A beer odyssey: Andy Tveekrem’s ancient brews for the 21st century

by Barry S. Eisenberg '85

Andrew Tveekrem “History flows forward on rivers of beer.” – Anonymous

“I’m intrigued by the history of beer,” says Andrew Tveekrem, brewmaster at Dogfish Head Craft Brewing, a fastgrowing brewery in Milton, Del. “Researchers believe that after hunters and gatherers banded together and settled into farming, they needed a food to get them through the long winter months. Bread spoils, so they fermented the grains into liquid bread.”Tveekrem, a history major who graduated from The College of Wooster in 1985, cites academic sources that theorize that malting, mashing, boiling, and fermenting grains—the basic process of brewing beer—has remained relatively unchanged for thousands of years.

As every history major knows, the past is prologue—apparently, even when it comes to beer. In 2004, an archaeological chemist used a bit of reverse engineering to derive the formula of a 7,000-year-old beer from the residues of pottery unearthed in the Stone Age settlement of Jiahu in northern China. The professor brought the recipe to Dogfish Head, and this summer Tveekrem oversaw the commercial roll-out of the brewery’s Chateau Jiahu—using the ancient Chinese formula of fermented rice, honey, grapes, barley malt, hawthorn fruit, and chrysanthemums. “ We made it happen.We took it from theory to reality, and what comes out in the end tastes good,” says Tveekrem.

Dogfish Head began in 1995 as a brewpub in the summer resort community of Rehoboth Beach, Del.Today, at the Milton facility, some 10 miles inland from the pub, the company produces 50,000 barrels (1,550,000 gallons) per year and basks in its reputation as a creative, adventurous place that uses a lot of weird ingredients. The company’s motto says it all: “Off-centered ales, for off-centered people.”

The brewery’s creative flavors can be sampled in its Raison D’Etre ale (green raisins), Chicory Stout (Mexican coffee, St. John’s Wort, and licorice root), and Pangaea ale (which features ingredients from every continent, including crystallized ginger from Australia, water from Antarctica, and basmati rice from Asia).

“No other brewery does what we do,” says Tveekrem, who supervises 22 employees and is in charge of brewing, packaging, shipping, quality control, and maintenance. “We’re known for big, extreme beers,” he explains, noting both the ingredients and the alcohol content. “Typical American beers are 4 percent alcohol; our bestseller, the 60 Minute India Pale Ale, is 6 percent. Some of our specialty beers go as high as 18 percent alcohol and are more like wines or cognac—what I would call sipping beers.”

An extreme fondness for beer

Tveekrem’s 20-year history in brewing began at Wooster, where his interest was sparked by Trog’s Grog, made by Beta Kappa Phi brother Tom Glovier ’85, who fermented the mixture in the dark recesses of an Armington Hall dorm closet. The spark was ignited during Tveekrem’s sophomore year semester in Germany, where he toured a brewery and observed the science and art of brewing. “That was the first time I realized there was a whole lot more to it than you could get out of a can of Old Dutch,” said Tveekrem, nicknamed “ Tweek” by his Wooster friends.

Upon his return to campus,Tveekrem’s interest in brewing was clearly piqued, but the possibility of being a professional brewmaster still seemed unfathomable. “I remember strolling across the quad with my roommate, Drew Klee ’85, and joking, ‘ What are we going to do with our lives, work in a brewery?’” When it came time to decide on an I.S. topic, he originally proposed a history of brewing in the United States.Told the topic “ had no relevance,” he did a history of punk rock culture instead. Even the following lines from his “biography” in a 1984 rush pamphlet were written with more of a chuckle than any sense of manifest destiny: “He wants to start a brewery, ask him about his beer.” In reality,Tveekrem says, “When I was in college, I never dreamed I could get a job brewing beer. I thought there was a lot of math involved, which scared me.”

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