Today I have news. Christmas Eve was my last day at Steamworks. I loved that job but came across an opportunity I could not pass up. Tomorrow I start at R&B Brewing as their Head Brewer. I had just began to think I should start keeping an eye out for Head Brewer jobs when Judith pointed me to the job ad. I submitted my resume and met with the guys from Howe Sound, who just purchased R&B last spring. It felt like a great match and a great opportunity so I gave notice at Steamworks at the beginning of December.

First I want to say what an amazing time I had at Steamworks. I worked with an unimaginably talented group of brewers. I learned a hell of a lot from those guys (and gal). I wouldn’t have the confidence to make a move like this if they hadn’t welcomed me and taught me so much in such a short time. I was there only six months but it felt like I knew those guys for many years. Spending day in and day out, often early in the morning to sometimes well past midnight, I got to know them and they got to know me. I picked up so much information and knowledge from all of them and got to know them on a personal level. A can safely say these guys are my good friends and I look forward to keeping in touch for a long time to come. So thank you Julia, Scott, John, Nick and Steve, as well as all the other great people there. It was a fucking proper pleasure to work with you. I am also really glad that these guys all got to know me just as well as I got to know them. I think my personality best comes out when I am comfortable with people and we can freely bounce ideas off one another, or just ask stupid questions without the fear of the question being stupid.

Next, I want to emphasize how excited I am for R&B. The brewery has a lot of history in my neighborhood of East Van. It’s been going through a lot of changes over the past year and I only know so much about the dynamic that exists at the moment. What I do know is that everyone there seem like great people to work with, they respect each other and are dedicated to continuing to make great craft beer for this city. I will be looking to the overall team to help me do the best job I can. The few short conversations I’ve had with people (over beers of course) have given me confidence this will be a good working environment for that to happen.

There is a new tasting room opening up at the brewery and it looks like it will be very exciting. So far as I know opening could be early February 2016. The outgoing head brewer – Liam, who is moving back to Australia – has done some great work at the brewery over the past several months. He’s produced some exciting beers and worked with the Howe Sound guys to make some much needed infrastructure improvements to the brewery. His hard work is much appreciated and I am grateful to be picking things up where they stand at the moment. There are continued improvements, including new 30 hL conical fermenters, planned for the coming months that should make the place run smoother from an operational, quality and consistency standpoint.

I don’t want to write too much as I haven’t officially started the job yet. So I’ll leave it at that and I’ll have more to say after the first few weeks. All I can say is that this feels right at this time. If anything, this job will show me what I’m made of.