You’ve heard this story before. Guy gets smitten with homebrewing, learns all he can, eventually finds the circumstances to get a formal education, and goes pro. That’s Jay Bullen in a nutshell. But like everyone else you can apply this story to, there’s so much more than that. There are the years of toil, the friendships and bonds made, and the leap of faith.
Bullen, the owner and head of brewhouse operations at Brewery Silvaticus Ales & Lagers in Amesbury, Massachusetts, has always worked with his hands. A carpenter by trade, he grew up in New York City, which is a lot of things, but back around 2003, it wasn’t a beer mecca. A move to California with his girlfriend (now wife, Michelle Riaz) opened him up to a world of flavor.
“There was fresh Anchor and beers from Lagunitas, and you could walk into a beer store with options. It was great,” he says. While Riaz worked in the tech sector, Bullen took odd jobs as a carpenter and with a catering business, eventually landing a lunch-shift host and service job at a brewpub.