From friends to coworkers to DJ partners to coworkers again, these two have been through it all together: meet Chris and Christian, two members of Aslan’s world-class brewing team.
Christian is originally from Hawaii and relocated to Bellevue, WA at the age of 12. He came up to Bellingham for college and has been here ever since. Chris is originally from Snohomish and moved to Bellingham after graduating college to be closer to his girlfriend, Connie. Christian and Chris met in 2014 at a house party through mutual friends and they hit it off immediately. They bonded over their love for DJ-ing and cats and eventually started working together in landscaping. Chris started at Aslan first (about four years ago) as a packaging assistant and after a quick eight months, was promoted to Brewing Lead.
When Chris was promoted, he was asked if he knew of anyone to take his spot as a packing assistant; he knew just the person. Christian started on the packaging line at Aslan in August of 2018. He was promoted to Brewer/Cellarperson in 2020. “We just hermit crabbed ourselves up the chain, basically!” said Chris.
Before working at Aslan, neither Chris nor Christian ever thought about becoming a brewer. It can be a hard industry to move up in and it’s difficult to figure out where to start. Chris described it as serendipitous that they both started here during a time when people were shifting around positions or moving away so there were spots higher up for them to fill. Both brewers say they learned all they know about brewing from working at Aslan and being surrounded by educated beer folks.
Both Chris and Christian earned degrees in chemistry in college, with Christian opening his books and studying while simultaneously packing up beer at work. “It led me to be doing something that I really enjoy but it was brutal,” Chris said. Christian agreed, having a science background definitely helps them on a daily basis when working with beer.
Besides the beers that they inspired and brewed themselves at Aslan (i.e., Color of Sleep, a Czech Dark Lager and Lupulin Saloon, a California Common) Chris and Christian have some favorite beers that might shock some: Christian’s being Coors Light and Chris’ being Rainer. As they say: “It's one thing to brew a really good beer but it's another thing to brew a technically sound beer that's also shelf-stable and able to go out to all these people and taste the exact same!”
Christian has loved working as a brewer at Aslan.
“It’s a combination of hard mental work and hard physical work. With this job, it just keeps me active, keeps me going. And everyone here is just freaking top notch and that’s a huge bonus.” Chris agrees: “It's a good mix of technical components but also there’s an art to it. It’s fun and it’s challenging.”
Chris’s dream beer to brew is pastry stout with La Feen’s donuts. Chris explains that he “wouldn’t want to brew those normally, but if you do something dumb enough it can be cool!” Christian adds laughing, “You can’t always take yourself too seriously, and it’s a great photo opp!” While Christian fully supports the pastry beer, he personally is interested in brewing a funky Saison or mixed-fermentation beer to switch things up a bit since he hasn’t brewed anything like that before.
We wouldn’t be producing the awesome beers we do if it weren't for these two. Here’s to hoping we can get their dream beers made!
