Fortnight Brewing creates authentic English-inspired ales at their craft brewery in Cary. Founded and run by a team that includes English natives and North Carolinians, the brewery uses English ingredients to brew beers like the ones the expatriots remember from home.
President Stuart Arnold moved from Yorkshire in the UK for a job in RTP. Unable to find beers that tasted like those from home, he home brewed for ten years before starting Fortnight in 2014 (named for the length of time it takes to make the beer). Fortnight imports English malt, hops, and yeast, using them in combination with American ingredients to make the best tasting beer. Their beers are mainly north-English style, which is more malty and less hoppy than American beers. Other ingredients, like coffee or chocolate, are sourced locally.
Fortnight is large by craft brewery standards: the brewery is 25,000 square feet, and each batch produces about 7700 pints. They have their own canning line, which fills 35 cans per minute. Relative to glass bottles, cans are less breakable, cheaper, easier and more efficient to handle and stack, easier to recycle, and better for the beer because they are better-sealed and offer light protection. The brewery also makes cask ale; there is always one available in their on-site tasting room. Cask ale is aged differently; you can taste test it against the same beer aged in a conventional vat.
Fortnight’s tasting room is open every day, and they give free tours every weekend. Learn more at http://fortnightbrewing.com/. Read about our visit on our blog, and watch a video below [coming soon].