The Brewers Association (BA) technical committee has appointed two new members. Travis Burge of New Belgium Brewing and Cheri Chastain of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company have accepted invitations to join the committee.
Travis Burge is the brewing manager for New Belgium Brewing’s (NBB) Fort Collins facility. He joined NBB in August 2013 after 16 years of previous brewing experience. He has worked in a wide range of brewing environments, from a nine barrel research pilot systems up to 900 barrel batch breweries. Travis has deep roots in the brewing industry from his father’s work in brewing maintenance to his great-great grandfather who was a brew master in Europe.
“I’m honored to join such a prestigious group of brewers,” Burge said. “I hope I can learn, contribute and help advance the BA’s role in the future of the brewing industry.”
Cheri Chastain has been the sustainability manager at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company for the past eight years. She is responsible for working within existing operations to maintain programs that have already been put in place, identify opportunities for efficiency improvements through process changes or technology implementation and, most importantly, education of employees, consumers and peers. Cheri has a B.A. and an M.A. in Environmental Geography and in addition to her position as co-chair of the BA’s sustainability subcommittee, she has been appointed to the City of Chico’s Sustainability Task Force and serves on the board of the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council.
“It is an incredible privilege to have the opportunity to serve on the BA technical committee. I am very much looking forward to learning from the wealth of brewing knowledge on the technical committee and helping to reinforce the importance of sustainable brewing operations,” said Chastain.
The BA technical committee develops technical information on behalf of BA members and monitors current events affecting member breweries. The committee has four active subcommittees—draught beer quality, pipeline, safety and sustainability, and one standing working group, keg repatriation. In addition, the technical committee oversees Brewers Association work with the Beer Industry Electronic Commerce Coalition.