Like so many who, like me, were employed by Stone Brewing at the time, I’ll always remember August 24, 2013. That’s when members of Team Stone were wrested from a sunny San Diego Saturday by the shocking news that one of our own had passed away in a workplace accident. That individual was Matt Courtright, a 27-year-old brewer, former architect and active humanitarian who had been going about his duties at the brewery, using a forklift to move pallets stacked high with cases of beer. All it took was one freak moment and he was gone. In that moment we were reminded of just how fragile life is. Team Stone’s only solace during that somber time was knowing we had one another to lean on and that our teammate, friend and family member would not only be remembered, but honored for the extraordinary person he was; not just as a brewer but in every sense. His personality was so profound, his outlook and contributions so positive that, even those of us who didn’t have the privilege of working with him in the brewery on an everyday basis knew of him as a multidimensional, standout and stand-up person.
This year marks a decade since Matt passed away. As was promised, his brothers and sisters have not forgotten him. He remains a constant in their hearts and memories, a linchpin connecting members of Team Stone to this day, even those who have moved on to other jobs, companies, cities and states. Last month, Kris Ketcham, the brewing manager at Stone’s Liberty Station location, brought together scores of individuals who were part of Team Stone during Matt’s tenure, inviting them to participate in a re-brew of a beer of their fallen colleague’s devising, Matt’s Burning Rosids. A combination memorial and family reunion ensued in which attendees shared their memories of Matt while brewing up a batch of his imperial cherrywood-smoked saison. That beer will debut at Stone’s San Diego County locations on Friday, October 20. Ahead of that, I wanted to do my part to remember Matt and introduce him to those who never had the pleasure of meeting him. The best way I could think of to do that was to have his friends and colleagues tell you all about him, starting with Ketcham.
Who was Matt Courtright?
In the most basic sense, Matt Courtright (AKA: Chief) was a brewer from Michigan, where he worked for a small spot called Liberty Street Brewing Company before accepting a job with Stone. Our team was so impressed with him that he was extended a job offer immediately following his interview. Beyond his profession, Matt was the type of person that you just wanted around you. He could easily immerse himself in a crowd of strangers and be the guy that would get them all talking. His personality was infectious and he had a resounding laugh that would carry across any setting.
What was it like working with Matt?
Matt was the first brewer from our Escondido brewery to come over to work with me when we opened our Liberty Station brewery back in 2013. We spent a lot of time getting to know each other as we worked to get the brewery set up and organized. I was very lucky to have Matt, as sometimes I felt like I was in over my head. We learned a lot from each other, had plenty of arguments and laughs over the dumbest things, and spent a lot of time chatting away about beer and recipe development. When we had the brewhouse up and running, Matt brewed up two of his own special-creation recipes: an oaked cherry porter called “Crimson Gate Keeper” and a rye IPA called “Matts Dream Rye’d IPA”, which was heavily hopped with Helga hops for those out there who remember Australian varietals. We also collaborated on a tangerine-lemon imperial hefeweizen called “Call It What You Want”, which we had a ton of fun brewing and naming in response to everyone wanting to throw in their two cents on the style and what we should call it. Thanks, Foster the People.
One of my favorite memories was one day when Matt decided he wanted to go into the kettle and give it a deeper clean while I was in my office for a meeting. After the meeting ended, I heard the faint sound of someone yelling my name over and over. It turned out Matt had been calling my name for 10 minutes because he got stuck in the kettle and couldn’t get out. His phone was too far away for him to reach and he didn’t know what else to do. I just stood there laughing then asked him what he would have done if I hadn’t been around and he’d have had to have figured it out on his own. We talked about it for a bit, he thought his way through it, and eventually was able to get out of the kettle on his own. It was pretty entertaining as he reminded me of that scene from Ace Ventura 2 with Jim Carrey and the rhino, but thankfully with Matt’s clothes intact.
How did the recipe for Matt’s Burning Rosids come to be?
Back in 2013, Stone started a fun brewing project called the Stone Spotlight Series, which provided a chance for our brewers to team up in groups of two and work together to develop and brew their recipes on a newly installed five-barrel pilot system in Escondido. After all of the resultant beers were brewed, a judging panel’s top-scoring beer would be brewed to production scale and distributed nationally. Matt participated in this friendly competition alongside his brewing partner, Brian Bishop, and they created an incredible smoked imperial saison using cherrywood-smoked malt. Their beer was a clear standout, but due to the tragic event that took Matt from us, it was never announced as the competition winner.
When did you decide to rebrew the beer in the grand manner you did?
I remember chatting with some longtime Stone fans about some of their favorite beers over the years and Matt’s Burning Rosids kept coming up. That brought up a lot of fond memories about Matt, and I decided that I was going to rebrew the beer. But as I got closer to the brew day, a feeling of incompleteness kept nagging at me. I recalled re-brewing the beer five years following Matt’s passing, and feeling like the brew and its release felt a little empty, even a bit selfish. That brew was my way of remembering Matt, but I didn’t feel it was the way Matt would have wanted to be remembered. So this time around, I thought it would be best to put together something that would feel more like a celebration than just another brew day. Thankfully, being at Stone as long as I have, I was able to work with a lot of the crew in Escondido for months and even years before I transferred to Point Loma to run the Liberty Station brewhouse. It took some effort and a lot of back-and-forth communication, but with a lot of help I was able to get a hold of nearly 90% of our Stone production crew from 10 years ago, who then came out to participate in the brew day. The response from everyone–even those who couldn’t make it due to geography or scheduling–was encouraging and more than anyone could ask for.
What are some highlights from the Team Stone brew day?
It was special to say the least. We had the majority of the malt for the brew donated to us by one of our former interns, Ben Maushardt (AKA: “Sparke”), who now works for Prairie Malt. He even flew out to show his support, which was heartwarming. Throughout the day, we had past team members coming and going, and it almost felt like classic shift hand-offs. It was an amazing reunion to see everyone again and to catch up. The team from 10 years ago just had a different outlook on things. Nearly all of the crew from back then had just started their journeys into craft-beer by working at Stone. Back then, the information and way of doing things wasn’t widely available as it is now, so there was a lot of learning on the fly.
A lot of the team had either moved on to start up or work at different breweries, found new exciting careers and/or started families. The amount of beer everyone brought from their breweries was insane. Let’s just say some great stories about Matt were told over no shortage of amazing beers. (After the brew, of course.) To close things out, I shared my very last bottle of the original batch of Matt’s Burning Rosids, which we used to raise a glass to the Chief in the sky.
TEAM STONE TRIBUTES
“I’ll always remember Matt’s smile and his laugh. You could hear it throughout the entire brewery. He was such a genuine friend, an amazing brewer, and he’s missed every day.” – Brandon Winneker, Lost Winds Brewing
“I hired Matt. Right from his interview, it was obvious he was special. He had a vibrant, infectious personality and a strong work ethic. Everybody liked him. He used to call me ‘Baby J’, and was always smiling and ready to help people. I’ve worked with a lot of people over the years, but Matt is one of those that always stands out in my mind. I miss him. I always smile when I think of him. He was a good dude.” – Jeremy Moynier, Stone Brewing
“Matt was a fun-loving guy who always saw the best in everyone he met. He had an infectious laugh and clap. There was never a dull moment when he was around. I remember picking him up from the airport with our roommates, pulling up playing ‘Africa’ by Toto, and the huge smile on his face was priceless. He was coming back from a trip building a school in Africa. He was a truly special person we were all lucky to know.” – Chris Baker, Mother Earth Brew Co.
“I brewed the original Burning Rosids with Matt Courtright and sourced the materials. We spent the day on the brew deck, talking recipes and technical stuff about brewing, something we both loved to do. A good friend of mine said, ‘all creative people are technical.’ Matt was no exception. We also talked about volunteer work a little, and we also had that in common. Matt was very proud of his work in Africa, my family also volunteered in many countries as teachers and healthcare workers. It was really great to share that.” – Steve Gonzalez – Stone Brewing
“The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Matt was just how hard of a worker he was. His work ethic showed every day. His fucking laugh was loud and contagious. He had a strong opinion, but was always able to back it. I really loved working with the dude. He was a great friend and a great coworker.” – Anthony Tallman, Burgeon Beer Co.
“He was a very friendly individual who quickly integrated himself into social groups. He was constantly making up mannerisms that became part of the fabric of the culture of the work group. CHIEF!” – Eric Szaras, Former Stone Brewer
“Of course, when I think of Matt I think of that huge smile and huge laugh he had. but I also think about how passionate he was about beer. Any chance he got to work on anything with the Small Batch Team, he was all over it, from helping me organize ingredients that we had in our overly crowded hop cooler to helping fill casks. He offered so much beyond beer, though. He was passionate about his faith just as much as he was about baseball and pitching. He seemed to live life full-steam-ahead and we should all take a little bit of that motto with us. Chief Up! Always.” – Laura Ulrich, Stone Brewing
“What I remember the most about Matt is his larger-than-life personality with a loud voice to go with it. He was a passionate person that could be – and usually was – the center of attention, mostly because he was one of the loudest people in the room. His passion for brewing was unmatched and his passion for helping others was even greater. I remember him going to Africa to help build a school for underprivileged children, linking his love of helping others and his past life as an architect. He was a religious person but never forced his beliefs on others. It was refreshing. One memory I think I will always remember is his excitement for his newly acquired tattoos. As I had a lot of visible tattoos, I think he felt I was the obvious choice to share his new ink with. He came up to me one overnight shift, talking excitedly about his new tattoos. Pulling up his sleeves because the bigger ones were on his inner biceps. It was a quote. I can’t remember what the quote was exactly, but when I looked closer I noticed that the punctuation looked a little off. There was an ellipsis (…) as the quote was finished on the other bicep, but there were extra periods at the end. And not just one but two. I gave it another look and there were, in fact, more periods than was necessary, ending the quote on one arm with the ellipsis and two extra periods (… ..). I remember asking him about it and his response was, “Well, that’s what it was like on the computer.” I laughed a little and told him that it was unique like him, because he was known in his emails to over-exaggerate on the punctuation, adding multiple exclamation points, question marks and even the extra period to any and all emails. After Matt died, we (the Stone Family) were looking for a way to remember him in our daily lives and the idea of matching tattoos was floated and accepted, but we didn’t know what to get. What can encompass the tidal wave that Matt was? Enter the funny punctuation of the tattoo that Matt had (… ..). It was perfect, and still is. It encompassed him completely and was something that he originally had. It’s still one of my favorite tattoos and one that has the most significance and meaning; the perfect encapsulation of a person in tattoo form… ..” – Rian Van Nordheim, Golden Road Brewing