Cilurzo, Vincenzo "Vinnie"
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Brewers Association
label: Collection Interviewer
content: Harry, John
label: Collection Interviewer
content: Johnson, Paula, Curator
label: Collection Interviewer
content: McCulla, Theresa
label: Collection Creator
content: National Museum of American History (U.S.)
setName: label: See more items in
content: American Beer Brewing Oral History Collection
label: See more items in
content: American Beer Brewing Oral History Collection / Series 1: Born-Digital Interviews
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 693.71 Megabytes (Total Running Time: 01:03:09, audio/wav)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2017-03-30
container: label: Container
content: Item NMAH-AC1595-BDA0022
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Audio
label: Type
content: Megabytes
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Oral history interview with Vincenzo "Vinnie" Cilurzo, co-owner and brewmaster of Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, California. Topics covered include Cilurzo's childhood in southern California, when his family were winemakers; his remembrances of microbrewed beers in California in the 1980s; a formative trip to Belgium around 1990; his start homebrewing; the challenge of procuring ingredients; and belonging to the San Diego homebrew club QUAFF. Other topics covered include Cilurzo's founding of the microbrewery Blind Pig in 1994; brewing Inaugural Ale, considered the first double IPA in the U.S.; his relationships with figures like Ken Grossman, Greg Koch, and Peter Bouckaert; founding Russian River Brewing Co. with wife Natalie Cilurzo in 1997; recipe formulation at Russian River; the influence of winemaking on his brewing process; his exploration of hops and yeast in beer; integrating family and business in the operation of the brewery; Russian River's forthcoming expansion in Windsor, California; and his thoughts on the future of craft beer.