James McGowen, head brewer at Great Barn Brewery in Kintnersville, started his brewing career at the end of Victory’s Brewing Co’s bottling line loading cardboard a decade ago and working his way up from there, according to a staff report from the Breweries in Pennsylvania.
Today, he brews many beers in many different ways.
“I think creativity isn’t limited by style of beer,” he said. “I would say beer allows me to be creative in general, and my creativity is only limited by my knowledge of the subject.”
But for him, consistency is more important than creativity.
“Writing recipes is fun, but making them repeatable is better than making an insanely complex beer that takes an arm and a leg to finish,” he said.
He also thinks that there will be less variety from breweries in the coming years.
“The market is oversaturated, the cost of raw materials is rising, and there’s a rough harvest coming,” McGowen said. “The cost of finished products is also rising. I think we will see a simplification of variety from craft breweries nationwide. There will be a renaissance of the lager.”
Read more about James McGowen in the Breweries in Pennsylvania.
