Oral History Feature | Kinney Baughman

Kinney was the first professional brewer in Watauga County. We sat down with him to discuss the early days of brewing.

Jimmy Carter passed the law in 1978 that made home brewing legal for the first time since Prohibition. This whole craft brewing industry grew out of that, I just happened to be there at the cutting edge. I had the idea that what the homebrew world needs is a fermenter that takes the yeast away from the bottom instead of me spending all of my time racking the beer off the top. And that’s when I came up with the idea for the upside down fermenter, and I started my little business Brewco. Once I had my business, I packed it up and would take it to the National Home Brewers Conference, the biggest party in the United States. One hotel filled with the most enthusiastic brewers in the country, every one of them bringing the best beers that they had brewed that past year and cannot wait to share it with you. It was unbelievable.
I mean, the sense of camaraderie in the beer business is just unparalleled. We just helped each other out. We weren't really competitors. We were like y’know brothers of the craft. And I miss that. That was a really a big, big part of it all. The sense of we were doing something new, doing something special, we thought.

Instagram: @bubblemanboone
Photo by Ashley Warren @naturalcraftphotography
blowingrockmuseum.org/see/wataugaworks