Nick's Story

My name is Nick Hilborn, and I was the Head Brewer at Rocky Mountain Brewery in Colorado Springs from April 2008 to July 2021.

A Head Brewer is responsible for EVERY aspect of the business and brewing, aside from signing the checks and making the phone calls. It is up to the head brewer to organize tools, determine the layout of the equipment, develop and refine ALL procedures, make training materials, analyze problems, do all quality assurance, innovate all new flavors and recipes, engineer pieces of process equipment, innovate proprietary techniques that allow fundamentally unique beers.

I've been in the hospitality industry (which craft beer is a part of) since my first job during high school at Wendy's. After high school, I started attending Culinary Arts School at Pikes Peak Community College. During this time, I was working 30-40 hours a week in a restaurant kitchen at Texas Roadhouse and going to school. My father began brewing beer when I was about 20 years old, and this instantly struck me as simply cooking a big pot of soup. It spurred me into homebrewing where I discovered a local homebrew store.

But this was no ordinary homebrew store, it had just moved into its current location in a recently closed microbrewery. I took one step in the door and saw the piles of homebrew equipment still boxed up and in piles from moving, coolers filled with disheveled storage boxes of hops and yeast... and underneath it all there was 1800 gallons worth of empty stainless steel brewery. It was love at first sight.

I started out just volunteering what little free time I had every day, maybe 2-4 hours. I would just sweep the floor, measure out bags of hops for sale, and tend the beers and wines that customers and wine clubs would make on-site. Since I was always brewing my own batches along the way, after about a year I knew enough about brewing to teach homebrewers how to brew during one-on-one classes. I taught several of these classes each week. At age 21 I was working 35 hours per week at the Texas Roadhouse, volunteering another 10-15 hours at the brewery, and still managed to get in a minimum of three classes each semester at school. All of this was at the expense of a relationship, and under parental fire.

The homebrew store had a rather special wine club that would gather, in several different meetings per month. They would have a wine pairing dinner, make two 6 gallon batches of wine, bottle the two batches from a previous month, and take home 3 bottles of each wine for their personal cellar. At first, the 12-20 person groups were being catered, at great expense. They quickly picked up on my culinary training and asked me if I would be willing to cook the meals and pair the wines for them every month, and I eagerly accepted. For the next year and a half, I would cook a multi-course meal paired with both red and white wines, for 12-20 people, three times a month. My only equipment for these dinners was the propane burner we did BOP's on, an outdoor gas BBQ, a stainless table, and a large pot and pan. This held up until I had just turned 22 and the general manager at my restaurant job had been embezzling large amounts of cash from catering jobs. He didn't like anyone he thought could look over his shoulder, so I was fired. This was a blessing in disguise, being young, I hadn't realized how grueling my schedule was until it eased up a bit.

So now I promptly got a job at a large liquor store near the brewery and began teaching wine tasting classes there, in addition to simply manning a register and stocking shelves. I was now being paid to taste 5-8 different wines every week and present them to a group of 10-20 people.

During all this time volunteering and working and schooling, I was also busy getting the brewery equipment rearranged and cleaned up so a new license to brew could be acquired. Finally, in the spring of 2008, we received our brewing license and I was hired on as Head Brewer. I was 22 1/2 years old, making me the youngest Head Brewer in the country (maybe the world) by at least 5 years.

6 months later, at 23 years old, I ceased my role as the personal chef of the wine clubs and they were disbanded with nearly 100 dinners cooked, each paired with 2 wines. About a year after the brewery opened, at 24 years old, I ceased my role as presenter of the wine tastings at the liquor store, with close to 400 wines tasted and presented under my belt.

I went on to nearly complete my triple threat: 3 simultaneous Associates Degrees in Culinary Arts, Baking, and Restaurant Management. The only classes I have left to complete are ones that I have a hard time finding time to complete: business math, technical writing, and a mandatory internship in the industry. Despite my inability to get these last couple of classes knocked out (life DOES seem to always get in the way), all the knowledge and experience of those 3 degrees is firmly planted within my brain.

Since becoming Head Brewer at Rocky Mountain Brewery in 2008 I have gone on to make over 200 different beers and over 45 flavors of cider-flavored beer. I have won twelve People’s Choice awards, 2 Colorado State Fair medals, two World Beer Cup GOLD medals in the Fruit Beer category (beating out 86, and 93 other world-renowned breweries), and one World Beer Cup Silver medal in Fruit Beer. I am responsible for our Guinness World Record attempt beer, “Beer brewed with the most black ingredients.” I have also formulated a special dog beer that is shelf-stable and pet safe.

In addition to normal brewing skills, I have been required to become proficient in carpentry, welding and brazing and soldering, plumbing, painting, small engine troubleshooting and maintenance, electric motor and pump troubleshooting and maintenance, pneumatic systems troubleshooting and maintenance, forklift and hydraulic system maintenance, heat exchanger troubleshooting and maintenance, general materials science, and a slew of other random handyman knowledge.

Currently, I host the Pikes Peak Regional Beer Dinner Club. This brainchild of mine is a way for me to cook dinners for groups of people again like I used to! Once a month I serve dinner with 3-4 entrees and several side dishes and desserts, it is paired with 4 beers and served buffet style. I limit it to 20 people per month to keep it easy. Participants can take home any unopened beers and are encouraged to take home plenty of leftovers.

Every step of the way I was the only person to tell me what to do each day, I am the very definition of a “Self Starter.” I was responsible for EVERY aspect of the brewing side of the business, not signing the checks and making the phone calls. It was up to me to organize tools, determine the layout of the equipment, develop and refine ALL procedures, make training materials, analyze problems, do all quality assurance, innovate all new flavors and recipes, I engineered multiple pieces of process equipment, I innovated proprietary techniques that have allowed us to brew fundamentally unique beers.