RIK MARLEY: DREAMS AND SERENDIPITY

LOCAL BREWER BRINGS CREATIVITY AND EXPERIENCE TO BREWMASTER’S JOB AT FLYING GOOSE BREW PUB & GRILLE

RRik Marley didn’t plan on becoming a brewmaster and his path to brewing expertise was paved with a combination of serendipitous good luck combined with obsessive research and study. It all started one afternoon in a beer store in Concord, New Hampshire, in the late 1990s. Rik and his wife were home between the fall and winter tours of the Vermont band Phish. Rik estimates he’s seen the band “400 times,” and that lifestyle of following the perennially touring band had a direct connection to his eventual career as a beermaking expert.

WOULDN’T IT BE NEAT? At the time, craft beer hadn’t exploded yet, and finding a beer store that carried a good selection of craft brew was not overly common. Browsing the shelves with his wife, Rik was struck by the choices before him. “Wouldn’t it be neat if you could make your own beer,” he remarked. An employee overheard him and brought him into the back room. The store had “a whole laboratory setup back there. It was pretty cool.” Rik bought his first home brew kit then and there. The challenge of learning the alchemy of hops and malt brought out the researcher in Rik. “I did terrible in high school. I did terrible in college. But things that I really enjoyed, I would do a lot of research. I enjoyed home brewing right off the bat. I did a lot of research, read a lot, bought a lot of books.” Rik went from brewing one batch a month to two, then upwards of three and four batches per month, and from using prepared ingredients like malt extract to using actual grains and malting them himself. “Pretty soon I had a little warehouse of homebrewing equipment that went with me wherever I moved. It became an obsession.”

FROM PASTIME TO OBSESSION TO CAREER Not only was it a pastime—an obsession—that was fun and enjoyable, it became Rik’s job. And here’s where the story loops back to Phish. He began to use his brewing abilities to fund his trips following the band. He would come home, brew up a new batch, bottle it, and then pack it up in the van and head out to the next tour date to sell his wares on the lot at Phish shows. “We made enough money to sleep in hotels and eat properly and buy concert tickets and gas to get to the next show. And come home with extra money.” It was also an extensive apprenticeship in brewing beer. “It was a pretty cool way of life,” says Rik. But all good things come to an end, and eventually Phish stopped touring. Since following Phish was about the band, not the lifestyle, the appeal evaporated. So, Rik moved back East and got a job as the assistant brewer at the Woodstock Inn Brewery in Woodstock, New Hampshire. The job came about through a bit of serendipity when he and his wife visited the brewery and Rik got to talking with the brewer. Turned out, the brewer was getting ready to move on and had given his notice. “Let me try some of your homebrew,” he told Rik. Duly impressed, the brewer put in a word and Rik got the job.

10,000 HOURS The next phase of Rik’s development as a brewing expert was what he calls his year of “ten thousand hours,” after Malcolm Gladwell’s proposition in his book Outliers that it takes ten thousand hours of practice to become an expert at something. During that year from 2008 to 2009, Rik was working at the Woodstock Inn Brewery, as the head brewer at the now-defunct Italian Oasis in Littleton, and taking the master brewer’s certification program at the American Brewers Guild in Middlebury. He also had a little daughter at home by now. During his scant free time, he would work on recipe formulation and brew about a batch a week. In August of 2009, Rik moved on to his current position as head brewer at Flying Goose Brew Pub & Grille courtesy of another bit of serendipity. Rik ran into the head brewer of Flying Goose, who told him he was leaving that position and there would be a job opening. Rik applied, and beat out a number of other qualified brewers to take the spot. The Flying Goose in New London is a casual, familyfriendly pub and restaurant that serves up comfortable and varied fare. They also have a demonstrated commitment to sustainability and efficiency. They source ingredients locally as much as possible and in 2011 the Flying Goose became the first solar-powered brewery in New Hampshire. Rik has gone to great lengths to improve efficiency in the brewery. The brewhouse he took over can be described as a “Frankenbrewery— there were dairy tanks, repurposed water storage tanks,” Rik says. “When I first got there, the efficiency was terrible. The yield was terrible. I have worked over the last 12 years to make it the most efficient brewhouse we can get.” Efficiency refers to how much product is produced in comparison with the raw materials that go in. One hundred percent efficiency would mean that a pint of water going in would come out as a pint of beer. “That’s literally impossible unless you’re in a lab,” says Rik, who has succeeded in achieving an efficiency rate of 88 to 90 percent. For comparison, other breweries, even large newer breweries, run at 75 percent efficiency and home brewers typically get a mere 64 percent.

FERMENTATION IN THE IMAGINATION Rik’s imagination is fertile and he credits his productivity to his dreams and middle-of-the-night brainstorms. “A lot of these recipes that I brew—this is going to sound crazy, but to be honest I dream about a lot of these recipes. A lot of times I don’t even need to write it down.”

And people have responded to that creativity. Certain brews are so popular that it would be “brewer self-sabotage” to take them out of rotation. Long Brothers IPA is a case in point. “I’ve had people call me up and be like, ‘You’re so stupid, why’d you take Long Brothers off?’ And I’m like, Dude we’re just out of it right now. Calm down.”

IN TRIBUTE As part of their commitment to their values, the Flying Goose has launched several fundraising initiatives. Beer lovers can enjoy a pint of Forever Locked Lager knowing they are supporting the Forever Locked program of the Wildlife Heritage Foundation of New Hampshire. A nonprofit partner of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, the Foundation aims “to educate both kids and adults on New Hampshire’s natural world, provide scholarship support for youth to attend New Hampshire’s Barry Conservation Camp, and contribute to conserving wild places in the Granite State,” according to their website, nhwildlifeheritage.org/forever-locked. A new initiative coming to the Flying Goose this summer is a beer named after and inspired by Rik’s good friend Jen Hauser, who is gravely ill with cancer. “She’s pretty […] awesome. She loves IPAs. We’re going to do a really cool label.” Hauser Session IPA will clock in at 4.9% ABV and will on tap in mid-May. A percentage of the proceeds from each batch will be donated to Amy’s Treat, a nonprofit in Dover that is “dedicated to providing solutions to the day-to-day difficulties of living with cancer and offers unexpected ‘treats’ to renew the spirit,” according to their website, amystreat.org. After 12 years with Flying Goose and more than 20 in the brewing field, Rik is still energized by the work. “My favorite to brew is something new that I’m not sure how it’s going to come out.” And like any true brewing aficionado, when asked his own favorite, Rik’s answer is, “The next one.” 

Rik Marley, Brewmaster Flying Goose Pub 40 Andover Road New London, NH (603) 526-6899 FLYINGGOOSE.COM

Lake Sunapee

Seeking four season fun that won’t break the budget? Consider exploring the Lake Access Communities that surround Lake Sunapee. Discover private golf courses, deeded boatslips, tennis, swimming pools, endless beaches, skiing, fishing and so much more!

White Shutters Eagle Rock

Steamboat Landing

Browns Hill

Granliden

Meadow Brook Indian Cave

Fishers Bay

Oakledge

North Peak Village

Our agents will help you compare and contrast the unique aspects of these truly special neigborhoods. You can also explore these and more on our website at FourSeasonsSIR.com.

Blye Hill