Bob M. Montgomery, Director of Brand Quality
(aka, Wearer of Many Hats)

As official employee number 3 in 2012, Bob has been with the brewery nearly since the beginning, participating in nearly every aspect of the brewery operation over the last 13 years.

Has there been a beer or project you’ve felt especially connected to, and why?

For me, it’s always been the smoked beers like Fear & Trembling and Holger Danske. When I first started here, the malts for the first batches had been smoked by Anders Kissmeyer. Since I was into smoking foods, it was something I saw as an opportunity where I could directly contribute to the beer. Dragging out my little four-shelf smoker and fashioning some trays for the grain, I drew on Anders’ experience for those first few years, refining the process and standards to match our expectations. Since then, I’ve had the chance to smoke malts each year for various beers, including the new Symposia Rauchbier.

What lessons or habits from your time here do you imagine carrying into the rest of your life?

It would be a trifecta of guiding principles: standards, closing the loop, and root cause analysis. Especially in technology, you can manage to fix something but not know exactly how or why. Understanding the deeper causes and holding to a standard ensures a solution that’s not only satisfying but long-term and repeatable.

If you could share a Hill Farmstead beer with anyone—living or not—who would it be, and what would you serve them? Why?

This would be an easy one: my maternal grandparents, Milton and Mary. The first sip of beer I ever had was sneaking Michelob Light from my grandmother while camping as a four-year-old… and not liking it! I think she would absolutely enjoy a glass of Mary (of course). My short-lived homebrewing journey was fully supported by my grandfather, whose love of Schlitz still lives on in the vintage tap handle I have on my home kegerator. He would have loved most any of our beers, but Poetica 3 would probably strike a deeper chord with him.