Perhaps it is the organic ingredients, or the mountain spring water.  Could it be the natural hops, grains, and honey right from the farm?  Or, is Brett Nichols the greatest brewmaster to ever make beer.

Too much, you think?

Wait until you take the top off a Shooting Creek Farm brew: taste the silken, pure, complex taste, and then join me in exalting the best small brewery in North America.  High on the Blue Ridge, Shooting Creek Farm Brewery sits on Brett and Johanna Nichols’ certified organic Five Penny Farm in legendary Floyd county.  

There are six distinct brews offered by the farm, and while I am the type to pick favorites, with this roster I am undone.

The Snapping Turtle IPA is a revelation in both flavor and clean finish.  It makes Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale taste pale indeed…  Once a fan, I can no longer enjoy the Sierra Nevada, so spoiled am I by the new standard of excellence Shooting Creek Farm has set.

Red Tractor is so good, so drinkable and delicious, that during my tasting I unprofessionally yet unstoppably drank half the six pack.

Rebel Ale will make you take up arms under the Shooting Creek Farm Brewery banner.  Is it too good to share?  Well, when locals heard a reporter was writing about their brewery, I got several calls asking me not to mention the Rebel Ale for fear of a shortage.

Buffalo Brown is a beer I am confident will go on to win any taste test it enters.  Delightfully complex, yet smooth and satisfying, one Buffalo Brown surpasses the pleasure of six Rouge Ales’ ‘Brown Nectar’

Wildflower Wheat gets its name from the local honey that goes into this magical dunkelweiss.  Germans will suffer when they have to admit they have been outdone.  I could drink this beer any time.

Then there is the Farmhouse Stout.  As a lover of fine stouts, I was excited to try it, yet left it for last. I am overwhelmed.  This beer makes Guinness and Rubicon seem simple and passe.  A stout with maple syrup and secrets the brew-master will not share, I suggest any beer lover order this by the case.

It is hard to ask for any more from Shooting Creek Farm Brewery, and yet always, when something is this good, you have to wonder if the brews can survive commercialization.  As long as this is a micro-brewery, the magic will stay in the bottle.  Now, can the team at Shooting Creek use some of that magic to keep the quality, and make enough for everyone?  The restaurants and bars around the farm sell out their kegs the day they offer it.  Shops sell out their six-packs the day they put it out.  Locals hoard it.

I hope the beer making geniuses can maintain this excellence, for all of us.

Gavin McKee writes reviews of food and drink for The East Coast Ledger and has been a reviewer for The Shadow and GNN as well as gourmet magazines.  Gavin McKee has written under many nom-de-plumes over the years to preserve his critical integrity.