South Shore Brewer Wants To Widen Scope Of Craft Beer Community

CHICAGO — Jay Westbrook has always enjoyed fine food and drink, but his love of such things goes well beyond his tastebuds.

For Westbrook, a South Shore native who worked for years in the service industry, delving deep into how things are created has always been a fascination. So, when he was introduced the world of craft beer a few years back, Westbrook was hooked immediately and knew he not only wanted to drink more craft beer but wanted to make it himself.

The combination of the finer points of craft beer-making process and the math involved was one that grabbed Westbrook. The process isn’t for every beer-loving Chicagoan, Westbrook admits, but for someone who enjoys tapping into his “inner nerd” in understanding A-Z of how things are produced, he was determined to put his new-found knowledge to work.

The self-taught brewer is now being honored for his efforts. Westbrook was recently named one of three recipients of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild Diversity In Brewing scholarship. The initiative aims to build a more inclusive craft brewing community through equitable access to education and technical training.

For Westbrook, the honor is meaningful not because he is seeing his hard work pay off, but because of the mission he carved out for himself when he decided to start making his own beer. From the start, Westbrook pledged that a portion of the sales of his beer creations would be given philanthropically to local charities that can make the community better.

“The craft beer community is very welcoming and very inclusive, but it’s time to double-down on that and welcome everybody into the fold and make them feel welcome, ” Westbrook told Patch.

Westbrook’s introduction to craft beer came at an Alpha Beer event a couple of years ago where brewers and beer-lovers alike sat together and sampled beers for every letter of the alphabet. By the time he had sampled 26 different brews, Westbrook had fallen in love and knew he wanted to make beer his full-time business.

What started as an excuse to share a love of craft beer and experiment with different brew varieties developed into a labor of love for Westbrook and took him back to his roots.

“We weren’t just in there getting hammered – it was the educational aspect that really brought me in,” Westbrook said.

Westbrook fancies a good farmhouse ale or Saison but is open to all styles of beer when it comes to knowing what’s out there. Westbrook, who started in the service industry as a bar back and bartender at Theater On the Lake in Lincoln Park, quickly expanded his beer education, which pushed him to want to know more of the industry’s finer points.

The more time Westbrook spent around industry professionals and brewers, the more he became more convinced he could produce quality beer himself. In the five years since, Westbrook was worked with Haymarket Brewing to produce three of his four beers, which includes Harold’s ’83 Honey Ale along with another beer he worked with Venn Brewing to produce. His honey ale is now sold year-round in Chicago-area Binny’s stores and has proven to be the beer that most people associate with him.

The recipe-writing aspect of the process remains his favorite part of beer production. The piece of the puzzle requires a brewer to start with a taste profile they want to produce and then mathematically chip away at the formula until it’s right.

But he admits that the first taste of his first beer hooked him more than he expected.

“It’s almost like an out-of-body experience to know that I’ve enjoyed for many, many moons, I’m actually enjoying what I did, ” Westbrook said. “There’s an incredible amount of pride that comes with that, but I doubled down on that feeling of pride when I was able to put that cold beer in someone else’s hand and they feel the same way I do about it.”

But as much pride as Westbrook derives from making his own beers for others to enjoy, the fact his mission has caught the attention of the Craft Brewers Guild makes his efforts even more worthwhile.

The Illinois Diversity in Brewing Scholarship was awarded to three individuals from historically underrepresented groups, including but not limited to individuals identifying as female, Black, indigenous, people of color, LGBTQ, and disabled. The scholarships can be applied to one of two courses offered by the Siebel Institute and the World Brewing Academy WBA and cover the full cost of the course.

Because Westbrook’s mission is all about inclusion, the fact that the scholarship comes from an organization hoping to widen the scope of the beer-drinking and producing community makes the honor more meaningful, Westbrook said. The honor caught him off guard and made him emotional due the fact he was worked so hard to give back to a community that welcomed him into the fold.

“It’s super-fulfilling and just lets me know I’m not doing this for nothing,” Westbrook told Patch. “Just to have a community of people around me personally who are invested in my growth and are willing to be there for me while I grow is an amazing feeling.”

He added: “Just to be part of a community of brothers who feel the same way I do and who are on their own journey validates every reason I jumped out of the window, jumped off the porch and decided to get into this game.”