The third installment may be my last, but it won’t be theirs

When I started writing about Brewery 3 (Part 1, Part 2) I said there would be three installments. Part two was about how Brewery 3 went from a group to an organization. This installment is about how that organization will outlast its founder. That’s right, I’m leaving. I will be transitioning to Goose Island to help them with their ‘cross-brewed’ beer (all the beer they make at the larger AB breweries), and while I’ll always be available to help out the Brewery 3 folks, I’ll have to do it from a few thousand miles and two time zones away. This ‘last’ installment is a bit of a retrospective and a passing of the torch. So while it may be my last installment, it’s also their first!

What’s changed since the last time we’ve checked in on Brewery 3?

Since I last shared, Brewery 3’s day-to-day operations has largely shifted to a core group of brewers, who have grown into B3 Brewmasters! We’ve continued to hold monthly brew days where we’ve educated a wide range of ‘apprentice brewers.’ These folks have had a wide range of backgrounds and even more varied set of learning objectives from their brew day. These brew days have shifted from being led and facilitated by me personally to being run by my Brewmasters (my core group of Brewery 3 brewers). This has freed me up to focus on what the Brewery can accomplish with these brew days and beyond. And accomplish we have! Here’s some of the accomplishments we’re proud of:

“Some of the happy Brewery 3 participants”

We won Brew Across America with our LA Vida Lager
- We then brewed some more and hosted a happy hour for all the staff to celebrate this win. The most common question: when can we make this at mass scale?
We developed three brewers into B3 Brewmasters. In addition one of our brewers stepped up as our graphical artist and we created a brand. Brewery 3 is now known throughout the department and even in the far corners of the company!
We hosted about 50+ folks at brew day, including seasoned brewers who’ve never made beer by hand before, new managers who have never made any beer before, machinists, electricians, and fitters, Quality Assurance analysts who can tell us all about the beer’s physical properties, but not how it’s made (now they can!), bottlers who can package thousands of cases a shift, but didn’t know how the liquid got to them (since corrected!), powerhouse engineers who can tell us all about the systems that allow our brewing to occur, but didn’t know what these systems were supporting, and even a congressman!
- Phew, that’s a lot!
We’ve brewed the official beer of The Republic of Molossia (more on this in a future post; it’s still fermenting)
We’ve designed recipes from scratch using historical style guidelines, consulting brewing experts, and evaluating a few inspiration beers
We’ve incorporated the history of our brewery while embracing it’s innovative future; best shown by our brew tracking chalk board below
We gathered the women at the brewery and hosted a Women In Brewing day to highlight the great efforts (and accomplishments) in gender equality we’ve achieved
- Side note, with me leaving for Goose Island, the brewing department will be ~58% women. This is so awesome in an industry dominated by men
We’re part of the brewery’s plan to improve overall tase scores (20% of the improvement attributed to Brewery 3)!

The hardware

The board

The system

The art

The chalk board was part of the original 1954 construction. We’ve since filled the board with our brews and we’ll soon have to start erasing the top

So how did this happen?

Quite simply, I let my brewers take flight. The accomplishments above are either directly or at least significantly attributable to them. Our LA Vida Lager concept was created in a brainstorming session with the brewers and then the recipe was designed by my brewers; our art is produced by a talented brewer; and our brewers are the key instructors every Brew Day. Their day-to-day efforts have allowed me to work on more strategic aspects of the Brewery. I would come up with a concept for Brew Day, provide my brewers with a plan, and then focus on making sure the right folks can attend (a task my brewers are already taking over). I’d also communicate with our local Senior Management about the value of our program (just look at that list of folks we’ve educated about beer, not to mention the major engagement boost the participants get), and make sure to justify our brewery upgrades and expansion in the business terms our company uses. Most importantly, I’d give our brewers challenges. I’d come up with a ‘crazy’ idea and watch them overcome and grow. This is why I’m confident that my exit will only lead to a stronger team. They’re ready, and this will help give them another boost! But don’t worry, as a former cross country and track runner, I know you don’t just hand someone a baton. You give them a flying start and they grab it from you and accelerate! So I’ve given my brewers a few ideas for what’s next!

So what’s next then?

The first question I asked my brewers when I told them I’m leaving is who they thought would be a good manager champion. I was delighted when they independently came up with the person I also thought would be best for the job. Turns out he was excited to step into this role, so with a new advisor in place, I got to talking with them about what’s next. There’s a few projects in progress to give them that flying start we talked about. This will give them the runway to come up with their own crazy ideas that I’m excited to hear about. Here’s what we’ll see in the next few months:

We’re aging a big boozy stout on oak cubes. This beer will be a gift form Brewery 3 to the whole brewing department. We’ll hand them out around Thanksgiving time and folks can have it immediately at their holiday meals (we’ve pre-aged it for them), or cellar it for a year or two. Its our way of showing love to our extended family, and their families
Why stop at oak cubes?! I’m getting Brewery 3 a barrel! I’m working on sourcing a whiskey barrel that they can do a more traditional barrel aging on, as well as a gin barrel for them to experiment with. I’ve promised the brewhouse manager that I wouldn’t fill her hops room with barrels…I’ll probably keep that promise. Probably…
We’re going to make a cider, because not everyone drinks beer. Maybe even a craft seltzer too!
We’re going to use Brew Day as an official training course, equivalent to our intro to brewing coursework; why read about how beer is made when you can learn and do hands-on!
We’ve been challenged by our maintenance team to see who can make a better beer…I think our guys have the upper hand, but if Maintenance studies, maybe they can give us a run for our money. Either way, the folks who keep our equipment running are about to know a whole lot more about what our equipment does. Everyone wins!
We’ll make a lot of great beer and continue to learn and educate along the way!

So I guess this is good bye

I got to do a cool thing with Brewery 3. I got to build a little craft brewery of my own, but along the way I realized it’s not mine. It’s something bigger, more amazing than that. It’s part of the fabric of the Los Angeles Brewery. It’s part of the presentation we gave to our ‘Zone’ management. It’s part of the culture of the LA Brewery. It’s part of my brewers, and it’s part of the future. I will look forward to random packages of something cool they’ve brewed up and wanted to share with me. I’ll enjoy the art our brewers come up with. And I’ll be so proud to hear about the new ideas they cook up and knock out of the park.

So while this is sort of a good bye, I’ll be seeing Brewery 3 again, and soon!