Pub Brewers
Portland Pub Brewer
Brandon Whalen
Previously, he was the R&D brewer at Breakside Brewing. and before that Rohrbach Brewing in Rochester NY. He has spent many years honing his skills in both clean and mixed culture beers as well as wood aged beers. He has articles published and featured in magazines such as Brew Your Own and Zymurgy. Before commercial brewing he was a Sous Chef for Bon Appetit spending his free time as a competitive homebrewer. Brandon is also the guitar player and vocalist of rock band Kinghorn and spends his free time with his family as well as racing bicycles and riding/ working on motorcycles.
Bend Pub Brewer
Ian Larkin
After 6 years of being an avid homebrewer, Ian was hired at Bend Brewing Co. as a keg washer. He spent the next five years absorbing all of the knowledge he could about the finer aspects of brewing. He then worked his way up to being the assistant of 10 Barrel’s very own Tonya Cornett, who at the time was working at Bend Brewing Co. In 2012 he took over the Brewmaster role at Bend Brewing Co. and after five years in the Captain’s chair he decided to work at 10 Barrel so he could keep his passion for creating unique beers alive. Ian loves using ingredients in beer that no one has ever heard of, let alone used. He has been awarded over 50 medals at international beer competitions in his career thus far. In his spare time he enjoys time at his cabin in the Elkhorn Mountains, split–boarding, hiking, cooking, and of course drinking beer.
Brewmasters
Boise Brewmaster
Chris VanSickle
Chris developed a love of craft beer after moving around the Pacific Northwest. He attended Boise State University studying Chemistry before deciding he wanted to get into brewing. To break into brewing, he attended the Skagit Valley Craft Brew Academy in Northern Washington, which got him an internship at Farmstrong Brewing in Mount Vernon, Washington. After being hired full time and brewing there for 2 years, he decided to move to Bend, Oregon and started production brewing for 10 Barrel for 4 1/2 years. Coming back to Boise to be the Pub Brewmaster is a dream come true!
Brewmaster
Jimmy Seifrit
Jimmy started his brewing career back in 1996 with Deschutes Brewery. As Deschutes grew to become a dominant craft brewery, Jimmy grew with them. He eventually became an intricate part of their product development team working on beers like Dissident, Black Butte XX, XXI, XXII, Abyss, Mirror-Mirror to name a few. He also co-managed the pub helping making it a destination stop for Bend. In 2011 he was coaxed away from Deschutes to take over the 10 Barrel brewing operations. Since then 10 Barrel has gone through three brewery expansions and the building of 5 pubs under his watch. He finds great pride in working with a superstar team to create the 10 Barrel experience.
R&D Brewmasters
Bend R&D Brewmaster
Tonya Cornett
Tonya Cornett first discovered beer in the mid 90’s in Colorado and began home brewing. After working multiple brewery jobs and deciding that beer was something she was serious about she traveled to Germany to attend the World Brewing Academy. She moved to Bend in 2002 and assumed the brewmaster position at Bend Brewing Company which she held for 10 years bringing home a heap of medals to Central Oregon. In 2012 Tonya joined the 10 Barrel team as our Brewmaster of Research and Development and has been cranking out stacks of award winning recipes. When she’s not developing cutting edge beers she runs a beer shop in Sunriver alongside her husband. Tonya is one badass brewer!
Sr. Innovation Brewmasters
Sr. Innovation Brewmaster
Shawn Kelso
Shawn Kelso (AKA Big Daddy) came on board in 2012 after 11+ years at Barley Browns as their head brewer. He was our brewmaster in the Boise pub from 2012 to 2020, cranking out some of the most delicious beers you will ever taste. He made the move out to Bend in 2020 to continue pushing our innovation even farther! We are stoked to have him here at HQ. If you ask him why he became a brewer he’ll tell you it’s his calling in life to make remarkable beer. And we believe him! The guy has won over 60 medals after all and is responsible for many of your favorite 10 Barrel brews. Shawn says he especially enjoyed brewing in Boise because of the access to all the amazing local ingredients, including hops. Boy does Kelso like his hops! When you try one of his beers it will most likely be the first thing you notice. The wonderful hop presence and most likely a high ABV. He’s a great guy that makes great beer.
Head Brewers
Head Brewer
Ben Shirley
Benny got his start in the restaurant industry after moving to Oregon from SoCal. No brewing experience, just a rad dude with a great attitude snowboarding and enjoying life in Bend. Coming from a pub setting he soon decided brewing beer sounded like an awesome way to make a buck and made his way into production brewing. Working from the ground up filling kegs, Jimmy saw his potential early on and when the opportunity arose, Benny jumped ship from one of the larger breweries in town to work for 10 Barrel and has been crushing it ever since. Benny has proved his prowess with badass beers such as Riding Solo and Throwback Oatmeal Stout, and by running the brewhouse of our San Diego pub for several years, creating delicious beers and catching waves on his longboard. All that to say, we are lucky to have Benny back in Bend concocting new, innovative recipes at our HQ!