Profile

Mr. Marc Martin

Northwest Brewery Advisors - Brewery Consulting

Contact Details

Northwest Brewery Advisors - Brewery Consulting

Bio

I have B.S. degree in Industrial Arts Education with a Business Administration minor. The Industrial Arts Ed. portion mainly focused on mechanical, electrical, metal fabrication and woodworking. I spent over 20 years in the corporate world with American Honda Motor Co. as a dealer management consultant and technical troubleshooter specializing in marketing, profitability, facility design/layout, mechanical and electrical technician training, customer relations and employee management. When I first started with Honda I was in the Midwest (Iowa – Minnesota) and I accepted a promotion to Portland to work with dealers in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and Hawaii. That is when I first discovered craft beer and immediately fell in love. I also discovered that you could brew your own and began homebrewing. Upon realizing how rewarding it was to brew great beer I decided to take a leave of absence from Honda in 1994 and complete the Pro-Brewer course at the University of California, Davis, California campus. This is the same school that is also famous for their master vintner program. Needless to say, brewing has been my real passion since that time.

In 1997 I purchased a used 3 barrel system with 2 fermenters and 2 conditioning tanks. I have an oversized 3 car garage where it fit perfectly. I then started to contract brew on weekends for 4 local restaurants. I would develop recipes based upon the season and their requests. The beers would then become their own label – i.e.: Prime Time Pale Ale for the Prime Time Steak House. This was fine for about 2 years and it was profitable. Then in 1999 Honda promoted me to the very busy market area of Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin Texas. You have probably noticed that my business cell number is 512 which is Austin, Texas. I did keep my house in the Portland, Oregon area as I knew that I wasn’t going to stay in Texas forever. However, in order to maintain expenses for two houses I had to sell the brewing system.

During 2001and 2002 I helped with 2 new start-ups – one from the ground up including the building/floor plan and the other after they already had a facility. One had a semi-experienced brewer and the other was manned by the two owners who were homebrewers. I worked with both on equipment procurement, brewer training, brewing processes, marketing, efficiency, and developed all of their recipes. Both were very successful in difficult (Bud, Miller, Coors) markets and became very profitable. Unfortunately, neither is in business now. The owner of the first one died in a car accident in 2005 and his wife closed the brewpub. The other, owned by the 2 homebrewers, was closed when one had his National Guard unit activated to Middle East in 2007.

Overall, I just became too busy with my Honda position to do any more brewery consulting so in 2003 I put that on hold. I accepted a buy out offer from Honda in late 2009 and it has only been the past 6 years that I decided to get back in the professional brewing game again. After 2002 I did maintain my other side job as a professional beer writer by remaining on contract with Brew Your Own magazine. With them I am responsible for a monthly feature article. I do some freelance writing and submit some other random articles to 2 other brewing magazines. The most involved one published was a five page composite on “Cascadian Dark Ales’ (July 2010). I act as a broker for new and used brewing equipment sales, do some hop brokering with Willamette Valley Hops Inc. and teach advanced brewing technique classes in conjunction with Bader Beer and Wine Supply here in Vancouver. I had been contract brewing for a local restaurant chain by renting space on other breweries systems. I have since sold the recipe and turned that portion of my business over to the Sasquatch Brewery after training them. I am also a beer judge and have judged many competitions.

I am one of the founders at the Green Dragon Brewpub Bistro in downtown Portland. We opened in the fall of 2007 and became profitable in the 8th month of operation. We have a 15 barrel brewing system for the production of our 5 core beers.

Regarding some recent references. Contact Tim Rockey at M.T.Head Brewing Co. in Graham, Wa. Cell # 253-208-8999 I have been helping him for the past 2 years with brewing processes, recipe design and marketing. Also in selecting a new 7 BBL system that was built locally and I worked with him on the first batches. Be sure and contact Tom Sims the owner of Sasquatch Brewery - Cell # 503-769-1961 regarding the assistance that I have given him and his brewer from the first batch forward.
He just released an Imperial IPA and Belgian Golden that I developed. 3 of the beers that I developed for them were featured at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver in 2013.

I just finished working with a new start-up in Cascade Locks, Oregon – Thunder Island Brewery. I worked with them to acquire equipment and brew their first batch of pale ale. The contact/owner is David Lipps - his cell number is 650-387-5237. Another contact would be Mike Hatten of Bron-Yr-Aur Brewery. I have just helped him from the ground up to develop a 10 BBL brewery. His number is 509-949-3381. It would also be good to contact T.J. Southard one of the owners of Killer Burger – 5 locations in Vancouver and Portland – as I developed and brewed their Bloodshed Red beer for them. I have also given them advice on their tap systems. T.J.’s cell is 503-545-6712.

I am presently working with a new start-up in downtown Vancouver, Washington, Trap Door Brewery (contact Bryan Shull cell # 503-758-2569), a just completed start-up in Vancouver, B.C., Green Leaf Brewery (contact Martin Ebadi cell # 604-767-7859) and just brewed the first batch training the brewer at Three Magnets Brewery in Olympia, WA. Nate Reilly is the owner. I have also signed contracts with 3 other new, in process, start-ups in Charlotte, N.C., St. Louis, Mo. and Winter Haven, Fl.. I work closely with the owner of a local stainless fabrication company, to help position outlets, drains and valves to make kettles and tanks more brewer friendly. I am also on contract with them plus Marks Design and Metalworks, in Vancouver, WA. and Stout Tanks in Portland to train brewers on the use of their brewing systems (3 to 50 barrel size).

If you prefer to drop an e-mail of inquiry or call to one (or all) of the references here they are:

martin@greenleafbrew.com = Martin Ebadi in Vancouver, B.C. Canada 604-767-7859
timrockey@comcast.net = Tim Rockey @ M.T. Head Brewery 253-208-8999
tom@sasquatchbrewery.com Portland, Or. 503-679-1961
khertz@holidailybrewing.com Holidaily Brewery Brewery 720-530-3593
david@thunderislandbrewing.com = Thunder Island Brewery 650-387-5237
tjsolera@gmail.com = Killer Burger 503-545-6712
sluggo2813@yahoo.com = Mike Hatten @ Bron-Yr-Aur Brewery 509-949-3381
practicalfusion@comcast.net = Colin Preston 503-348-0650
nate@threemagnetsbrewing.com Nate Reiley - Olympia, WA. 360-701-9305 (cell #)
john.mielke@squarewheelbrewing.com = John Mielke @ Square Wheel Brewery 916-365-3740
shullbryan@gmail.com = Bryan Shull @ Trap Door Brewery 503-758-2569