Dorchester Brewing

quality assurance

By in Meet Our Team Comments Off on Meet Our Team: Sarah Pott, QA/QC Manager

Meet Our Team: Sarah Pott, QA/QC Manager


Since we opened our doors in 2016, we have been proud to stand behind the quality control measures that we’ve put in place to produce the best end product that our customers enjoy drinking! We are happy to introduce a face behind the scenes who helps to create the fresh, clean flavors and taste of all of our partner and house craft beers, all which are made right here on-site in our Boston brewery. Thanks to her expertise and dedication, you get the benefit of enjoying all of the DBco beers that pass through our doors! So, today, let’s raise a glass to Sarah Pott, our QA/QC Manager at Dorchester Brewing Company.

How did you get into craft beer and join the brewing industry?

I grew up right outside of Portland, Maine where there is a plethora of amazing beer (and food). Living in such a small community, it wasn’t difficult to connect with people within the brewing industry. Right out of college I basically just volunteered at whatever brewery would have me. That’s how I got my foot in the door before participating in ABG’s brewing school.

Tell us a little bit about what you do at DBco on a day-to-day basis.

My job here at DBco involves a lot of quality oversight into many processes, including packaging, cellaring and brewing. Routinely, I am tracking and performing sensory analysis on all of the fermentations occurring in the tanks, and on a daily basis we can expect to have at least 18 different beers in the fermenters (no, I’m not drinking 18 beers everyday). I’m responsible for making sure we are producing beers that fall within our brewing partners standards, as well as our own. Along with that, the most important responsibility I have is tracking down any contaminants or beer spoilers that may be lurking in the brewery. By doing this, I plate the beer at multiple different stages of the process onto selective and differential growth media. I can then detect if we have any microbes that could spoil the beer, or if there is an issue in the process

What do you like best about the brewing industry?

THE PEOPLE! Most people in the brewing industry don’t just accidentally fall into it, they actively seek it out, which typically means these people are extremely passionate about what they do. They want to be here. I’ve met so many intelligent, creative and passionate people working in this industry, which makes it all worth it.

Favorite part of your job?

Contentedly walking into work everyday knowing I stuck with my passion and that I’m not sitting in an office somewhere.

Favorite beer style

Pilsners (everyone should make more pilsners)

Favorite DBco beer?

Clapp’s Cream Ale

By in Brew Blog, Meet Our Team Comments Off on All About Quality Control (And Fred!)

All About Quality Control (And Fred!)

As part of our “Meet the Team” series, we’ve been introducing you to members on our team that make it all happen! Today, we’re excited to get to the down and dirty of actually making the beer…good beer at that. In fact, the best. We’re extremely proud of the steps we put in place to ensure the highest quality beer production for all of our beers including our house beers as well as our brewing partners. To that end…have ya met Fred?

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Fred Hamp, DBco’s Lab & Quality Assurance Manager became involved with DBco from his old friend Todd, our Head Brewer, from their days at Harpoon. Fred had been a stay at home dad for a few years and the timing was right for him to re-emerge into the craft beer scene at Boston’s newest startup. Fred has been with us since our building was a bit of a construction zone and he helped us design our QA program from the ground up (literally from the dirt floor!).

Fred’s love affair with brewing started long ago, fresh out of college. He hounded every brewpub and brewery in the Buffalo area until finally Tim Herzog of Flying Bison Brewery took pity on a him and let him clean kegs and access his brewing library. While there, Fred became committed to brewing professionally and saved his pennies to pay for the Master Brewers Program at University California Davis. After graduating, he took a job with Harpoon and did pretty much every job in the business until finding his passion for Quality Assurance and Control. After working with Todd at Harpoon, the rest was history!

When we tasked Fred with developing our lab and QA program, we told him to go big or go home.  As Fred mentioned, “The lab and QA program at DBco is state of the art for a brewery even 5 times our size. We place the quality of our brews on a pretty high pedestal.” When pulling it all together, he purchased the best equipment out there to ensure a high quality end product including: A Haffmans combined CO2/02 meter with piercing station for cans/bottles, a laminar flow hood that is PCR ready for micro work, a pharmaceutical grade spectrophotomer, a microscope for quantification of yeast, an autoclave, incubator, and more! We’ve got quite the science lab in the middle of the brewery.

When he’s not elbows up in beer, Fred loves to immerse himself in the craft beer culture. When we asked him his favorite beer, he said, “
I think choice is incredibly important. As an example, who wants to listen to the same album over and over again?  Sometimes you want speed metal, other times EDM, funk or classic rock. When I drink beer, I usually let the season/ time of year influence me. My favorite DBco beer right now is the soon to be released Baltic Porter.  It is incredibly balanced and complex… a real treat.”
And, as a last word from Fred, he believes”Beer is culture.  People come together over beer and this allows an environment for ideas and beliefs to swirl together.  The diversity of the community in Dorchester makes this dynamic even more exciting.”