Brian Taylor
Whiner Beer Company | Chicago
June 2018
In his senior year of college, Brian Taylor needed a part-time job. Enticed by the prospect of pay plus free beer, he joined the bottling line at Flying Dog Brewery in Boulder. Though Taylor enjoyed the job, it was Flying Dog brew master, Eric Warner, that pushed him to explore the science of beer making. It was only then that Taylor, who happened to be a biology major, was officially hooked.
Later, Warner also connected Taylor to the Siebel Institute in Chicago, where he received his formal education. From there, Taylor spent a few years as a lab technician at Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City, and another few at Goose Island Brewing, first as a sort of lab technician and cellar liaison, and then moving strictly to the cellar. Taylor experienced Goose as a free-forall when it came to innovation and appreciated how the company provided its brewers plenty of opportunity to play with different styles. His own interest in barrel-aging began to crystalize.
Taylor then met Ria Neri, a Chicago beer influencer, who has developed some of the most highly regarded beer programs in the city. The two formed Whiner Beer Company in 2015. The South Side brewery was developed on a zerowaste sustainability model and focuses on barrelaged French and Belgian-style beers, aka sours.
