CLEVELAND — Cleveland master brewer Andy Tveekrem is a big shot in the craft brewing world. He started home brewing in his late 20s and eventually turned his passion into a purpose and co-founded Market Garden Brewery in Cleveland’s Ohio City in 2011 and Nano Brew Cleveland in 2012. 

What You Need To Know

  • A master brewer in Cleveland was recently named President of the Master Brewers Association

  • It’s an international organization that was started in 1887

  • The nonprofit has more than 5,000 members from 50 countries around the world

“It's just delicious. I love beer in pretty much all its varieties. But you know, craft beer has just got all the flavor, all the broad spectrum of different flavors,” said Tveekrem. “I love my job because it came out of my hobby, right? So, if you can turn your hobby into your career, that's a pretty cool thing. You don't begrudge going to work, you know, you wake up excited every day and ready to do something new and different.”

Throughout the years, he’s won multiple brewing competitions and a slew of medals from competitions like the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup and now he’s adding another accolade to that list. Tveekrem was recently named president of the Master Brewers Association. It’s an international organization with about 5,000 members. 

“I'm very honored to be selected for that,” said Tveekrem. “And it's, yes, it's truly an honor. And it’s also a fair amount of work.”

The organization has been around since 1887 and is one of the earliest trade groups in North America. The organization has representation from more than 50 countries throughout the world. 

“We exist to educate brewers. It's a group of brewers discussing science and technology. And really just, it's all about sharing knowledge and networking,” said Tveekrem. “We don't really get into the business side of it. We don't discuss distribution or sales or marketing that much. It's more just the just the technical details of what goes into making great beer.”

Tveekrem has been a part of the organization since 1994. He’s been on various committees within the organization, including the executive committee, but now, for the next year, he’s the head of it all.

“There's a lot of great brewers throughout the world,” said Tveekrem. “And I like to think that maybe I'm amidst a group, but definitely not the head of the pack. That's for sure.”

There are about 8,000 breweries just in the United States. He said brewers by nature are collaborative. In his new position, he plans to use his beer knowledge to continue advancing the craft beer world. After all, he said, the better the brewers, the better the beer. 

“We realize that the rising tide floats all boats. So if there's something in brewing that could help everybody out, we want to talk about it and get that knowledge out there,” said Tveekrem.

For more information about the Master Brewers Association visit here. For more information about Market Garden Brewery visit here. ​