

It is up to the brewers to come up with the recipe, find the ingredients, and figure out how to make it work.

On a regular basis, Matt’s boss, will circulate an email to all of brewers, asking for ideas for new beers. Though a lot of Matt’s job is executing recipes that are already foolproof, he spends a fair amount of time working on new recipes. However, in addition to large scale production, they have a miniature version that is mostly used for experimentation.

Harpoon has an incredibly large brewing capacity system where they brew most of their well known beers, including: Harpoon IPA, UFO White, and Octoberfest. craft brewing scene has so much going on.” What might be hot now, might be kind of forgotten in ten years, or stuff that was popular two hundred years ago, may see a renaissance in the United States. He enjoys getting to travel and to see what other breweries are doing. Matt likes to get out of the brewery and meet the consumers, and establish new accounts with restaurants and bars. Just last February Matt was invited to New York for NYC Beer Week. In addition to Matt’s day-to-day tasks, he also gets to work at the beer festivals, tasting events, and beer dinners that Harpoon participates in.
Harpoon ipa shelf life free#
It’s pretty rewarding.”īelieve in or not, the free beer is not the most thrilling part about Matt’s job. “It’s a nice mix of science, computers, and alchemy, it definitely keeps me entertained, I learn something new every day. By computer, I mean four screens with an overwhelming amount of figures, grids, and numbers on them, that somehow hold all of the information and power to brew every last barrel of beer. He can be seen on forklifts grabbing bags of specialty malt, in the cooler grabbing imported hops, and at the computer executing procedures. Matt is one of only seven guys at Harpoon that hold the coveted title of “brewer.” The PerksĪs a brewer, Matt still finds himself working all over the brewery. Thats when he really got into the “hot” side of brewing actually coming up with recipes and brewing beer. He didn’t start working in the brew house until March of 2010. The first nine months of working at Harpoon consisted of learning the ropes and figuring out how everything worked. He then moved on to the production side, where he worked the bottling line and the racker, which is the machine that refills the kegs. Matt started out driving trucks and delivering kegs of beer all over the city of Boston. Luckily for him, back then Harpoon had a program known as the “bootcamp program” that was designed to encourage young people to get into the beer and brewing industry.
Harpoon ipa shelf life professional#
At the age of 24, Matt didn’t have any real, professional work experience, not to mention brewing experience. More on that later.Īs of November 2013, Matt will have worked at Harpoon Brewery for seven years! However, it wasn’t always such a glamorous gig. “That’s where I really fell in love with the brewing industry and kinda really got to know what it was about” However, the more we got to talking, Matt realized that his interest in beer was truly sparked at the young age of 16, when he was a sophomore in high school. He was able to not only visit almost all of the breweries, but interview the brewers and make a documentary. Matt, along with two friends, visited almost every brewery in Vermont-which is saying a lot! Vermont was then, and is still, the state with the most craft breweries per capita. He even did his senior thesis on the history and evolution of craft brewing in Vermont. He began his journey: Attempting to taste all the beer in the state. Everything about it, down to the label and the brown color of it. Since going to school and living in Vermont, Matt had developed a keen interest in beer and the craft beer movement in the United States. After graduating in 2005 (and spending the year painting houses and drinking all the craft beer Vermont has to offer), Matt decided to move back to the South shore, and figure out his next step. Michael’s in Burlington Vermont, where he studied journalism. Matt DeLuca was born and raised just south of the city of Boston, which Bostonites lovingly refer to as the “South Shore.” For college, Matt attended St. Follow along as Jackie goes behind the scenes and brings you the inside look on the cheese world. In this blog series, our summer intern Jackie will interview a variety of cheesemakers, mongers, and buyers, in order to get a glimpse into their day-to-day life. A Day in the Life of Matt DeLuca Jackie Emilo | February 5, 2014
