Go inside Fordham & Dominion Brewing Co.'s craft soda bottling operation.
Go inside Fordham & Dominion Brewing Co.'s craft soda bottling operation.
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Cooper Asay’s father was thrilled when Asay got a job at Fordham & Dominion Brewing Company in Dover. But it wasn’t because he loved the craft beer that made the brands so popular. It’s because Dominion offers four soda flavors, including root beer, the bestseller.
“My dad loves root beer,” explained Asay, manager of quality assurance for the brewery. “He now gets root beer all the time.”
Old Dominion was making root beer and ginger ale when Fordham Brewing Company purchased it in 2007 and then moved the combined operations to Dover. Since then, the line added Creamy Orange and Black Cherry. No matter the flavor, the sodas are infused with “love,” Asay said. “We make it. There’s no machine. If a valve is turned [during the process] a guy... turned the valve himself. People make an impact.”
The company is on the cutting edge. Craft and specialty sodas made with pure cane sugar are a hit with consumers avoiding high fructose corn syrup – now considered a culinary villain.
Chefs are also spotting the trend. House-made soft drinks top the list of non-alcoholic beverage trends, according to “What’s Hot,” the National Restaurant Association’s 2014 culinary forecast.
Consider that the Matt Haley Companies’ eight restaurants now feature “Matt’s Sodas,” whose flavors include Lemon-Berry, Strawberry-Basil-Chili, and Black and White, which contains black pepper and white balsamic vinegar.
But in Delaware, will the trend pop or plop?
Old-fashioned fun
The consumer’s love affair with carbonated drinks has a long history. In 1807 Dr. Philip Syng Physick, the “Father of American Surgery,” introduced artificially carbonated water for “the relief of gastric disorders” to Philadelphians. Fruit syrup was later added to make the treatment more appealing, and the spoonful of sugar helped the medicine go down – whether you needed relief or not. (J. Del Conner, Physick’s great-great-great grandson has since reintroduced his ancestor’s black cherry soda to the market. It’s a hit particularly in Philly’s Old City area, where you can also find teaberry, sassafras, chocolate and cherry sodas at The Franklin Fountain.)
As sodas grew more mainstream and generic, many baby boomers and their parents started waxing nostalgic for more fun flavors: ginger beer, sarsaparilla, blueberry and green apple.
You might find any or all at five Best Ace Hardware stores in Sussex County, which offer a variety through the Mom & Pop Soda Shoppe, a display marketed by Real Soda Midwest.
Selections, which vary on any given day, might include Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory’s Coco Fizz Chocolate Soda, Cicero Beverage Co.’s Lime Soda, Swamp Pop’s Satsuma Fizz and Abita Root Beer from Louisiana.
“It’s a little bit out of the ordinary,” said executive vice president Andrew Best of installing a soda display in a hardware shop. “But we thought it was fun. Customers seem to enjoy it and the staff here are working their way through the flavors.” (His favorite sodas usually include coffee.)
A Step Above
Most the sodas that Best Ace Hardware sells are made with pure cane sugar, which is also the case at Fordham. (The root beer also has a touch of honey.) Health-conscious customers appreciate the natural ingredients, Asay said.
Dominion’s sodas don’t venture too far afield from well-known flavors – black cherry is about as wild as it gets. But since many craft sodas are brewed in small batches, much like craft beer, makers can get esoteric.
When Ben Potts took over as the head brewer in Dogfish Head’s Rehoboth Beach brewpub, he added more raw ingredients to the recipe for brewery’s “Beach Beer,” a cream soda-root beer hybrid. Take Bourbon vanilla beans and freshly cut rosemary, both of which are allowed to steep in the liquid.
“The vanilla beans enhance the cream soda aspect, while the rosemary adds a unique herbal complexity,” Potts explained. The recipe also includes brown sugar.
Matt’s Sodas also combine intriguing ingredients. The soda with strawberries, basil and chili “starts out fruity and gets a little bite at the end,” said Scott Kammerer, chief operations officer for the Matt Haley Companies.
Like Haley, chefs who continually think outside the bottle and the box see sodas as a way to perk up the menu. For the Farmer & the Chef South, a March of Dimes fundraiser on Aug. 28, Paul Gallo, executive chef at Nage in Rehoboth Beach, planned to serve a watermelon soda.
Hari Cameron of a(MUSE.) in Rehoboth Beach, who’s known for his creative streak, makes homemade sodas “when the mood strikes me,” he said. “There is nothing better than making a non-alcoholic ginger beer carbonated through fermentation.”
He’s also made an “old school” cherry phosphate and a celery-vanilla soda.
At Harry’s Savoy Grill and Harry’s Seafood Grill in Wilmington, guests can request The Nomad, made with lime, pineapple, habanero pepper, agave syrup and club soda.
A crowd pleaser
At these restaurants, craft sodas allow non-drinkers and underage drinkers to enjoy a creative beverage without alcohol. That’s also true for brewpubs, such as Iron Hill & Restaurant, which has made its own root beer since its first location opened in 1996. “It has always been a strong seller for us,” said Mark Edelson, director of brewery operations.
People who come to Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats for unusual beers and food would rather have a craft soda than plain old Pepsi.
There are other advantages. While many brewery tours cater to those who are 21 and older, Dominion’s sodas make a tour of the Fordham/Dominion brewery interesting for kids. And at onsite events, both parents and kids can carry a “long neck,” Asay said.
But while the sodas are a whimsical alternative to a cocktail or beer, they can also add sparkle to alcohol. Matt’s Sodas, for instance, are served at tastings at Painted Stave Distilling in Smyrna. (The Matt Haley Companies in turn features Painted Stave’s spirits in its restaurants.)
Small bath. Bit impact.
Like craft beer, part of a craft soda’s appeal is a limited release. While Dominion sodas are distributed as far west as Tennessee and as far south as North Carolina, they’re primarily limited to the area in which you can find the beer – about a 200-mile radius from Dover.
Beach Beer was initially sold only at Dogfish Head’s pub. Now it’s also at the brewery. “Demand has risen now that we’re reaching twice the audience,” Potts said. But you won’t find it in retail outlets.
Likewise, Iron Hill’s root beer is only sold at its locations. Don’t bother asking to fill your growler with the root beer. To date, there’s no system that can dispense the soda properly and still ensure a quality product, Edelson said.
Matt Haley, founder of the Matt Haley Companies, said it’s been challenging to keep up with the demand for the sodas in his eight restaurants. (It’s also sold through the company’s new food truck, Big Thunder Roadside Kitchen.) Nevertheless, he has plans to open a facility to make and bottle the products. By 2015, consumers can hopefully find them in local markets and restaurants that are interested in serving them.
While the Small Wonder might still be slow on the uptake, craft and specialty sodas may bubble to the top as more consumers looks for alternatives to big name brands, which have a tarnished reputation due to reports that link traditional soda with obesity. Los Angels-based Reed’s, which makes Original Ginger Brew, expects sales to grow up to 20 percent this year.
As for Dominion’s products, they’re not growing to the degree that craft beer is growing – “but it’s still growing,” Asay said.
And for now, that’s enough to keep this effervescent sector from falling flat.