December is the most wonderful time of year in the Briess Pilot Brewery. This is when Technical Services has the joy of brewing, bottling, corking, labeling and packaging the Christmas Beer that is given to each Briess Employee in their holiday gift package. We even come up with an original name and design for the labels. It’s truly a labor of love…we do almost everything by hand! Quote-unquote “mistakes” should be viewed as “endearing,” as they are a mark of the craftsmanship and authenticity of the process. 😉 Enjoy the pictures and Merry Christmas!
From top in clockwise order: Manager of Technical Services Bob Hansen, Extract Production Supervisor Preston May (who came in to ask one question and we charged him one case of beer labor for the answer!) and Technical Services Representatives Jordon Geurts, Cassie Poirier and Judie Giebel. Not pictured is Technical Services Representative Dan Bies who took the photo – even though his Abominable Snowman t-shirt was dyno-mite!
Fueled by locally roasted Terra Verde Organic Coffee and his passion for artistic expression, Manager of Technical Services Bob Hansen paints his hand-drawn Christmas beer label with concentrated black malt extract.
A close-up look at the front label, designed by Manager of Technical Services Bob Hansen and inspired by the movie poster for The Polar Express. Instead of Tom Hanks, this image features Tom Mayer, Briess Chilton Malthouse employee of 41 years who has been roasting for most of his tenure. The front of the train is the front of a malt roaster, and the symbol on the train is the old Briess logo.
Cassie earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, and a Master of Forestry from Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI. Prior to joining Briess, Cassie was a Chemist at MillerCoors providing support to the Hop and Cereal Chemistry Labs. She performed pilot malting and RVA testing for their barley breeding program along with EPR/ESR analysis for flavor stability monitoring. During her time at MillerCoors, she also served as an Official Taster on the Milwaukee Corporate Taste Panel. In July 2015 she attended the Sensory Panel Management course at Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL. In her current role at Briess, she provides technical support services for quality assurance, quality control, and R&D projects. Cassie has also taken on the responsibility of enhancing and managing the Briess Malt Sensory Panel.
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