Hughes nears 10th anniversary as brewmaster

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Dec 12, 2004 | by Cahalan, Steve

As he nears his 10th anniversary as brewmaster at the City Brewery, Randy Hughes says he still enjoys his part in producing quality products and experimenting with the beers of tomorrow.

Hughes, who began working at the G. Heileman Brewery in 1978 as a quality assurance technician, also still feels "a lot of satisfaction" from his role in restarting the facility as the City Brewery in late 1999.

Hughes, 49, has been in charge of brewing operations at the LaCrosse plant since he became brewmaster in May 1995.

He received a bachelor's degree in biology (with a minor in chemistry) from the University of WisconsinLaCrosse in May 1978, and immediately went to work at the brewery, doing beer analysis in a laboratory. "I knew someone who worked at the brewery," he said. "She mentioned there was a position open."

He didn't know anything about breweries but got the job, thinking he would look for something else if he didn't like it.

But he immediately enjoyed his work as a quality assurance technician. "There were a lot of great people here, and it was busy," Hughes said. "And it was interesting, with a lot of different brewing steps."

In late 1978, Hughes became one of several brewing supervisors, He supervised a crew, mainly at night, in the old brewhouse. "In that job, you're working right with the hourly people who were grinding the malt, making the mash, dumping in the hops, pitching the yeast, filtering the beer," he said. The new brewhouse opened in 1982.

Hughes was promoted to an assistant brewmaster position in 1984 and became first assistant brewmaster about seven years later.

"I enjoy the satisfaction of making something that people enjoy," Hughes said of his job as brewmaster. "And it's nice to keep manufacturing jobs in La Crosse."

Hughes and his staff have developed the recipes for the brewery's own brands, with input from others such as company President Randy Smith and Jon Reynolds, marketing and sales director.

"He's a great brewmaster," Smith said of Hughes. "He's a very valuable part of the City Brewing Co. team. He has a real passion for brewing. I think he's developed some excellent beers."

"It usually starts with an idea, and then we build around it," Hughes said of developing new products. "We study the style and decide what we're targeting.

Its own brands account for about 3 percent of the brewery's production, Hughes said. City Brewery mainly produces beverages for about two dozen other companies.

"We make about 120 different products here," Hughes said. Before Stroh closed the Heileman brewery in 1999, he said, it was making about 35 different products, he said.

In some cases, the brewery uses the customer's -recipes. Sometimes, the customer asks City Brewery to develop a recipe for its product.

By producing for multiple customers, Hughes said, "You have to keep separate sets of paper. There's a lot of administrative work involved."

As for its own brands, the City Brewery produces throughout the year La Crosse Lager, LaCrosse Light, City Lager, City Light, City Pale Ale, City Slicker Malt Liquor, Kul Brew and Kul Light. It also makes three seasonal beers, City Winter Porter, City Festbier and City Cream Ale.

"And we always have a few things we're working on" for possible future production, Hughes said.

In 2000, City Lager won a silver medal, or second place, at the World Beer Cup awards.

This year, several of the brewery's products scored well in World Beer Championships held by the Beverage Testing Institute in Chicago. Beers were judged on a 100-point scale.

City Lager and City Winter Porter both received 86 points, La Crosse Lager and City Festbier both received 85 points, City Pale Ale 84 points and City Slicker Malt Liquor 80 points.

The brewery produced about 1.4 million barrels of products in 2003, and it's expected to produce about 1.6 million barrels this year, Smith said. Production has increased every year since the brewery reopened in 1999,

Today, Hughes said, "We kind of walk the line between being a large brewer and a craft brewer."

On two occasions in the past several years, it appeared the brewery might close for good.

The first was when Stroh announced in 1999 that it would close its breweries, including the Heileman facility, and sell its brands. Hughes said he stayed then because "It soon looked like the brewery would stay open in some form" Linder new ownership. New York investors bought the brewery in November 1999 and reopened it as the City Brewery.

"It was harder to stay in 2000," Hughes said of the second time. "There wasn't anything immediately on the horizon indicating the brewery would reopen." Most employees were laid off in June 2000 after the cashstrapped brewery ran out of bottling and canning supplies.

"Randy Smith kept a core group of people together, just trying to keep the place in open" in case a buyer came forward, Hughes said. Some, including Hughes, worked at the brewery for about six months without being paid.

"I was working on recipes, keeping an eye on everything, and working on my resume," during those months, Hughes said.