YEARS IN THE BEER INDUSTRY? 5 years in beer industry and 30 years or so thinking about beer.
LIKES: Great music, making people laugh, wood fires, candor, pork, magazines, Fall, cooking, long dreamy hikes & bike rides, podcasts and Jim Harrison novels.
DISLIKES: Navigating “highly-matrixed reporting structures”, corporate politics & buzzwords, bad design, a bad meal on vacation, losing, commercial radio.
THE BEER THAT OPENED MY EYES? The 180 or so imports I had the pleasure of serving in the late 80’s at the Pilsen Club in Kalamazoo, Mi & Lagunitas IPA.
YEARS IN THE BEER INDUSTRY? I cut my teeth pouring Michelob Light pints for my father from his kegerator, circa 1992.
LIKES: Everything about Bill Hicks, vinyl records, BEER!, hot sauce, April, travel, Cormac McCarthy, Dock Ellis, National Parks and Forests, drums, water.
DISLIKES: Sour cream, myopia, people that say “I told you so”, Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy.
THE BEER THAT OPENED MY EYES? Short’s Huma Lupa Licious.
ROB HENRY
JOB: Cellar Manager/Brewer
YEARS IN THE BEER INDUSTRY? Started flipping kegs in ’08.
LIKES: Cuban sandwiches. Naps in hammocks. Rolling dice. BLT sandwiches. Clean well executed pilsners and funky brett farmhouse ales. Ruben sandwiches. Ryan Gosling. Kettle soured beer. Punk rock. All the sandwiches.
YEARS IN THE BEER INDUSTRY? Slanging craft beers for 13 years.
LIKES:
Lori, Delaney, Rowan, Albert, and Hip Hop.
DISLIKES:
Insincerity, Inconsistency, and Dress Shoes… also, fake-smiling for pictures.
THE BEER THAT OPENED MY EYES?
Dragonmead – Final Absolution.
Sam Sage
JOB: Assistant (to the) General Manager – Like Dwight Shrute, only less personable. EMAIL: sam@axlebrewing.com
YEARS IN THE BEER INDUSTRY? Technically 1 year, but I’ve bartended since I was 19yrs old.
LIKES:
Everything good.
DISLIKES:
Everything BAD.
THE BEER THAT OPENED MY EYES?
My first beer was called Meister Brau and it was $15 for a 30 pack and it was not good. But, once I learned about decent beer I remember really liking Ommegang’s Hennepin beer when I first had it. It’s a farmhouse ale and it tastes like bananas ripened in a barn — and I mean that in the best and most positive way.