August 1st, 2011
Q/A With Steve Sanderson from Riverwalk Brewing Company
#beer, @riverwalkbeer,
Our goal at 2Beerguys.com is to share stories and news about the beer industry. We hope that through our stories and experiences, we inspire you to try something new — so, crack open a fresh craft beer!
The industry is growing and new breweries are popping up everywhere. This inspired us to sit down with Steve Sanderson, of Riverwalk Brewing, in Amesbury, Ma. Here’s a sneak peak into the world of Riverwalk Brewing.
Enjoy!
Sean, Ian, Ryan.
Drink Craft Beer, You’ve Earned It!!
Q. How many years have you been brewing (including homebrewing)?
I have been brewing for just over 7 years now. I just dusted off my old brew logs, so I can tell you the exact date of my first batch: May 12, 2004. It was an extract batch of IPA from a kit, and even though I had no clue what I was doing it actually came out pretty well. Even back then I took copious notes about my brew sessions, which has been helpful! I started off homebrewing, like many brewers, and progressed up through extract to all grain to more automated brewing. Most of my experience in professional brewing has been as an assistant, aka floor cleaner. One of the highlights of my brewing career so far was brewing a collaboration beer with Harpoon last year.
Q. What’s your favorite part about brewing beer?
It’s hard to choose one aspect of brewing that stands out above all of the others. I guess for me it would be the sense of mystery that still exists in the brewing process. We can control almost every aspect of the process, from temperatures to ph, the minerals in the water, even adapting different strains of yeast. At the end of the day, however, once that wort is in the tank with its yeast the brewer has very little control over what happens. There is an amazing array of changes that occur to produce the beer that we know and love. The way I see my job is to set up the right environment to allow all of these changes to occur. It’s still kind of a miracle of nature to me every time I go through the process. Believe me, anyone who has worked with some of the more temperamental strains of yeast knows what I’m talking about!
Q: What has been the greatest challenge for you in starting a brewery?
The greatest challenge for me in starting Riverwalk Brewing was to build a unique brewery from the ground up. I started from scratch when creating Riverwalk, and we didn’t have a huge budget either. This meant that I had to develop all of our procedures, equipment and recipes myself. We weren’t going to buy a turnkey system and take some standard recipes and just start cranking out beer. The fact that I designed and built many of our pieces of equipment means that I understand how they work and was able to modify them for our needs. Every decision that we have made has been oriented toward the quality of our beer. For instance, we may not have a giant brewhouse just yet, but we are able to have a small lab that allows us to ensure the quality and consistency of every batch that goes out the door.
Q: What do you see for Riverwalk brewing in the next 5 years?
I’m still trying to see what is ahead for us in the next 5 days! The truth is that we have no aspirations to take over the world, or even dominate any particular market. Our goals are focused around providing great, fresh beer to our local market. I would like to see us expand into a larger space in the next 5 years that would allow us to incorporate a tasting room and foster a sense of community around the brewery. Distribution to some additional states in New England may also be in the cards, but probably not for a couple of years.
On the beer side of things, I see more seasonal releases and a slow introduction of our more funky beers. Getting those beers right takes time, and we are not going to rush it. I’d also like to brew some lagers in the future, as we have excellent water in Amesbury for some of those styles.
Q. From your perspective, where do you see the craft brewing industry going?
This is a tricky question that may need to be answered more fully in a future blog post. I am very excited about the growth and proliferation of new breweries right now. We are in a time when there is a renewed interest in supporting local flavors and tastes. On the flip side, we are also seeing some of the issues that arise from this growth. Government agencies dealing with breweries are having issues keeping up, some are re-examining their licensing standards, and there is beer making it to market that may not meet the standards that I believe we should uphold for our industry. I do believe that you will see some consolidation down the road, as well as some smaller producers leaving the business. When that will be, I can’t say. All in all, it is an interesting time.
Q. When deciding to start your own company, what was the driving factor behind this decision?
The driving factor behind my decision to start my own brewery really came down to my own personal taste. I am a creative person at heart and I felt that I had a vision of what a brewery could be and how our beer could taste. What we do is really an amalgamation of all that I have learned from brewing, travelling, studying and of course drinking. I also felt that it was important to run the company in a way that was consistent with our values. We have a few simple rules, but it basically comes down to treating everyone that we interact with respectfully.
Q: What were you doing before you started Riverwalk Brewing?
I have done a number of things before starting Riverwalk. I’ve working in recording studios and theaters, both onstage and backstage. Most recently I had my own financial planning practice, and I still hold a CFP designation.
Q: What is your favorite beer, brewery and place to visit?
I will probably cop out on the favorite beer question and say it is the beer that I have yet to try. I have such varied taste that it is hard to narrow it down, but I am always excited to try new things.
I’ve been fortunate enough to travel the world and visit some great locations for beer and tourism. Probably one of my favorite breweries to visit is the Caracole brewery in Belgium. The brewery is housed in a very old building and still uses wood fires to heat the kettles. The mash rakes are turned by hand, and in the tasting room the walls are lit by candles. I remember sitting in that old stone hall and drinking some wonderful beer, thinking that this was my idea of heaven.
If I had to choose one beery destination above all others, I would say the city of London. You could spend weeks hunting down the perfect pint of real ale. As a matter of fact, I may have done just that.
The crew at the 2011 Amesbury Brewfest
We have invited Steve to be a contributor on our blog. Stay tuned for more stories about the adventures of Riverwalk Brewing.