Oral history interview with Kevin Stainback, 2019

Richard Cox: So if we start, can you please say and spell your name?

Kevin Stainback: Yes. Kevin Stainback. K-E-V-I-N S-T-A-I-N-B-A-C-K.

Richard Cox: Okay, and today is Friday, November 22nd, 2019 and we're at Angry Troll Brewing and Elkin, North Carolina. I'm Richard Cox, talking today with partner Kevin Stainback as a part of the Well Crafted NC project. So to start, could you please just tell us a little bit about yourself?

Kevin Stainback: A little bit about myself?

Richard Cox: Yes sir.

Kevin Stainback: Oh, well I am a trail runner. I enjoy trail running. We've got several trails here around our town. I am a consultant during the day. I actually work for a company with information technology and cybersecurity.

Richard Cox: Oh very cool. And how did you first become interested in the brewing industry?

Kevin Stainback: Well about, a little over 12 years ago, I started home brewing and just like a lot of our other brewers around the area and across the nation took it to a five-gallon bucket and we just, I honed my recipes, enjoyed doing that from my garage. And, and then the opportunity to bring a brewery downtown here in Elkin came about.

Richard Cox: Yeah. And so what led you to open Angry Troll.

Kevin Stainback: Well, we were talking one evening, there used to be a restaurant called a 21 and Main and it was on the corner of Highway 21 and Ninth 00:02:00Street here in Elkin. And the restaurateurs at that time, we were just chatting about home brewing and how great it would be to have a brewery downtown here as we were starting to grow our businesses in this area and kind of a revitalization of Elkin was occurring. And so we thought it'd be a big exciting. And a few of us got together. We'd met on a, I think it was a Wednesday back in August of 2014 and we created a name, got a little bit of excitement, talked about putting a small batch system in, and then the whole creative vibe came around coming to the name of Angry Troll Brewing.

Richard Cox: That was my next question. Why Angry Troll? How'd you get the name?

Kevin Stainback: Well, I mean Troll. It really started from the bridge. And when 00:03:00I say the bridge, we had a historic bridge that connected between Elkin and Jonesville and it actually passes by the Liberty building, which we're housed in here, just left our door to the entrance to the taproom. And it was demolished back in 2011 and we thought how great of a story it would be to have this troll figure that was angry because he lost his home. And so we decided to give the troll a home, and the lower level of the Liberty kind of fit, a good place to have him have a new home.

Richard Cox: Great. That's awesome.

Kevin Stainback: Yeah.

Richard Cox: And you touched on this, but why did you select Elkin as a location for the brewery? There's a revitalization you mentioned.

Kevin Stainback: Yeah.

Kevin Stainback: One is, all of the partners are located here. This is our 00:04:00residence. It's small town, North Carolina. It's a place where we wanted to grow with what was occurring around our town. Anything from a music venue down the street called the Reeves to the restaurant upstairs, which used to be 222 Public House. And so eventually consuming the restaurant itself and it all becoming one event space and restaurant and brewery named Angry Troll Brewing. We've also got trails around here. The Mountains-to-Sea Trail comes through here. So yeah, I mean with living, being a resident here, we just wanted a fun place to come.

Richard Cox: Yeah great, and if you were trying to describe Angry Troll to people who are unfamiliar with the brewery, how would you describe your brewery 00:05:00to them?

Kevin Stainback: Well, I kind of like to take the name Angry out when I'm going to reply with it because it's a welcoming place. It's family-oriented upstairs in the restaurant. We have a game room, we have trivia on Thursday nights. I like to see it or inform everybody that it's a community gathering place, the environment upstairs. The environment down here is warm and welcoming and we hope to keep it that way for years to come.

Richard Cox: Yeah, great. So how would you compare the industry, the brewing industry back when you started to where everything is today?

Kevin Stainback: Well it was pretty lively when we started. You had the heavy 00:06:00hitters with Wicked Weed and Highlands Brewing. There were some contenders that were coming in to play in the Ashville scene, especially in the Charlotte area and so it was somewhat different in terms of that you already had well established breweries. So to come in as a small contender it was a little tough. I think also with respect to ABC laws and building inspections and things like that, we were treated more like a restaurant coming into town rather than a brewery. So I think those have changed. Not to say that they are more lenient now but in terms of looking at it from the perspective of us preparing food 00:07:00rather than something that we've already prepared, which is beer.

Richard Cox: Right.

Kevin Stainback: And so I think the inspections have changed. Of course, the industry itself has just grown exponentially over the last three or four years.

Richard Cox: So what were some of the challenges you faced in opening Angry Troll? Possibly some of it was the restaurant idea.

Kevin Stainback: Yeah, a lot of the challenges came on the front-end through the federal government. We have what we call the TTB licensing and for us to brew, and the permits took a long time. And I think a lot of it was because we had a lot of breweries, start-up breweries coming into the scene and it just extended 00:08:00the time for those permits to happen. I think we waited over 200 days for our permit to go through.

Richard Cox: Oh wow, so that'll slow everything down.

Kevin Stainback: It slowed down a lot. It took us almost two years to open up because of that.

Richard Cox: Wow, and just the permit too.

Kevin Stainback: Yes.

Richard Cox: Has there been any particular resources you've drawn on to help you in opening and growing Angry Troll?

Kevin Stainback: Yeah, there's really lots of resources. I mean the community of brewers is just phenomenal. I mean we've all become friends. We look towards, not good beer, but great beer. But a lot of our relationships have been created both through the North Carolina Craft Guild, Brewers Craft Guild. We were actually at the first conference in Greensboro. And then from there, it moved to 00:09:00Winston-Salem on an annual basis. But we've also created the Triad Brewers Alliance and the Triad Brewers Alliance was created kind of as a place for us to be able to pull together all the Piedmont Breweries. We're at the tail end of the Piedmont here in the foothills in Surry County.

Richard Cox: So what would you say is the mission or theme of Angry Troll?

Kevin Stainback: I think the mission goes back to a community gathering place. I want to say that the theme is warm and welcoming, but just to be able to bring together the people, both from a local respect that are our core people that they like to come and enjoy on a weekly basis, but also to get folks that are 00:10:00traveling north and south on Highway 77 anywhere from Pennsylvania, Ohio, et cetera, down to Florida, traveling on business or to go see family that they have a place to stop and, and enjoy a good food and hopefully a good beverage.

Richard Cox: Yeah. So, this is going to be a complicated one because you already mentioned your IT work, how would you describe your average week?

Kevin Stainback: My average week? Well I do, I mean I still put about 20 to 25 hours on the back-end, with marketing, keeping up with our inventory here in the brewery, working with our brewer, and now partner Meredith. And it's busy. It 00:11:00really is. I'm thankful that we have the restaurant connected to us, but at the same time it's also challenging to keep the schedule straight and, and make sure that our processes and our workflow is going well.

Richard Cox: Yeah. And you all seem to be pretty involved in the local community. Could you talk a little bit about any community partnerships that you do and how they benefit the community and how they also benefit the business?

Kevin Stainback: Sure. Yeah. So one of the first things that we did is we joined our local chamber of commerce. They've been a huge advocate of course, to post local businesses on their directory. But we created a Brewfest through them and a collaboration with Skull Camp Brewing down the road. And now White Elephant is 00:12:00involved and that's an evolving festival in itself.

Kevin Stainback: But we've also got a local community organization called Explore Elkin. And there are several businesses that have come together to support the efforts of other businesses, not just restaurants and breweries, but anything from gas companies to electric companies to your small retail shop, clothing or whatever. So, I mentioned earlier that we have the Reeves downtown and that music venue has brought another level of a community gathering for our area.

Richard Cox: Yeah, great. So you mentioned briefly in your answer the Brewfest. 00:13:00Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Kevin Stainback: Sure. Yeah. So we call it the Big Elkin Brewfest. It has occurred in our Parks and Rec Elkin Park and it's the river that goes through there, or actually it's a Creek, but it's a big Creek. It's called the Big Elkin Creek and that waterway, we say that we have our Brewfest on the banks of the Big Elkin Creek. And so we started that in September three years ago. We did it during our Pumpkin Festival that we have here in downtown. So it was good to have folks that actually come to the area for the festival to be able to join in and taste our beverages from around the surrounding breweries around the area.

Richard Cox: Awesome, yeah. So what would you say it's like to work in the 00:14:00brewing industry today?

Kevin Stainback: It's still just as fun as ever. I mean it's like I said, we've all become friends. We meet monthly through the Triad Brewers Alliance. We're able to talk about anything from geeking out about how the yeast works, what was the newest grain or hop that we tried to what's working as far as music and anything from trivia to yoga or something to that effect. So, but yeah, the industry itself continues to be fun and continues to grow and I think it will be something that is well established and still continue in years to go.

Richard Cox: Yeah, great. What role do you feel Angry Troll has played in the changes and revitalization that has been happening in Elkin?

Kevin Stainback: I think a lot of it, we took an old tobacco warehouse here. It actually wasn't done by us, but we actually created the environment within. We were able to build a wall that's behind me and put our brewery in here. We were able to find a spot that is downtown. I mean the Mountains-to-Sea Trail comes right in front of our front door. So folks that are hiking that trail, we've got trail runners in the area that stop by, we have mountain bike trails now where cyclists will come in. We actually have a drop off point for kayaks and canoes right here at the Elkin River. And I just think that the revitalization of 00:16:00bringing people to the downtown, I think we've, we've become a part of that.

Richard Cox: Yeah, great. How do you see Angry Troll growing in the future?

Kevin Stainback: Well that's to be determined, but it's pretty exciting. I mean we've been talking about that since day one and even in our business plan prior to that, in fact, we have done some contract brew sessions over the last couple of years with the larger brew system. So that's one of the laws that will allow for us to step outside of our brewery and use our license on a contract brew. But we're actually going to be leasing space in 2020 on a bigger system and it will be our space under our permit. So we're working towards that. And so yeah, so some exciting times are happening for Angry Troll. I think we'll start to get more and more into the wholesale market and on-tap in areas all over the Piedmont.

Richard Cox: That sounds great. Where do you see the brewing industry going in the next five years?

Kevin Stainback: Next five years?

Richard Cox: Which is a century as far as this industry.

Kevin Stainback: Yeah. I mean, I think with any industry, especially with exponential growth, I think what you're going to see is some more heavy hitters coming to the scene and who had been established over the last few years and sticking around and growing and getting bigger, getting on grocery store shelves and outside of North Carolina. Taking over some the southeast and stuff like that. And then you'll start to see some fall off, and so you'll have where we have the ones that are going to survive and build on the industry that they came 00:18:00to enjoy and love.

Richard Cox: Do you see anything as unique about southern beer or North Carolina beer specifically?

Kevin Stainback: When it comes to uniqueness. No, I think everybody has just found their own style when it comes to your mainstream beers. Each individual brewery is able to pull in the right amount of grains, the right amount of sugar, the right taste, the right flavors. I think a lot are using more local ingredients from fruits to honey. I personally have my own beehives and we put 00:19:00our honey into our Southern Honey Porter. Yeah. So yeah, I mean Southern beer and local beers here in North Carolina, each one tries to put their own little niche onto it, but at the same time, the core of it is to come up with the greatest beer that you can.

Richard Cox: Yeah, right. And you mentioned the Triad Brewers Alliance a few minutes ago. Is there anything that you see as compared to elsewhere in North Carolina that might be unique about the Triad and the Triad brewing scene?

Kevin Stainback: I think with Asheville and Charlotte and Raleigh, those areas are, are large cities larger community development areas where the core brewery 00:20:00scene was already there. And I think we created the Triad Brewers Alliance so that we could pull all of these breweries together from Fiddle and Fish and Wiseman and Foothills in Winston-Salem to all of our great Greensboro breweries to Four Saints and Asheboro. Some of our upcoming highpoint breweries and of course us here in the tail end of the Piedmont to the Foothills area.

Richard Cox: Yeah, and to finish up we have our three what is your favorite question? So the first is, do you have a favorite beer, even recently, from a North Carolina brewery other than Angry Troll?

Kevin Stainback: Oh, that changes weekly.

Richard Cox: Yeah, it does for most people. So what are you enjoying this week I suppose.

Kevin Stainback: Well, I'll tell you what, I had a great beer last night, I 00:21:00don't want to point out any specific ones because I really enjoy a lot of our North Carolina brews. But last night I had a Wiseman Mountain Calling, and it was great. It was a good a west coast IPA.

Richard Cox: Great. Does Angry Troll, in your opinion, have a flagship or signature beer? Not your favorite necessarily.

Kevin Stainback: Yeah, we actually have, we have four beers that we came out with from day one and those four, I'll go ahead and name those. There's four, One Hop, which is made with citra hops, ESB, which we came to call Sir Walter. We wanted a North Carolina kind of foundational beer. And so ESB, English Style Bitter. And it's Sir Walter Raleigh. It's aged in Oak. City of Oaks is our 00:22:00Raleigh Capitol.

Richard Cox: You really tied this all nicely with a bow.

Kevin Stainback: So we tied it all together. So we had the Sir Walter ESB and then we started off with a Coffee Stout from a local roaster and the Cinnamon Honey Porter, which puts the honey of our local bees into the brewery.

Richard Cox: Your local bees?

Kevin Stainback: Yeah.

Richard Cox: Excellent, that's great.

Kevin Stainback: Yes.

Richard Cox: Do you have a favorite Angry Troll Beer?

Kevin Stainback: Do I have a favorite? I still lean towards my IPAs and One Hop is as my favorite. It was one that I brewed when I was home brewing, it was something that I perfected and it was something that, it was one of my original recipes that I brought to the table and it's one that we contract brew on and, 00:23:00and have a hard time keeping in house.

Richard Cox: You have to be proud of it.

Kevin Stainback: Yeah. I'm pretty excited.

Richard Cox: Do you still have time to home brew?

Kevin Stainback: I haven't home-brewed in a couple of years now. Yeah. But I would love to, I would love to put my pots on my double burner and I go at it again sometime.

Richard Cox: What are you having right there?

Kevin Stainback: This right here is our Galaxy IPA. It has the same basis, the One Hop and we're using Galaxy hops in it.

Richard Cox: Awesome.

Kevin Stainback: So, yeah.

Richard Cox: Awesome, that's all I have.

Kevin Stainback: Yeah, we're good.

Richard Cox: Is there anything you'd like to add?

Kevin Stainback: No, I mean, I appreciate what you're doing and putting the history of North Carolina beers together and I'm pretty excited about what's going to come of this.

Richard Cox: Awesome, well, thank you very much.

Kevin Stainback: Yeah, thank you.

Richard Cox: Appreciate it.

Kevin Stainback: All right.