Protecting the lands and waters on which all life—and beer—depends
Foraging chanterelle mushrooms under the canopy of a mountain forest. Clipping red spruce tips after a hike up a steep ridge. Scooping seagrass from the deck of a skiff. No, these aren’t scenes from Gordon Ramsey: Uncharted. Nor is it how craft brewers typically procure ingredients.
In 2019, Black Narrows Brewing co-owner Josh Chapman had a crazy idea (his words) to brew an India pale ale featuring longleaf pine from TNC's Piney Grove Preserve. This year we're kicking things up a notch by expanding our OktoberForest collaboration to pair three additional brewers—Crooked Run Fermentation, Fine Creek Brewing Co. and Väsen Brewing Company—with TNC programs spanning from the Atlantic to the Appalachians.
- Allegheny Farmhouse Ale, brewed by Fine Creek Brewing Co., and inspired by the Allegheny Highlands. Wild chanterelle mushrooms foraged from Warm Springs Mountain Preserve—where fire is bringing diversity back to iconic Appalachian forests—highlight this farmhouse ale.
- Barrier Islands Gose, brewed by Väsen Brewing Company. Eelgrass collected in coastal bays—site of the largest seagrass restoration effort on Earth—brings complex coastal flavors to this gose inspired by Virginia's wild barrier islands.
- Clinch Valley Saison, brewed by Crooked Run Fermentation and inspired by the Clinch Valley. Spruce tips carefully cut from trees high up on Clinch Mountain—a focal area for restoring the Appalachians' iconic red spruce forest—accent this refreshing saison.
- The beer that started it all! Piney Grove IPA, brewed by Black Narrows Brewing Co., and inspired by Piney Grove Preserve. Longleaf pine needles gathered from Piney Grove—the northern front for initiatives to restore the South's signature forest—enhance the hoppy nuances of this India pale ale.
One wild local ingredient, carefully collected by hand, offers an expression of each area’s lands and waters that you can literally taste.
The deeply passionate people doing the work of habitat restoration in these mountain forests were kind enough to share this magnificent space with our team, and we are excited to share an element of that mountain in this beer.
Snorkeling the thriving young eelgrass beds, finding a few rare bay scallops and even (carefully) walking a razor-sharp intertidal oyster reef profoundly strengthened our appreciation for these sensitive ecosystems.
It was amazing to see all the hard work and passion that the Clinch Valley team has dedicated to these mighty red spruces. Collaborations like these bring such a meaningful purpose to our industry and help connect us.
We all gathered needles, branches and cones after an incredible tour of Piney Grove. I was blown away by the passion of the team behind the longleaf restoration.
By Daniel White, Senior Conservation Writer | November 15, 2021
Josh Chapman, owner of Black Narrows Brewing in Chincoteague, was reading his morning newspaper back in July of 2019 when a wild idea popped into his head. After reading about efforts to restore Virginia’s longleaf pine ecosystem, Chapman reached out to The Nature Conservancy with a proposition.
“Hey, I know this is gonna sound crazy,” Chapman recalls saying to open the conversation. “I really want to make a beer using this crazy longleaf pine. Do you think that's possible? Can we spare some needles?”
In short order, Chapman signed on as a partner in TNC’s OktoberForest campaign. Joining with dozens of brewers across Virginia and the nation, Chapman helped focus public attention on the connection between forest conservation and the clean water required to brew craft beer.
Still inspired to do more, Chapman and his “crazy” idea found a receptive audience in Bobby Clontz, who manages TNC’s Piney Grove Preserve in Sussex County—epicenter of the Virginia Pinelands.
“One thing led to another, and I'm on a Gator with Bobby Clontz, and the little babies and Jen are with me,” Chapman says. “We're barreling through the Piney Grove Preserve and looking at [red-cockaded] woodpeckers, and it was a magical experience.”
From Forest to Glass
From a “crazy” idea to make a craft beer with longleaf pine to an effort to raise awareness of the urgent need to restore Virginia’s founding forest.
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From Piney Grove to Piney Notes
Following the whole Chapman family’s tour via all-terrain vehicle of Piney Grove, home to the rare red-cockaded woodpecker, the group not only gathered green pine needles but also collected branches, bark and cones from the ground.
With his chef’s experience and sensibilities, Chapman is especially fond of fresh, local ingredients. But pine needles? Cones? Bark? Sticks? Isn’t that taking the locavore notion a bit far?
If you’re imagining a concoction that tastes like a household cleaner, consider that several varieties of hops—a key beer ingredient—are known for imbuing “piney” notes into the flavor profile.
So, back at the brewery in Chincoteague, Chapman enthusiastically dumped his collection of unique natural ingredients into the boil for a new IPA (India Pale Ale). The first version of his pine-inspired concoction, which Chapman dubbed Forest of Forgotten Trees IPA, began flowing from Black Narrows’ taps that October.
“The cool thing was bringing it all back here, getting to use the ingredients and having the beer turn out even better than I could have hoped,” he says.
But again, he wanted to do more. Buoyed by the success of that initial brew, Chapman has continued to refine his recipe, and this year he returned to the Pinelands not only to replenish his pantry, but also with a new plan to amplify the conservation story behind the beer.
Knowing the amazing work that TNC has done on the Eastern Shore, it just made sense to reach out and see if we could use local beer to highlight longleaf pine.
New Brew: Longleaf IPA
This fall, Chapman will debut Longleaf India Pale Ale. This new longleaf-infused IPA will be canned, with a label designed in collaboration with TNC. Emblazoned with a red-cockaded woodpecker perched on the trunk of a pine, each can tells the story of Virginia’s once-vast longleaf forests—and how to help bring back this critical habitat.
For Chapman, the “grapefruity notes” from longleaf not only impart a great taste but also evoke a sense of place—in this case, of the Virginia Pinelands and the nation’s Founding Forest.
“When people come here, they get to taste where they are,” Chapman says. “The more that our beers can reflect where they come from, the better people will be and the better planet we’ll have.”
Adding a New Chapter: Piney Grove Flatwoods
In September 2021, Piney Grove Flatwoods became Virginia’s 66th natural area preserve. TNC will retain ownership of this 446-acre tract; it becomes part of an ecologically significant conservation area spanning 10,000 acres that also includes Big Woods State Forest, Big Woods Wildlife Management Area and TNC's Big Woods.
Governor Ralph Northam attended the formal dedication ceremony of the new natural area preserve in November—an event appropriately christened with Longleaf IPA. The designation as part of the Virginia Natural Area Preserve System brings the state’s highest level of protection to this critical habitat at our Piney Grove Preserve.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), through its Natural Heritage program, will bolster TNC's efforts to protect vulnerable wildlife such as barking frogs and red-cockaded woodpeckers. Establishing Piney Grove Flatwoods Natural Area Preserve is an exciting new chapter in pine savanna restoration, building upon DCR’s 20 years of expert science and contributions.
Longleaf Pine: Learn More About Virginia's Founding Forest
In Virginia, more than 1 million acres of longleaf forest extended south from the James River when English settlers arrived in 1607. This sprawling forest, which helped found the Virginia colony, was harvested to near extinction by 1893. In 2005, a sliver of just 200 native trees remained in Virginia.
Life Cycle of the Longleaf
As a seedling, longleaf looks more like a clump of grass than the slender, towering tree it will become. This grass stage can last from one year to a dozen, depending on competition for resources with other plants.
The young longleaf isn’t very impressive above ground, but it makes up for its lack of height by putting down a massive root system. Energy stored below ground and lush, thick needles help the seedling survive fire events.
At the bottlebrush stage, the tree grows three to four feet straight up with no branches. After a few years, branches emerge and a sapling is born. After 30 years, the longleaf is finally ready to reproduce, dropping huge pine cones, and the cycle begins anew.
Era of Restoration
The Nature Conservancy purchased a 2,700-acre tract of pineland in Sussex County, Virginia from the Hancock Timber Resource Group in 1998 to create Piney Grove Preserve.
Our mission was to restore the property to a pine savanna, showcasing the remarkable biological diversity of southeastern Virginia’s longleaf forests. Since our first purchase, we’ve expanded the preserve and adjacent public lands to more than 10,000 acres in partnership with the commonwealth.
Longleaf pine trees vanished from Piney Grove and adjacent lands many years ago, but guided by science, TNC and partners are gradually restoring the tree to its former prominence.
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Take a Closer Look
Places We Protect
Founding Forest Longleaf PineWe're working to restore longleaf pine forests, return fire to the landscape and support habitat for Virginia's rarest bird, the red-cockaded woodpecker.
Photo Essay
Restoring Eelgrass on Virginia's Eastern ShoreGo into the water and behind the scenes at the Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve for the largest and most successful seagrass restoration project in the world!
Project Overview
Fire, Management and MonitoringLearn how the Allegheny Highlands Program uses fire to maintain biological diversity in an ecosystem critical to climate change migration.