GABF 2014 Pictorial Part 2:People in the Brewing Industry

Through the years of beer seeking, I have meet many people who work in the brewing industry. And a few of these people have helped in my growing enthusiasm for beer. During the GABF, I bumped into these marvelous people and took snapshots of them at this great fest.

I think that it's enhances the experience of GABF when the brewers or owners are at their booths pouring beer.

Sam Calagione, founder and President
of Dogfish Head.

Lynne Weaver, founder and
Alexandra Nowell, head brewer of
Three Weavers Brewing.

Glenn Closson, founder and a staff member of
Beach City Brewing.

David Walker, co-founder of
Firestone Walker Brewing.

Beachwood BBQ Brewing, owner and head brewer.

Kevin Ely, head brewer at Uinta Brewing.

Kim Collins, head brewer at
Barrel and Bottles Brewing.

Matt Cutter, founder of Upslope Brewing.

As I walked around the fest, I meet up with some folks in the brewing industry who were gracious in allowing me to take a snapshot of them.

Dave and Nicole, beer servers at Odd 13 Brewing.

Steve Kaczeus, founder/brewer at Bootstrap Brewing.

Sam Scruby, head brewer at Upslope Brewing
and Kendra Springer, Texas state representative
at Upslope.

Jamie Wells, founder/brewer at J Wells Brewing.

One of the greatest treat of GABF is the fun attitude that is displayed by everyone at the fest!

Interview at the GABF: Lynne Weaver and Alexandra Nowell of ThreeWeavers Brewing Co

The Three Weavers Brewing Co is quite unique in the brewing industry, for one a woman, Lynne Weaver, owns it and second, the head brewer is also a woman, Alexandra Nowell. They were at the Great American Brew Fest representing their brewery.  

Lynne Weaver and Alexandra Nowell.

I caught up with them while it was still calm at the fest. Lynne Weaver is a friendly and articulate person who spoke candidly about the GABF and of being in the brewing industry. She started to home-brew after staying home raising her kids. Lynne likes to bake and home brewing wasn't that much different to her. Her first beer she brewed was very much like the Expatriate Ale that they were pouring at the GABF. The brewery was funded with Kickstarter.

I asked her, "How do you go from homebrewer to brewery owner?" She replied "being of my background in finance, I wanted to find out if it was a viable business so I went to the CBC in DC and found out if was a viable business and Los Angeles area sorely in need of breweries."  After five months Lynne then stepped down from brewing realizing that her skills were more useful in the business side then the brewing side. It was a hard transition for her but ultimately started looking for a brew master and Alexandra Nowell name came up.  I asked her if it was difficult being a woman in the industry and she said that Alexandra caught most of the hits since she is the brewer. Lynne thought it was more difficult getting respect as a woman home brewer than a woman owning a brewery.  

I then talked with Alexandra Nowell, she has a great credential in the industry, She was exposed to brewing in an academic career and studying for nine to 10 months evaluated it as a career. The first beer they both got them in craft beer was Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Alexandra has been brewing for 5 and half years. She got her start as a paid intern as Sierra Nevada after the internship she was employed at Moylan's Brewery and then in 2010 got a brewing job at Drake's Brewing where her job was in their barrel-aging program.  Alexandra thought the GABF was a great place on the brewer's perspective to taste peoples beers that we don't have access to and also on the consumers side they have access to beers they're not. And gives their brewery more exposure to other markets which is always nice when you're trying to grow a new brewery. Lynne thought the GABF was a lot of fun and tiring, this was her first time here.

Lynne Weave then proceeded to pour me a taste one of their beers, Midnight Flight, a stout, which I found, had a nice maltiness and richness to it. I liked it.

These two women are an inspiration in the dedication to push the boundaries to fulfill their dreams.

So if you're in the LA area, stop by and have a taste of their beers. 

Great American Beer Fest: Day 1

I hadn't been to the Great American Beer Fest in over 10 years and this time around I was more prepared for the hours of tasting beer.

I write for Barley's Angels Colorado and for my blog, the colorado beer scribe so with this in mind I have to be careful not to get inebriated. I was here ton assignment o get the female perspective on GABF and on the craft beer explosion.  It was awesome this time around because of the media pass that let me enter to the fest with the brewers and entourage entrance. The next thing was that the line was a fraction amount compared to the one that stretched down the block for the consumer entrance. And entering with the brewery industry, I was in the building 15 minutes early!

The convention hall was so enormous in the space, it seemed to go on for miles. This was especially true for that small amount of time that the hall wasn't yet filled with people. The large space was mind boggling with your head turning left then right looking at all the breweries set up in rows. But I had to remember one of the reasons I was at the fest, to interview Lynne Weaver and Alexandra Nowell from the Three Weavers Brewing Co.

It should have been easy to locate them since they're in the Pacific section, they're brewery is located in Los Angeles. So here I am searching for this brewery in the Pacific region but not finding it. Walked for my 15 minutes looking for it, finally I looked it up on the brewery directory. I know, I should have done that first but anyway, I found them. Three Weavers Brewing was located in the featured breweries section. Lynne Weavers was there and Alexandra Nowell arrived a few minutes later. It was such an inspiration meeting them, two women living their dream. 

Lynne Weaver owner of Three Weavers Brewing Co.

After the interview while waiting for my husband who had the bad luck to be one of thousands of regular consumers that forged through to the GABF hall, I interviewed three women attending the fest. I catch them before they even had one taste of beer which gaurenteed a good interview.  Desiree Duzich, who is videographer/photograher for a community blog called Porchdrinking.com.  She was also waiting for someone at the entrance when I asked for a quick interview. The other ladies, Theresa Williams and Jane Del Carlo who are two friends that have been attending the GABF for the last four years. 

Fest goers coming in after waiting in line.

Theresa Williams and Jane Del Carlo.

The rest of the night was dodging others while I tried to find those diamond in the rough breweries and I found a few. Rare Barrels from Berkely, California, brewed some really nice sour ales. I especially liked the Forces Unseen, a 5.3% ABV that was a blend of three golden sour ales.

There was also Belching Beaver Brewing Co and Beach City Brewing, both these breweries were at the Beer Bloggers Conference in San Diego where I first tasted their beers. The Peanut Butter Stout was really delicious from Belching Beaver.  Beach City Brewing had Triquilo, a Belgian Triple that was aged in Tequila barrels. 

I left the fest with anticipation for the next day, more interviews and more beer tasting.