Welcome to our “Meet The Brewer” series! Where we interview brewers in Pennsylvania, from breweries small to large. Let us know if you know anyone who should be featured, email us at [email protected].
Yellow Bridge Brewing (Delmont, PA) was started in November of 2016 by brothers Ian and Trevor Staab. Have both homebrewed for a while, they decided to jump right in and open the brewery. Yellow Bridge is known for a lot of experimental brews, as well as the widely popular “Dude” series of IPA’s and Pale Ales. “Dude Wanted Juice” kicked it all off when a local customer requested they make a NE style IPA.
Trevor Staab is the head brewer at Yellow Bridge Brewing. Learn more about Trevor including how he got started as a brewer, the first beer he ever brewed, his favorite beer to drink right now, and more!
What was your introduction to craft beer?
I’d say that Victory and Troegs were my first two introductory breweries that got me into craft beer, which is cool because I continue to really enjoy their stuff to this day. Back in my college days, my roommates and I would pool together whatever extra cash we could to splurge on the variety cases from these two breweries and they were a perfect intro to the range of styles available in craft beer.
How did you get started as a brewer?
My brother Ian (the owner of Yellow Bridge), had started to get into homebrewing while I was in college, and I eventually made it over to brew some batches with him. Once we moved from bottling to kegging our homebrew, we started brewing basically every possible chance when we had an open keg.
What style allows you to be the most creative, and why?
I really enjoy exploring the creative blending of new hop profiles in the pale ales and IPAs that we frequently brew. We can use a very similar grain bill from batch to batch but get drastically different and interesting flavors through the crazy amounts of dry-hopping. I like that experimentation with our hops while keeping the malt profile kind of as a “control”. Going forward though, I’m looking forward to expanding on our brown ale line to see what kind of exciting things we can do in a more malt-forward offering.
What was the first beer you ever brewed, and what did you learn from it?
My first batch was a Black IPA kit from Northern Brewer. Overall, it wasn’t great, but I was proud to have a decent, drinkable batch of something that I’d made. I’d say the primary thing that I learned through that batch was how volatile bottle-conditioning could be. I practically had to wear safety glasses to open some of the bottles after a few weeks.
Where do you see the craft beer industry heading in the next few years?
I think that a lot of the current popular styles will continue to be well-liked, but that we’ll see a shift towards more sessionable versions. While I definitely enjoy bigger beers from time to time, I see more and more people reaching for options that they can enjoy a few more of without having to be carried out of the taproom.
Describe what it’s like to be a brewer in Pennsylvania.
We’re fortunate to brew in the area that we do. I can’t speak to the eastern PA scene as much, but I know that we’re super appreciative of how welcoming the brewing community is in the Pittsburgh area. I also think that, as a state, we’ve got some stellar beer offerings, which is a nice way to hold us all to high standard.
What is the inspiration behind your beer names?
Ahh, we’re kind of all over the place with our beer naming. Our “Dude” line refers to one our awesome regulars who had suggested early on that we explore the juicy styles, not knowing that we actually had a pilot batch about ready to tap. We named the test batch “Dude Wanted Juice”, and it stuck from there.
What is your favorite beer to drink right now?
From us, I’d say that Little Dude is my personal favorite. I definitely like to try out all of the lower ABV hazy IPA options from the other breweries in our area. Now that it’s summer and I’m getting out to golf a bit more, I lean towards Hamm’s pretty often too. Anything much heavier wreaks too much havoc on my golf swing.
What is the most important lesson you learned in the beer industry so far?
The importance of adaptation. Our current tap lineup is unrecognizable to the one that we originally opened with, and I’d say that’s a product of needing to always try new things and to try to move with the ebbs and flows of the industry.
Thank you to Trevor Staab for talking with us! Make sure you visit Yellow Bridge Brewing for all the latest beers, news, information and special events. And also follow Yellow Bridge on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!
