A bit of Almost Heaven in Jason Oliver

Most folks don’t know that the head brewer at Devils Backbone Brewing Company has a nice dose of Almost Heaven West Virginia in his background. In fact, it’s where he originally developed his interest in craft beer.

Jason Oliver grew up in Maryland in the busy corridor between Baltimore and Washington, DC. As a high school student, he began thinking about college. He knew he didn’t want to go to a big university and sit with a hundred people in a lecture hall. He desired a more intimate educational experience.

“I went to a small Quaker high school,” Oliver explained, “and the guidance counsellor there suggested I consider Davis & Elkins College (D&E) partly because of its small class size.”

He ended up taking his counsellor’s advice and headed off to school at Elkins, West Virginia in the fall of 1991.

“Davis & Elkins was a good fit for me size-wise,” he said. “You had more interaction with the professors. It’s also a beautiful place. I always liked the outdoors, so I enjoyed myself thoroughly.”

Interest in craft beer developed at D&E

During his junior and senior years at D&E, Oliver’s interest in fuller flavored beers took root.

“I didn’t really know anything about beer,” he said, describing himself in his junior year. “At that time in Elkins you could find Sam Adams and Guinness. I liked drinking beer so I started trying new things.”

During a school break in 1994, he visited two friends, one in Richmond and the other in Baltimore. His friend in Richmond took him to the newly opened Legend Brewing Company. He and his friend in Baltimore stopped in a local brewpub there. Oliver found it was a really cool experience drinking beer at the brewery where it was made.

“Up until then I didn’t think too much about where beer came from,” said Oliver. “It was kind of a commodity. I didn’t really think about it.”

Those 1994 college experiences proved meaningful. From that point forward, Oliver would become a craft beer fan, exploring as best he could in West Virginia of that day.

“I remember there was a brewery down Charleston (WV) way that made New River Ale and Seneca Red. In my senior year of college you could find those in Elkins.

“Every now and then at a pub on campus called the Ice House, the guy that managed it would get kegs of beer from Morgantown from West Virginia Brewing Company.”

He remembers the stout and a couple of others.

“I really enjoyed those beers,” he said.

The career search begins

After graduating college in 1995, he spent the summer in Alaska. On the cross-country trip, he made a point of trying as many beers as he could. In the Pacific Northwest he found whole supermarket aisles filled with West Coast beers.

“I thought it was amazing how many different types of beer there were,” he said.

In Alaska he discovered bars selling Amber Ale from Alaskan Brewing Company for the same price they offered Budweiser. You can guess which one he drank.

At the end of the summer he headed back to Maryland still not knowing what he wanted to do with his life. Searching for ideas, he picked up a book on choosing a career. Under the Bs he came across Brewmaster. Reading the job description, he had an epiphany.

“All the dots connected,” he realized. “I’m meant to be a brewer.

“I don’t know if I would have figured it out for myself if I hadn’t picked up that career book. I’m the only brewer I know that found his career out of a career book.”

A career path comes into focus

Oliver started visiting and touring breweries in the Maryland area and asking a lot of questions. One of the people who helped him with some answers was Tom Flores, the original brewmaster at Clipper City Brewing in Baltimore.

[Currently, Flores heads brewery operations at Monocacy Brewing in Frederick, MD, and also serves on the board of directors of the Brewers Association.]

“He was a very sharp guy,” said Oliver. “He was a graduate of UC-Davis. I got the idea from him that that’s where I wanted to go.”

At Davis & Elkins College, Oliver received his degree in History, a curriculum that didn’t sufficiently prepare him for the science-heavy University of California–Davis Master Brewer’s Program. To get prepared for that program, he beefed up on chemistry and micro-biology at a local community college.

He was homebrewing at the time, but he also needed practical professional experience.

“I sent letters out to local breweries seeking any internships, part-time jobs, or full-time jobs,” Oliver said. “I just wanted to get my foot in the door.”

Eventually, he received a positive response from the Wharf Rat/Oliver Brewing Company (no relation to him) in Baltimore.

“I got a full-time assistant brewer’s job there in the spring of 1996.”

Oliver Brewing made classic English-style ales and sold them at their Wharf Rat pub (now Pratt Street Ale House) across from Baltimore’s Camden Yard. He worked there for about a year and a half before enrolling at UC–Davis.

Then, in the summer of 1998, with his Master Brewer’s Program diploma in hand, Oliver came back east looking for a job.

A brewer of German styles

Again, he would find help from a member of the brewing fraternity. Oliver says one of his early influences was Allen Young, the founder and brewmaster at Fordham Brewing Company in Annapolis, MD. Having trained under a German brewmaster, Young excelled in brewing German styles. Oliver also knew that Young sold German-made brewing systems, so he thought Young might know of a brewery needing a brewer.

“I wanted to brew German styles,” said Oliver, who had developed that interest while at UC-Davis. “There are more steps to it. It’s a little more precise.”

With Young’s help, he soon landed a job as brewer at Virginia Beverage Company in Alexandria.

“Allen Young has been a mentor and an asset to me in my career,” Oliver said.

[It was Young who sold that beautiful, German-made brewing system to Brubaker’s brewpub in Huntington, WV, back in the mid-1990s.]

After a couple more short brewing gigs in the Washington–Baltimore market, Oliver settled in for a six and a half-year stint as regional brewery supervisor for Gordon-Biersch restaurants, working out of their DC location.

He says he has always been blessed with taking jobs that not only gave him experience but he also learned something different at each place.

“I enjoyed what I was doing at Gordon-Biersch, but I sort of missed the creative freedom I had at some of my other jobs,” he said.

Jason Oliver meets Devils Backbone

In 2008, Oliver happened to see a job posting in an industry publication saying that a start-up brewery in Virginia was seeking a brewer with experience in German beer styles. It sounded to him like it might be a fit, so he answered the ad and got an interview. That turned out to be Devils Backbone Brewing Company.

From his college days in Elkins, he’d always thought it would be nice to work and live in the mountains. When he saw the Devils Backbone property location, backed up to the Blue Ridge Mountains, he was impressed.

“It was awesome,” he exclaimed. “I still never get used to the views around here. It’s a beautiful place to work and play.”

Later in 2008, he joined Devils Backbone to help set up and open the new brewery.

A new style brewpub

At Devils Backbone, he wanted to do something different. He wanted to develop a new style brewpub.

“The old paradigm at a brewpub was you had maybe five core beers and a sixth seasonal beer that would change,” he said. “But I wanted the opposite. I wanted to have more seasonal beers than core beers.”

When it opened, Devils Backbone had only four year-round beers (three of which were German styles), but kept six additional beers on tap that were constantly changing.

“I wanted to have a lot of different beers come through,” he said. “I wanted to brew a lot of seasonal beers, a lot of specialty beers.”

Through the years, he and the other brewers at Devils Backbone have done just that, and they have learned much from brewing all the different styles, with all the different ingredients and different brewing methods. They’ve brewed probably 250 different beers at the brewpub.

“That’s definitely been a real positive force in how we in how we move forward,” said Oliver.

From Basecamp to Outpost

In 2008, Devils Backbone began with just the brewpub/restaurant (Basecamp) at Roseland. In 2012, they opened a larger production brewery (the Outpost) in Lexington, Virginia.

All recipes are developed and tested at the Basecamp brewpub. They will brew a beer a couple different times at Basecamp and work out the kinks before it is brewed at the Outpost production brewery.

With the Outpost taking over brewing all the high volume, core brands, Basecamp is freed to be more creative.

“It’s cool to have that flexibility,” says Oliver. “We have a lot of recipes to choose from. We want to be a brewers’ brewery, where we can practice the brewer’s art.”

Devils Backbone Basecamp is a craft beer lover’s dream. They keep over 15 different beers on tap there. While still brewing a number of Germanic styles, they also do many other things like IPA variants, Berliner Weisse, and Belgians.

Devils Backbone system proves a success

Under Oliver’s direction, Devils Backbone’s system of brewing has found much success at the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup competitions. And this success is not just for one-off specialty beers.

Three out of Devils Backbone’s four, year-round core brands are gold medal winners. Base Camp has won GABF small brewery of the year and Outpost has won GABF mid-sized brewery of the year.

Oliver says a lot of the credit for the success has to go to Devils Backbone founder Steve Crandall, who gives his brewers free reigns to experiment. Oliver says, while very much involved in the business, Crandall leaves the creative side to the brewers. He hires talented people and lets them do what they do. He doesn’t micro-manage.

“It’s been a powerful force in our business,” Oliver asserts.

“Our beers come from a place of curiosity, from a place of interest. They are not handed down from a marketing department. I think it shows.”

Schwartz Bier a brewery favorite

Oliver thinks the best beer he brews might be the Schwartz Bier (German-style black lager).

“It’s kind of a brewer’s favorite,” he says. “I think that beer is just a very sublime beer. It has a lot of flavor, but it goes down easy. It’s got that lager drinkability.

“It’s got a kind of cult following within our company.”

He feels their Vienna Lager hits its mark too.

“It’s exploded,” he says. ‘We can hardly keep up with that beer. It’s approachable to all levels of beer drinkers, yet it’s also enjoyed by the craft drinker.

“That beer is an enigma in a way. I never thought it would do as well as its done. It fits a very cool niche.”

A circle completed

With Devils Backbone now launching its line in West Virginia, Oliver’s career is completing a circle of sorts. It’s warming to know that this talented head brewer has some craft beer roots in Elkins, WV.

Hopefully, some local craft beer fans will get to meet Oliver in person as he participates in market launch events. If you do meet him, be sure to say, “Welcome back.”