Alumni Profiles - Vaccaro

Callan Vaccaro, Brewer at Deschutes BreweryCallan Vaccaro
BS 2012, Fermentation Science
Brewer
Deschutes Brewery

A typical day working for Deschutes Brewery involves either brewing beer in one of the two brewhouses or working out in the cellars. Working in the brewhouse involves all aspects of brewing beer (gathering and dosing hops, special ingredient additions, addition of specialty malt, counting yeast cells, pitching tanks, etc.). The cellar involves running beer through our centrifuge, CIP of fermentation vessels and bright beer tanks, yeast pulls, yeast harvesting, and tasting beer for release to packaging. Along with the tasks mentioned above, I’m also involved in the following: SOP Program, Internship Program, Inventory/ordering of Specialty Ingredients.

The best thing about my job is that I work with a great group of people. All of the brewers here at Deschutes love their job and are happy to be here. This makes for a very friendly work environment. Another great part of my job is that there are many opportunities to learn something new. Our brewery is expanding and will continue to do so, giving rise to new equipment, processes, and responsibilities. This makes for some pretty exciting times!

I first became interested in brewing and fermentation back in 2007 when I heard about OSU’s Food Science and Tech program. I had just finished 2 years at a junior college in Longview, WA and was ready for a change! What better way to spend my college career than by learning about beer, wine, and cheese!

The classes and internships that I completed while attending OSU were very beneficial to my career. Being able to apply the concepts and knowledge attained in the classroom to real life experiences really drove that information home for me. Plus getting to meet and talk with people in different industries can give you a lot of insight as to what working in a certain industry might be like.

One of the cool things that I didn’t expect to experience when starting my job at Deschutes Brewery was getting the opportunity to travel. This year I’ll be flying out to Chicago, IL for a week long beer camp that I am very excited for. There are many other opportunities that we as brewers get to apply for, so hopefully I’ll be getting to visit a few more places in the coming years.