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MicroBrewr 071: Four years from brewing school to brewmaster with Capital Brewery.

MicroBrewr 071: Four years from brewing school to brewmaster

Ashley Kinart began homebrewing to learn about the brew process so she could better answer customer questions at the craft beer bar where she worked. She eventually realized that it really interested her, so she enrolled in the World Brewing Academy at Siebel Institute of Technology. Four years later she became the brewmaster at Capital Brewery, in Middleton, Wisconsin.

Although Ashley is happy about her “quick rise to the top,” she says she would have liked to get more experience in every part of the brewery operations.

“I definitely would have liked to spend a little more time in cellaring, a little more time in packaging,” says Ashley, “to just have that full-scale overall understanding on every single little level.”

Prior to brewing school, Ashley attained a bachelor’s degree in biology. She says the science helped her better understand the material from brewing school.

“My science background definitely gets me a little excited about the small things like the microscopic happenings that are going on behind every step of the brewing process.”

Other suggestions from Ashley:

  • Start volunteering to get experience at a commercial brewery.
  • Do the best you can and work as hard as you can.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask questions of other people in the industry.

Most of all, actively seek knowledge.

“Being called a brewmaster was something that I not only didn’t see myself as, but also I don’t ever see myself knowing everything there is to know about brewing, which is why it really interests me.”

Brewery specs:

Kettle size: 35 BBL.

Size and quantity of fermentation tanks: 30 tanks ranging from 32-BBL to 161-BBL. Six are dedicated to lagering/aging.

Size and quantity of bright tanks: Three tanks ranging from 100-BBL to 129-BBL.

Annual brewing capacity/last year’s production: About 30,000.

Square footage:

Years in operation: 29 years.

“How much of your brewing knowledge are you actively seeking?” [Tweet This]

 

Listener question:

From Harold Giménez: What are your favorite beers? Who are your brewing influences?

Book recommendation:

Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.

Your Free Audio Book

An upcoming beer style:

Lagers

Other resources:

  • World Brewing Academy, Siebel Institute of Technology (Chicago, U.S.A.) and Doemens Academy (Munich, Germany)
  • Females Enjoying Microbrews.
  • Pink Boots Society to empower women beer professionals to advance their careers in the beer industry through education.
  • Brew Masters, Discovery Channel.

You can reach Ashley Kinart and Capital Brewery at:

Ashley’s social media:

Sponsors:

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MicroBrewr 057: Create new revenue streams for your brewpub, with Wisconsin Dells Brewing Co.

MicroBrewr 057: Create new revenue streams for your brewpub

Jamie Baertsch did an internship with Wisconsin Dells Brewing Co., in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, and she stuck around until they started paying her. Today she’s the brewmaster, winning awards for her beer, and planning the expansion to a production facility.

Wisconsin Dells Brewing Co. is the brewing part of Moosejaw Pizza brewpub, which experiences 50% of their sales just in the summer months. During that time the brewing capacity is maxed out, but in the rest of the year it’s much slower. To keep busy and to make up for lost revenues in the slow times of the year, Wisconsin Dells Brewing how found creative ways to find income.

Besides a variety of beers, Wisconsin Dells also makes a line of hand-crafted soda beverages. Additionally, they put their beer into cans and bottles for off-site distribution.

Brewery specs:

Kettle size: 15 BBL.

Size and quantity of fermentation tanks: 4, 15-BBL fermenters; 1, 30-BBL fermenter.

Size and quantity of bright tanks: 2, 30-BBL bright tanks for beer; 9, 15-BBL bright tanks for beer; 4, 16-BBL bright tanks for soda; 2, 2-BBL bright tanks for soda.

Annual brewing capacity/last year’s production: 1,405.70 BBL.

Square footage: 200 sq. ft. brewhouse, 2 walk-in coolers, 3 large warehouses, 2 forklifts, one truck, 2 pallet jacks.

Years in operation: 13 years (opened May 2002).

“I spent 12 years learning how to brew. And now packaging is a whole new thing.” [Tweet This]

 

Listener question:

From 76Johnyb: Where do you get inspiration for your unique brews?

Book recommendation:

  • Phone book.

Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.

Your Free Audio Book

An upcoming beer style:

Red IPA

Other resources:

You can reach Jamie Baertsch and Wisconsin Dells Brewing Co. at:

Sponsors:

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Support MicroBrewr

Help keep MicroBrewr on the air. CLICK HERE for ways you can help.

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Quality-Control-Bottling-Craft-Beer

MicroBrewr 004: Craft Beer Quality Control and Bottling w/ 3 Sheeps Brewery

 The MicroBrewr Podcast is Going Weekly!!

The success of this podcast within the first three episodes has been so awesome and the personal connections that I’ve already made have pushed me to take the next step with this podcast.  From now on, I’ll be releasing a new MicroBrewr podcast weekly for your listening enjoyment.  I’ve been going back and forth on this for a few weeks but I have to give a special thanks to my friend, Nathan Pierce for pushing me to commit to the weekly podcast.  In the next podcast, you’ll get to meet Nathan and hear about his project that he’s currently working on (more info to come).  If there’s any specific topics that you’d like to hear more about in future podcasts, let me know on Facebook or Twitter.  Finally, I just have to say it means so much to me for listening so if there’s anything that I can do to return the favor, let me know what I can do!

Meet Grant from 3 Sheeps Brewing Company

Grant Pauly started out in working in his family’s concrete business where he had a good, stable job but found that it wasn’t where his passions truly lied.  After homebrewing, Grant decided to switch paths and start a brewery in Sheboygan, WI.   After the first year and a half of brewing, 3 Sheeps has already gone through multiple expansions and won the award of “Best New Wisconsin Brewery” by RateBeer.  As a distribution brewery, Grant has some great pointers to share about craft beer quality control and the bottling process to make sure their great beer tastes the same, every time.  Grant also digs into his decision of taking a risk to start the brewery by chasing those “really cool waterslides” and not taking it for granted.

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In this podcast we’ll cover:

  • Where to start after deciding that you want to start a brewery
  • Deciding between a distribution brewery or a brew pub
  • A deep dive through brewing equipment and the bottling process.
  • Creating a theme or a “vision” for your brewery to guide the beers that you produce
  • The craft beer growth and how it blew apart Grant’s initial projections
  • How to make sure you beer tastes the same every time and monitoring throughout the process
  • What’s working for Grant right now

Brewery-QCHere are links that we talked about during the podcast.  Make sure to connect with 3 Sheeps and find their beer at your local liquor store or baaaaar (you’ll get this more once you listen to the podcast:)

3 Sheeps Website

Connect on Facebook

Connect on Twitter

Siebel Institute in Chicago – Brewing Sciences

Your Free Audio Book

Like This Podcast and Want to Give Baaaaack?

If you like this podcast and all of the free info that I’ve been working to get out to help the brewing community, I would really appreciate it if you would give me a rating in iTunes and share this podcast with your friends.  All you need to do is search for MicroBrewr in the iTunes store or you can use this link.  Giving a rating in iTunes will continue to push the podcast up in the rankings which help get the word out to more people.  Thanks in advance!

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You might also like:

MicroBrewr 024: Real ale in the mountain bike capital of the Northwest, with Brewers Union Local 180 in Oakridge, Oregon.

Support MicroBrewr

Help keep MicroBrewr on the air. CLICK HERE for ways you can help.

Subscribe on iTunes             Listen to Stitcher