I knew as soon as I hit submit on a reply in Egbert's AMA that he would nominate me... So here I am! I expect this will be a slower AMA due to a)I don't like talking about myself, and b) it's a holiday week. Additionally I am about to go out of country for a week so I apologize if some replies come much later than expected. Not a frequent poster, I hope I do this right and feel free to tell me otherwise!
Background:
Grew up an Army Brat, lived in lots of places including various European stints.
Graduated VT Food Science '98 (small major you likely have never heard of, in College of Ag, we had 12 of us in my graduating class)
After Graduating VT went to work as an assistant winemaker in upstate New York. Lasted one winter there and then moved west, young man! To California and a small ag town in Sonoma County where I was a cellarmaster for some time. Long hours, very low pay (I was making less than I was in NY but cost of living was ridiculous – but if you love it, you do it.) Lots of learning, hard work and experience was gained, especially during harvest and crush when I would basically work at other wineries overnight to earn some more money. When you are young in the wine business you basically sell yourself cheap for experience... but fine memories now. Perspective is everything.
During that time I was approached by a colleague who wanted to start up a hard cider company from scratch – so I joined in on that venture and was in charge of all production while he did sales and marketing. Long Story short I found he was pretty much embezzling investor funds, so I had to laywer up and get out of that situation, sadly.
Worked for awhile in Napa (Calistoga) leading a second shift production job in a larger facility. Didn't enjoy working for a larger company, so I left there to go and work on a family ranch in Sonoma where we grew wine grapes and made some specialty food products for companies like Trader Joe's and Williams-Sonoma. Somewhere in there I got married and had three kids. That was an awesome job and would still likely be there but the owners sold the business to grow old and travel in retirement.
Following that I was approached by a fellow Reserve Augmentation Program Firefighter (it's a CA thing) who had a small craft brewery and wanted me to run his QA lab as he was growing. Signed on for that gig, and we went from 15kbbl to ~80kbbl/yr production in about 2 years. This was during the big craft beer boom, and we had a well known flagship old school IPA that sold nationally.
Kids+California = not affordable unless you are a trust fund owner.... so a few years ago a job came up back here at VT and I took it! Back in the same Department I graduated from, came back to share with the students what I learned in my career. My wife, who is from CA, never lets a winter go by without reminding me about the weather in CA... She is a saint.
Things I enjoy: carting my kids around to their activities, fishing, smoking and bbqing meats, travel. That should also answer the question about how and why I enjoy The Key Play!
I will do my best to check in this week and answer as best I can!
Comments
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.
Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.