Meet Alyssa Thorpe of Jagged Mountain Craft Brewery in LoDo/Lawrence

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyssa Thorpe.

Alyssa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When I moved here almost five years ago, I found my love for the local craft beers and decided to start homebrewing. I have always loved cooking and I have always been a really creative and artistic person. I realized how much I enjoyed it and started entering competitions – After winning a few awards, and having a chance to attend the Great American Beer Fest awards and seeing the energy and amount of support within the beer industry I knew it was something I wanted to pursue as a career. I started at a very small brewery as an assistant while attending the Craft Brewing program at Regis University. After graduating, I spent two years as a brewer at Lone Tree Brewing Company, and just recently landed the position of Head Brewer at Jagged Mountain Craft Brewery!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Overall, it’s been good. I did really struggle to find a job right after graduating Regis. Being a woman in the brewing industry is somewhat of a rarity, so I get the occasional unfortunate comment or ridiculous questions. I’m a petite person too, and people always ask if I’m capable of the job. There are some things I cannot lift, like a full keg for instance. But really no one should be lifting a full keg that weighs 160+ pounds.

Please tell us about Jagged mountain Craft Brewery.
We are a community brewery in the heart of downtown. Jagged Mountain prides ourselves as “Adventurous beer for adventurous people” We have some solid, classic styles on drought while still having creative, fun beers on too. We are able to brew a wide variety of beers since we have 20 taps. As the Head Brewer, I get to formulate recipes and see the beer through the process from grain to glass. So far, I’ve been really proud of the fact that I can be so versatile with brewing. My first beer was a very clean, traditional style Maibock and I just brewed a double dry hopped Hazy IPA.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Growing up in Texas, the summer months were pretty brutal. I remember as a kid, my dad loved to smoke different meats with a smoker he welded himself. After a full day out in the heat preparing dinner, we would invite our closest family and have dinner. It was a great sharing a meal that took my dad so much time and effort into. I think that is one of the reasons I like making beer so much because it takes time and brings people together.

Contact Info:

• Address: Jagged Mountain Craft Brewery
  1139 20th Street,
  Denver, CO 80202
• Website: http://www.jaggedmountainbrewery.com/
• Phone: 7206892337
• Email: info@jaggedmountainbrewery.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaggedmountaincb and https://www.instagram.com/southernbeergirl
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaggedMountain/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/jagged-mountain-craft-brewery-denver-2

Image Credit:
Brewtography Project

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