January 26th, 2015
Meet the Brewer: Jeff Goodno, Tributary Brewing Co., Kittery, ME
The very much anticipated opening of Tributary Brewing Company, owned and operated by Todd Mott and his wife Galen, has been a huge success in a short period of time. Tributary opened its doors located at 10 Shapleigh Road in Kittery, Maine to the public on September 6, 2014. Todd Mott is of course a local brew hero, formerly of the Portsmouth Brewery and made a legend for his widely famed Russian Imperial Stout recipe formerly known as “Kate the Great”. So when Mott first announced that he had plans to open a brewery of his very own, beer geeks everywhere salivated in anticipation of what we knew was to come.
According to Mott’s wife, Galen, Mott was a brew pub brewer for many years and as such is used to operating in a fashion where the same line up of beers is produced many times over with a major focus on consistency and quality. While Mott had a vision of creativity and an ever changing line up of unique brews for Tributary, Galen noted “you can’t take the brew pub out of the brewer”. Mott has the vision, expertise and drive, but they knew that when selecting a head brewer, they would need someone with the experience in creativity to carry their vision to the next level. Enter Jeff Goodno.
Mott and Goodno met many years ago when Goodno was a brewer at Trout River Brewing Company in Lyndonville, VT. He worked there for a little over a year before accepting a position at Victory Brewing in Downingtown, Pennsylvania where he stayed for three years. Before Trout River Brewing Co., Goodno had accepted his first commercial brewing gig in 2006 with Custom Brew Crafters in Honeyway Falls, NY. Prior to that, he had been home-brewing since 1997. Through out the years, Mott and Goodno forged a relationship based on mutual respect and a love for the craft of brewing beer. In fact, Goodno lists Mott as one of his personal brew heroes. Mott is in good company on Goodno’s list along with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, Deleware, Greg Koch of Stone Brewing in Escondido, California and Bill Covaleski of Victory Brewing in Downingtown, PA. Goodno likens the work of brewers to that of farmers stating that its long days full of hard work under difficult conditions. He says its truly a labor of love and the reason these guys are his heroes is not just the talent and passion they posses, but that they are all genuinely great guys. In his opinion, that makes it less about the success story of the beer, logo or brewery and more about the people behind that success.
Goodno had vacationed in Portsmouth, NH previously and became great friends with many of the brewery workers over at Smuttynose Brewing. When Mott put out a call for the head brewer position at Tributary, Goodno threw his name it the hat. He knew that the seacoast area was a place that he could easily call home and was looking for a more artisan experience with brewing. Tributary felt like the perfect fit.
Goodno was up against some other big names in the brew biz, but ultimately landed the position. He began with Tributary in August 2014, before they were officially open. He helped finish the build of the brewery and tasting room. They brewed their very first beer in the new facility the last week of August 2014. This beer, their pale ale, has unexpectedly become Tributary’s flagship beer and is now brewed every other week. Since then, Tributary has produced around sixteen different beers in twenty four batches, his favorite of which was the Coffee Milk Stout which included French Roast Sumatra coffee from local coffee roasters Carpe Diem located in North Berwick, Maine. Right now, Tributary has the capacity to produce fifteen barrels of beer at at time. However, there is already a plan to add three new fermenters to increase production output. According to Mott, they already can’t keep up with demand. Clearly, this is a welcome problem for a new brewery to have.
So as expected, Goodno has settled right in to life on the seacoast of Maine. He is obviously a craft beer enthusiast and with so much amazing beer on seacoast, in both nearby New Hampshire and in Maine, he has made good friends already in the local craft beer scene. He also has an art degree in photography and is looking into entering the buzzing art scene in the area. His other major passion is surfing and Goodno has been affiliated with the Surf Rider Foundation for many years, a non-profit organization whose mission is to maintain the health and cleanliness of our oceans and coast lines.
Goodno has organized the upcoming event, LOVE: A Toast to the Coast, to benefit the Surf Rider Foundation which will take place at Tributary Brewing Company on Friday, February 13 from 6pm-8pm. Mott and Goodno are brewing a truly special beer for the occasion: a Gose, which is “…an unfiltered wheat beer made with 50-60% malted wheat…has a low hop bitterness and a complementary dryness and spice from the use of ground coriander seeds and a sharpness from the addition of salt” (source: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/16/). This Gose will be truly fitting as it will contain about fifteen gallons of actual ocean water for and will be conditioned on locally sourced cedar provided by Grain Surfboards in York, ME. One dollar from every in-house pour of this special beer will be donated to the Surf Rider Foundation. Its the day before Valentine’s Day, so make sure to come by the brewery to show some love for the environment. On hand will be members of the Maine chapter of the Surf Rider Foundation, Great Works Land Trust and Grain Surfboards as well as Jeff and Todd.
For more information on this event, visit Facebook at LOVE: a toast to the coast.
For more information on the Surf Rider Foundation please visit www.surfrider.org.
For more information on Great Works Land Trust please visit www.gwrlt.org.
And for more information on Tributary Brewing Company, please visit www.tributarybrewingcompany.com.
Cheers and Beers,
Lisa, the Hefeweizen Hunny
