Yankee Brew News Archive

Brewer's Profile: Richard Young

Originally Published: 12/96

By: Kate Cone

Being head brewer at New Hampshire's Castle in the Clouds in Moultonborough (which now includes the Castle Springs Brewery) doesn't mean Richard Young has his head in them. The clouds, that is. Anything but. After his recent and sobering experience as a partner in the failed Winnipesaukee Pub and Brewery, Young has his brewing feet planted firmly on the ground, on the beautiful, foliage-strewn Ossipee Mountains overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee.

Young's varied experiences have been enriching to harrowing and back again, and have taken him from Massachusetts to California, to Cape Cod to New Hampshire.

YBN: How did a Cohasset, Massachusetts boy make it to the West Coast?

RY : In 1984, I graduated from Stonehill College, where I'd committed to ROTC. I was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the military police and stationed in the Army's seventh infantry division at Ft. Ord, California. The microbrew scene was just beginning to boom then. My wife, then my girlfriend, told me about these places that brewed their own beer and also served food. I couldn't believe it. She's the one who introduced me to the concept of the brewpub.

YBN: Tell us about some of those hangouts.

RY : The first place I ever tasted microbrewed beer was at the Santa Cruz Brewing Company. It's still there and they're still making great beer. From then on, every weekend was a quest to discover other brewpubs and microbrewed beer. My real beer-tasting education was acquired at a little place in San Luis Obispo called "Spike's." It catered to the California Polytech students and was owned by a guy who was a fanatic about finding the best beers to serve at the bar.

He was one of the first to ever do a beers-around-the-world type thing. He'd give us a card that he'd punch each time we tried a different beer. After so many, you'd earn a tee-shirt, then when the card was filled, a free beer. He'd get in his van and search out the most obscure microbreweries and bring back a keg of their beer so his customers could try it. It was at Spikes that I tried Belgians and many other foreign brews and microbrews.

YBN: How did you jump from drinking to brewing?

RY : Again, it was my wife. She told me that there was a place where you could buy equipment to brew your own beer. I had the same reaction as before. Sort of "get out of town." She bought me a homebrew kit, and I began to make beer in the bachelor quarters for my fellow junior officers. I'm not sure how legal that was, looking back on it now...

YBN: No one was complaining about having lots of free beer. What was the next step in your brewing career?

RY : Again, it was inadvertent. My time was up in the army, and I decided to go back to school to get my teaching certificate. I needed a part-time job, so I went one afternoon right after class to Seabright Brewery in Santa Cruz. They had advertised for a bartender. I figured I could go to school days and tend bar at night. Well, the bartending job had been filled, but the hostess told me they had an opening for an apprentice brewer. I took over the headbrewer's position within a few months and held that spot for five and a half years.

YBN: The beers you created for Seabright won several Great American Brewer's Festival awards: two golds for the Oatmeal Stout, a gold and a silver for the IPA, a silver for your Porter and a silver for the Amber Ale. Besides the obvious rewards of having your brews validated by other professionals, what was the most rewarding aspect of your time at Seabright?

RY : The greatest part of working in a brewpub was having the immediate reaction of the customer. After all the effort spent in making the beer, from grain to glass, it was very satisfying to have someone say, "You know, this is a good beer."

YBN: What brought you back east?

RY : My wife and I wanted to buy a house. Santa Cruz was too expensive, and we wanted to come back to be with our families anyway. I had done everything I could do at Seabright. It was time to move on. I got the head brewer's job at the Cape Cod Brew House and was bringing that effort along when I was offered the brewmaster's position and a partnership at Winnipesaukee Pub and Brewery.

YBN: Take a deep breath and tell us what happened at WPB.

RY : I think it's important for the readers to know what can happen to a brewpub if it's not properly planned and carried out. Every restaurant mistake that could possibly have been made was made early in the game. I was spending part of my time winding up things at the Cape Cod Brew House, so I wasn't able to keep a finger on things at WPB. They opened the pub before our beers were brewed. By the time my beer was ready, the business was already failing. The beers never had a chance.

YBN: But things happen for a reason. How are things shaping up at Castle Springs?

RY : Super. I feel really lucky to be part of a good company doing good things for Moultonborough. Our first batches of beers are now ready and are hitting our accounts. We have a tasting room and a great tour, so visitors to Lucknow (the name of the Castle in the Clouds estate) is can taste our beers here and talk with me about the whole process.

YBN: Give us the particulars. What system, size and beer styles.

RY : I'm using a 20 barrel DME system with 40 barrel fermentation tanks for double brews. We have two 40 barrel bright beer tanks and are bottling 12 ounce six packs on a re-habbed bottling line. We're projecting 5,000 to 6,000 gallons our first year.

YBN: And styles?

RY : My years on the West Coast have influenced my beer choices here. Anchor Wheat was one of my favorite beers, and I've done an American Wheat style that we hope will appeal to visitors who may never have tried a microbrewed beer. I'm also offering an IPA and a Porter, two of my other favorite styles. All of the beers will sold under the "Lucknow" label.

YBN: How are afield will Castle Springs market the Lucknow beer?

RY : Currently we hope to garner a local following. But the front office is taking the legal steps to sell out of state. We don't want to expand too quickly. I want YBN readers to come up to visit. I'll be there to taste the beer with them and talk.

YBN: Where in New Hampshire can we get Lucknow beer?

RY : Our first year-round account is The Fun Spot in Laconia, a three story arcade, game and bowling place that has a pub and a restaurant. And there's our brewery. And YBN readers on their way up to the slopes should stop here for great beer. We sell six packs at the brewery.

YBN: Caution: do not drink and ski. The trees are closer and larger than they appear.

RY : But seriously. Call ahead and we'll tell you the tour times for off-season and Kathy Davis in our office can recommend great dining and lodging nearby.

Castle Springs Brewery at Castle in the Clouds can be contacted at P.O. Box 131; Route 171, Ossipee Park Road, Moultonborough, NH 03254. 603-476-8844 or 1-800-729-2468

Castle in the Clouds has had several incarnations. It was built in 1913 as the retirement mansion of Thomas Plant, a Bath, Maine native who made millions in the shoe manufacturing business. He called his home "Lucknow." After Plant lost his millions through various bad investments, the estate was sold, and dubbed Castle in the Clouds by the more than 100,000 yearly visitors it attracted thereafter.

In 1992 a group of investors bought the 5,200 acre site and began bottling the natural spring water found there. They call it Castle Springs. Moving from water to craft beer, says Executive Vice President of Operations Mark Wiggins, came after market research and feasibility studies. Part of that process was finding a standout brewer. After Winnipesaukee Pub and Brewery went under, Wiggins heard Young was available, and soon he became New Hampshire's (brew) master of Moultonborough's famous castle .

Kate Cone is an author and free lance writer from Harpswell, Maine. Her first book, Pub Tours New England, will be published by Down East Books in spring, 1997. Reach her at katecone@maine.com.