra succinctly, Neff and Bravo are “creating an setting the place tradition can develop,” in keeping with their tagline.
Which implies typical guidelines needn’t apply.
Fox Story Fermentation isn’t only a place making beer. Removed from it.
“We’re an all-inclusive brewery and meals cafe that makes use of native elements, helps the neighborhood, and is an area for everybody to come back in and be part of it,” says Bravo.
Over the 2 hours my spouse and I sat in Fox Story Fermentation, Neff and Bravo most likely knew no less than seventy-five % of the parents that got here in, giving them a hug or a excessive 5, saying hi there, and putting up a dialog.
“Versus your typical brewery that’s very chilly, industrial and large…we needed to create an area by which folks felt invited and in , secure, snug place the place they’ll loosen up,” says Neff. “We’re the antithesis in quite a lot of methods.”
As a substitute of being minimalist, “it’s maximalist,” jokes Neff.
As a result of at Fox Story Fermentation they’re massive on forming an area for all; massive on fantastical fermentations; massive on fomenting taste.
Sweet Cap Mushrooms, Lacto-Fermented Lemons, Hojicha
On Fox Story Fermentation’s tiny Blichmann 2.5-bbl electrical system* stuffed into the again nook, Bravo has been whipping up beguiling beers with elements like sweet cap mushrooms, lacto-fermented lemons, or hojicha.
For instance, a lightweight rice-based beer known as Head Area consists of these aforementioned lacto-fermented lemons, inexperienced tea, and domestically foraged leaves from a Ginkgo biloba tree within the neighborhood. “You have got tartness from the lemon rind, fruity aromatics from the jasmine inexperienced tea, and herbalism from the Gingko biloba,” says Bravo, noting that is his favourite beer he’s made this 12 months.
“We’re making an attempt to make use of all these elements to create one thing particular…to get folks to know we’re experimental, doing various things,” says Bravo.
With a background in engineering and math, Bravo has labored largely in large-scale manufacturing breweries. Most just lately as the previous manufacturing supervisor at Fort Level Beer Co., one among our favourite San Francisco breweries.
Since 2014, Bravo realized the ins and outs of iterating on the identical high-quality recipes and brewing processes, making mainly the identical 4 beers each week.
And whereas the current recipient of a brewing scholarship from The Michael James Jackson Basis for Brewing & Distilling loved this medical method, he additionally needed to insurgent a bit, studying to set free a few of his artistic passions.
Given the liberty to alter the faucet checklist at Fox Story Fermentation based mostly merely on what’s in season and what native producers have to supply, Bravo can let his creativeness as soon as once more run down the rabbit gap.
My spouse and I didn’t have the possibility to strive Head Area after we visited, however we discovered a slew of different enchanting tipples on faucet.
Like Fung Shui, a farmhouse ale aged on sweet cap mushrooms that magically smelled like maple syrup. Critically. You hear the phrase mushroom and count on savory, however in a Jedi thoughts trick, Fung Shui really has a really nice sweetness on the nostril.
“Upon studying the elements folks see mushrooms and assume, ‘I don’t like mushrooms,’” says Bravo. “Effectively, you don’t perceive that these are sweet caps which have a really maple, cinnamon, and candy aroma.”
However this beer is a shock inside a shock as a result of take that first sip and also you’ll be pleasantly stunned to search out that you simply’re not ingesting a jug of sap. “You odor that beer and it smells very candy and other people assume it’s going to be very candy…you then strive [the beer] and it’s very earthy, funky, and dry,” says Bravo. “It has all of the playfulness of a clear saison however smells very candy.”
If you’re in search of one thing a bit sweeter, strive Fake Paus, a bitter farmhouse ale with carbonic macerated pawpaw fruit hopped with Nelson Sauvin and Lachancea Thermotolerans.
That final mouthful is a saccharomyces yeast that creates lactic acid from the glucose within the wort, as Bravo defined it to me. “We don’t have to make use of lactobacillus, pediococcus, or brett to get these complicated bitter flavors as a result of we’re nonetheless doing one other stage of fermentation with the fruit to offer us that sourness from the fruit puree as an alternative.”
Mainly, Bravo takes the fruit, throws it right into a fermenter, seals it up with CO2 for a few months and lets it fully ferment by itself. “It’s simply getting bizarre in its personal pores and skin,” says Neff. “We’re getting this new taste out of the fruit by itself. You didn’t know a peach [for example] may style this manner, however you ferment it by itself for a few months and swiftly you may have this wild, funky, complicated taste that we get so as to add to create a very completely different beer.”
Which means in Fake Paux you style this tremendous tropical cocktail that punches you within the mouth with hues of ardour fruit, pomegranate, and dragon fruit.
The easy, straightlaced guidelines merely don’t apply at Fox Story Fermentation.
“The enjoyable half is deciding no matter guidelines had been made earlier than we’ve got no obligation to observe them and we are able to create our personal means of doing new issues,” says Neff. “We’re developing with issues we’ve by no means had earlier than. That is our means of doing it!”
Suffice it to say that if you step into Fox Story Fermentation, I assure you that by the point you step out you should have tasted one thing you’ve by no means tasted earlier than.
Whether or not that’s from sipping the beers or digging into the meals.
*Editor’s Word: in keeping with Bravo since they excessive gravity brew all their batches they really find yourself with nearer to a few barrels within the fermenter
Fermented Ratatouille, Avocado Toast, Black Garlic Kimchi
In the meantime within the kitchen, Neff oversees the fermented meals. Leveraging her background main the Superfoods program at Fb Headquarters, she creates dishes that engender exploration and nourishment. “I need folks to stroll away having tried one thing they’ve by no means tried earlier than and study one thing they might have by no means eaten earlier than,” she says.
For instance, an avocado toast. Ubiquitous, proper? Not at Fox Story Fermentation. One thing you assume you’ve seen in each type transforms below Neff’s wizardry.
Firebrand sourdough will get topped with California avocado: One will get pickled beets, Guindilla peppers, and sage cream. Whereas the opposite consists of cultured seed and a fermented ratatouille “chopenade.”
“It’s simply one among my favourite issues I’ve ever made,” says Neff, who takes tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, peppers, and basil from a Portuguese and Spanish household farm and ferments all of them collectively. “It turns into this very cool, colourful, wealthy, flavorful unfold,” she says. “These are flavors everybody is aware of however in a means they’ve by no means had.”
Equivalent to preserved lemons. One thing you’ve seen on nearly any menu inside the final ten years or so, proper?
Effectively, at Fox Story Fermentation, Neff takes this humble citrus past. She picks Meyer lemons from a pal’s tree and actually simply packs them with salt right into a fermenter for a strong month. “Preserved lemons are a really outdated dish. It’s a really outdated idea,” she says. “But it surely’s enjoyable to take them and discover new methods to make use of them.”
Like in beer! Keep in mind, you’ll discover these lacto-fermented Meyer lemons in Fox Story Fermentation’s Head Area botanical ale.
Or candy potatoes. A seemingly timid tuber will get sensationally spiked at Fox Story Fermentation.
A shock favourite dish after we visited, the “Roasted Combined Candy Potatoes” featured Georgia, Jet, Muraski, and Okinawan Purple Candy Potatoes from Borba Household Farms in Aromas, CA. Together with habanero peppers from Fox Story Fermentation Chef Jorge Adams’ personal yard fermented in sugar as an alternative of salt. A crunchy topping of Candy Cone cabbage and cipollini onions (additionally from Borba Household Farms) foil an unctuous sage crema and parsley oil beneath.
All the things comes collectively in such concord. “So so so mmm mmm good,” I wrote in my notes. Creamy, plush, candy spuds gave solution to snappy, zippy sauerkraut with a barely numbing tingle from the peppers. All made for an intriguing distinction in flavors and textures.
And don’t depart Fox Story Fermentation with out ordering “The Full Unfold.” It’s fairly merely the final word Fox Story tasting expertise. Nearly like a crudite-plate-cum-charcuterie-board, solely as an alternative of meats you get every kind of tasty fermented issues.
Every plate comes with a Spring Sunflower Unfold, Firebrand bread, and recent veggies like mini peppers, sliced cucumbers, and radish. However from there it’s a choose-your-own-fermented expedition. Decide three from round fifteen completely different ferments. All handmade by Neff.
After we went she had 5 completely different sauerkrauts, three completely different kimchis (we tried the Fireplace Stomach with habaneros, cipollini onion, orange zest, and sea salt and the Farfetch’d with carrots, ginger, turmeric, wakame seaweed, and black sesame seeds), a seasonal stuffing, these preserved Meyer lemons, the Ratatouille Chopenade, and a number of other others readily available.
The fermentation doesn’t cease at simply meals and beer. Neff even makes fermented syrups to enter an unbelievable lineup of mocktails.
The Prettiest Mocktails You Ever Did See
Personally, I’ve by no means seen somebody go to such lengths to make a non-alcoholic drink.
Neff’s course of for one drink typically consists of making a fermented syrup, making a fermented tea, and including a whimsical rim with elements like toasted coconut sugar.
The most well-liked, in keeping with Neff, is a fermented strawberry lemon verbena syrup combined with butterfly pea flower rose hips and violet. It comes with a rim of lemon paste and sugar infused with rose hibiscus and damiana, an herb often called a strong aphrodisiac. Neff calls it her “love potion.”
“It’s a deep darkish purple base that’s glowing with an excellent lovely scorching pink syrup,” says Neff. “It’s so refreshing and decadent on the identical time.”
Now, Neff and Bravo attempt to make a corresponding mocktail for each alcoholic beer they brew “so if folks don’t drink, they’ll drink the flavors,” says Bravo.
For example, to enrich Legend of Pandan, a golden ale with roasted macadamia nuts conditioned on toasted coconut and pandan leaves, Neff created this extraordinary mocktail.
She began with a glowing tea base of lemongrass and dried Strata hops that had been soaked in vinegar earlier than being pickled and dehydrated. She then added a fermented pandan, macadamia, and coconut syrup and gave the entire shebang a toasted coconut sugar rim.
That’s quite a lot of work going into one drink that doesn’t even have alcohol in it. But it surely’s paying off.
“The quantity of people who thank us for having [mocktails] or come right here as a result of we’ve got them is so particular,” she says. “We’re giving folks house the place they don’t really feel like they’re lacking out on ingesting.”
That’s simply the ethos at Fox Story.
Breaking Guidelines, Fermenting Freedom
Though Fox Story Fermentation has solely been open for simply shy of a 12 months, Neff and Bravo have already got massive plans for the longer term.
They’ve talked about canning their mocktails and transport throughout the state so extra folks can strive their creations.
Domestically, they’re trying to host extra occasions within the San Jose taproom to proceed creating that neighborhood.
In terms of the drinks and meals, in the end the probabilities are as countless as this duo’s creativeness. “There’s simply a lot we are able to do,” says Bravo excitedly.
Contemplating all the thrill our followers brewed up on Instagram, it appears like Bravo and Neff aren’t the one ones enthusiastic about Fox Story Fermentation’s future.
“Seeing all of the feedback for us was tremendous heartwarming and tremendous thrilling,” says Neff. “That is actually laborious to do and it’s all price it however it’s a must to take each little factor on day-after-day to maintain you going, so…being observed…means the world and helps us get by means of actually the toughest factor we’ve ever completed.”
Fox Story Fermentation isn’t simply breaking the foundations, they’re fermenting them.
