Phil Maple’s dream is becoming a reality. It all began more than 10 years ago, when Maple and business partner Chef Brad Sueflohn began discussing opening a gastropub. Money issues quashed those early plans, but Maple continued to homebrew with his father as Sueflohn perfected his chef skills in Las Vegas. Four years ago, the idea for WICKED BARLEY began to take shape. With the addition of partners Brett Baker and Tobin Turney, a brewery was born.
The philosophy at Wicked Barley, next to Goodby’s Creek Bridge on Baymeadows Road, is to shake the local beer scene up a bit. True to their motto — Naughty Ales for Noble Souls — their goal is to provide high-quality beer and upscale bar food in a setting that’s comfortable, inviting and in harmony with the Florida lifestyle.
The interior is done in weathered wood and finished concrete. Select your beer from the list on small chalkboards hanging over the bar. Outside, there’s plenty of seating along Goodby’s Creek — and even a boat dock. Plans are in the works for a kayak and canoe pull-out area near the dock.
In the back of the house, behind huge windows, the building has a 15-barrel brewhouse and row of fermenters that will brew beer, meads and ciders. And a state-of-the-art water purification system keeps the quality high. Maple plans to have at least 10 of Wicked Barley’s own beverages available within a month of licensing.
“We don’t play by the rules,” said Maple as we toured his shiny new brewery. “’Good enough’ gets poured down the drain. It just won’t … fly here.”
Throughout the operation, there’s an emphasis on product quality and a goal to use local providers as much as possible. For instance, the brewery’s ciders and meads are brewed with orange blossom honey sourced from a local apiary. In the kitchen, Chef Sueflohn is dedicated to using fresh, local ingredients as often as he can for house-made sausages, bacon, dressings and pretzels. He’s even going so far as to treat the water for pizza dough so it fits the profile of New York City’s water, thus, a more authentic NYC-style pie.
When the brewery opens on July 30, there’ll be 20 taps of craft beer, cider and mead. Most will likely be guest taps to be replaced with Wicked Barley brews as they are readied. Eventually, the number of taps will increase to 40. From those, Maple plans to pour eight core brews with a basis of heavy hop usage and an ever-changing selection of rotating specialties, like root beer mead and pineapple-raspberry Berliner Weiss.
Maple looks forward to taking his place in Northeast Florida’s craft beer community, certain that Wicked Barley will soon leap to the top of the heap beside the area’s bigger beer players. Phil Maple is proud to be part of a community that supports its own.
“The beautiful thing about craft beer,” Maple says, “is that it’s a unifier.”
FOLIO
Follow FOLIO!