100 Interviews

Beer Personalities: Tom Bull Has Moves Like Jagger

by: Dylan Joffe

Tom Bull has been perfecting the Portland Lager recipe for 15 years.

“I started brewing when I was 19 with my Dad. I saw a demo at the Common Ground Fair and thought it looked fun.”

I met Tom Bull of Bull Jagger Brewery at the Great Lost Bear in Portland a month ago. I was feeling tired, just coming off a 5 day Halloween binge in Vegas. I needed to rest.

However, anyone who knows me at all knows that I have difficulties saying no.
So, when my friend invited me to a beer event, out I went.

GLB was hosting Bull Jagger for Brewers night. By the time I got there the beers were being packed up. The Bull Jagger team set a record for the most cases demolished on a single night. An acquaintance happens to work with one of the guys at Trader Joe’s and brings him over to talk with me. I tell him about my blog and that I’ve wanted to interview a local brewery for a while now. He asks me to hold on and comes back with one of the owner, Tom.

The first thing I did was complain about missing out on the beer.

“You didn’t get to try it? We’re bottling tomorrow morning. You should come by and help us out! Come by anytime after 11.”

Well… that was easy.

Bull Jagger is a brand-spanking-new brewery in Portland, Maine. They started in-store distribution only about a month ago and only produce one brew currently – the Portland Lager.

I showed up to the Portland Brewery around 11:30 with my roommate, Ashley, as a tag along. I was taking an extended lunch break from my real job.

Bull Jagger is located in the Riverside Industrial Park in a garage bay. There is a small office attached and the garage door is completely open. When we walk up there at half a dozen people there, some bottling beer, others are talking. Tom extends a big handshake and introduces us around. Ashley immediately befriends the two who are bottling beer – a clear in for some free samples, in my opinion. Tom starts to give m the tour.

Tom Bull and Allan Jagger met through mutual friends. Tom had been around the block with basically every brewery in the area. Allan owned a company that took old wood from Maine and brought it across the country. From there, they started Bull Jagger, moving into the garage space earlier this year. Tom is the beer; Allan is the business.

But why the Portland Lager? Why a lager in general? Tom explains that the Portland Lager was a dead trademark – it had been owned but was not in use at the time. The Portland Lager had been a beer brewed in Wisconsin and New York, but had never actually set foot in Portland.

“We wanted to make right on that – to bring the Portland Lager to Portland,” explained Tom. And why not? Brooklyn has its own lager. Boston has a lager. Didn’t Portland deserve a lager?

Tom takes me on a tour of the place – from the beginning stages of where the beer is brewed, to the two separate cooling systems that the lager goes through. What I never realized is the amount of time that goes into a lager versus ale. While a typical ale can be drank 2 – 3 weeks after brewing, a lager takes 6 – 7 weeks. This means that brewers have to wait longer to taste and perfect their beer. If a batch is horrible, or something wrong happens during brewing, it takes that much longer to know.

Tom explains to me that lagers, by definition, were always meant to take a while. Lager comes from the German term for resting. A lager must rest, for many, many weeks. A lager must rest, at very low temperatures. Lager, as a word, every sounds lethargic. We go into the final cooling chamber. This is where the beer sits for 5 weeks at near freezing temperatures. It is cold and smells vaguely like country club – alcoholic and chlorine-y.

Tom shows me the final steps, which includes carbonating the beer. When we are done, Tom takes a phone call and I find my roommate being put to work. I make a joke about being her pimp – they’ll have to pay her the average hourly wage at Bull Jagger. (Why do I make prostitution jokes on first impressions?)

“Are you kidding me? We don’t get paid! My boss pays me in put downs and beer.” This is when it hits me… this is everything. These people have put everything into this brewery, with a dream and a hope that it will be wildly successful. I like to talk about the idea of making beer… or wine… or buying a bar. My running joke is that when times get tough, the only thing to do is buy a bar. I imagine this glorious life of good friends, good booze, being your own boss, making your own rules, etc. This is a fantasy. These people come back to this garage every day to work for free because they love making beer and believe in the Portland Lager.

“This is the first month we’ve actually paid our bills from beer money,” Tom explains later.

While Ashley helps cap some bottles, I decide I am going to ask the rest of the Bull Jagger team some questions while Tom answers a phone call.

I ask the question I am most excited for. I have realized that I personify beer. I give it decidedly human characteristics. I have called some “talk, dark and handsome;” I have describes others as arrested development characters.

“So… if you could describe this beer as a person. Who would it be?”

The two look at me. Look at Tom.

“I am going to ask him this too – don’t worry. I would just love to hear your opinion. We can start simple. Is this beer a boy or a girl?”

“A boy… wait. No. A girl. Definitely a girl,” they both agree.

“Did this beer go to college?”

“Yes. This beer is refined. It probably didn’t get into an Ivy… but it definitely went to a good school. This beer – she went to Bates.”

It doesn’t take many more questions to get us all going back and forth on the characteristic of this female beer. She is a lady – the kind you would bring home to mom but can also hang out with all her guy friends. She was a varsity athlete – probably softball. She has a slight wild side, but has settled down since college. Ashley suggests that she was a LUG (Lesbian Until Graduation) at some point over her four years at Bates. The boys let out an audible giggle and agree. Portland Lager definitely played for both teams in college.

“Yup. Portland Lager. A well-education, bi-curious softball pitcher.”

Tom has a different answer to the question. “Chuck Norris.” The rest of the Bull Jagger boos his answer. “That is a damn dirty lie,” someone yells playfully.

Tom thinks about the question for a second. “This beer is me,” he says. Oddly enough, even after the previously group description, everyone in the make-shift garage brewery seems to nod in agreement.

It is time for me to taste it. I realize that Ashley has a good morning buzz going on from the few free samples she’s been given. She gives me at thumbs up, a clear sign that she really likes it.

They pour me a glass. I take a sip.

I might have gone bisexual for this beer in college, too.

The beer pours a hazy gold with a good amount of head. I can tell by its look that it is thicker than I expected. It smells sweet and malty – with a touch of earthiness. I pick up on fresh cut grass and sugar. The taste is very similar, but with a slight bitterness that pricks through on the tongue. It goes down smooth, and I am not ashamed to ask for another.

After a few more tasting glasses (oh come on, they are small), I put down my note pad. From that point on and help bottle some beer. They teach me how to put the caps on without loosing a finger. I occasionally write down some good quotes, but in general, we start to shoot the shit. I become the interviewee for a bit.

“So, why are you doing this? What made you want to write this.”

Before I can answer, Ashley jumps in with a response.

“Are you kidding me? This is so something she would do. Did you know she was class president in high school? Voted most outgoing. It’s like she can’t help herself.” I blush, keep my head down and continue to bottle beer. If I don’t react maybe they will stop talking about me…

“I was voted most likely to brew beer,” Says Tom. We all laugh. Ashley has a look on her face like she actually believes him.

“My high school superlative was “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing,” chimes in one of the other guys.

We talk more about beer – them giving me suggestions and talking about their favorites. I tell them about the ones I’ve had so far – the good and the bad. After two hours, I decide I probably need to get back to my real job. The guys seem genuinely sad to see us go and extend an invitation to come back and help them brew some morning. We agree and leave.

When we get in the car, Ashley looks at me and says, “I just had so much fun… Didn’t you have fun? Oh, good thing you are driving and not me. Do you think we can invite them to come out drinking with us sometime?”  I laugh and agree. So, if you read this, guys – invitation in on the table. Let’s have a beer (we will actually pay for them this time).

And for everyone else? Try the Portland Lager – if only to help a group of really phenomenal people get one step closer to paying their employees.

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Dylan Joffe is a recent graduate of Emerson College and resident of Portland, Maine. By day she tweets for a large supermarket chain (@hannaford), by night she drinks beer and blogs about it (www.myyearinbeer.com). You call follow her on Twitter: @DylanJoffe.