Brewmasters

PETE VELEZ
CAPITOL HILL Brewmaster

After graduating from St. Bonaventure University with a degree in finance I joined the masses of would be young professionals only to realize that the office environment is not for me. So after 2 years of working in finance and accounting, I quit the office job with the big chair and decent view to figure out what else I could do with my life, and what better place to soul search than the restaurant industry…..

A couple of jobs later landed me at Capitol City Brewing Company's downtown location as a manager. Brewing had always been in the back of my mind, but who knew you could make a living doing it? Once I got to know the brewing staff I would spend as much time as they could stand with me in the breweries at both Shirlington with Bill Madden and Capitol Hill with Mike McCarthy. One day in a brewery and I knew this is what I wanted to do…..

Unfortunately there were not any jobs available in Cap City's breweries when I had my epiphany, which forced me to do a little research and I found out that not only can you go to school for brewing, but you can get government loans to do it, so I doubled my student debt, filled out the applications, wrote the essays, and forwarded my college transcripts and was accepted to the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling ( ICBD) at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland which offers a Masters of Science in Brewing and Distilling. After 9 intense months during which I wrote more papers and made it to more classes than I did in all of undergrad, a job opened up at Cap City and I didn't hesitate to take it…..

I began work the day after I returned from Scotland as an assistant in Shirlington, and, after receiving thorough and intense training from Mike as he prepared to take over the brewing for the Shirlington and Downtown locations, have since taken over the brewing at our Capitol Hill location.

I am looking forward to brewing the same great beers to which our guests have become accustomed as well as other creations to compliment them. I am always willing to talk about beer so if you're here for lunch or happy hour feel free to ask for me………. Cheers!