Matt Whalen and Carrie Blackmore believe people care more about a product they’re connected to.
Good Nature Farm Brewery uses local ingredients in its farm-to-glass beer to give a sense of ownership to their ever-growing fan base. That commitment has built a community around Good Nature and upped the capacity of the brewery 10-fold in a short time.
Matt’s background as a chef gives him an adventurous spirit and intense attention to detail when crafting his recipes. And just to think: He and his wife could have been making soup.
They met at a farm-to-table restaurant, where Matt headed the kitchen and Carrie handled the ingredients grown nearby. When devising a food-related enterprise to call their own, organic soup made the short list.
Thankfully, they switched their vision from tin cans to kegs and bottles. In addition opening Madison County’s first brew house in two centuries, Good Nature lays claim to being New York state’s first licensed farm brewery, which flags it as a producer committed to using locally grown ingredients.
Good Nature produces a number of limited releases in addition to its core line and they tend to get a little adventurous. Rabbit in the Rye PA, a collaboration with a favorite local band, blending music with brew. Good Nature’s 10 percent ABV stout pays tribute to the “Great Chocolate Wreck” of 1955, when a train bound for Nestle derailed just yards from where the present day brewery is located.
In a way, every release is limited.
Everything’s done in-house, from corking their own bottles to delivering their own kegs.
Like Whalen says, life’s too short for bad beer. So it’s important for this small team to keep that personal touch.
Good Nature’s tasting room in downtown Hamilton – crafted in large part by Matt himself – is open 3 to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 3 p.m. to midnight Fridays, noon to midnight Saturdays and noon to 8 p.m. Sundays.
