Tomme Arthur from The Lost Abbey joins me to discuss experiences the last 13 years building and running his craft brewery.
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[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/beersmith/BSHB-196-Lost-Abbey.mp3]Topics in This Week’s Episode (38:11)
- My guest this week is Tomme Arthur, co-founder and Director of Brewing Operations at The Lost Abbey brewery. Tomme has spent over 20 years in professional brewing working at breweries as well as White Labs and Pizza Port before founding The Lost Abbey in 2006.
- Tomme holds dozens of GABF medals, as well as local, regional and World Beer Cup awards.
- We start with a quick update on the consolidation at The Lost Abbey which has occupied a large part of Tomme’s time the last 18 months.
- Tomme tells us what its like to operate a fairly large craft brewery, and shares what his typical work day looks like.
- We talk about how they make basic descisions like what beers to brew and in what quantities.
- He shares what the brewing production cycle is at Lost Abbey
- We discuss how he comes up with new ideas for beers as well as how they bring them into production.
- He shares his thoughts on quality control and quality assurance for beer.
- Tomme tells us some of the ways the beer scene has changed over the years and we discuss the growing competition in craft beer.
- We talk about long term planning for growth and expansion as well as how he finances growth.
- He shares the biggest problem he ran into at The Lost Abbey and how they solved it.
- We discuss the business vs brewing side of the job.
- Tomme shares his advice for those looking to start a small brewery as well as his closing thoughts.
Sponsors
- Thank you to our sponsor Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine for sponsoring this episode. I encourage you to subscribe to their great magazine!
- And also Anvil Brewing Equipment. Anvil is a new line of kettles, burners and accessories from John Blichmann at Blichmann Engineering. They make top quality brewing equipment built to last a lifetime.
- Also check out BeerSmith, BeerSmith Mobile software and the new DVDs John Palmer and I filmed – How to Brew with Malt Extract and How to Brew All Grain are available now. You can subscribe to the BeerSmith newsletter for free to get some great articles on home brewing.
Thanks to Tomme Arthur for appearing on the show and also to you for listening!
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Tomme Arthur’s insights into running a craft brewery in Beersmith Podcast #196 are invaluable! His expertise and passion for brewing truly shine through, giving aspiring brewers like me the inspiration and guidance needed to pursue this dynamic and exciting industry. Waiting for more episodes.