If you have a sharp eye, you may have noticed a new face in our posts and stories lately! That face would be that of our newest Lead Brewer, Sam, who joined us in early January and has been a very welcome addition to the crew!

Sam came to us from sunny California where he was the lead brewer at Temescal Brewing in Oakland!

Get to know Sam a little better with a Q/A below!

1) What inspired you to get into brewing?

I started homebrewing in college out of a love for beer and a curiosity for how it was made, but it wasn’t until I spent a summer working for my brother in his woodworking studio that I realized that I loved working with my hands on something tangible while creating experiences for people.

2) How did you make your way into the craft brewing industry?

I was very fortunate to get a short internship at Oxbow Brewing shortly after they opened in 2012. I got to follow Tim Adams around everywhere. Literally everywhere – I slept in his apartment and absorbed all that I could from him. After that I took a Siebel course and started brewing at Rock Bottom in Westminster, CO learning the classics later that year.

3) What do you enjoy most about brewing/beer?

I love how nothing is really stagnant in craft beer, even when brewing flagships. There’s always the need and opportunity for re-creation and improvement.

4) What do you think you would be doing if you had not become a brewer?

When I made the decision to jump into brewing, I was in the middle of applying to Urban Planning grad programs. So probably that or I would have ended up in a kitchen somehow. I started working in kitchens in high school and thought about becoming a chef, but I didn’t want to stand on my feet all day. Turns out that was a fate I couldn’t really avoid.

5) What do you enjoy doing with your time outside the brewery?

This past winter my fiancé and I spent a lot of time cross country skiing up on Cameron Pass outside Fort Collins, a part of Colorado we haven’t explored much. I’ve dabbled in road biking, mostly because I like wearing bike shorts and using exercise as an excuse to bike places to eat food and drink beer. Also, can I say doing nothing? A bright spot of the pandemic is that it has made me comfortable with having a lazy Saturday or Sunday. There’s something sublime in taking some time to shut everything else off and do nothing for a bit.

6) Favorite beer of all time

This question always depends on my mood or the time of year, but most consistently, I get a lot of joy out of drinking Taras Boulba from Brasserie de la Senne. That beer is perfect – dry, refreshing, and hoppy with a minerality that can’t be reproduced.