Mother Earth Brewing, Kinston

Take the goodness of garden-grown products, the warmth of small town life, the earthy ethic of rock 'n roll, a deep respect for a time-honored craft...and you have the ingredients of Mother Earth Brewing. Born in the summer of 2008, Mother Earth is the dream-child of Stephen Hill and Trent Mooring, two guys from Kinston, North Carolina, a sweet southern town in the heart of the old tobacco belt.

They were brought together by a shared love of home-grown vegetables and hand-crafted beer. Family ties made the connection sweeter when Trent married Caroline, Stephen's daughter. "I've been in love with brewing beer since the mid-80s, when I lived in D.C. and experimented with making beer at home," Stephen remembers. But marriage, kids, running a family business, and a deep involvement in his eastern North Carolina community put home brewing on the back burner. The passion rekindled when Stephen started gardening organically. "I raise cows and recycle their manure fertilizing hundreds of organic vegetable plants. I even make my own tomato juice just like my Grandmother did." Soon he tempted his new son-in-law with the taste of a "Red Eye," an old family recipe mixing craft beer and fresh tomato juice.

"That was it," Trent admits. "It was love at first taste. Pretty soon, I was experimenting with brewing my own beer, operating out of a closet in my house. Back in high school I spent a summer at the beach, working for a local grocery that had a cooler of craft beers. I was fascinated by the art on the bottles, and all the wonderful unique tastes. That's what I wanted in my beer-the beauty, the originality, and that special feeling when you take your first sip after surfing on a sunny summer day at the beach."

From beer-drinking conversations and taste testing, brewery tours and beer festivals, their vision evolved: make a world-class product, but keep the process local. "Kinston is home to us." Both Stephen and Trent grew up going to school in the little city of under 25,000, and have centered their business careers there. As a local businessman and outdoor enthusiast, Trent shared Stephen's interest in arts, preservation of a down-home lifestyle, and community revitalization. "Like a lot of modest hometowns across the nation, Kinston is searching, trying to grow and attract new folks and new businesses without losing that neighborhood feeling that makes living here so appealing. This has always been a hub of an active farm area. We thought, wouldn't it be great to make a product that has its roots in the land?"

When it came time to christen their homegrown business, they sat down and listened to rock 'n roll. "All my vinyl albums from 1965 to the present-we went through them, listening to the great sound and writing down words and phrases that spoke to our philosophy. Finally, on an old Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album, we found Mother Earth. And we knew, that was us."

To the entire Mother Earth family, life is an art, and it requires artfully-crafted beverages with which to wash it down. Whatever your passion, make sure you're doing it with the ones you love. This company's greatest hope is to have the privilege of simply being invited along.

This is the story of Mother Earth Brewing Company: two guys with roots in a family town set out to make great beer brewed close to nature. And this is their mission: To help you savor the goodness of Mother Earth.

Cheers!

Use our Kinston road trip planning tool to arrange your visit to Mother Earth Brewing and other attractions in Kinston.
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