Last week, we were blatantly accosted with beer and barbecue by our friends Sean and Chris from the forthcoming Fullsteam Brewery in Durham, NC. Seriously, the absolute nerve of them dropping by and forcing us to sample beer on their way to the Southern Foodways Alliance in Oxford, Miss. Some people.

First off, we love, love, love the concept of this brewery, using a variety of off-the-wall ingredients for flavor and fermentables. It’s an “agricultural brewery” which will aim to use local ingredients from our fair state. Take one of the current test batches, for example, a Sweet Potato Amber. (We want that. Now.) But we digress… Sean and Chris showed up in full Fullsteam Regalia with a teenie cup of beer and a teenie cup of meat product.

“What’s that?” asked Julie.
“That’s 12 Bones,” said Chris.
“What’s in the cup?” asked Julie.
“That Fullsteam’s Hickory Smoked Porter perfectly paired with pork, like barbecue,” said Sean.

“Hogwash is a Fullsteam experimental beer. It’s a hickory-smoked porter crafted specifically to go with North Carolina barbecue. Hogwash is light on the smoke: too much smoke can overwhelm the palate, and NC ‘cue tends to be subtle on the smoke and rarely overpowering. It’s a dark, toasty, and malty beer that’s perfect around the pit or with a plate. Sweet tea is fine, but Hogwash be divine!”

And they lived happily ever after. The end.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Fullsteam is still looking for a handful of investors!]