And for the past two years, they’ve foraged for neomexicanus hops, a subspecies that’s grown in the American Southwest - and, as it happens, New Mexico - for millennia. Sheppard and Begay are building relationships with Native American farmers in the Four Corners area near their Farmington, New Mexico, taproom for ingredients they plan to feature in future beers, such as squash and pumpkin. And three-leaf sumac from Navajo Agricultural Products Industry, another tribally affiliated business, appears in a limited-release Foeder-Aged Farmhouse Ale. The blue corn for Denim Tux, an American pilsner that anchors their core beer list, hails from a few miles down the highway where the Pueblo of Santa Ana cultivates the heritage crop, roasts it, and mills it as one of several tribal enterprises. Indigenous ingredients captured our imagination,” Sheppard says. “We wanted to explore our connection to this special place. Local and Indigenous ingredients, such as blue corn, sumac, prickly pear, and juniper, weave into both Bow & Arrow beers and the brewery’s new line of hard seltzers. Our backgrounds made us unique, and we gradually wanted to develop that aspect of what we were doing,” Sheppard says. “Going in, we were aware there were not a lot of people who looked like us. Bow & Arrow cultivates yeast for its wild beers from the spritely estate peach tree growing on its patio and a nearby lavender farm, which also gives its beers a sense of place. But a year in, they debuted the wild and sour beers they’ve since become known for. and faced down stereotypes about who helms breweries.Īfter Bow & Arrow’s initial launch, Sheppard and Begay brewed a rather straightforward lineup of traditional beers: IPAs, lagers, and stouts, with no unique variations. They set out to simply make great beer, but in starting Bow & Arrow, they founded the first Native American woman-owned brewery in the U.S. Missy Begay, who has Diné heritage (the term many Navajo people prefer to describe themselves) founded Bow & Arrow in 2016. Sheppard, who has heritage from the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara of North Dakota), and her business partner and wife, Dr. He would tell her that, even in a blizzard, the buffalo would turn to face the storm. The sculpture reminds her daily of a lesson from her grandfather, who raised bison. Above her, a faux trophy mount of a sculptural white buffalo presides over the room. In the taproom, where ambiance is a vital part of the tasting experience, no detail is too small to escape her notice. The brewery’s co-founder and CEO, Sheppard cut the stems of purple, white, and golden blossoms, and tucked them into white ceramic vases. In spring 2022, Shyla Sheppard sat at a long bench in the two-story beer hall at Bow & Arrow Brewing Co.’s flagship location in Albuquerque, New Mexico, arranging flowers.
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