Beer Brewing

It’s a common response from anyone who reads my resume –

“Tell me about the beer brewing internship.”

I like beer, and when I was in graduate school, I really wanted to become the corporate archivist for Anheuser-Busch (I’m from St. Louis, it’s in my blood). A very smart archivist once told me the way to get your dream job is to build a resume that makes you a shoe-in for when that magical opportunity comes up.

I followed her advice and created an internship with the University of Michigan’s Special Collections. I’d been doing cataloging enhancement on their culinary archive, so I knew they had plenty of primary resources about the history of beer brewing. I created a digital exhibit and wrote a LibGuide about Michigan’s scholarly resources on beer brewing.

Quote from Rupert Guinness - We are brewers and always have been; and in our brewing we have sought, and we seek, to ally the traditions and craftsmanship of the past with the best that science has to teach us.

I visited Guinness while in Dublin, as one does. The Guinness Storehouse has an open corporate archive, and it’s lovely. The above quote is from one of their visitor exhibits.

You can read more about it, and my other graduate school projects, here.

While my dreams may have shifted, my love of beer is eternal. When I graduated and moved to Chicago, I joined some friends to start Comic Sloth Brewing.

It was a non-commercial venture, so to speak (we never did end up selling any). But we had a great time using what we knew about brewing to create some tasty beer.

Since moving to Los Angeles, we’ve continued brewing. We’re more of a mom-and-pop operation now, as it’s just myself and my husband, and we are now parents. And I apparently picked up the new hobby of mom jokes! Hey-o.

Our latest brew was a mole porter, which was earthy and smokey, with a hint of chocolate and a healthy Chile de árbol kick.