Saturday, October 27, 2007

I was a brewer then

The circle of beer business caught me by surprise yesterday - pleasantly.

Walking through Clipper City Brewing Company (where I work as a Territory Manager), I noticed two Raven Lager kegs. But looking closer, I noticed soldered-on keg nameplates with the words "Wallaby's Brewpub, Westlake, Ohio." (Raven is brewed under contract by Clipper City Brewing.)

I smiled. I had once brewed at Wallaby's .. and filled those kegs!

In November of 1995, after leaving Maryland's Oxford Brewing Company, I worked for awhile at Wallaby's, a brewpub located just outside of Cleveland, Ohio, operated by my friend Joseph Marunowki.

Later, I returned to Cleveland to work again with Marunowski, but this time as the brewmaster for Local Brewing Company, the sister production facility to Wallaby's (which eventually opened 3 pub locations).

That circle of brewing has other local connections:

  • The brewhouse from that now-closed Wallaby's Brewpub now sees service at Franklin's Brewpub in Hyattsville, Maryland.
  • The brewhouse from a second Wallaby's location now resides at Vintage 50 in Leesburg, Virginia where it is used by brewer Bill Madden.
And now I'm going to contradict myself.

If one truly has been a brewer at one time - in craft, business and spirit - then one always remains a brewer ... if, indeed, without portfolio. I brew on.

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