Gallant Fox Brewing Co: Kentucky Born, Kentucky Proud

Gallant Fox Brewing Co:
Kentucky Born, Kentucky Proud

Malteurop Celebrates Craft Breweries During American Craft Beer Week

The annual nationwide event of American Craft Beer Week, May 16-22, 2022, celebrates small and independent craft breweries throughout the U.S. Malteurop (MMC) is proud to highlight just a few of these remarkable breweries through their stories behind the beer. Let’s raise a glass to salute the resilient and extraordinary community that is craft beer!

About Gallant Fox Brewing Company

“It’s such a fun happy accident that we started a brewery.”

One day in 2009, Roger Huff went to work like he did every day. Except this day the marketing team, including Roger, met with the IT team. Why was this meeting so significant? This was when Roger met his future business partner, Patrick Workman, changing the course of both of their lives.

Finding out that they both loved homebrewing, Roger and Patrick decided to brew together. Starting out in Roger’s garage, as most homebrewers do, the two of them kept buying more equipment, and their homebrewing endeavors became more expansive within a small space. And as a result, as the typical story also goes, Roger’s wife eventually kicked them both out of the garage.

On a hunt for commercial space that would allow them more room to continue homebrewing, they came across an artist collective building with space available, so they leased 900 square feet. Unbeknownst to them, this space would later become their very own full-blown commercial brewery. But in the meantime, they brewed for their poker and football buddies. Realizing it might appear to others that they had an actual brewery, they decided to make it legal.

And as so often happens, over pints of beer and conversation, one thing led to another and Gallant Fox Brewing Company officially opened their doors during what would have been Derby Weekend in 2020. And they have been expanding ever since.

“When you’re authentic with your customers and have a customer centric attitude with craft beer, people can see this, and we’ve brought our customers along for the journey.” The Story Behind the Name

“We are Kentucky boys who own a Kentucky proud brewery who make Kentucky beer.”

And for that reason, Gallant Fox became the name. The 1930 Triple Crown winner, Gallant Fox embodies Kentucky. From the regality of a fox to the symbolism of outdoors, Gallant Fox seamlessly fit into what Roger and Patrick wanted to build within their brewery.

Handcrafted workmanship throughout the taproom and earthy colors and vibes, not to mention the wall of fox portraits, this neighborhood brewery is pure Kentucky. Right down to their on-site Kentucky bourbon bar alongside their brews.

“Beer is what we love and not just beer. We like experiencing beer with people. And we’ve tried to make Gallant Fox an experience.”

Fresh Kentucky Beers and Kentucky Bourbon

People love variety, and that is what Roger, Patrick, and the team at Gallant Fox deliver. With only two core beers on tap, the remaining 18 taps are open to discussion.

“We take a very different approach. We meet every week to determine what’s working and what people love, and what we want to drink, and we brew that.”

Their two core beers are based on their two locations continuing their focus on their love of Kentucky. One is a West Coast IPA called Straight Outta Clifton, after the area of Louisville their brewery is located, and the other is an American Lager called The Golden Bullitt, after the county of their next soon to be open location.

Other beers that they have brewed in the past include traditional beers, along with fun, quirky ones such as a Banana Moon Pie Milk Stout and a Key Lime Pie Sour Ale. They are constantly creating new recipes, coming up with beers such as a Pistachio Butter and Cherry Red Ale and a recent one as a collaboration with a local seltzeria called Blueberry Cobbler Wheat Ale.

But these Kentucky boys love their bourbons, too. And Roger, also taking on the role of the spirits buyer for Gallant Fox, won’t sell you something he hasn’t tasted.

“I don’t care about the cost of the bottle, I want to know what it tastes like. I’m not putting something in my bar if I haven’t tasted it myself.”

And with 250 plus bottles of Kentucky bourbon at the brewery, including two rows of vintage spirits, he knows his bourbon, just as much as he knows his beer.

“We try to make beer approachable for bourbon drinkers and bourbon approachable for beer drinkers.”

Understanding that Gallant Fox Brewing Company is in a unique position being in bourbon country, they are able to put complementary flavors together utilizing the plethora of barrels available to them in Kentucky.

“But your beer has gotta be good. If you’re gonna drop it in a bourbon barrel, your beer has gotta be good.”

The Future of Craft Beer

Breweries are understanding that shelf space is limited and it’s not a winnable fight. Because of this, Roger still sees a possible boom in the craft beer industry. Breweries are looking at how to do more, to maximize more. More like inhouse sales and increased footprints across bars and restaurants. More like opening satellite locations. He believes that over the next five years, we will continue to see more breweries opening up, especially in areas that don’t have any yet.

And when it comes to the future of Gallant Fox Brewing, their growth will be like that as well, growing their current location, along with a new one set to open up this year with increased production space and a full kitchen.

Kentucky Derby Driven

Opening their doors on what would have been Derby Weekend in May of 2020, we had to find out more about this special event. We’ll let Roger tell you about it in his own words.

“When you go to the track it’s about the experience. Hundreds of thousands of people descend upon this race track and have been doing so for over 100 years. There’s a southern pageantry to it. Throw your pastel sport coat on, put in a pocket square, tie your bow tie, smoke a cigar, and drink bourbon.

Southern Kentucky charm boiled down to something so simple, yet still retaining its finest qualities.

When it comes to betting, Roger has a bit of advice that does include placing some small bets on the horses. Doing this makes an exciting event even more so, but his best advice is all about the bourbon.

“The best bet of the day is not making a bet on the horses but betting on good bourbon to drink.”

Moving Forward with Support

In Roger’s words, “Gallant Fox is a Malteurop malt brewery.” With relationships being extremely important to both Roger and Patrick, it’s one thing that Malteurop is fast and the product speaks for itself. But what really counts is that Rick Barney, one of Malteurop’s Craft Sales Managers, is very big on building relationships. He’s an advocate for Gallant Fox and so many other breweries in the region.

“Relationships for us are key and having someone that comes in and talks with us and gets to know us as people, that means a lot to us. There’s a reason why we have Malteurop and we haven’t looked at anyone else because we’re getting the support we need.”

And it’s no different when it comes to Malteurop’s new and innovative malts, as well. Roger and Patrick are able to create the beers they love with the flavors they expect.

“We used the Steamed C3.5. It allowed us to get that maltier caramel flavor without increasing the color of the beer. And at the base, every brewer brews beer for themselves, and I like malt forward beers. And products like this allow us to dial in the colors and exact maltiness that we want in our beer.”

Brewing for American Craft Beer Week

When we spoke with Roger, they hadn’t yet formulated their plans for American Craft Beer Week, but they are excited to be participating in it. Even more so, they are excited about being a destination for people to experience it alongside them.

Getting Personal with Beer

Roger’s answer to our question of who he is outside of beer was no surprise to us. “I have an extensive bourbon collection and bourbon is one of my hobbies.”

Ok, so outside of bourbon then?

It’s a tough question for him because he does not like to have a separation between work and family. So much so that his five year old thinks he owns the brewery. Good start, Dad. Get ‘em going young. His wife and his partner’s wife are also a part of the team. It truly is a family business.

And in response to one of our favorite questions, defining who you are if you were a beer, he did manage to surprise us. Within seconds, he had an answer.

“I would be a Belgian style beer. Big and bold. Kinda in your face. An acquired taste with time.”

And he went on to also define Patrick. “He would be a gruit because he is my yin to my yang. He is an outdoorsman, a traditionalist. We call him the lumberjack because he wears flannel and plaid and he’s that guy and his personality shines through in our brand with his love of the outdoors.”

Thank You!

Rick Barney Jr., along with his dad, Rick Barney Sr., are both fixtures in the Kentucky bourbon and beer scene. Without them and the likes of Malteurop Malting Company, we’d be hard pressed to have the same quality of bourbons and beers coming out of Kentucky.

And then when you bring in the likes of breweries such as Gallant Fox onto the scene of high quality Kentucky beers, it all comes full circle.

“It’s the circle of life in Kentucky. We got your malt. We used it to brew. I sent the spent grains to Rosedale Farm. The farmer fed it to his hogs. I bought a hog. It was processed using my Red Ale. I cooked the bratwurst on my grill.”

That’s the circle of life. That’s craft.