Beer » Your Table is Ready

Your Table is Ready

Table Beer

Dr. David Shields, Carolina Bauernhaus Brewery & Winery, Hagood Mill, Anson Mills, and David Moore, Director of Operations for the Cribbs Hospitality Group, are proud to present “Your Table is Ready,” a 3.5% historic ale featuring the flavors of local malted barley and heirloom farro, as well as benne and purple straw wheat, preserved and made available by Anson Mills. 


“Your Table is Ready gives a glimpse of how an ale would have been made with regional grains in South Carolina's history. Using colonial brewing processes, our collaboration team created a cereal mash and degelatinization of the raw grains, then mashed with malted barley to provide the enzymatic diastatic power to transform the starches into sugars that are then metabolized by brewers yeast,” David Thornton, Co-Founder and Chief Flora Farmer for Carolina Bauernhaus, says. “This historic type of ale is rich in both flavor and nutrition, while being low in alcohol. Such a beer would have been critical to early colonists to provide hydration and essential vitamins, antioxidants and nutrition. It was also an important method of preserving the nutrition of the grain for later consumption. The waste from such historic brews was then used as fodder for heritage breeds of pork and cattle.” 


But why resurrect a colonial brewing method in the first place? Our team wanted to explore the flavors of the Upcountry as a new offering to the Mountain Roots Herb Festival at Hagood Mill, and when the opportunity arose to work with Dr. David Shields, we started looking for crops that were indicative of the Upcountry’s identity. Finding these landraces is not always an easy task, but thanks to the efforts of Dr. Shields and groups like Anson Mills, chefs, brewers and farmers can access these heritage crops. Carolina Bauernhaus’ brewing team worked to retell the story of these flavors as an act of appreciation for these preservationists. 


Making products like “Your Table is Ready” allows the public to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Collecting and recording traditional recipes, cooking techniques and dining customs of a particular community’s history and identity is a collective effort of maintaining landrace and heritage crops. By building awareness around how to protect local food ways and how to support local food and seed saving, food security and biodiversity are bolstered. This passion not only preserves the genetic diversity of crops, which can improve resistance to pests and disease, it also paves the way for a more resilient food system, with greater access to nutritious, culturally significant foods. 


We hope you’ll join us around the table to raise a glass together! 




Special Thanks To : 


• Dr. David Shields : Author / Professor Emeritus University of South Carolina / President of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, Columbia, SC. David S. He also chairs Slow Food's Ark of Taste Committee for the South. In 2018, Shields was awarded Slow Foods USA's Snailblazer Award for biodiversity. His other books include Southern Provisions: The Creation and Revival of a Cuisine; The Culinarians: Lives and Careers from the First Age of American Fine Dining, and Taste the States: South Carolina's Signature Foods, Recipes, and Their Stories, co-written with Kevin Mitchell. Shields is a recipient of the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award.


You can find a copy of Taste the State: South Carolina’s Signature Foods, Recipes, and Their Stories at https://a.co/d/ao6eDHK

• Keston Helfrich : Co-Founder / Head Brewer - Carolina Bauernhaus Brewery & Winery, Anderson & Greenville, SC. Keston is the founder and head brewer for Carolina Bauernhaus Ales. He’s been homebrewing for over 10 years and began brewing wild, funky, and sour ales 4 years before opening the brewery. Keston has a maniacal passion for brewing and recipe experimentation with wild, sour, and funky beers. This passion is the fire that fuels Carolina Bauernhaus Ales.


• David Thornton : Co-Founder/ Chief Flora Farmer - Carolina Bauernhaus Brewery and Winery, Anderson & Greenville, SC. David Thornton is a bioprocess engineer with 10 years experience in biofuels and brewery design. David has constructed 26 biodiesel and ethanol facilities worldwide and launched several brewery related businesses providing essential brewing ingredients to breweries in the southeast. Additionally David coordinated the sustainable biofuels program at Clemson University, where he taught the science of beer for over 3 years.


• David Moore, Director of Operations - Cribbs Hospitality Group, Spartanburg, SC. Moore’s culinary career began at a very young age. Finding its roots first in the Piedmont and Appalachia of South Carolina, sparked by a foundational understanding of Southern cuisine passed down by family. His pursuit of culinary and agricultural arts then takes him up a winding avenue through Western North Carolina in the high country, eventually landing Moore in the Southwestern region of the state. Moore currently resides in Greer, SC with his wife Amy and three children. Now with twenty-one years of gastronomic endeavors behind him Moore continues to look forward to gaining new knowledge, experiences and making “food memories” for others a daily priority.


• Billy Crawford, Director - Hagood Mill Historic Site, Pickens, SC. Billy Crawford has been serving as Director of the Hagood Mill Historic Site since
2014. Billy works closely with the Hagood Mill Board of Directors ensuring the mill’s mission and vision are being maintained, developed and implemented effectively year after year. Billy is responsible for the general oversight of Hagood Mill events and programming, Facility and Grounds maintenance, volunteer and community outreach, grant writing, fundraising, land development and beautification, and the expansion of
recreational and quality of life activities offered to all those who visit Hagood Mill. Billy received a BA in History from Coastal Carolina University and is an active member of the Pickens Historical Society. He is deeply rooted and involved within the local community and is passionate about history, Native American culture, and live music.