Category Archives: Member Profile

Member Profile: Eric Cousineau

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What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

My profession is Computer Engineering. I am a proud member of a pre-silicon IP team at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc. We design, verify, and deploy a portion of the hardware logic that goes into the various GPU products that we make.

I’m also the Founder and President of GTA Brews, which also takes up quite a bit of time. It’s been a ongoing joke among the club officers that I’ve been too busy running the club to answer the questions for a member profile, but here I am! You win Rob!

What got you into homebrewing?

I started homebrewing because I wanted to explore my pre-existing love of craft beer, and learn more about it.

I had become really into beer while in university (~2008), and I even co-authored a column called Beer Buzz in the Engineering Society Newspaper (Iron Warrior). I had seen my friend (Kyle Smith) brewing up a storm on social media, so shortly after I graduated I bought myself a Brooklyn Brewshop kit from Chapters (Tip: Go to a homebrew shop instead, way fresher!). I brewed my first batch in January 2013 and the rest is history!

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Member Profile: Bear Alberico

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Bear Alberico

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

Homebrewing is an occupation? Seriously though, I own and run a business that manufactures professional hair care products. It’s remarkable how similar it is to running a brewery; mix water and other ingredients in a kettle, fill them into bottles, then market and sell them. Beer shampoo anyone?

What got you into homebrewing?

I was a drummer in a reggae band and started making beer for our band to drink at rehearsals. Wasn’t great stuff, but it was cheap.

Continue reading Member Profile: Bear Alberico →

Member Profile: Emily Storey

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Emily Storey

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

Short answer: I am a scientist.

Long answer: I am a researcher in photonics. Think electronics, except I deal with photons instead of electrons. I shine lasers at liquids and then look at the scattered light. The light tells me what’s in the liquid, and how much is there.

What got you into homebrewing?

My partner Rob saw a homebrew kit at a grocery store in Vancouver. My Dad is a homebrewer, so I knew what we were getting into. A quick trip to Dan’s Homebrew Shop later, and the hobby has consumed most of our apartment for about 6 years.

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Member Profile: Matti Cowan

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Matti Cowan

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

I’m both an entrepreneur (Silly Sir Brewing Co.) and a supply teacher with the TDSB. It’s perfect because affords me lots of flexibility to simultaneously (attempt to) run a business.

What got you into homebrewing?

I started homebrewing in the winter of 2015 with a homebrewing kit from Magnotta (really just prepared wort in a bag, and a packet of dry yeast). I was just bored, I think. I was probably seasonally depressed. My first beer was an Irish red ale, which despite being over-carbonated, tasted pretty good. I quickly graduated to all grain brewing after a couple extract batches, and have been hooked ever since. My love stems from the blend of art and respect for science that’s required in brewing.

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Member Profile: Colin Green

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Colin Green

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

I’ve been working for the LCBO in retail since 2008, coincidentally I am the beer ambassador at my location.

What got you into homebrewing?

I’ve always had an interest in beer, and wanted to learn more about it beyond the very limited amount we are taught by my employer. It wasn’t until I was at a stag/doe party where one of the raffle prizes was a Brooklyn Brewshop 1 gallon kit. When I saw it I had that “Aha!” moment, and tried to win it. My friends grandmother ended up winning it, and I had a feeeeeeeling she wouldn’t be using it anytime soon, so I went over and bought it off her and brewed it the following week. She drives a hard bargain though, I wasn’t getting it off of her for cheap.

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Member Profile: Kieth Caines

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Kieth Caines

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

Spent 35 years in the Office furniture industry, Since 2014 I’ve been working with SceneAereo Aerial Photography, we’ve done some very interesting projects over the last year including commercial real estate, construction site progress and building thermal inspections.

What got you into homebrewing?

Started making wine, getting my juice from Magnotta.
Saw their beer wort kits tried a couple of those then discovered all grain and haven’t looked back.

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Member Profile: Mike Vandervoort

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Mike Vandervoort

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

I am a Police Officer with Toronto Police Service and am currently working in the Jane and Finch community. Don’t let the media scare you it is actually a great community and I really enjoy working there.

What got you into homebrewing?

I did a university exchange to the Netherlands for a year. Every Friday (ok, maybe Thursday and Saturday too), a group of us would each purchase different beers from around Europe. I attempted to start that here with a group of friends when I got back and one said, “Hey, why don’t we make it?” Enough said.

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Member Profile: Clayton Hoy

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Clayton Hoy

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

Hold on to your butts! I am by title the Operations Manager for Supply Chain Division. Really, I’m mostly an implementation consultant for Warehouse Management Software. Have fun figuring out what that means.

What got you into homebrewing?

Pretty certain I was walking in Loblaws one day and noticed a can of extract they were selling. No idea if they still do or not but I was intrigued by the idea of being able to brew at home. I persisted through so many terrible beers and eventually learned a little bit.
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Member Profile: Mark Verok

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Mark Verok

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

I appraise commercial real estate. I’m an AACI, which basically means I value the stuff that banks lend on and developers spend way way too much money on.  The bulk of my time in the past year though has been concentrated around starting and marketing Katalyst Brewing Company.  We are listed in the LCBO and will very shortly be in stores!

What got you into homebrewing?

If I recall, I was sitting talking to my father, and somehow beer came up, I had tried making wine a few times, with varying success, and he said “I don’t think that’s a great idea, not sure it’s that easy”.  Of course, I have spent the past couple of years throwing home brewed beer at him.  I won this round Pete! Continue reading Member Profile: Mark Verok →

Member Profile: Kat Goodale

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Kat Goodale

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

I was a computer studies teacher at a girl’s school for 12 years, but made a career change in 2013. I was accepted into the Brewmaster program at Niagara College, and am now a brewer at Magnotta Brewery in Vaughan.

What got you into homebrewing?

My dad! He’d been homebrewing on and off since the 1985 beer strike, and we helped by bottling. I inherited his bottle capper, which is still as much of a PITA to use now as it was then.

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Member Profile: Jon Mains

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Jon Mains

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

I’m a businessman. I work as a financial analyst at a kitchen cabinet manufacturer, crunching numbers, financial statements, spreadsheets, graphs, charts, Excel baby!

What got you into homebrewing?

Some combination of unemployment, curiosity, frugality, education, and entrepreneurial aspirations. I had recently completed my Master of Business at U.B.C. in Vancouver, and had a lot of spare time while job hunting. As someone who loves craft beer and cooking, I figured I could probably brew up a decent batch myself while simultaneously saving money! By the way, I’ve yet to save any money making my own beer, the equipment is expensive!

I started reading every book I could get my hands on and anything I could find on web forums. With an undergraduate degree in Biology, the science of brewing came quickly and easily, that’s when the same thought crossed my mind that crosses every homebrewer’s mind, “Why not start a brewery?!” Continue reading Member Profile: Jon Mains →

Member Profile: Doug Appeldoorn

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Doug Appeldoorn

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

By day I work as a Television Editor at Corus Entertainment, by night I’m a Prud’homme Beer Certification instructor and have been working with my business partner and fellow home brewer Pietro Caira to put on People’s Pint events and eventually open a brewery together. Continue reading Member Profile: Doug Appeldoorn →

Member Profile: Peter (Pietro) Caira

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Peter Caira

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

I’m a database administrator and software developer. For the last 10 years I’ve worked in the IT department at Havergal College, an independent K-12 school for girls. I’ve also had the pleasure of coaching the senior softball team at Havergal since 2008. I’m also co-founder and organizer of the People’s Pint Brewing Collective where Doug Appeldoorn and I bring home brewers together to showcase their talent and creativity.  Continue reading Member Profile: Peter (Pietro) Caira →

Member Profile: Geof Traill

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Geof Traill

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

I’m a brewer at Amsterdam. I came to Canada in 2013 with a vague notion of taking a short career break from my investment consulting gig back in Scotland. My first thought moving here was – where am I going to get my homebrewing supplies? After some Googling, I found Toronto Brewing was the only game in town at the time. I sent an email to Zack telling him my deal, and within a day of landing I was hauling around homebrewing supplies, weighing out hops and whirlfloc. It was an awesome culture there but I remember feeling like a kid in a candy store, having easy access to all these ingredients. I started homebrewing like a maniac; I remember one week were I brewed a batch every single day, and I’d have something like 10 kegs of different beer on at the store. I entered pretty much every competition going and achieved the dubious honour of being one of the top three homebrewers in Canada. Continue reading Member Profile: Geof Traill →

Member Profile: Chris Saunders

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Chris Saunders

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

Currently I’m a brewing student in my 3rd semester at Niagara College’s Brewmaster program. Prior to that I was a software developer and wasn’t super keen on what I was building or the industry. Right now I’ve mostly be focusing on the “less fun” parts of brewing like QA/QC, cellaring and filtering. Continue reading Member Profile: Chris Saunders →

Member Profile: Andrew Kotowick

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This is a new feature we are introducing on our club blog. We will periodically profile some of our club members to help build our sense of community and also to help people get to know each other more. If you would like to volunteer to be profiled please email gtabrews@gmail.com!

*Note from Eric: Andrew is our VP Communications, and also runs our social media. I’m glad he agreed to be our first club member profiled!

Andrew Kotowick

What is your occupation (outside homebrewing)?

For about 10 years I worked in the Casino Gaming industry. I’ve worked at a bunch of casinos around the province and I Continue reading Member Profile: Andrew Kotowick →