Notch Session's Chris Lohring [5 Questions]

If you've been reading Drink Craft Beer for the last few months, there's no doubt you know Chris Lohring's brand, Notch Brewing. A long time veteran on the New England craft beer scene, Chris founded the now defunct Tremont Brewing Company. After taking a hiatus from the industry for a while, Chris came back for a very interesting reason: he couldn't find any of the lower alcohol beers he wanted to drink. Rather than just homebrew them he figured that, if he wanted them, others must want session beers! And so Notch Brewing, a company devoted to making delicious session beer, was formed. We caught up with Chris recently to pick his brain a bit about Notch, the brewing industry and more. Check it out!

Drink Craft Beer: How did you get into craft beer?

Chris Lohring: I’ve always had an affinity for trying new food and drink, and beer was no different. In college I tended bar at the old Rat in Kenmore Sq at a time when Bud ruled the day, even among the hipster set (until Pabst made it easy to differentiate one’s poor taste in beer and social tribe). Every now and then I drank Heineken Dark while tending bar because it looked like Coke in the glass. Sure, it was not craft beer, but it was a gateway to different flavors and color in a beer. This was the late 80’s and it was desperate times for beer.

DCB: What was the turning point (a beer or moment) that made you love craft beer?

CL: I was an entrepreneurship major in college and my senior year project was to consult for a start-up business. I was blessed with the assignment of finding a site for a brewer seeking to locate in Boston. I was already drinking craft beer (Catamount was a my go-to), but this experience had me hooked and led to my questionable career path. Three years later I was apprenticing as a brewer and would start Tremont with Alex Reveliotty shortly thereafter.

DCB: You walk into a magical beer shop with every beer currently available. You can put together one six-pack. What do you walk out with? Only one beer can be from your brewery.

CL: My magical beer shop has beers brewed within 100 miles of Boston, and nothing else, and my six pack is a constantly rotating selection of these beers. When people say, “I can’t find local beers as good,” I challenge them: let’s start the blind taste test right now.

DCB: You have one night in your favorite beer city. What city are you in and where do you go (it doesn’t all have to be beer)?

CL: Prague. Because you can’t experience Czech beer culture properly unless you are in the moment. That, and the beer doesn’t travel well, so you need to go to the source.

My night, which starts at 3PM:

• U Zlateho Tygra (For Pilsner and beer cheese)
• U sv Tomase Beerhall (For Cerne Pivo and a dinner of pork knuckle)
• U Hrocha (For Svetle Vyceopni Pivo with the locals, until I’m kicked out at closing)

DCB: What do you drink when you’re not drinking craft beer (or beer at all)?

CL: Bourbon or Rye, Neat. It’s not all session beer all the time!

DCB: Where do you see the craft beer industry going in the next year? And, in that vein, can we get a sneak peak at what new to expect from you in the coming year?

CL: It is getting interesting, and it’s starting to look like the late 90’s all over again in terms of craft beer brand growth in the US. For Boston, I’m thrilled to see so much activity locally. For too long the local scene has been a doormat to beers from other places, and much of that was simply do to the lack of local options, which has absolutely changed for the better. Also, the last production brewery to open in Boston was 1994, and that should change soon too.

I am also interested in seeing what develops at the upper price point of the market, as we have a number of new entries on the shelf. For a 22 ounce bottles that is contract brewed, the cost of entry into the market is fairly low, so we have seen quite a few new ones recently. But how much shelf space will the retailer continue to provide (unless we replace out of town beer), and how many brands will the consumer support? And at $7 a bottle, how long will the consumer be happy buying the equivalent of a $23 six pack in a down economy?

It comes down to this – will consumers shift their from spending to local brewed beer? Will they take a chance on a new local entity as well as continuing to support existing local beers that have earned their place on the shelf? Or, will the Boston consumer continue to pay some guy’s mortgage on the west coast at the detriment to the local scene? In my mind, beer needs the correct mix of four things to be successful – price, quality, differentiation, relevance. Local beer can be more relevant, but only if those first three things are equal or better than that guy’s beer from San Diego.

For Notch next year? You’ll see us release a number of limited release session beers, more beers in the cask only series, saison in six packs, and maybe a collaboration or two.

DCB: You can brew any beer you like, no matter the cost and consumer demand, what would you make and what dream ingredients would you use?

CL: I’m brewing the beers I want to right now. But, if cost or consumer demand was not part of the equation, then where’s the fun? That’s the challenge! That’s why we are in business. But as brewers, we are fortunate to have an incredible array of great ingredients to choose from, unless you want the latest, greatest new hop variety in any volume. But I don’t play in the IPA sandbox, so that’s not an issue for me.

Anyone who knows my brewing style knows I don’t like pretentious beers. I make worker’s beer. So for me it’s not about dream ingredients as much as brewing process. My dream is to recreate the original Pilsner, so bring in the decoction brewhouse, open wooden barrel fermentation vessels like Plzeňský Prazdroj pre-1990, and dig me some caves for lagering. And throw in some mass spec and liquid chromatography equipment while you’re at it.

DCB: Thanks so much for your time, Chris! Best of luck with Notch in 2012!