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Homegrown hops and a snifter of blonde Belgian abbey ale, brewed with foraged spicebush berries, sit atop Scratch’s tasting room bar, which is fashioned from reclaimed chalkboards.
“All these things grow around here, but some have gone forgotten,” Aaron Kleidon said of the wild edibles Scratch forages for its beers.
Like most of the brewery’s ingredients, the tap handles also are foraged – crafted from driftwood found along the Mississippi River. There are always nine beers on tap, along with one house-made soda.
When Scratch’s cash-only tasting room is open on weekends, the nano-brewery can see upward of 300 customers. Considering that Ava’s population hovers near 700, on any given weekend, the majority of the town’s residents of legal drinking age may very well taste a Scratch beer.
Scratch Brewing is located on 2 wooded acres, 4 miles outside of the southern Illinois town of Ava.
Four varieties of hops grow at Scratch: Cascade, Chinook, Nugget and Willamette.
While all three of Scratch’s founders do a little bit of everything, Kleidon claimed that Josephson has the best palate for tasting and, consequently, recipe formation.
“At first I was trying to make a pale ale taste like a pale ale should, but Marika and Aaron would add weird stuff to make a beer you can only find in this area,” Tockstein said.
Shelly and Brown Goat help clear Scratch’s property of invasive species.
Since Scratch opened in March, its founders already have made more than 80 different beers, including a rye saison brewed over a fire with wild rose root, wild ginger, spicebush and chanterelle mushrooms, and an American pale ale made with dried sassafras leaves.
Every recipe that Josephson, Kleidon and Tockstein brew is archived in a binder.
Aaron Kleidon’s trailer is parked a quarter-mile from Scratch and 10 miles from where he grew up. He learned to forage these same woods as a kid, digging up and selling herbs as his summertime job. Nowadays, Kleidon’s a master of its hidden secrets, like knowing to search for pawpaws (a wild fruit that tastes like a cross between a mango and a banana and is only in season a couple weeks of the year) in the darkest places of the forest. By just looking at a topographical map, Kleidon can discern where certain plants will natively grow.
With brews made with nettle to fennel to basil, ordering a flight is the best way to first experience Scratch beers.

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