Shaun Hill, Anders Kissmeyer, and Jan Paul to Discuss “Comparative Craft Brewing” at Sterling College

June 29, 2016 • Craftsbury Common, VT • Three icons of the craft beer world will discuss and compare craft brewing in two northern locations: the Nordic country of Denmark and the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.

Lead instructors of the School of the New American Farmstead class “Small Batch Brewing,” Anders Kissmeyer and Jan Paul, along with Master Class instructor and Hill Farmstead founder Shaun Hill, will present “Comparative Craft Brewing: Vermont and Denmark” on Tuesday, July 19, at 7 p.m. in Simpson Hall, Classroom 3 on the Sterling College campus. This talk is free and open to the public. Kissmeyer, Paul, and Hill will entertain questions from the attendees.  

“The quality and character of a beer is the result of the passion, philosophy, and methodology of the brewer,” says Kissmeyer. “I look forward to discussing the practice and craft of place-based brewing in both Denmark and Vermont.”

Anders Kissmeyer has more than 30 years of experience in the brewing business. After a 16- year run in Quality Management and International Brewing at Carlsberg, Kissmeyer founded the acclaimed Danish craft brewery Nørrebro Bryghus, which brought the craft brewing revolution to Denmark and pioneered a range of beers with distinct Nordic accents. Since 2010, he has been at the helm of his own brewing, consulting, and communications company, Kissmeyer Beer & Brewing. Kissmeyer Beer has been brewed at exceptional breweries in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Lebanon, Australia, Ontario, Quebec and the United States. Kissmeyer currently teaches at the Scandinavian School of Brewing, judges beer competitions, and serves as the Technical Editor of the Scandinavian Brewer’s Review. He was named Best Still-Active Master Brewer in the World (August 2011, peer nomination through the Scandinavian School of Brewing) and Honorary Beer Sommelier (September 2013, the British Beer Academy).

Jan Paul is the Brewmaster at Svaneke Bryghus, one of the very first micro-breweries in Denmark. He is mainly known for his Lager Beers using a bottom-fermenting yeast strain that has been going strong since January 2012 and recently reached its 190th generation. He also brews many other specialties at the facility, including Denmark´s first organic alcohol free beer. Parallel to the Brew Pub, he designed a new brewery with some of the most advanced environmentally friendly and energy efficient technologies. Paul is the youngest recipient of the Danish Brewers Association Anniversary Scholarship, which is awarded to recognize and nurture especially passionate, innovative brewing. Since 2006, he has been engaged as a teacher for Diploma Craft Brewers at the Scandinavian School of Brewing.

Shaun Hill is the Brewmaster and owner of Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro, Vermont.  Deeply connected to lineage, place, and tradition, Hill’s renowned brewery is built upon land that has been inhabited by his family since the early 1800s and his ales are named after his ancestors. Hill Farmstead Brewery opened in 2010. Just three years later, it was named Best Brewery in the World by RateBeer. He has more than 100 beers in his repertoire and Hill Farmstead has a passionately devoted customer base. His style of brewing is influenced by deep respect for process and science, reverence for the mysteries of fermentation, and contemplative study of philosophy.  Hill Farmstead prioritizes freshness and sells only from the retail space at the brewery and to select bars and restaurants in Vermont and New York, making the brewery an icon of the Northeast Kingdom. In line with Hill’s goals of stewarding a working landscape and supporting his own community, Hill Farmstead Brewery rejects the push to significantly scale up and keeps production below 200,000 gallons a year.

The vibrant working landscape of Vermont has been the inspiration for Sterling College’s curriculum for a half century. Sterling’s sustainable agriculture and land management programs were among the first in the nation. The School of the New American Farmstead at Sterling College connects the College’s mission of environmental stewardship education by linking ecological principles of land management with the entrepreneurial community-building spirit of today’s artisan food movement.