I first met Amy Heller, Head Brewer for Arrow Lodge Brewing, during one of my frequent visits to Artifex Brewing Company in San Clemente. Amy had brought a completed Arrow Lodge/Artifex collaboration beer. The beer, named One Last Pull, was a Berliner Weisse with cherries and Meyer lemon. The complex and delicious flavors of tart cherries and lemon zest blew me away.
One Last Pull
Started by Victor Linares, Carlos Roman and Andy McIntyre, you’ll find Arrow Lodge Brewing tucked up near the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in Covina, CA. Unlike the exterior, the interior definitely possesses a mountain lodge type vibe.
Arrow Lodge Brewing
Amy Heller started out as a wine maker. She attended CSU Fresno and obtained a degree in Enology. While in school, she started homebrewing as a way to practice fermentation. With wine you basically get one shot per year to ferment and evaluate the results. Brewing beer provided more frequent opportunities to experiment with fermentation and learn.
Upon graduating with her degree, Amy began working as a wine maker in northern California’s Anderson Valley area. Amy later moved to Napa Valley to work. After making wine in Napa, she returned to Southern California to support an ill family member. With no local wine industry opportunities, Amy turned to brewing. With a background in homebrewing and expertise in fermentation science, Amy found the transition easy. She landed a job with Congregation Ale House. During this time, Amy also earned a brewing diploma from the American Brewers Guild.
When the opportunity arose, Amy accepted the job as the Head Brewer for a new brewery business venture that is now known as Arrow Lodge Brewing. Furthermore, her early involvement allowed Amy to lead the design and installation of the brewing systems. A 1.5 bbl pilot brewing system is visible from the bar. And a 15 bbl production brewing system lies hidden from the bar area.
Amy Heller’s passion for fermentation and brewing radiate from every fiber of her body. Her vision – “To continue to brew small batch beers and to experiment with the use of unique ingredients, yeast and bacteria. To develop a barrel program for sour and non-sour beers.”
What is your vision for Arrow Lodge beers?
Keep them diverse. Always experimenting and having some new beers coming up in the tap lineup. That’s why the pilot system is so beneficial.
In time, we are definitely starting a sour beer and barrel program. Coming from the wine industry, I’m very familiar working with wine barrels and I love it. Even as a homebrewer I loved working with “bugs”. So I’m very excited for this program to eventually happen. However, we will need more space. That will come in time.
How else did your wine background influence your vision to make sours and barrel-aged beers?
Well, you are seeing a lot of people doing sours working with grapes and wine barrels. However, there are things I’ve done on the wine making side that I have never seen done in beer that I can’t wait to do. Also, being familiar with working with oak and barrels influences my vision.
Definitely the sensory training I received in wine making school and how my palate developed has been a huge influence for my approach. And I believe they add an extra dimension to my beer making.
Any related beers that have inspired your vision for moving forward with a sour and barrel aging program?
Definitely lambics. Love them. And on the American side, the sours that other brewers are making and adding fruit. I love working with fruit. I have some kettle sours with fruit already on tap. All of these relate to my wine making background and future vision.