Meet The Brew Crew

Brock Wagner

Brock’s long history with beer started before he was born, when his great-great-great grandfather opened Wagner’s Beer Hall in San Francisco in the mid-1800’s (now the oldest existing bar in the city, renamed The Saloon.) Brock grew up in Cincinnati and Brussels, both big brewing towns, where he was exposed to many of the beer styles of the world. At Rice University, fate (and a friend) introduced him to homebrewing. This love of beer and brewing eventually led him to the inevitable: opening a microbrewery.

Frank Mancuso

Interview Process: Frank used to be the volunteer that picked up donated kegs from the brewery to deliver to KPFT events. He was known to be one of our biggest promoters around town. When our sales position in Austin became available, he seemed the perfect fit. He loves live music and Saint Arnold beer, so when he’s out selling, he is never sure if he is working or playing.

Justin Earnest

Interview Process: After talking about all the normal interview stuff, Justin pulled out the pictures of his Miata. After seeing that he could fit a small block Chevy engine into a Miata, we figured that he would be able to fix anything at the brewery that we might be able to throw at him. And we started throwing things at him right away!

Lennie Ambrose

Interview Process: First Lennie emailed from Beaumont during ad breaks in the evening news where he was the sports anchor. He really wanted to work at a microbrewery. Then Lennie came to pub crawls and events at the brewery to make it seem like he really wanted to work at a microbrewery. But it was when Brock saw Lennie at the GABF handing out koozies with his phone number on them to other breweries that Brock realized how badly Lennie wanted to work at a microbrewery.

Phil Dagger

Interview Process: First we discovered that his real name was Melvin Finkelstein but he changed it for his career in movies. He still survived our rigorous interviewing regimen. Plus he had a good plug from a devoted volunteer.

Daniel Gonzalez

Daniel quietly showed up one day. We attempted to interview him, but he didn’t say anything. He seemed happy working, but still didn’t say anything. We are still trying to get him to say something. Can you get him to say something?

Donny Kilbourn

Interview Process: Donny took the path of persistence. We decided that his number crunching background probably wasn’t right for the bottle crunching packaging line. But then we came up with a job with a title that we didn’t understand, and Donny was the perfect fit. Does that mean he’s smarter than us, or that we don’t understand him?

Josh Day

Interview Process: After seeing how he operated as a volunteer at our MS150 tent, we knew he could hold up under the pressure of the bottling line.

Kelsey Lamb

Interview Process: Kelsey was working in the lions’ den in Washington, DC for the National Beer Wholesalers Association when he sent us his resume. But it was his poem “Ode to the Saint” that won us over. We had to save him from the dark forces of the district.

Aaron Inkrott

Interview Process: Aaron was a homebrewer and liked public speaking. So we brought him in to rotate through tour guide position. But this was just his secret way to get next in line for a brewer position. And it worked.

Jeremy Johnson

Joe Sullivan

Interview Process: Joe came to us on a temporary basis to help with the bottling line but got transferred away. A few months later while trying to think whom we should hire for a full time bottling position, a Bob Marley song came on. It was a sign that Joe was our man.

Michael Stein

Interview Process: We hired Michael either for his perpetual smile or for his awesome head of hair. Some of us could really use a little of that hair, Michael.

Andrew Weigel

Interview Process: He cooked at Hotel Icon. We have a beer named Icon. We asked him about wine. He told us he only cared about beer. Perfect answer to our trick question!

Colin Klingemann

Interview Process: We either hired Colin because he was an impressive engineer and homebrewer fresh out of college who had interned at another brewery or because Donny was lonely as the only other Aggie here.

Jared Wilson

Interview Process: Jared began here as an eager volunteer, using his volunteering as an extended interview. His former experience at a small chocolate company came in handy. Because we like chocolate.

Nathan Vowell

Interview Process: Nathan was a longtime volunteer as well as a roommate of one of our other team members. Subtly he expanded his hours until one day we noticed he was working full-time. Time to put his photo on the webpage!

Joe Knickerbocker

Interview Process: We hired Joe either because he is a great cook or because we like saying Knickerbocker. Or both. Knickerbocker.

Ben Edaburn

Interview Process: We’re not sure if we hired Ben because of his stellar record at Kendra’s alma mater or because of his impressive baritone. Or perhaps both. He may be moonlighting as Don Giovanni.

Drew Russey

Interview Process: We had deep involved conversations with Drew about the role of phenotypic plasticity in adaptive evolution. These fascinating discussions led us to offer Drew the job. Although we had no idea what we were talking about. You can just call him Dr. Drew.

Ben Coffman

Interview Process: A boy and his dog. That’s what did it. In this case, the dog was Reveille. During college, Ben walked Reveille, fed Reveille, picked up after Reveille, showered with Reveille and slept with Reveille. And it never got weird. We wonder, did he ever give Reveille a Saint Arnold?

Ryan Skillman

Interview Process: Ryan loves craft beer. He mused about his quests for whales, those elusive beers. And even better, he promised to bring them in and share them with us. Highly effective interviewing technique!

Carlos DeLeon

Interview Process: Carlos wanted to work at Saint Arnold. He really wanted to work here. Sometimes, that’s what it takes! Along with a sunny disposition and good recommendations.

Matthew Schmidt

Interview Process: Matthew liked bending pipe. He liked wiring. He liked HVAC systems. He liked painting. He liked cleaning broken glass from parking lots. (We may have embellished some of these “likes”.) And he liked beer. Specifically, Saint Arnold beer.

Sebastian Becerril

Interview Process: Sebastian is a craft beer lover. He can work on a car which is like working on a bottling line (although hopefully the bottling line is less greasy – but not always). He always carries a hammock. Packaging beer can be stressful. And you never know when you’ll find two trees positioned just right.

Matt Ludlow

Interview Process: Having already recruited for our basketball team, we decided to begin work on our baseball team with Matt. It was also convenient that he had spent the past 12 years working for a beer distributor and a national craft brewery.

Chelsea Schneider

Interview Process: Chelsea told us some dad jokes, all of which she thought were very funny! And then she fixed all of our hair. Which is saying something since a lot of us didn’t give her much to work with!

Ashlyn Calamaco

Interview Process: Ashlyn has great credentials as a craft beer lover having served many a customer as they were working towards their plates in Houston and at a craft beer distributor in Denver. She has climbed through the three tier system and is now happily selling craft beer from its source!

Zachary Valocchi

Interview Process: Zach liked fighting fires but has found that shipping beer is much safer. He also enjoys having a beer after both of those activities.

Eric Dalcour

Interview Process: Eric began his time here as a temp but proved that he could do three things at once. His temporary label quickly disappeared!

Andrew Heard

Interview Process: Andrew liked to fix pumps and motors. Andrew liked to homebrew. We have lots of pumps and motors. We like to brew. And he leads the brewing team in Semper Paratus at the beginning of each shift.

Jake Wharton

Interview Process: Jake asked us if he grow his hair long. Sure! Could he grow a beard? Sure! Could he wear a King Buffalo concert t-shirt? Sure! Could we tell him a dirty joke? He almost got us.

Roy Moore

Interview Process: We first met Roy in La Grange. Not the Chicken Ranch one. He also wears a lot of purple and gold while playing disc golf about town.

Cal Abadin

Interview Process: He loves New Orleans. We love New Orleans. He loves baseball. We love baseball. And yes, he is named after a famous baseball player. We’ll see if you can figure out which one.

Jared Gossett

Interview Process: Loves the Astros, Texans and Rockets. Check. Loves Star Wars, except the Ewoks and Jar Jar Binks. Check. Hired as a Beer Garden OG line cook, Jared has worked his way up to sous chef. Check.

Ryan Darcy

Interview Process: While his love and knowledge of horror movies is impressive, that doesn’t come close to his cooking skills. But he does have a degree in acting/directing in case he decides to moonlight as a masked chainsaw axe murderer.

Michael Audirsch

Interview Process: Mike admired our newly built Beer Garden and decided he could have an excellent time turning it into a disc golf course. Bonus points for a hole in one through the front door into the fountain. (That’s a joke. Please don’t try that.)

Daan Hekma

Interview Process: Daan has the longest interview process, beginning in 1983 when he was a freshman at Rice with Brock. Which also means he has photos of Brock from 1983. Which may or may not have played into his hire. He made sure your refrigerator was running in between those years. (Better catch it!)

Austin Hopson

Interview Process: Austin has gone from Beer Garden to Warehouse to Marketing in a short period of time. When not espousing the wonders of Saint Arnold to the world he might be at home secretly laying down some trashy rap tracks. We are still waiting to hear any of them though.

Tito Poireth

Interview Process: Tito loves to eat delicious food and drink delicious beer. What more could you wish for from the man who is going to cook for you at the Beer Garden? But don’t take him on at Mega Man.

Michael Alexander

Interview Process: Big Mike came to us originally in 2012 but took a sabbatical at Golden Corral. He decided that the endless buffet isn’t actually endless. We are excited to have him back.

Jaz Miller

Interview Process: Unbeknownst to Jaz, we were interviewing her for 10 months while she cheerfully brought us food and drink at the Beer Garden. She can also write your name in fancy script and is an award-winning mixologist.

Marisa Lofland

Interview Process: Marisa was stalking us on the website after growing tired of stocking drilling rigs on the Gulf of Mexico with all their supplies. When she isn’t squeezing pennies out of vendors, she’s at home being a pinball wizard.

Ron Blakey

Interview Process: Ron came to us from fine dining in Houston and New Orleans (his accent will make you think of delicious food). If you ask him about autographed baseballs, make sure you have a full glass of beer first.

Brandon Speich

Interview Process: It may have been his love of dogs and our love of dogs at the Beer Garden that originally attracted him to join our team. Now he has moved to our warehouse team which is awesome but, alas, no dogs allowed.

Chuck Hardy

Interview Process: We were all surprised when Chuck came to his interview since we thought he already worked here. He convinced his roommate to leave the country to open up the position that Chuck then smoothly insinuated himself into.

Bryan Jenschke

Interview Process: Bryan was already in the local craft brew business when he joined our team. Having conquered Houston, he is now out to conquer San Antonio.

Oscar Peregrina

Interview Process: After deciding making chicken feed was for the birds, Oscar turned to crafting delicious beers in Puebla for many years. He interviewed with us in English, French, and Spanish. We understood beer, bière, and cerveza. Done.

Nathaniel Rebeck

Interview Process: While his doctorate thesis was Polymer Synthesis toward Fuel Cell Membrane Materials, it was probably all of the “short tours” of the Coors brewery while at Colorado School of Mines that most affected the direction of his career.

Trevor Istre

Interview Process: It may have been his love for the Astros that made him want to move to Houston, but it was his Cajun cooking that made us decide we needed to bring him from Lafayette.

Michael Devine

Interview Process: It may have been his dedication to working his way up through the craft brewing industry. Or it may have been that after years of our correcting people’s misspelling of “Divine” in Divine Reserve, we loved the irony of having a team member named Devine.

Erica Storch

Interview Process: It could be we were persuaded by her connection to Rice, albeit the Rice Ballroom. Or it could be that she had been secretly persuading us for a job while on Saint Arnold Pub Crawls. Either way, it worked!

Jacob Baker

Interview Process: While in Florida, Jacob served our beer during our brief stint of distributing Saint Arnold there. What really impressed us though is his WWE Smackdown Belt. Perhaps this is his inspiration to use piledrivers and chokeslams to get taps at accounts.

Will Kremer

Interview Process: He loves beer, was already working in brewery production AND, while Saint Arnold has many musicians on the team, we were missing a cellist. No longer!

Lauren Meyer

Interview Process: Lauren spent many years at BJ’s where we were secretly-not-secretly brewing their beers for them. We haven’t been brewing for BJ’s for many years. Lauren missed our beers and we missed her. Problem solved.

Ranger Luckey

Interview Process: Having tired of the diamond business, Ranger took his homebrewing hobby and went professional. When not busy brewing beer, he can be found bicycling around town or reading his X-Men comic books.

David Porter

Interview Process: David proved that persistence is an effective route to success. David loves craft beer. He started by loving drinking it. Then by loving distributing it. Now by loving selling it for us! And he is always prepared – exactly what you would expect from an Eagle Scout.

Sean King

Interview Process: We played poker with Sean – if he won, he got the job. We didn’t know he could count cards, deal from the bottom of the deck, and had an ace up his sleeve at the time. Also, his girlfriend’s grandfather’s daughter’s son works at the Beer Garden and vouched for him.

Name

Interview Process: Madi was tired of digesting recycled plastic and making it into polyurethane foam. She much preferred the idea of digesting beer foam which, it turns out, is much tastier as well. Other fun facts: Madi plays the drums, has a dog that outweighs some of our team members and can officiate your marriage – the Saint Arnold robes will make her even more official!

Adriana Richey

Interview Process: We knew Adriana had wooed her listeners on her radio show “Contigo Siempre” in Mexico City. She wowed her audiences doing acrobatics on the silks. She won us over by comparing her personality to beer styles. And she had the most colorful excuse ever for having to reschedule her interview at the last minute.

Cody Welch

Interview Process: Cody had wanted to work at Saint Arnold but instead moved to North Carolina for a brewing position. After every year flying a big Texas flag for Texas Independence Day, cooking a brisket and singing songs by Texas artists and about Texas, his coworkers there knew he wanted to come back and work here too. Oh, and those former coworkers still remember the Alamo.

Claudia Cantu

Interview Process: If your family is from Germany, you pretty much are guaranteed to love beer! Claudia began serving our beer, then distributing our beer and is now at the source. She also has an artistic side in pottery so perhaps next she will make us some beer mugs.

Ricardo Orozco

Interview Process: Having done logistics for us for 8 years and a day, Ricardo was overworked and exhausted and needed a break. He found a nice beach in the Dominican Republic where he spent two and a half years sipping his Presidentes and piña coladas under a palm tree. But really, how long can you do that? Now he’s back running numbers for us in a different department. Taking bets on how long until he finds a new beach.

Isaac Kuhn

Interview Process: Isaac's first real work was a chicken shit job. He spent his teens working summers at his family’s farm and egg business. Knowing that wasn’t what he wanted to do, he pursued a career in engineering but a burgeoning love of craft beer led him to homebrewing. We all know how this story ends. Cheers!

Edgar Garcia

Interview Process: A coworker here recommended we speak with Edgar who was ready to move from the hardware store business to something more exciting. And excitement has been delivered! Edgar enjoys an active lifestyle which includes camping, hiking, bicycling and packaging beer.

Blake Bourque

Interview Process: Blake liked to cook – after all, what is brewing really? – and began with a career in restaurant kitchens. His passion was beer which led to brewing in Colorado until he saw a video extolling how f***ing good Commitment is. He packed his bags and headed for Saint Arnold. A hunter who wastes not, he is rumored to make the best alligator squirrel gumbo you’ve ever had.

Matthew Graham

Interview Process: Teeing off on his craft beer odyssey, Matthew's journey swung into action with a Fancy Lawnmower Beer at the Ginger Man (RIP) many rounds ago. Navigating the treacherous fairways of entrepreneurship, he ventured into the jewelry business, then, like the perfect reading of a green, the beer import business. Alas, the global pandemic proved a bunker too deep, but not to be deterred he blasted right into his position here at Saint Arnold. And he’s a high school golf coach to state champions.

Riley Lopez-Rogina

Interview Process: There was a magical day when both Saint Arnold Amber Ale and Riley were introduced to this world. It was destiny that Riley ended up here. After keeping the packaging lines humming, Riley seeks the solace of backpacking to remote locations to listen to the symphony of silence.

Patrick Paparelli Jr.

Interview Process: Broken cabinet door? No problem. He’s a Bob Vila acolyte. Kitchen fire? He was on the VFD for 22 years. Flying saucer sighting? No comment, although he did spend several years in the Bermuda Triangle.

Jeremy Jackson

Interview Process: Jeremy loves baseball. He loves watching baseball. He grew up playing baseball, eventually playing in the minor leagues for the – wait for it – Brewers organization. Clearly destiny. So we all know how the seed was planted for what to do after baseball. Before joining our team, Jeremy worked at a slightly larger brewery just a little to the east of us on I-10.

Meagan Lim

Interview Process: We asked everyone in the interview room who traveled the furthest. Meagan won! She abandoned her swimming career for craft brew, first working in a craft beer shop before entering the world brewing. She also had a strong recommendation from the Scout Master.

Charlie Hamberg

Interview Process: As a level 13 Tiefling Rogue and master of deception, her silver-tongued words can weave intricate tales or manipulate emotions to suit their needs. Her Tiefling lineage grants her an innate knack for casting spells of darkness and illusion, casting a veil of mystique that can shroud her intentions and mislead even the most astute observers. With a +4 Dexterity modifier, her movements are a mesmerizing display of fluidity and precision. We think this will all translate well into her job.

Ross Melton

Interview Process: We discussed LSU women’s basketball winning the national championship. We discussed LSU baseball winning the national championship. We discussed that it had been a few years since LSU football won the national championship. We wondered why Ross left Baton Rouge but we are happy he did!

Chase Reid

Interview Process: As Chase was busy cooking at a series of craft beer bars, his appreciation, knowledge and love for craft beer continued to grow. Having moved onto running the kitchen at a fine dining restaurant, Chase realized he missed being surrounded by beer and beer lovers. Now he is back surrounded by craft beer and is busy trying to educate the kitchen on appreciating East Coast emo and hip hop while cooking.

Corey Lyon

Interview Process: First he told us about his introduction to craft beer being Lawnmower. Then we discussed backpacking around the world and a brief stint as a carnie. The clincher might have been that his scientist wife is working to bring wooly mammoths back into the world!

Robert Jarosz

Interview Process: Robert was born and raised in the shadow of breweries – albeit ones with names like Pabst, Schlitz and Miller. Having worked for restaurants in Milwaukee but having the same opinion of Bud Selig that we all do, Robert decided to move Houston and check out the scene here. With beer in his heritage, it was destiny that he end up with us at Saint Arnold.

Jason Madrid

Interview Process: We began interviewing Jason while he was working at Whole Foods. About 20 years ago. He was great selling our beer then. We figured he would be great about selling our beer now. Then we sat down and played a couple games of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 7 with him. He beat us.

Kyle Tennyson

Interview Process: Kyle walked into the room, shook my hand, put me into a Rear Naked Choke, executed a Twister and finished me off with a Superman Punch. After picking myself off the floor and reminding him that this position does not require MMA, he told us about his great-grandfather during prohibition telling all of his kids to put ketchup on everything so that he could use the empty bottles for his homebrewing.

Sarah Milligan

Interview Process: We started off discussing her research into how tick-borne bacteria hijack the human immune system. Then we moved onto her experience in working at craft breweries in Houston and her inclusion in the “Houston’s Hottest Brewers” calendar. We ended with her hobbies of birdwatching, cross-stitching, and jigsaw puzzles. We thought she looked great for a 75 year old grannie.

Jared Hobson

Interview Process: With a food science background and love of beer, it made perfect sense that Jared would be a homebrewer. He even took it further growing his own hops – a perfect use of one of his other hobbies: vermicomposting. And while the rest of us are busy trying to guess who is going to win the Oscar for best picture and actor, Jared is the guy placing bets on who will win for cinematography.

Carlos Lira

Interview Process: Carlos began his due diligence for working here by coming back in the Beer Hall days and trying all of our beers. After he would go to the wrestling ring and throw some people around. We figured that wasn’t so different from throwing cases of beer around. Perfect!

Rebeca Santana

Interview Process: Mom: “Rebeca, Saint Arnold is hiring! You need to apply now!” Rebeca: “You do realize it’s 3 AM?” Mom: “Early bird gets the worm!” Fortunately for us, Rebeca did as Mom said and has gone from marketing electricity to putting electricity into our marketing!

Rikki Day

Interview Process: While Rikki had been serving beer for many years, Saint Arnold was the first brewery Rikki ever visited. And it ignited her passion for craft beer. Having a great hospitality background, we thought she would be a great addition to our event team. We also had a nice discussion about where to get the best vindaloo and our favorite characters in One Piece.

Chad Shoman

Interview Process: He started off selling pop (that’s what they call Coke in Illinois), eventually moving onto beer and finally moving to Texas. We found out that he’s competitive in everything he does. But the real question: Is he a Chad? Yes, but in a good way.

St. Arnold of Metz

Kevin Bartol

The Volunteers