Erica DeAnda-Reyna

HEAD BREWER

My beer career started when I got a job waiting tables at a brewpub very similar to Tumbled Rock in Oakland, CA. I did not like beer at all, but, during a server training meeting, my world was rocked by just one sip of Petrus Aged Pale. It was tart, and oaky, slightly sweet, with a smooth, bitter finish. I was hooked from then on. I would hang out in the brewery and soak in any information I could from the head brewer there. I decided I needed to immerse myself even more into beer and took a job at a taproom in San Francisco, again, following the brewer around and learning as much as I could. As fate would have it, I ended up pouring beers one night for the packaging manager at a bigger brewery down the street. I expressed my interest in learning how to package beer, and the next week I had a job filling kegs for 8 hours a day. Eventually, this lead me to an internship as an assistant brewer at a small nano-brewery in South San Francisco. While working that internship, I met my future boss Alisha Blue, at Freewheel Brewing in Redwood City. Once my internship was up I went to work with her as her assistant brewer, learning all about traditional English Cask Ale. After almost two years at Freewheel, it was time to make a change and move across the country to Wisconsin. I ended up at Octopi Brewing, in Waunakee, WI. While moving, I also won a full scholarship to Siebel Institute of Technology through the Pink Boots Society, an international organization of women in the beer industry that provides scholarships to help advance women’s brewing careers. Octopi was a wonderful experience, but, I needed to get back to my roots brewing my own recipes in small batches. When I found Tumbled Rock, I knew their vision is exactly what I wanted for myself. I can’t wait to bring my West Coast flair to Baraboo Bluffs!