Interview With Hannah Morris, First Female Head Brewer

International Women's Day! 

 

Which conveniently leads me to today's subject: the first female Head Brewer in Greenville (and only second in the state), Hannah Morris at Quest Brewing Company. She recently took time out from a busy cleaning and canning day to chat about what the position means to her and the path that led to this appointment.

I first met Hannah when she was pouring at Upstate Craft Beer Co. (now Eighth State Brewing) back in 2014. She pointed out that by 2011 she was already exposed to craft beer, pouring at Nose Dive.

By 2013 she had already started as a home brewer, like so many others now working in breweries, brewing with her friend Sean Lally. She confessed that their first effort went right into the drain. Her first all-grain effort was an imperial stout with rum soaked raisins, cinnamon and vanilla. She describes it as "pretty tasty."

Her entry into the real brewing world at Quest began as Production Assistant and Brand Ambassador, using skills fostered at a local distillery where she was the Director of Customer Relations. But her actual first introduction to Quest was as a volunteer, coming in couple days a week to help out with canning. That exposure led to her being hired. Yes, boy and girls, hard work does pay off.

Last October (2018) she was promoted to Assistant Brewer, working with Sean and since then has brewed three original beers; first was a Green Tea IPA, then a Raspberry Porter (which I really liked, dark chocolate and raspberry flavors beautifully balanced) and now her latest creation, a Lemon-Lavender IPA, also well balanced. Fans of the Sun-WuKong, their New England IPA (and there are many, including me and the #GVLBrewCrew) will be very pleased to learn that among next month's releases will be the latest iteration of this IPA, Hannah's first as head brewer. She wants it to do justice to Sean's introductory version which was eagerly accepted by craft beer enthusiasts.

When I asked her about future brewing releases, she revealed her like of Belgian styles which she admit first drew her to Quest. She also likes lagers and hopes to do more funky beers using the barrel-aging facility across the street from the brewery.

Finally I asked her about any advice she might give to anyone trying to break into the craft beer field, male or female, her response was, "don't give up and be willing to take any position... and bring as much as you can to the table,... keep your options open, a jack/jill of all trades."

It certainly worked for her. Brewing creative new beers, keeping the Quest role in the local community a very active one and expanding the future possibilities.

I say, well done, Hannah, well done.

 

A few action shots of her displaying the varied activities that her role involves:

 

 

7th Annual Barley's (Greenville) Biggest Little Beer Fest Fun As Ever

Were you there Sunday?

At Barley's Taproom & Pizzeria (Greenville) for the 7th Annual Biggest Little Beer Fest? If you missed it (it did sell out), well cheer up buttercup, I was there sampling an amazing assortment of beers and took lotsa photos; many of them in focus! So, grab a brew, get comfortable and off we go!

(Next group will feature Trappe Door pix)

Whither AB InBev??

Filling my busy schedule (it could happen!) with some research, largely from this very informative and interesting book (see pic below). So the question arose, where did this entity, AB InBev which claims one third of the world's beer, come from? I found the story very compelling.

It starts in Belgium where until 1987 the two largest and market dominating breweries, Stella Artois and Jupiler, had secret agreements to control prices. In '87, they made the arrangement official, merging to become Interbrew.

Interbrew then began a series of acquisitions which included British Bass and Lowenbrau.
In 2004 things got even more interesting when Interbrew merged with Brazil's AMBev, itself a merger of two former competitors which dominated the local beer markets. From that came InBev.

During this time things weren't going well with the Anheuser-Busch family, due to a "volatile relationship" between father and son, August III and August IV Busch. Thanks to that turmoil, InBev made their move to take over AB. Essentially a hostile takeover since the Busch family controlled less than 7% of the company, in 2008 when Warren Buffet agreed to sell his shares, other shareholders did likewise.
Thus, AB InBev.

Another side story that caught my attention, certainly due to my Northern CA roots and history of drinking Lagunitas beers at the Petaluma brewery, was the time line of Heineken. The Heineken family founded it in 1864 and it still is family owned. Responding to the AB InBev growth, Heineken made some acquisitions of its own, including Newcastle (brewer of that fine Brown ale). Their strategy consisted of investing in local brands in emerging markets. Which brings me back to Lagunitas. Not exactly in an emerging market, too well known for that, but a very desirable investment. So, in 2015, Lagunitas initially sold 50% interest to Heineken, probably with visions of Little Sumpin showing up on shelves throughout the Netherlands. Last year, Heineken assumed 100% ownership.

It's my personal belief that Tony Magee (Lagunitas founder and executive chairman) made that decision based on a desire to never be owned by AB InBev and joining the Heineken family would preclude that.
So, in 2014 AB InBev, SABMiller, Heineken and Carlsberg combined to claim over 45% of all the beer in the world. Whew!

And to sum up, I'm pleased to announce that 99% of the beer in my fridge is craft beer (we keep a Yuengling on hand for brother-in-law). Speaking of which, I'm gonna go have one and bring this history lesson to an end.
Cheers.

Wednesday Beer List

You know you love'em... so here's another one for this Wednesday:



https://vinepair.com/articles/ask-brewers-next-big-style/

Read on and Cheers!!

New Belgiums' 25th Birthday Bicycle

Upstate Craft Beer Co., in Greenville, was the sight for a New Belgium tap takeover and the raffling of a custom-made NB bicycle in honor of the occasion. 6 collaboration beers to try and each purchase got you a raffle ticket. And finally, at 7:30, the winning ticket was drawn and the winner, who just moved to Gville six days prior, claimed the bike for his own, adding a victory lap in the parking lot. Great time was had by all, aided of course by good beer, good music from The Passing Scene group and the fun ambiance that inhabits the Clausen Bakery Buildings latest incarnation, Upstate Craft Beer.

Some photos below attempting to capture all the festivities.

The beer menu for the tap takeover.

Tasting flight of 4 of 6. All collaborations.

Wes Gibson, New Belgium Beer Ranger, with the prize!!

Two of the six beers were outside only, the Sour and Belgian Pale.

The crowd starts to build outside; inside was packed.

Good music, many of it original but included Grateful Dead pleasing tunes.

The party carries on, despite heat and some threat of rain.

Calling the winning numbers.

Correct numbers??

The Winner!! "RW"  on his first visit to Upstate.

RW with his new bike. He just moved from Austin, quite a welcome present.

Jack, Wes and Chris ready the bike for the party.

 Happy 25th to New Belgium and cheers to all!!