Wayne Wambles - Brewmaster at Cigar City Brewery

GABF and World Beer Cup winning brewer at Cigar City in Tampa, Florida.

"Wayne Wambles started out as a homebrewer in Enterprise, Alabama, and made his pro debut in nearby Dothan at Poplar Head Mule Company. He crossed the state lines into Florida and started brewing for Buckhead Brewery & Grill in Tallahassee. Since then, he’s commanded tanks for Buckhead Brewery in Atlanta and Foothills Brewing Company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Wambles currently practices alecraft in his role as the head brewer of Tampa’s Cigar City Brewery." - Food GPS

Jeffers Richardson - Firestone Walker Barrelworks Director

Jeffers Richardson photo by Evelyn Rosales, LA Weekly

In 1996, Adam Firestone and David Walker made accidental sour beers when trying to ferment beer in wine barrels. They quickly realized that they needed to enlist the help of a trained brewer, so they hired Jeffers as their original brewmaster to determine how to ferment clean beers in oak barrels. Now they’ve come full circle, bringing Jeffers back to oversee Barrelworks. Go figure.

Peter Bouckaert - Brewmaster at New Belgium Brewing Co.

Peter joined New Belgium in 1996 after previously brewing at Rodenbach for 10 years. He has since transformed New Belgium's barrel-aging program and pioneered American made sour and wild ales with beers like La Folie. He recently received the 2013 Russell Scherer Award for Innovation in Brewing.

Chad Yakobson - Owner/Brewer at Crooked Stave Artisan Ales

Chad Yakobson photo byCyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post 

"Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project was founded by Chad Yakobson in 2010 and recently opened a barrel cellar and tasting room in west Denver, Colo. Most of Crooked Staves’ beers are fermented with 100 percent Brettanomyces, which makes them prime candidates for cellaring, as it only enhances their complexity with time. For Yakobson, the wood of the aging barrel is a fifth ingredient, alive and breathing with the beer as it ages." - Kirby Bennett, CraftBeer.com