On an August afternoon inside Swamp Head Brewery’s scorching warehouse bay, they’re preparing to change out a 10-barrel brew kettle.
The worn-out unit is an essential cog in the brewing process – so much so that after approximately five years of boiling wort and hops and other beer-making additives, Swamp Head’s massive metal pot has run its course.
“We’ve boiled so many times on our brew kettle that it’s starting to crack,” says Brandon Nappy, strategic marketing manager for Swamp Head.
The old kettle’s replacement easily costs a few thousand dollars, but it’s hard to complain. The shiny new piece of equipment, after all, is symbolic of Swamp Head’s stunning success.
Since the homegrown microbrewery incorporated in 2008 and started distributing beer the following year, it has grown pervasive, boasting more than 200 taps at bars and restaurants in Gainesville and Ocala, plus another 200 or so throughout the state. And they haven’t even ventured into South Florida yet.
“They’re steadily growing and definitely pretty well known as the hometown brand in Gainesville,” says Josh Aubuchon, executive director of the Florida Brewers Guild and a lawyer in Tallahassee. “They’ve got a good following here in Tallahassee, too.”
“It has been surreal,” says Luke Kemper, the brewery’s founder. “Going places, and everyone’s like, ‘You guys work with Swamp Head?’ and everyone’s so excited and fired up. It’s fantastic.”
Or, as Nappy puts it: “We love Gainesville, and Gainesville loves us.”
Kemper’s love affair with Gainesville is no fluke: He was born and raised here. His relationship with beer, though, started when his older brother moved to the craft brew Mecca of Boulder, Colo.
Kemper followed his brother there but eventually came back to Gainesville to finish his degree. After another stint away, he came back to Gainesville once again – this time to attend grad school. Instead, he hooked up with Craig Birkmaier, a family friend who’d been brewing beer in his garage and smoking the competition in home brewer’s competitions.
“One thing led to another: I bought the equipment, hired him and we jumped in head first,” Kemper says. “I had never brewed a batch of beer in my life. I drank quite a few, but I had never brewed any myself.”
Whether fate, timing or innate business sense, the stars seemed to align. The two found a warehouse park buried on an obscure side road near Butler Plaza and set up shop.
“I think one thing that’s nice about being off the beaten path,” Kemper says, “is everyone who comes here wants to be here, which creates a good vibe and atmosphere.”
At the same time, they were struggling to find the perfect name when Kemper’s wife, Katie, a “bar maiden” at the brewery, suggested “Swamp Head.”
“As much as I was disgruntled I didn’t come up with it,” Kemper says, “I was like, ‘Dang it, that’s a good name.’”
A year later, Swamp Head’s Wild Night was tapped at Stubbies & Steins and the Alcove, a downtown bar no longer in business.
“Craig and I happened to have a few buddies in town, and it was pretty exciting to go out the first night…seeing your tap handle there at the bar and being able to order your beer,” Kemper says. “Everybody was really fired up about it. It was awesome.”
But the brewery really started to develop a local following when it opened The Wetlands, a tasting room that got its name through a Facebook contest.
“As soon as we did the official opening, it was slammed for the first few days,” Nappy says. “We started with very limited hours … now we’ve opened seven days a week until 9 p.m.”
The narrow, and often packed, bar primarily sells beer by the pint or in refillable 32- or 64-ounce take-home jugs known as growlers.
“We do a tasting flight,” says Andrew Bielecki, the tasting room manager best known for his stout beard. “It’s a 5-ounce pour of our core beers. That’s my best recommendation is when you show up at Swamp Heard, try all of our core beers and then go from there.”
Those core beers (also known as the Year Round Fleet) are Big Nose, Cottonmouth, Stump Knocker, Midnight Oil and the aforementioned Wild Night.
“Most people know of Big Nose if they know of Swamp Head,” Nappy says of the brewery’s popular IPA.
“Their beers have been more traditional than most of our beers,” says Wayne Wambles, head brewer at Cigar City Brewing in Tampa. “From the things I’ve seen recently, they’re beginning to become more experimental.”
Those experiments can be found in “limited-release” beers such as the Russian imperial stout infused with cocoa nibs and coffee beans or the chipotle-smoked porter.
On Firkin Thursdays, Nappy says, brewers have been infusing kegs (or firkins) of core beers with ingredients such as caramelized apples and bacon to create small, creative batches.
On most Tuesday nights, Swamp Head also taps a beer from its Ephemeral Series. “This past Tuesday it was a wet-hop beer,” Nappy says. “We overnighted hops from North Carolina that were freshly picked off the vine.”
“… Some of their rarities and one-offs are really fantastic,” Aubuchon says. “They have an Imperial Stout aging in bourbon barrels that’s fantastic. They made a Roosevelt Barley Wine, a collaboration that they bottled, and that was tremendous.”
Swamp Head’s beers also have been well received in competitions. In 2011, Swamp Head’s Blackwater ale won Best of Show at the Best Florida Beer Championships while its Smoke Signal porter finished in second place.
“With Swamp Head on the market, it made everyone pay a little more attention to beer,” says Paul Evans, owner of Tall Paul’s Brew House downtown. “They’re our best-selling brand.”
So it comes as no great surprise that after five years these guys have worn out a brew kettle. Or that after nearly doubling in size since they first opened, they’re now looking to expand again. And start a canning operation.
“We have our can designs all ready, and ready to go,” Nappy says.
There’s currently no timeline for the canning process to begin, but success isn’t always measured in finite terms around here, not when there are charities to sponsor, apples to caramelize or firkins to manipulate.
“For me, success is somebody who’s accomplishing their goals both professionally and personally while also not sacrificing their standards, so it’s somebody people still look up to and respect,” Kemper says. “…we may not always grow the fastest; we may not always make as much money on certain things. We may spend more money on our tanks versus buying them from China, but we think it’s important.”
And Gainesville can drink to that.