Meet Stephen Kirby | Owner and Director of Brewing operations

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephen Kirby and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephen, how does your business help the community?
Hogshead brewery tap room, is like a small British pub the people who drink there have created long lasting and meaningful relationships with the brewery and one another. If you need help or advice with a building project, a recipe, moving a large object or a sympathetic ear there is someone in the hogshead family that will lend a hand

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My mission statement when starting Hogshead Brewery was to make a world class pint of cask conditioned bitter in America. I am proud to say that I think we have accomplished this,

Now it is easy to see that in a country that drinks force carbonated beer at 38 degrees Fahrenheit this might not be every ones preferred tipple, for me it has been a life long obsession.

Picture this this Four young lads standing around a wooden cask called a KIllderkin, which had been purchased for the Christmas holiday. The adults had returned to work leaving myself and my best friend Frankie aged eleven to look after the younger children and not cause any trouble. Franks dad who was a man of imposing size and stood for no nonsense in short he scared the shit out of me, was also a man of good taste and had procured said barrel of Youngs special bitter. The conversation went something like this
. “My dad will kill us”

“Frank you cant see in it, how will he know”

“Get some glasses”

This started my live long love of cask conditioned beer

Returning to live again in America in 2008 the same thing was still missing, what Brits call a proper pint, Cask conditioned of course. I had been brewing cask beers at my house the previous time I had lived in America and we decide to resurrect the research and development one barrel brewery

and brew some of the beers from the Gilpin street brewery. Two years of R&D
hogshead opened in 2011 at its present location, with three beers that I had previously brewed back in 1989 at the Gilpin street brewery. These beers remain in our core line to this day. Gilpin Black Gold, Chin Wag, and lake lightning
Making cask conditioned beer in America may not be the best financial decision of my life but it has been good for my sole, to share this with the beer community of America.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Hogshead Brewery, Bierstadt Largerhaus
Red rocks
one of the many hot springs

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Leo Mckern, Publican, raconteur, and fountain of beer knowledge who gave me my first job in the beer industry as the Cellar man of his very busy pub. Teaching me the time honored art of racking, tapping, venting and conditioning cask beer ( real ale) Leo was instrumental in helping me secure my first job in a traditional British brewery producing open, top fermented Cask conditioned ale.

My beer industry friends from across the Pond who made the long Journey to Hogshead Brewery to keep me honest and provide constructive criticism, to let me know if was a crap or proper pint. Craig lee, Rudgate brewery. Roger Ryman, St Austell brewery, Peter Simpson, Simpsons Malt. There are to many of you to mention, you know who you are. And of course the brew staff and front of house management. at hogshead, I know how fortunate I am.

My good friends Greg Woroch, and Kurt Kittleson who supplied encouragement and financial assistance in tough times

Lastly the patrons of Hogshead Brewery. It doesn’t work without you.
I value each and every one of you.

Website: http://www.hogshead54.com

Instagram: hogshead54 The OG of Hogshed

Image Credits
Dustin Hall Brewtography Project