When asked about his passion for brewing, Norm Penn is very straight forward: “Beer is my life,” he says. As head brewer for Thirsty Monk Brewery, Penn brews with an organic vision.
“My background is more from the homebrewing side,” he says. “You have to learn to learn to deal with a living organism, to keep it happy, and as long as you do, it will make good beer for you. If it’s not happy, there will be issues.”
Penn’s goal is a balance of variety and authenticity. “I focus on trying to nail a specific style,” he says. Founded in the fall of 2011 as an addition to the popular Thirsty Monk pub, the small-batch brewery already has trouble meeting demand for its beers. Penn says any expansion will have to stay true to his focused, micro-brewing roots.
“Small batches make us more flexible,” he says. “We can really experiment. We don’t have a set lineup, our styles rotate constantly. Never the same thing on tap.”
