Ryan Brooks is the Head Brewer at Coronado Brewing Co.
You just brewed a collaboration beer on Wednesday. How’d that come about?
Sebastian (Sauer, from Cologne, Germany’s Freigeist Bierkultur) and I had been e-mailing back and forth for a week and a half or so. I knew he was coming out to California to do some touring and we thought it’d be fun to brew something. He had the idea of brewing a German-style beer, a hefeweizen, with fruity West Coast hops. It’s totally not to style by any means, but we’ll see how it tastes in just over a week.
What limited releases do you have coming up?
We just brewed some Stupid Stout that will be going into bourbon barrels. We’re really trying to hit the barrel program hard, and we’ve got some sour ales going into red wine barrels that I’m pretty excited about.
Do you have any travel opportunities coming up?
In July we’ll be flying out to Cigar City to brew a twist on a California Common. Then those guys will be visiting us in August or September to brew on our system. Later in the fall we’re headed to Germany for the big Brau Beviale exhibition.
Where else have you brewed?
I first started at Black Market in Temecula and was there for about a year as an assistant. Then I moved to Australia and brewed at a big facility in Sydney called Malt Shovel Brewery. I was on a six-month visa, and then moved back to California and was head brewer at Black Market for almost a year. It was in December, 2011 that I came down to Coronado where I’m head brewer as well.
What breweries are you enjoying these days?
I’m a huge fan of AleSmith. Also, I went out to Santee and visited Manzanita a few weeks ago. I knew Garry from when he was a homebrewer in Temecula and I was at Black Market. I’m really impressed by his growth and the size of the operation he’s running these days.
Read a more complete story on the CBC/Freigeist Bierkultur collaboration over at the Coronado Patch.