CityView Magazine

w fashioned block ice crusher. His grand- pa’s recipe tells the rest of the story: “Melt 10 pounds of sugar with hot water (least amount of water you can get away with – less water the stronger the taste of the grapes) per five gallon bucket of grapes,” reads the instruc- tions handed down for two genera- tions. “At two weeks, taste wine to see if you need more sugar. Wine should be fermented and ready to drink in six to eight weeks.” For years, Spell ran his own paving business. He recently sold the business but still wears an old ball cap that pro- claims, “We Lay Hot Stuff.” Now, he spends time brewing batches of home- made wine inside the old-fashioned country store on his farm near Hope Mills. It’s not far to The Church of the Apos- tles in the heart of Hope Mills where the Rev. Dan Alger is pastor. He’s also an amateur beer maker. With the help of a kit, a couple of buckets and a home kegging system, Alger can enjoy a cold glass of beer almost anytime. Instead of bottling his brew, Alger modified a chest freezer into a beer cooler. He uses the small torpedo-shaped kegs some- times used for soda. “It’s kind of an art for people who are better at it than I am,” he said. “There’s something fun about it, to make it and sit around and drink it with your friends.” Alger has even inspired some of his parishioners. Charlie Moreton began to dabble and before he knew it, he was de- veloping his own recipes. Next, he plans to grow his own hops. Jason Vincent already has. He and Troy Sacquety brew up batches of homemade beer in Sacquety’s garage in the Kinwood neighborhood. Both men work on Fort Bragg, but they met through a beer forum online. Now, they have fun experimenting with the thou- sands of variations that go into beer making – changes in temperature, time and types of hops and yeasts. They get help from Julie Baggett, brewmaster at Huske Hardware House Restaurant. Huske and Mash House are two Fay- etteville breweries and restaurants that make their own beer onsite. Vincent and Sacquety say they enjoy trying different kinds of beer, beer they would have a hard time finding in local shops. “The beer is good, it really is,” More- ton says. “What you brew is going to be a premium beer, not watered down and processed. “The thing is you actually learn the whole science behind it. It’s informative, educational – everyone should do it. Ev- eryone used to do it.” In the years before Prohibition, each region of North Carolina had its own premier wine and beer makers. North Carolina is the home of our nation’s first cultivated grape. The first recorded ac- count of these grapes occurs in the log- book of Giovanni de Verrazano, French explorer and navigator, who, in 1524, discovered them in the Cape Fear River Valley. Sir Walter Raleigh’s explorers wrote in 1584 that the coast of North Carolina was “so full of grapes as the very beating and surge of the sea over- flowed them ... in all the world, the like abundance is not to be found.” The Scuppernong, part of the musca- dine grape family, is native to southern states but only North Carolina claims the original native Scuppernong as its own. According to published sources, Sir Raleigh’s colony is credited with discovering the famed Scuppernong “mother vine” on Roanoke Island and introducing it elsewhere. During the 17th and 18th centuries, cuttings of the mother vine were placed into pro- duction around a small town called Scuppernong in Washington County and along the Cape Fear River east of Fayetteville. Today, muscadines are thriving again as vineyards spread across southeastern North Carolina. They have become big business for wineries such as Duplin, the oldest and largest in North Carolina. But still, backyard brewers like Don- nie Spell continue to make their own, a ritual every harvest. Spell says he is teaching his nephew, Joseph Spell, how to make the wine to keep the family tra- dition going. “Drinking wine is good for you if you do it in moderation,” says Spell. “It is healthy. If you don’t believe it, ask the doctor.” CV CityViewNC.com | 37

• Cover