How long have you been with Unibroue? I’ve been with Unibroue since 2003. When I started, it was still owned by the Dion family, the founder of the brewery. Then the brewery was bought by Sleeman in 2004, exactly a year after I started. What was the transition like? That was amazing. We didn’t know... View Article
I hear you started homebrewing in high school. Yeah, I did. My entire life changed my junior year in high school in 1995. I went over to my friend’s house after school one day, and I walked into the house to say hello. His dad and a friend were making beer on the stove. And... View Article
Nearly two decades ago, as he took up a job as an agricultural consultant in Manteo, NC, Uli Bennewitz was persuaded by his brother back in Bavaria that a restaurant that brewed its own beer—a brewpub—would be a sure winner in his new home in America. The brewing equipment was en route to North Carolina... View Article
How did you start your brewery? Hildegard: I was working for the technical University in Ghent as an industrial engineer. I also did projects for breweries, and one of those was Konigshoven, the only Trappist brewery in Holland. I went to Konigshoven for half a year to work, and Bas was doing some marketing there.... View Article
I’m Irish, so I talk fast. First generation American: My father’s from Tipperary and my mother’s from Wexford. I grew up in the Sunset District of San Francisco. It’s a great place to live. Shhhh—don’t tell anyone. How’d you get into brewing? It was that first six-pack of Coors that I shared with my buddy... View Article
What’s the history of the Schlenkerla tavern and brewery? The building dates back to 1405, so it’s a little more than 600 years old. At the time of its first recording, it was owned by coopers, people who make barrels. In Bamberg, coopers and brewers were united in one guild, so very often the coopers... View Article
You’re practically synonymous with BridgePort Brewing Co. Haven’t you been with the company since the very beginning? Yes, I basically built it. I got out of UC Davis with a BS in Fermentation Sciences in 1983 in June, and I hired on with Dick Ponzi at Ponzi Vineyards in July. The very first time I... View Article
You have a true farm brewery, on an organic farm. What’s unusual about your brewery? B: I thought about putting together a diagram: it would start with us growing the hops—it’s less than 30 feet away from the brewery. So we bring the hops into the brewery, we use them, then we put then back... View Article
Most of your generation of brewers begin by homebrewing. Not many start out with a background like yours in food science or brewing chemistry. What were you going to do if brewing hadn’t come along?
