A Brewer’s Journey: Josh Davies is at property connecting with the local community at Satisfied Valley Brewing Business | Town&Robe

On the Friday of Penn State’s graduation weekend, Happy Valley Brewing Corporation head brewer Josh Davies poured a couple pints of his freshly manufactured beer straight from the faucet and gave me a tour as we chatted about how he ended up at the brewpub.

Josh is a large component of HVBC’s history he came to the area from Michigan to be head brewer when the brewpub opened in 2013 in a renovated 200-yr-aged barn at 137 Elmwood Road. After a quick hiatus at Otto’s Pub and Brewery across city, Josh came again household to the barn past summer and doesn’t prepare on leaving again at any time shortly. He’s seeking to keep on to expand the brewery’s existence in the neighborhood.

“I like to be a lifer and make beer for the group, and not jump about. … To be genuinely impactful, I really feel like you have to be portion of a group for a extensive time,” Josh claims.

I relished obtaining the opportunity to take pleasure in a craft beer with the man or woman who manufactured it and master about how he received in this article. Just after all, most each individual beer lover has at one place dreamed about becoming a brew learn, mixing the grains into mash and generating a beer that people enjoy. I have manufactured a couple of property-brew batches in my working day, but they have been nothing to brag about.

So, in this article I was ingesting a Tailgater IPA, listening to Josh notify his tale about how he is living that dream it put a smile on my experience. Well, possibly the smile came from the truly delicious beverage that Josh brewed. Yeah, that was absolutely section of it. It is in individuals smiles from people enjoying his beer that Josh finds commitment.

“When you see people drink your things, and they like it, that feels fairly awesome,” he says. “When folks are like, ‘Oh my gosh, I enjoy this beer,’ … I’m blushing, mainly because I never know how to say thank you. … For me, to be the go-to beer for some persons in this neighborhood, where when men and women believe about an IPA they imagine of my beer, that feels fairly excellent.”

Josh’s journey to head brewer started in Michigan, in 2001. He was operating as a paramedic when he satisfied a couple of people from the now-closed Arcadia Brewing at a brew expo, and they connected over their enjoy of songs and beer.

“They stated, ‘Dude, you should appear aid us bottle. We bottle each individual Monday you’ll consume the freshest beer you at any time drank, we’ll deliver you household with three cases, and we’ll teach you a factor or two about a factor or two,” Josh claims. This sounded like a great deal to Josh, who was then 21. “That was Saturday. I went on Monday, and I went every single Monday for two-and-a-half yrs.”

Before long just after, a fellow EMT hooked Josh up with some home-brewing provides and he commenced making his own beer. He acquired hooked, mastering as much as he could about method, recipes, and products.

With that working experience, he observed a position at Michigan Brewing Firm in 2004, handling the residence-brew retail outlet, all the although studying and earning connections. Each individual prospect he received, he aided out in the brewing course of action, right until one particular working day the operator handed Josh the brew record for the day, telling him to phone if he had any thoughts.

“I didn’t even know what button to force … it was all buttons,” says Josh, wanting back with a snicker. It was a trial by fire, but he aced it, figuring out the proper buttons to press even though he experienced to simply call the operator “probably 10 situations that working day. But, no issue, everything was superior. I brewed just about every batch of beer there for the following two-and-a-50 percent many years.”

He continued to make connections, setting up friendships and his network, until he acquired a connect with from his aged mate from Arcadia Brewing Organization.

“He reported, ‘Dude, it is time to appear home. We just can’t make plenty of beer we have top quality management concerns and we want you,” claims Josh, who grew to become assistant head brewer at the area wherever he used to volunteer for a few of instances of beer.

At some point, as a result of friends in the business, he acquired linked to a group that was on the lookout to open a brewery in Delighted Valley.

Josh remembers the to start with time he came to Condition Faculty to seek the advice of about the chance. During that journey, he sat on the 50-garden-line of a Michigan-Penn Point out match on Halloween, and climbed to the leading of Mount Nittany. He started to imagine in the back again of his intellect about how good it would be to raise his younger family in the mountains of central Pennsylvania.

“It was like, this is … sweet,” states Josh.

Eventually, he had a choice to make: Possibly stay in Michigan and aid Arcadia expand to a next site, or, “there are these really amazing people who I just fulfilled who want to open up a brewery in State College, the place you can get anyplace in the woods in like 10 minutes, and they have mountains, and streams you can paddle, and there is no criminal offense. … So, the preference was to go in this article and raise a loved ones in an magnificent location.”

Once he settled in, Josh acquired to brewing with this philosophy: “We are not trying to make the greatest beer on the earth our real, honest goal is to make the greatest beer you will consume nowadays.”

Josh brews a broad range of beers, hunting to satisfy a range of flavor profiles. He likens the lineup to that of a sports group.

“For us here, a complete lineup is 12 beers on faucet. … 4 of them need to have to be hoppy … so we have acquired eight to enjoy with. You need to have a couple nice, approachable beers, due to the fact not most people rides mountain bikes and sucks down 7-percent IPAs just about every working day. A lot of men and women want the closest factor to Miller Lite. You must have some thing that satisfies the flavor-desire array.”

As we arrive out of the pandemic, Josh is all set to construct the brewery’s connections to the community even more robust. An avid mountain-biker who loves are living new music, he sees individuals as avenues to establish all those connections.

“I want to make beer for this community, I want to be a portion of this neighborhood,” he claims. “My stuff is new music-based, outside-based mostly. So, for individuals who are executing items in all those realms, I want to be associated. If there is a mountain-biking occasion or a trail-running function, we want to be concerned. Beer presents a whole lot of things for folks who are striving to build, that are coming up with strategies. They are getting collectively, brainstorming, and the natural environment downstairs is terrific to sit again, grab a few of beers, and shoot the breeze and determine it out.”

Team writer Vincent Corso enjoys consuming neighborhood and conference new people today at central Pennsylvania’s lots of fascinating institutions.