Our Head Brewer
Meet Bear
From homebrew to craft-brew, by virtue of Alaska, Grace and Abe’s head brewer, Bear, is stoked to be back home.
Seven is Bear’s lucky digit – he had been brewing beer at home – for his own hedonism – for just about 7 years when he stumbled upon Ripley’s 7 Sins in its embryonic stage. Instead of a formal interrogation, Bear crashed the beerhouse located behind Quincy Cellars and offered to do some homework for the crew. The gig became palpable when he arrived two days later with an encrypted thesis of methods and off the chain recipes in hand.
In Bear’s past life, he stood houses, hauled lumber and was a carpenter in places like sub-arctic Anchorage and Erie, Jamestown, Vermont and Ripley – but through studying, trial and error and copious nipping, he now brews a brutally wicked beer. He started honing his beer trade in Anchorage where beer is mighty expensive and in an effort to save a few bucks, decided to try brewing his own – after two tries and a twist or two, Bear had created his own method, making many cronies in a hurry.

Bear has taken his skills to Abe’s Ales and 7 Sins and despite the sinful essence of the beer, he and the team create their concoctions using only pure ingredients and a process that reveres the craft of beer making. Bear stands strongly behind selecting primo hops and grains and using real flavoring vs. garbage (chemically fabricated ingredients and flavors). To top it off, 7 Sins doesn’t believe in a house yeast and proceeds with employing the tailor-made yeast per style of beer.