Roy-Pitz Brewing Company approaches beer as liquid art and an “expression of craftsmanship.” As craftsmen, the brewers diligently create recipes to match the brews they envision in their heads. Their love for beer and devotion to their craft is apparent through their tasty, complex brews and thoughtful brand aesthetic. We caught up with Chris Collier, head brewmaster, to chat about how he landed at Roy-Pitz, experimentation and the barrel program.
Tell us about your background in brewing.
I became interested in brewing while I was in college at Susquehanna University. That college combination of drinking beers with friends and taking business classes always made me dream about running a brewery. For a few years after college, it remained only a dream, but I pursued a corporate career and had a chance to figure out what I didn’t want to do for the rest of my life. During all of this time, I was honing in my home-brewing skills and looking for a way to get fully immersed in brewing.
In 2013, I attended the World Brewing Academy at the Siebel Institute in Chicago and the Doemens Academy in Munich, Germany. Shortly afterward, I began working at Roy-Pitz Brewing Company. By 2015, I partnered up and became head brewer. My next project and main focus will be to expand the Nice Dreams sour beer barrel program.
How did you begin brewing at Roy-Pitz?
After brewing school, I found Roy-Pitz Brewing Company through mutual contacts from the Siebel Institute. I checked out the brewery and had an instant connection with Ryan Richards and Jesse Rotz, our two co-founders. I had applied to some really cool breweries, but at the end of the day, I wanted to have a big impact on a small company while learning how to run a small business. By the end of the first week, I was brewing on the hot side and filling orders. The instant access to stainless steel and business operations was a huge draw.
Give us an overview of the varieties of beers Roy-Pitz offers. What styles do you enjoy experimenting with the most and why?
Roy-Pitz offers a range of beers that start at traditional and go all the way to the ones that should make you say, “you crazy Americans.” The original recipes in the early days mostly incorporate traditional German ales and lagers with names like Ludwig’s Revenge, a rauchbier, and Old Jail Ale, an English brown ale.
More recent offerings have gotten experimental and do not always even fit into an existing style. These happen to be my favorite beers. Most notable are our NEIPA, Step Your Game Up, which is extremely hoppy, and Nice Dreams, our barrel-aged sour series. In this series, we will barrel age for anywhere from eight months to a couple of years and then blend and fruit these very tart and funky ales. I love experimenting with Nice Dreams because it gives the most interesting flavors; the fact that the beers in this series are derived from microbes and science is just awesome. It’s easy to put hops into something and get a flavor out of it, but to just add yeast and bacteria and wait is a special way to add flavor and aroma.
How has the Roy-Pitz Barrel House in Philadelphia expanded production?
The Philadelphia Barrel House is our second retail location and has been a great place to showcase our non-traditional beer. It gives us an opportunity to experiment and offer variety by brewing all sorts of different styles. It’s important for us to continue to learn new techniques, processes and ingredients in this continually changing industry.
The barrel program is the highlight of experimentation and pushing the envelope in flavor and aromas in beer. The Nice Dreams barrel program will continue to grow as it becomes one of my major focuses in the next couple of years. We’ve had really positive feedback on some of the beers already, and I can’t wait to see what the barrels will produce in the future. I know it will be extremely sour, tart, fruity and funky.
What makes beer “liquid art”?
We like to take an artist’s approach when we’re brewing beer. Most of the time, we are janitors cleaning up grain and tanks, but we are very serious when it comes to formulating a recipe and delivering a product to our customers. Our water is our blank canvas; grains, hops and microbes are our paint and our beer is liquid art. I love to research beer as much as possible through books and podcasts, and really try to make the best beer I can. Knowing that the product is going out to the public always makes me strive to deliver, so binge research and attention to detail are some unique aspects in our creative process.
What drives you to continue to love beer and brewing?
I love to learn new information about beer, processes and science in general. I also love making new contacts and meeting new people in the brewing industry. Again, this combination of science and socializing makes this industry very easy for me to continue to love and pursue. I was fortunate to have found craft brewing, and once I found it, there was no looking back.
The Brewers of Pennsylvania is a nonprofit trade association that brings together leaders of Pennsylvania-based breweries in order to promote and protect the brewing industry in the state. Established in 2011, the Brewers of Pennsylvania serves the consuming public of Pennsylvania by encouraging brand diversity in the market. We believe in the nobility of brewing and hold dear the great traditions and history of Pennsylvania brewing.
Photos: Roy-Pitz Brewing Company