A Family owned Farm Brewery and Sourdough Bread bakery in Schoharie County with a focus on
New York State rye.
~ Founded 2021
When we look out across the Schoharie Valley we see hope. We see the local farms dotted with greenhouses, tractors laying out hay and cows grazing in the fields, and we feel so lucky to live here. This land was at one time called the “breadbasket of New York state,” flourishing with as many different crops as you can imagine, including hops. There’s an old newspaper article where a resident said, “who remembers when the ideal vacation consisted of a couple of weeks in Schoharie county, picking hops?’ and went on to describe a ‘culture that grew around hops where a community revolved around a day’s hard manual labor followed by late-night barn parties with local musicians.’
It seems these types of moments and opportunities that bring us together to build our community are becoming more scarce.
So our focus at Weiss Ferments is to create a nurturing environment. We want to be a place of restoration for everybody that sits in our backyard or enjoys our products at home. A place that is reminiscent of simpler times. And a place to drink really good beer.
ERICA
Brewer/Co-Founder
I may have worked in wine for the last decade but beer was my first love. When I lived in Colorado, each brewery that surrounded my house had a distinct personality. They acted more like a neighborhood tavern where the community would come together in a kind of fellowship. After a long shift in Boulder at Frasca Food and Wine, I’d spend the next day-off exploring the plethora of breweries with our dog Brett, trying a new beer in the company of others. In Brooklyn, we’d always meet our friends we worked with at Maialino at the Owl Farm to talk and laugh late into the night, forgetting about the grueling day we may have just had. And nothing was better after service when I was at Eleven Madison Park than getting off the train, anticipating a cold brew from Grimm waiting for me in the fridge like a little reward for a job well done.
That’s what I imagine for Weiss Ferments. A product or a place to unwind, relax and reflect on the beauty of our surrounding area. A chance to escape the hustle and bustle, even for a few minutes, and take time to focus on the important things in life.
BRIAN
Baker/Co-Founder
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Boy goes to Italy for the first time. Boy has all of the pasta, pizza, wine… and bread. O, the bread! The moment I was back in New York, I researched methods of baking bread at home (i.e. Sarah Owens, Maurizio Leo and Chad Robertson), mixed up a slurry of flour and water to sit and ferment in our hot Bed-Stuy apartment, then a couple of weeks later made my first naturally leavened bread. It was good enough that the look on Erica’s face told me I might be onto something.
Maybe it came from the meticulous discipline crafting cocktails at one of Brooklyn’s busiest music bars for years. Or maybe it was all those hours playing Shakespeare as an actor way back when the simplicity of those rhetorical ingredients made the best soliloquies. Or maybe it was just trusting my wife’s discerning palate (the best one in NY!) when she would say “more salt” or “a little over-hydrated” or “I’m going to eat all of this by noon” that gave me the confidence to try this on a larger scale.
Whatever the case may be, from as young as I can remember until today, I believe in the idea that a warm, fresh loaf of bread can truly make any day great. The only thing better is being able to share it with friends and family.