Our Interview with Mike, Owner of Harbottle Brewing Co.
“I’m convinced that everybody loves beer... they just need to find the right one.”
Why should people have a drink at Harbottle?
Because of Kayla (Mike gestures to the wonderful lady next to him who had just served me a beer) and because of the people we have here. We want to give people a great experience because it is about more than just the beer. We are also really big on education. Everybody behind our counter is pretty knowledgeable and there is a lot to learn! I’m convinced that everybody loves beer, they just need to find the right one. And we love what we do here, we’d love to help people find the right one.
What is your favorite beer here?
Now that’s an unfair question. I love so many. It’s like asking me to pick my favorite child!
(After much goading…)
I guess on the top of my list right now would be the Harbottle IPA and the Pilsner we have coming out next week.
One of the coolest beers we’ve ever done was probably an Imperial hazy sour IPA. It was brewed with lactose, persimmons, and tamarindo. It was so weird but it was one of our best. It won a People’s choice award and we were really proud of that.
Could you list some other awards or pats-on-the-back that you're particularly proud of?
We don’t really enter into a lot of competitions but we’ve consistently been #2 in everything we’ve entered. It became a fun inside-joke around here… but there was one time we won in the Tucson “smashed in the desert” festival where we partnered with 1912 Brewing Co.
Any fun story related to the start-up of the brewery or just in general that you'd like to share?
Easy. I caught my beard on fire making a beer. I was literally brewing a beer, the Kentucky Sunglasses, a sort of intentional misinterpretation of the Kentucky Common (another great story by the way). It was the first sour I ever made and I got a little too close to it on brew day and the alcohol vapors set my beard on fire. That was probably my most memorable brewing story… by a long shot.
We adored interviewing Mike! His hilarity and knowledgeability is yet another reason to visit Harbottle Brewing Co.
