Daily Inspiration: Meet Adam Thompson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Thompson. 

Hi Adam, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I brewed my first beer around 2004 when I was a student at the University of Colorado Boulder. My roommate astutely noted that, while it was not yet legal for us to buy beer, it was legal for us to brew our own at home. 

We purchased some basic supplies and ingredients from a local homebrew store and fumbled through the process. It turned out to be a lot of work. Even worse, the beer was not particularly good. The nuances of proper fermentation were lost on us, or beyond our budget. It didn’t take long before we gave up, and soon we were all 21 anyway. 

Years passed and I tinkered only periodically with brewing as a hobby. 

In January of 2018, I made a cherry chocolate stout using a recipe kit from a homebrew store, and this time the passion started to kick in. The beer was not bad, I had more patience for the process, and I enjoyed some of the other creative aspects, such as creating custom bottle labels. 

I took the plunge and upgraded my equipment. I purchased a kegerator and the appropriate gear to serve standard beer on tap and beer on nitro. I purchased a grain mill and started milling my own grain. I became very interested in the process, reading book after book and article after article. I watched dozens of hours of videos online. 

I took a stab at writing my own beer recipe for the first time and brewed my first all-grain beer (as opposed to using malt extract – which is how many brewers begin). It was a peanut butter brown ale. Not long after, I happened to be in a brewery and noticed a flyer for a homebrew beer competition. I am fairly competitive and figured I’d give it a shot, not expecting much. 

It won a gold medal in the “Brown British Beer” category of the 2018 Elizabeth Celtic Fest Homebrew Competition. It subsequently won another gold medal later that summer at the Colorado State Fair. There was no going back. 

Since then, I’ve won a number of gold, silver, and bronze medals in various local and state competitions. One of my beers, a cranberry barley wine, even snagged a best of show award. 

Wanting to take my knowledge to the next level, I completed an undergrad certificate program through Regis University in Applied Craft Brewing in 2019. As part of that program, I also interned at Little Machine brewery in Denver, Colorado for about six months. 

After that, I officially launched my home brewery online: pixelHop Beer Company. I focus on creating artisanal products and capturing the artistic aspects of the brewing process through photography and videography. I post regularly on Instagram and also have a website to share content. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The biggest challenge for me was amassing the knowledge I needed to excel. 

There is a lot of information and content out there. As with anything else, people are eager to share their experiences. Sometimes this can be helpful. Often, information can be outdated or improperly sourced. Well-intentioned or not, it can do harm as well as good. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
There are many great content creators online in the beer and brewing space. 

There are also a number of pages and creators devoted to tired stereotypes and tropes. Instagram is filled with breasts and beers. Or static images of beers with their cans. 

I try to differentiate myself through the artistic expression of beer, its ingredients, and the process of brewing. I also share sound knowledge and advice, grounded in science and experience. 

My intent is to bring the focus to the medium. Not on the alcohol or its consumers. A glass is a canvas. Malt, hops, yeast, and other specialty ingredients are the paint. The beer is the art. There is a humble significance too in the process. The labor of a brew day. The quiet progress of fermentation. I find it very fulfilling and interesting. 

We’d love to hear about what you think about risk-taking?
Craft beer is extremely popular in America, and indeed around the world. Everyone needs to take risks to stand out. The challenge is to keep track of yourself in the process. You can’t lose who you are or what your goals are. 

The biggest risk for me was the financial one – an investment in my education and my equipment. I’ve yet to monetize my content, although that is a plan for the future. It took money and elbow grease to get to the point where I felt I deserved a voice in the conversation and a canvas on the wall. 

Another large risk was my investment of time. With so little to go around, it’s important to identify what is important and why. I’ve spent as much as 18 hours brewing and filming in single day. Maybe there is nothing to be gained other than a sense of fulfillment. That is ok too. 

Contact Info:

• Email: adam@pixelhopbeerco.com
• Website: www.pixelhopbeerco.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/pixelhopbeerco
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pixelhopbeerco

Image Credits
pixelHop Beer Company