Bridgeport’s Karl Ockert becomes Technical Director of the MBAA

Karl Ockert has been with the BridgePort Brewing Company in Portland, which he helped found and build, since 1984. He earned his B.S. degree in Fermentation Sciences from the University of California at Davis in 1983. Mr Ockert’s brewing career has covered the spectrum of brewing plants, from brewpubs to the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Newark, New Jersey.

He has been active in MBAA since 1993 and is currently serving as second Vice President. Mr Ockert will be stepping down from his Executive Committee duties when he starts in September.

In the past Mr Ockert has served as chair of the MBAA Technical Committee and editor of the MBAA Practical Handbook for the Specialty Brewer series.

The new job includes running the educational programmes at the MBAA and being editor of the Technical Quarterly. Apart from that, Mr Ockert will devote himself to some new book writing projects and the MBAA’s new on-line programmes. “It will be a lot of fun and after almost 30 years of running breweries, I am ready for something new”, he said.

He will continue to be based in Portland. In fact, he says “I will be commuting all the way downstairs to my home office and making the occasional trip to run classes or go to meetings, but I do get to stay in Oregon which was an important consideration. I will still be involved in the Oregon beer scene but in a ‘non-denominational’ role.”

In the meantime, his colleague Jeff Edgerton will serve as interim brewmaster at BridgePort Brewing.