Phoenix Beer by Clark Dave;

Author:Clark, Dave;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Greg Sorrels (left) and Matt Trewelany of BRI. Courtesy of BRI.

Matt brewed regularly, anytime the opportunity presented itself. Eventually, Greg volunteered to help Matt brew a batch. “Greg came over for that brew and was hooked. Every batch we’ve made after that day has been made together. We brewed about 225 batches of homebrew before BRI opened, using the last year to fine tune recipes, processes and our system,” recalled Matt.

During that run, the two friends delved deep into their beer research. They read every beer-brewing book they could find. They joined online brewing groups and message boards. The two listened to many podcasts on brewing and even joined the local homebrew club.

The research started to pay dividends. The beer improved, and the friends entered competitions. In the very first one they entered, they won a couple of bronze medals, validating their improving work. The two continued to refine their processes and recipes and then entered the same beers into other competitions. The bronze medals turned into golds.

Around that time, Matt and Greg started toying with the idea of possibly taking their hobby to the professional level. They both had business backgrounds, Matt in the restaurant industry and Greg in the contracting world. One day, Matt dropped the bomb. “I said, I’m going to cash out of my company and open a brewery. Do you want in on that? Thankfully, he said yes.”

Matt took the plunge in the fall of 2013, leaving his former company and starting the planning process for BRI. It took just over a year from conception of the idea to opening the doors. The Beer Research Institute opened for business on November 17, 2014, in a strip mall in Mesa, Arizona.

“The name is more of a goof than anything. It makes us sound super official, but really, we’re just a couple of jackasses making big beers! It’s a conversation starter. Some people ask if we’re a school or a homebrew shop and we get to tell our story. When branding the brewery, we didn’t want to be the standard ‘XYZ Brewing Co.’ or ‘XYZ Aleworks’ so we were trying to come up with something different,” said Matt.

“It was sort of an ongoing, inside joke. I’d be at a brewery drinking a beer and I’d take a picture of the beer and the menu board and send it to Greg, saying ‘I’m conducting more research.’ That started going back and forth between the two of us for a while. When we were ready to brand our brewery, I asked what he thought of the name ‘Beer Research Institute.’ We both thought it was solid, and I filed the legal paperwork the very next day,” Matt added.

While the two brew every batch of beer together, they divide up the company’s responsibilities according to each other’s strengths. Greg is responsible for the overall brewing operation, and Matt handles company leadership and marketing.

The company lives by a straightforward and simple mantra. According to Matt, “BRI focuses on the beers we want to drink and the food we want to eat.

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