Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Walowski.
Chris, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Ten years ago, craft beer wasn’t that available so I took matters into my own hands and started to make beer at home while attending college and grad school. I began to enter a lot of competitions, won some medals and received a lot of good feed back about my beer. A friend of a friend heard word of my successes – they were planning to open a brewery and needed a brewer, so they asked if I was interested and I said yes. It was a part-time gig were I got to cut my teeth and learn a lot. I was then offered a full-time position at another LA brewery, were I worked up to a lead brewer. I then left the brewing world to get my MS in Biochemistry but couldn’t leave brewing behind, so I started at Verdugo West Brewing Co. on the ground level.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Opening a brewery is never a smooth road. It is a complex business and a lot of licensing and paperwork is involved. Many cities have never had a brewery operating in them so they are unsure of even what paperwork to fill out. As with a lot of build outs, we had some construction and licensing delays, but we worked through them.
Please tell us about Verdugo West Brewing Co. .
Our mission at Verdugo West Brewing Co. is to create inspirational beers that are both exciting and fun to drink. To provide our guests with a welcoming and educational taproom experience. To allow our customers to enjoy the freshest beers that are brewed in a consistent and trustworthy manner wherever you are drinking our beer. I’m most known for brewing clean, easy drinking lagers and ales, along with complex and exciting sour beers. I am very proud of our staff here at the brewery. Our taproom staff does a great job of creating a laid back and very friendly taproom environment and my assistant brewer has done a fanatic job helping produce the beer. What sets Verdugo West Brewing Co. apart is that we make very approachable beers, that just about everyone can enjoy and we also brew a huge variety of beer styles. We have 15 taps and a very diverse list from hoppy IPAs, to crisp and clean lagers, to high ABV barleywine and fruity sour beers.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Growing up, I was a curious kid and wanted to be a scientist my whole life. I was always outside getting dirty, going camping, falling into lakes and rivers and going fishing.
Contact Info:
- Address: 156 W. Verdugo Ave, Burbank, CA
- Website: www.verdugowestbrewing.com
- Phone: 818-841-5040
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/verdugowestbrewco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/verdugowestbrewingco/
Image Credit:
Peter West Carey
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