Prost Profiles: Kettlehead Brewing sales director Jim Whedon

New Hampshire brewery known for hazy IPAs and vibrant fruited sours will make NYS debut at 2023 Rochester Real Beer Expo

Because I’m of the mind that beer is way more fun when it involves everyone and when it fosters conversation, I put out a call out on social media earlier this year. I asked folks to just rattle off their favorite breweries, ones they would love to see pour at the 2023 Rochester Real Beer Expo.

My friends from the FLX Beer Reviews page recommended I reach out to New Hampshire-based Kettlehead Brewing. Admittedly, I had never heard of this brewery or even tried one of its beers. But I trusted my smart followers wouldn’t steer me wrong. (And they didn’t.)

I got hundreds of responses via social media and sent out at least 75 blind emails to some of the best breweries in the country. I figured, it didn’t hurt to try.

And some of those Hail Mary requests actually connected. (Actually way more than I expected worked out and will result in a whole bunch of brand-new-to-New York state breweries pouring at the Expo in June.)

Kettlehead, founded a little more than five years ago in Tilton, New Hampshire, will be pouring in New York state for the first time ever at this year’s Expo. I am so over-the-moon excited to showcase this wonderful spot that is known for its evolving lineup of hazy IPAs, inventive fruited sours, and an expanding variety of classic styles.

To introduce you (and myself) to Kettlehead, Jim Whedon, the brewery’s sales and distribution manager, was nice enough to take a few minutes out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions. Whedon will be among those attending the Beer Expo on June 10 at Innovative Field in Rochester.

“We’re super excited to come to Rochester,” said Whedon, who hooked up with Kettlehead a little over two years ago. “We hadn’t been in the distro space (sending beer to other markets) until this year. It’s funny, because you reached out and two distributors from New York reached out almost simultaneously. Maybe the stars are aligning, maybe this makes sense. We tend to make decisions based on our gut a lot of the time. For us, it was like sure, let’s spend a weekend in Rochester. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Rochester before, so I’m excited to check it out.

“Any time people get excited about our beer, we’re excited.”

Kettlehead recently pushed in Massachusetts and has been experiencing some success there. Maybe New York isn’t far behind?

(As a reminder, VIP tickets are now sold out. And general admission is selling briskly, too. Here is where you need to go for tickets and information: wwww.rochesterrealbeer.com.)

So here’s a bit about Jim and even more about Kettlehead:

Q: Did you have a history in beer before you got involved with Kettlehead?

A: Drinking it, haha. I’ve known the owners for a while. They’ve become good friends of mine over the years. I knew them when they were homebrewing before Kettlehead. I never envisioned getting involved in the beer business. I was actually a professional golfer for a while. I lived down in south Florida, down in Naples. I grew up here in New Hampshire. So it wasn’t like a far-fetched, weird dream ending up back here again. My wife and I came back. I was in sales after I got out of the golf business. They kind of wrangled me into the beer business. We’re all friends. All of our kids hang out together. Our wives are good friends. We’re like a small, little family

Q: Can you give me a brief history of Kettlehead?

A: November was our five-year anniversary. The guys started out as homebrewers like most breweries do. It was really just a passion and for fun. I think they realized pretty quickly that the area was lacking in breweries. New Hampshire, in general, there were like seven or eight staples that have been around for a long time. But there was nothing significant like the other states around us. The building we are in was purchased in 2017. That building was repurposed. It was an old grocery store. We started with a 7-barrel system in the Tilton location and in that location we basically ran out of space. We really maximized that whole space. It is a brewpub, so we have a restaurant attached to the brewery. Just this past December, we opened a new space in Franklin with a 20-barrel system. (The new facility is less than five minutes from the original one.) The 7-barrel system is still active. We brew fun stuff on there, stuff that we want to drink and the stuff that isn’t in huge demand or just test batches.

Q: What are some of the hallmarks of Kettlehead Brewing?

A: We have a slogan of building better beer and we really believe that we could build a better product than what was available in our local region, certainly within the state of New Hampshire. We are known for our juicy IPAs. We do a lot those, a lot of different hop combinations. We’ve been pretty experimental with a lot of our beers, too. We tend to get our hands on hops that are new through hop contracts. We like to experiment with those. We like to stick with that juicy, New England IPA theme. I think we’re also well known for hiding our booze really well. We have a lot 9 percent IPAs that drink like 6 percent IPAs. We’ve branched out. Our sour game is as good as anybody else’s. We’re pretty well known for our fruited sours at this point. We’ve been focusing on our barrel-aging program for a while, too. We’ve tried to do as many stouts as we can. We have a lot of different lagers. We run the gamut at this point.

Q: What are your favorite beers from the Kettlehead portfolio?

A: We make this pale ale called El Dorado Falcon. It’s a 5.5 percent pale ale that drinks like a double IPA in terms of mouthfeel, the thickness. It’s delicious and you can have a few of them at a time. That was one of the first Kettlehead beers I ever had and it was at the wedding of one of our mutual friends. This was before Kettlehead was in existence. I just loved it. That’s my old school go to. And Dreams on Dreams, one of our hazy double IPAs, is at the top of the list right now. That beer, at 8.5 percent, it’s just as juicy as it gets. It has been a staple for me. It’s probably one of the best beers we’ve ever made.

Q: How excited are you guys to come to Rochester?

A: I enjoy doing the festivals. I like meeting new people. I certainly like tasting other beers coming out of different markets. It’s almost impossible to get everywhere at this point. Whenever I travel, which I do a fair amount of, I always take my family to new breweries to check them out. I am excited to come to the Rochester market and to get a feel for what the beer is like there, what people are putting out, what people are getting excited about. It should be fun.

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