When the Saints go marching in...

Four Saints Brewing pays homage to the patron saints of beer, Saint Wenceslaus, Saint Nicholas, Saint Luke and Saint Augustine of Hippo. They’ve become the most recognized patron saints for brewing and beer because of their contributions to and associations with the world’s favorite sudsy beverage.

Four Saints Founders Joel McClosky and Andrew Deming are carrying on the brewing tradition in the hopes of future sainthood, or at least to make some really good beer.

The Decision

Andrew and I met a few years ago through Andrew’s wife, whom I worked with. Initially it was the manly stuff…NFL, gun ranges, chamomile tea. Wait, scratch that last one. Beer. It was beer. We shared styles and breweries we liked with each other. Then, on one special moonlit night, Andrew mentioned he was a homebrewer. He shared some homebrew he had, and needless to say there wasn’t enough of it. It was damn good. My OCD then (un)necessarily kicked into high gear, and Andrew set a date for our first tandem brew.

Since it was my first brewing experience, I got to choose the style. With stout being one of my favorite styles, and one that Andrew found quite quaffable, guess what was chosen. Andrew designed an oatmeal stout, grain bills were filled, and a date was set. Alongside a few friends, who also had never brewed beer before, Andrew walked us through the steps. He explained the process the best he could to a small gathering of man-children who kept repeating, “Dude, we’re making beer!” over and over again. He dealt with it quite well.

Initially, the stout didn’t seem like it was going to make it. Something seemed off. Andrew spoke with borrowed wisdom from Charlie Papazian, “Relax. Don’t worry. Have a homebrew.” And boy, it was the truth.

With some patience, and some brewing in the meanwhile, that first stout went from something a dog wouldn’t drink to an epic elixir. Once that first corny keg was tapped, we couldn’t keep our friends or ourselves away from it. No one developed addictions or dependencies, but egos were boosted. Taste buds were happy. This is nearly the same recipe still used for Stout One; the only improvements have to been for efficiency sake.

This small group of friends continued brewing as homebrewers, for the love of it. Then one fateful day, one of the guys sent a link to an article about four patron saints of beer and brewing. The statement was made, “Four Saints would make a great name for a brewery.” The flint had been struck and the tinder was dry. We were engulfed in email after email and link after link of what it would take to start a brewery.

If we were brewing for the love of beer, why get into the rigmarole of making it a business? The answer: It seemed right. Our guts said, usually after a raved about homebrew, to just do it. All four of the original group had never really stepped out of the line of normalcy. We had always done what we were supposed to do: go to school, go to work, join the service, and so on. None of us had really had taken a grave chance on doing something extraordinary. This was it; this was that chance.

During the next few months, conversations happened. Hard choices were made. Realizations came through. The original four had become two – Andrew and Joel. With a firm handshake and the statement, “We’re going to brew beer in Asheboro,” our eyes narrowed on the uncertain future and the tasks in hand. In the Andrew’s other hand was the grain for the next brew, and a business plan was in mine. It was time to make Great Beer for Great People.

Asheboro, NC...Seriously?

North Carolina is home to some of the newest and best up-and-coming breweries in the business. The eye of the beer world seems to be shifting ever so slightly to what’s happening in NC regarding beer. With places like Hickory, Greensboro, Raleigh-Durham, Aberdeen, Morganton, Carrboro, and the list could go on and on having at least one brewery, how could we not want to do this in North Carolina? Not only are these places paving the way for new breweries like Four Saints, these established breweries have been so willing to talk with us. Although they could view us as competition and ignore our questions and be devilish, they have been exactly the opposite. How could we not want to be part of a community or family like that?

Asheboro was chosen because of the recent drive the city, like make small cities, has had to revive the downtown aspect of Asheboro. The recognition that a community will only strive if the community supports itself has become truth. Since day one Four Saints has received nothing but affirmations, support, and willingness from many of the community’s upstanding citizens. Most, if not all, are ready to help get Four Saints up and running. With the NC Zoological Park a few miles away, the International Potter’s Convention right downtown, and a slew of community driven events, Asheboro seems like the right kind of place for Four Saints Brewing Company.

Not to mention, from our research (and we aren’t Indiana Jones’ by any stretch of the imagination) there has never been an official brewery in Randolph County. Being a part of history can be a pretty damn cool thing.

Style Guide(rs)

We are beer lovers, obviously, and our palettes are pretty wide open. We partake of everything from pilsners to imperial stouts, from classic styles to experimental atrocities. We see Four Saints’ beers in the same way; not defined or limited by a focused niche. Extreme niche or style focus works for some breweries, and they put out good beer. Our thought is that by dabbling in a little of everything, it’ll make us stronger brewers and possibly lead to some interesting integrations, too.

Andrew’s a huge Belgian fan; his Dubbel is tremendous. I’d put it up against just about anybody’s. So, we like working with Belgian styles, some with a little more added to the character. Our early winter seasonal, a Caramel Quadrupel, is a perfect example: estery, smooth, slight alcohol burn in the throat, and subdued extravagant sweetness.

Joel's a fan of big, bold, slap-you-in-the-face beers. Beers that make you respect them are some of my favorites. Our St. Augustine Jalapeno Smoked Brown Ale is an exemplar of just such a beer: peppery, smoky, and metamorphic.
Do you have a question you’d like for us to answer?

Feel free to contact us with any questions you may have. Email seems to work best since we sometimes miss social media direct messages and can’t always answer our phones. You can email us through the contact info at the bottom of every page on this website. We will answer what we can, when we can, in the best ways we can. All this talk about cans…it’s time for a beer. Cheers.