Somewhere inside Poncha Springs, Colorado’s, Elevation Brewing, there’s a man they call “Christ.” (No, not that one, of course). In the halls of the shiny new building of Boulder’s Avery Brewing, a man is answering to the name “Meaty Bro.”
These are a small sliver of some of the epic employee nicknames floating around your favorite breweries that you probably haven’t heard — until now.
I asked breweries to tell me their best nicknames in their shop. The responses are awesome.
Avery Brewing | Boulder, CO
Taylor “Meaty Bro” Gunter
We received a resume that concluded with a “Hobbies” section, under which was the following sentence: “I like to lift weights, but not like a meaty bro.” We hired that man, and henceforth he was called Meaty Bro. Sometime over the course of his five-year tenure, this has been shortened to Meatz, presumably because Avery employees are lazy in their nicknaming.
Kevin “Truth” Stoneroad
Many moons ago, we hired a guy to work in packaging who was mis-introduced in a meeting as “Kevin.” He immediately clarified that his name was Ryan, but it was already too late, and he was Kevin from then on. Soon after, another new guy joined the packaging team, and the team collectively thought it’d be hilarious to also call him Kevin, and so forth and so on until we had too many Kevins. We then started distinguishing between the Kevins with descriptors: Hair Kevin, Beard Kevin, Money Kevin (who worked in accounting). And then the day came when we hired a guy who’s real name … was Kevin. The entire company lost their minds. From that day forward, he has been known as “Truth Kevin,” which remains one of the best nicknames we’ve seen these many years.
Submitted by Jess Steinitz, Beer Badassador
Stormcloud Brewing | Frankfort, MI
Jones
Last year one or our shift brewers, Mike Sharp, left us to move on to another career. He was such an awesome guy that similar to the sports tradition of retiring a jersey, we decided to retire his name. Unfortunately, his replacement was also a Mike, but having just retired that name from the brewery, we needed to change it. What would’ve made sense was to simply call him by his last name, but the new Mike has the fantastic German surname, “Iseringhausen.” Clearly, that wasn’t going to work — “Iseringhausen” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue in casual conversation. We needed a different name for him, so we unilaterally decided to change his last name to “Jones,” and that’s the name he goes by in the brewery and pub: Jones, Jonesy or JONES! depending on the mood. Newer employees are always shocked to find out that’s not his real name (if they ever do find out). The best part is, “Jones” now uses his brewery nickname when making appointments or reservations. He says spelling his name at the hostess both was always an ordeal and he wonders why he didn’t think of that years ago.
Submitted by Brian Confer, Head Brewer/Co-Owner
Elevation Beer Co. | Poncha Springs, CO
Mancave
This is for our brewer, Nick. His last name is Boyden: “Boy Den” became Man Cave.
Christ
This is our head brewer, Christian. That extra syllable is exhausting.
Tron
Her name is Megan, not to be confused with Megan B., the second Megan we hired. The impetus for her nickname was a progression from Megan to Megatron to Tron from 80’s cartoon and movie references.
Submitted by Andy Astor, Keg Orator
Firehouse Brewing | Rapid City, SD
Yeastie Boys
Our brew and wine team is collectively known as the Yeastie Boys. It started well before we started making wine and were just producing beer. Back then it was only two of us and now there are five. On our data sheets if it is only Zach Steele and I; we are just known as OYB (original Yeastie Boys). We have since included our chemist, Adam Martinez, our wine maker, Rich Tanguay, and our newest member, John Mayes.
Submitted by Mike Kilroy, Brewmaster and Megan Johnson, Marketing Director
Cape May Brewing | Cape May, NJ
Mop Man
When the guys first opened the brewery, they were sitting around trying to decide what everyone’s title would be. It was decided that Ryan would be president and Chris chief operation officer, but when they asked Bob what he wanted to be, he said he didn’t need any titles. After 40 years in the pharmaceutical business, he’d had plenty, so he suggested just being “the mop man.” Five years later, he says, “You gotta watch what you ask for. Sometimes it sticks.”
Submitted by Alicia Grasso, Marketing Guru
Rogue Ales | Newport, OR
“Here at Rogue we have some pretty fun titles and nicknames,” Anna Abatzoglou, Minister of Fire Starting (yes, that’s her title), told CraftBeer.com. “We actually get to make up our own titles based on what we do.” Here’s a look:
Player-Coach (President): Brett Joyce Sweeper (Legal): Mike Johnson Hop Hustler (Sales): Cory Henson Sales Chemist (Sales/Homebrewer): Blake Mueller Master of the Digital Universe (Social Media/Media Director): Clare Sivits Chief of Special Ops (COO): Mike Isaacson Coordinator of Scribing and Imbibing (Marketing Assassin): Bridget Carrick Technology Evangelist (IT Team of 1): Mike Leeder Barrel Troll (Head Cooper): Nate Lindquist Level 10 Spirits Wizard (Master Distiller): Jake Holshue
Have you heard any we should add the list? Better yet, add this to your list of the best tour questions to ask the next time you visit one of America’s small and independent breweries.
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