It was a former girlfriend who first pried my beloved "Natty Boh" (National Bohemian) out of my underage hands and replaced it with a Brooklyn Lager. She scoffed at my usual mediocre lager of choice, and insisted I start exploring the world of craft beer. Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale, Dogfish Head's 60 Minute, and Flying Dog's Raging Bitch quickly became my new favorites. Now I was that obnoxious patron who (almost) only drank IPAs..
My interest really sparked a couple years later in 2013, while I was working as a server for Birroteca, a craft beer-centric restaurant located in my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. There were 24 rotating draft beers, plus bottles and cans. I wanted to taste everything that was put on tap. It was at Birro where I tried my first ever sour beers: Silly Sour, a Flanders Our Bruin from Belgium, and Sorry Chicky by Burley Oak. Originally, I had dreams of working in film and becoming a special fx make up artist. But my ex's military career caused an obligatory move to cow town Delaware-- where there was definitely no film industry. So it was Perdue chicken factory, or Dogfish Head.
Orientation Day at Dogfish Head
I accepted a seasonal serving job (since we were in Delaware on 6 month training orders) at Dogfish. My first day, and orientation, included a brewery tour. That day my interest became an obsession. I wanted to know everything I could about beer and how it was made.
Within two months, I had brewed a beer. Dogfish had this quarterly competition amongst coworkers. Basically you choose up to three other coworkers (one must be a brewer). You build a recipe, request the ingredients, brew your beer on the Sabco Brew Magic system (the OG DFH system), and then present it on one of the weekly Beer:30s (a rad hang out at the brewery for DFH coworkers on Fridays). There your other coworkers anonymously judge your beer. If you are top rated of the quarter, you get to sell your beer down at the pub in Rehoboth. If you win the whole year, your team gets taken on a trip to NYC, you get to visit The Eataly, and run around and have fun. We came in second place (for the quarter) by half a point. (Sam Calagione gave us a 45/50) We brewed a hoppy imperial red named Hop Pockets, and we served actual mini hot pockets with our beer.
One of the tour guides from my team, Kevin, was a home brewer, and kind of took me under his wing. He let me assist him on home-brews, and we eventually brewed our own- Big Brown Beaver Brown Ale (we'll come back to that..).
Brewing "Hop Pockets" at Dogfish with my brew team. Last photo is us presenting at Beer:30, and chatting with Sam.
In addition to serving at Dogfish, I got an unpaid once a week internship at a rad little local brewery called Mispillion River Brewing. I badgered them to come in on any and every day I had off. Me: "What're you guys doing today?!" Them: "Uh, caustic foaming the floors and cleaning stuff.." Me: "Cool!! I wanna come help!". I quickly fell in love with MRB. It felt like a family, and I loved how much I was learning. Sadly, after two months, my ex's orders ended and we had to move again. This time to Southern California.
Before we left, I researched the local Temecula breweries as much as I could from the east coast. I had to make a judgement call based on the way they presented themselves online, and reviews of their beers. I focused mainly on Refuge. I contacted them several times- emailing, calling, etc. and didn't get much of a response.
Kevin and I bottled up our brown ale, and I brought it cross country with me. It was mid January, and every time we stopped for the night I had to lug several cases of the beer out of the trunk and into the hotel room, so it wouldn't freeze. I also dropped bottles off with friends we stayed with along the way. (I think the only beer related places we stopped at along the way were: Schlafly, Rhinegeist, and Taft's Ale House)
Schlafly Beer in St Louis, MO and Taft's Ale House in Cincinnati, OH
Finally we reached our new home in Temecula, California. I marched into Refuge resume in hand and demanded a job. After a few weeks and some interviews, I was offered a position in the tasting room. One day a week. Eventually that led to full time on the brew side. I washed kegs and canned 8 hours a day. The need for a third brewer arose, and I started training on the brew deck. I learned a lot from the head brewer John. I consider him one of the important mentors in my career. He taught me that brewers do everything. Sometimes we brew, some times we keg, clean tanks, pick fruit, or drive trucks of our beer to be dropped off at distributors. After John left, I left shortly after.
Milling back into bags (pre auger set up), Brewing on the Ss Brew Tech pilot brewhouse, Picking blood oranges for Blood Orange Wit, Driving the truck of blood oranges back to Temecula
Mikkeller (San Diego) had a position posted for a cellar person. I applied. I was not a cellar person, but I said "what the hell". I got a call a couple weeks later and was told they needed an assistant brewer. I interviewed, got hired, and started driving the 50 minute commute every day to Miramar. I learned quite a bit here as far as cellaring, and I am grateful for that. However, I was not happy.
I saw an assistant brewer position open up at Modern Times, I applied. I accepted a job offer, and moved down to San Diego. I was there for about a year and half. During my time there I traveled to Panama to consult and collaborate with Boquete Brewing Company.
I left Modern Times in the late Spring of 2018. I made a temporary move back to my hometown of Baltimore to do some consulting for DuClaw. I helped hire a couple of people, rewrote SOPs, ordered new equipment like hoses, restructured their parts processing area, began the construction of a lab, and more. I spent the Summer and Fall traveling. I experienced GABF, and fresh hop season in Yakima for the first time. In November I made a trip to a small town in the UK called Brighton. Laine Brew Co brought me over to collaborate on some beers, put on a panel and launch an apprenticeship for diversity and inclusion in beer.
After three weeks I flew back to Baltimore. Two days later I had packed up my life and began my trip home to San Diego.
And that's my story!