Interview with Joe Cleinman of Offshore Ale Co. | Drink Craft Beer | Interviews, Breweries, Interview with Joe Cleinman of Offshore Ale Co.

Interview with Joe Cleinman of Offshore Ale Co.

We’ve known about the best brewery on Martha’s Vineyard for a while now. And, while it’s Martha’s Vineyard’s only brewery, if there were others it would still be the best. We’re of course speaking of Offshore Ale Company. We came to speak with new brewer, Joe Cleinman, who has had a short but interesting time in the industry so far. He started out with a love of beer in college at Vassar, where he started teaching a beer tasting class and home brewing classes. He also worked as a tour guide at Brewery Ommegang, the Belgian style brewery in Cooperstown, NY.

When his friends bought a complete brew structure, it seems he basically took over the operation of brewing on that. After setting it up for them, he would brew often while showing people how it worked and how to brew. As a junior in college, earning his degree in Biology, he became friendly with some of the Ommegang brewers and moved up to become an assistant brewer.

Above: Joe Cleinman - brewer

After graduation, he saw a position for assistant brewer at Offshore and applied. After a 3 hour interview and some time brewing with Matt Steinberg (then head brewer for Offshore), he was hired. A few months later, Matt announced he was leaving Offshore to start Mayflower Brewing Company. Joe was offered the job as head brewer after only 5 months of professional brewing experience.

We got to Offshore quite early for our interview so we could enjoy some of the quality beer and food that they make. While we were sitting at the bar, we struck up a conversation with a gentleman named Jürgen from Germany. He says he comes every summer and one of the big reasons is Offshore Ale Company. He was drinking the Hefeweizen and said it’s one of the best; comparable to anything in Germany. Now we’ve traveled far for beer, as many of you know. But from Germany? Most people go there for beer. We were duly impressed at the reviews he gave to Offshore, and were even more excited than ever to have this brewery just a short ferry ride away!

While sitting at our table enjoying a couple pints, we notice the owner, Phil McAndrews, has walked in, which we hadn’t expected. Not wanting to miss our opportunity to get some insight from the owner, we approach him to introduce ourselves.

(First, we spoke with Offshore Owner Phil McAndrews about Offshore, Joe's arrival, Matt leaving and more)

DCB: So, Phil, what’s next for Offshore?
Phil:We have some good things on the horizon. First, we’re planning to bottle Hop Goddess, our Belgian style hoppy ale. It’ll probably hit the mainland first in kegs in the fall. Then you’ll start to see it in 22oz. bombers shortly after that.

We have another Invasion coming up in November, so that should be fun. This is a destination for beer, so I wanted to continue that tradition. Just because Matt’s leaving, doesn’t mean the Invasions end.

Above: Offshore Amber on Cask

DCB: About Matt leaving, what’s the plan going forward and how do you feel about your new brewer, Joe?
Phil: We’re all confident in Joe. We have our Oktoberfest coming up, which will be driven by Joe’s new beer for that. He also brewed the Amber on cask right now… this is the first time the Amber has been brewed on-island for years.

While we'll miss Matt, I don't look at him leaving as a loss for Offshore. The way I see it, Massachusetts is gaining another good brewery (Mayflower) and Offshore is gaining another talented brewer. This just means there will be more good beer in our state.

DCB:Yeah, new brewers and breweries are always a boon to the beer scene around here. Can never have too many!
Phil:Right. But right now we do have a lot that don’t really get the recognition and attention that they should. There’s a wine trail that goes through the Connecticut River Valley that people follow through all these different vineyards and it’s a real attraction. I’d love to get something like that going with some of the other local breweries, like Cisco, Cape Cod Brewing and some others. Get people to see it as something to actually do, and come out and see all these talented brewers, taste what’s being made, kind of in the same vein as the wine trail. Or, at least, we’re looking to do some beer dinners where we’ll each have some of each other’s brews on tap. That way we all publicize each other and make everyone a stronger company.

(In our opinion, Phil seems to be a guy who really gets it. He bought Offshore so that he could enjoy going to work every day. We had the luck to be in the restaurant when he was around and just walked up to him. He was quite friendly and seemed to be having a great time. He understands what Offshore was about before he bought it and, from what we can gather, he will keep it going with that same spirit. We’re excited about Hop Goddess being bottled, and look forward to what goes on on the Vineyard under his watch. At this point, Joe walked in, so we now settle down to talk with him.)

DCB: OK, Joe, so you’ve been brewing pro for 5 months. You came on recently and Matt drops the news that he’s leaving. You’ve learned the system from him and the recipes and you seem ready to do this. What’s your goal for Offshore and your goal for you at Offshore?
Joe: Well, the big thing is Matt was very sales oriented. He was super outgoing and was always out there selling the brand at all the tastings. I hope to go to some festivals, but I really want to concentrate on production.

DCB: How about any new beers you have planned?
Joe: Well, to be honest we’re in transition right now. We recently started producing the IPA and the Amber in house so how much can I really fit in new? We only have 5 serving tanks, so I don’t expect to do anything new right away. There is some stuff I want to do, though. Having worked at Brewery Ommegang, I had a big Belgian influence. The things I want to brew, I’d have to figure out if they are marketable. I’d like to do a Berliner weisse, but that can’t happen right now. The beer we have is damn good, and during the summer we have a big tourist crowd… it’s not like in Boston where there’s a dedicated beer crowd that could make-up the demand for something like that. In the off season, though, it’s easier to experiment, so we’ll see.

DCB: Speaking of the off-season, Phil mentioned to us the Oktoberfest celebration and that you were getting some latitude with brewing for that?
Joe: Yeah, it seems Phil is giving me the choice to brew my own Oktoberfest. I have the choice to change the recipe, so the fall seasonal might not even be an Oktoberfest. Unless you’re brewing for a homebrew competition, style is way less important than if it tastes good. As long as it tastes good, that’s what’s important.

Even if I do end up doing an Oktoberfest, I’d like to do something else a little different and challenging. Maybe a pumpkin ale? I’d love to use our brick oven to roast some pumpkins then put that in the mash. That might be a fun fall beer!

DCB:OK, since we’re on the topic of new beers, how do you plan to test new ideas?
Joe: Usually I’ll just brew it. Unless you over-spice something or put too much roasted malt or something, it should be servable. I brewed a beer once where I put too much coriander in, it burned to drink! But as long as your careful, the beer may not come out exactly on target, but it should still be tasty and fine to drink.

DCB: Do you have any recipes you’re bringing with you?
Joe: Haha, actually not really. I never brewed the same batch twice when I homebrewed.

DCB: Are there ones you’d consider brewing again?
Joe: Yes, definitely! I had some wacky low alcohol beers. My interest is in beers under 8% abv, normally. Some damn good pale ales or the like. But I also brewed a Belgian Quad that was good. I aged it on top of 4 pounds of raisins, and that turned out phenomenal. Now, do I want to put a batch here on 100 pounds of raisons? No! I don’t want to clean those out of my system. That could cause some serious clogging! But we’ll see what we’re going to do. It’s summer now and we’re so packed. It will be easier to experiment in the fall when the off season starts.

Also, there’s seasonals that have to get brewed every year. If we don’t, we’ll have the local population coming to burn this place down and hunt me. I don’t want that! Also, Inkwell will be fun. That was one of the beers Matt used to put Offshore on the map, really. But it was different every year. It was his interpretation every year. So this time, I’ll get to do my interpretation.

DCB: (During this time, we had sat in the restaurant for a while, got a tour of the building and brewing facilities and Joe pointed out some of the cool nuances of the building such as the steam whistles and the stranger architectural designs the original owner had put in. He seems ready and excited to brew at Offshore, and we’re looking for Offshore to continue their reputation as a world class brewery. We say goodbye to Joe knowing that Matt has prepared him for Offshore. We look forward to the Hop Goddess coming to the mainland, and we can’t wait to see where it goes from here! If anyone has any doubts about the quality of beer changing at Offshore, you can rest easy, if anything expect some new surprises)

For anyone looking for more information on Offshore Ale Co. you can visit: OffshoreAle.com