An Interview with Bend Brewing Company’s Brewmaster, Tonya Cornett.
by Angelo De Ieso IIOf the 69 categories at 2006’s Great American Beer Fest, the American-Style IPA (Category #39) was the most entered. A gold medal in this category may very well be the most coveted award at the festival for this very reason. The winner, which came of 94 entries, was Bend Brewing Company’s Hop Head. Truly an imperial but far from bombasticly unbalanced, this big beer captivates with fruity carmel malts and a healthy dose of florid Northwest hops that provide an offsetting, gentle piquancy.
Behind the big accolades subsists a small 960 bbl per year brewery mastered by Tonya Cornett, a meticulous brewer with an inventive spirit and community-oriented approach to her craft. Since it’s inception in early 1995, the downtown brewery was in many ways living in the shadow of its renouned neighbor, Deschutes brewing. A graduate of Siebel’s touted World Brewing Academy, Cornett took over the brewing reign in early 2001. I spoke with Cornett about her recent accomplishment, her force as a woman in the handcrafted brewing industry, and the future of Bend Brewing Company.
Congratulations on winning a gold medal at GABF for best IPA (Hop Head). How does it feel?TC: Thank you! It’s pretty amazing. We didn’t even go this year, so I wasn’t even there to accept it. We’ve only been brewing Hop Head quarterly, but that is likely to change due to the medal and the general excitement of it. I can’t make any promises; we’re just going to try to have it on tap the whole year. That’s my goal. Sometimes it might not work because it takes fifteen days to do, so does my regular IPA versus a regular ale that I can push out in ten days or even less.
What sparked your interest in becoming a brewer?TC: I’ve been brewing since 1995 when I was working at HC Berger (Brewery) in Ft. Collins, Colorado. I volunteered at a pub to gain brewing experience. I was in packaging at HC Berger and simultaneously working at two different breweries. That really helped me because I could watch everything that the brewers and sellermen did and ask questions and soak that up. Then we moved to Indiana and I worked at Oak and Barrel in Greenwood. There I was the brewer of a pub just like this. We didn’t do a whole lot of seasonals, but I got experience with lagers because we had a full-time lager on. It was a bigger brewery than (Bend Brewing) but produced about the same barrelage per year.
How has the World Brewing Academy/Siebel affected you as a brewer?TC: I think it has given me more of a technical background. Before I knew how to brew, but now I know what happens when you brew. There’s just a big difference. Now I have a huge network that I can I call on. If I’m having a problem, I don’t feel intimidated to ask questions of people who might know more than me.
What has it been like to be a brewer in a town full of rich talent, and especially in such close proximity to Deschutes Brewing?TC: It’s made me a lot better faster. My brewing has definitely excelerated since I’ve been here. I’m really into recipe development. I’m friends with a lot of the Deschutes brewers. We’ve passed ideas back and forth. We might trade yeast strains and special things like that. They are a huge supporter of me and I am a huge supporter of them. We do two different styles of brewing. (That support) is really important, especially in a small town. They have been nothing but great to me and for me because it has made me want to be better. I felt coming into a town with so many brewer—I have to say there’s probably more great brewers per capita than anywhere else—I was a little intimidating. Probably for the first year, I didn’t make any efforts. I needed to feel comfortable with what I was doing and feel that I was improving in mind. When I did start improving, I got more recognition. (Other brewers) came over and said “I hear you have a great beer. Let me check out your system” etc etc. It made me feel really good. The Brewers at Deschutes have become great friends. They actually accepted the award at GABF for me because I wasn’t there.
Deschutes never tries to steal you away?TC: (Laughs) No. No. It’s just different brewing. I am so interested in recipe development and the creative element. They don’t do that as much and since I am so centered on that, they don’t really have a position for me there.
Here’s the question you probably get asked a lot: what is it like as a woman who brews beer in a society that has for sometime been marketed toward men? TC: I get a lot of attention. First off, that’s what draws many people’s interest. But then, puts a lot of pressure on me because so many people are focused on that. I feel like I really have to prove myself. That’s another driving force in me continually trying to make better and better beer. I feel if people take a drink and are like “this is that (mediocre) beer produced by that woman” than it could be a negative, so I have to make it a positive and be like “This is that (quality) beer that’s produced by a woman!” It tends to make people remember who I am and not just some pub brewer. And now especially with winning the (GABF) medal, that was a big stamp of approval.
It has often been noted that women are cast in a negative light in beer advertising—objectified, shown scantilly clad for the amusement of men. How do you feel about that aspect of beer marketing?TC: As far as scantilly clad women (laughs), it’s hard to say. That’s more related to big breweries and their focus. With craft breweries, it’s different ballgame—more artisianal, and I try not to even think about that. There’s a lot of attention. I come across these things all the time. We were at a brew festival after I just had won a gold for my pilsner at the North American Beer Association Awards, and everyone was trying it and a well known brewer tried it. He tapped my husband on the shoulder and said, “That’s a great pilsner!” (My husband) said “Oh, I didn’t make it, she did.” It was in front of a whole group of brewers where half of them knew and half of them didn’t. And, of course, those that knew thought it was so funny, and those who didn’t were totally shocked and you could tell they were totally embarrassed. But at the same time, it was a big pat on my back because it wasn’t something they expected and I think that ended up being a positive.
Before you started brewing professionally, what sparked your interest in beer?TC: I wasn’t really a beer drinker. When we moved to Ft. Collins in the mid-90s, it was such a huge thing. I got a job at a restaurant that had forty rotating taps. We were expected to be able to describe every single beer. I came from Indiana and didn’t even know there was anything besides import and domestic beer. One of the girls sat me down and had me try every one and describe them. That was the first time I discovered beers that I liked. From there, I got a job working in packaging at HC Berger…I did some homebrewing just before that…I thought “This is like cooking, I can do this.” At the time I was searching for something, a career and it kind of fell in my lap. I was in the right place at the right time in many instances.
Any future goals?TC: Lately I’ve been doing a lot of production and that’s not really where my heart lies. We’ve built up kind of a big clientele in Portland and I think we are going to decide what we are going to do with that. This summer was really hard on me. The brewery is so tiny. It’s hard having a second person in here working when I’m working. It’s not really set up for two things going on at the same time. I can’t brew and be cleaning tanks in here all day—I just don’t have enough water. I think what we’re going to do is pull back on some of the distribution and get back to doing some really creative beers. That’s what I love to do. That’s where I want to turn my focus. Deschutes is doing that a lot and I did it a lot last year, but this year, certain beers like the IPA have been flying out of here and that’s all I’ve been doing, brewing IPA, IPA, IPA. So in the future I would like to be producing more high-end, eclectic styles.
Look for Bend Brewing’s beers periodicly in Portland at the Horse Brass, Oaks Bottom, Concordia Ale House, and the soon to be defunct Rose and Raindrop. Labels: Bend Brewing Oregon GABF Gold Medal HopHead Tonya Cornett brewmaster
