{"id":800313,"date":"2019-10-12T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2019-10-12T18:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=372807"},"modified":"2019-10-12T12:00:08","modified_gmt":"2019-10-12T18:00:08","slug":"summit-suds-dillon-dam-brewery-broken-compass-brewing-hire-new-head-brewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/summit-suds-dillon-dam-brewery-broken-compass-brewing-hire-new-head-brewers\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit Suds: Dillon Dam Brewery, Broken Compass Brewing hire new head brewers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Head brewer and brewery manager J.J. Miles flashes a smile while at work Friday, Oct. 4, at Dillon Dam Brewery in Dillon.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 Kegs get kicked, seasonals rotate and sometimes breweries close. Change is inevitable in the beer industry, but it\u2019s not always bad. Worth celebrating is the recent shuffling of staff at the Dillon Dam Brewery and Broken Compass Brewing.<\/p>\n

Patrons shouldn\u2019t fear the change either, as both local breweries will continue to brew and serve the same staples they know and love. <\/p>\n

Dillon Dam Brewery<\/strong><\/p>\n

After working at the Dillon Dam Brewery for 12 years, JJ Miles has taken the helm as head brewer and brewery manager. The Massachusetts native moved to Summit County from California in 1994. While making his initial trek west, his car actually broke down in Summit, and he decided to come back a year later.<\/p>\n

During the day, he\u2019d take care of his sons, Keenan and Finn, while his wife, Jen, worked, and then he would bartend at night in Frisco. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce my youngest kid was ready to go to preschool,\u201d Miles said, \u201cI needed to work somewhere in the day and decided to come to the Dam Brewery because they were always busy, and it looked like a great place to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miles started as a waiter, then transitioned to the bottling line and cleaned kegs. He became the assistant brewer six years ago when Cory Forster founded The Bakers\u2019 Brewery.<\/p>\n

A couple of Miles\u2019 favorite beers made during his tenure include the High Speed Quad, a cleverly named Belgian quadruple ale that references ski lifts, and the Spruce Tips India pale ale inspired by Christmas trees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got 22 years of brewery tradition here at the dam, and I hope to continue making the great beers and providing a full rainbow of all of the beers for all palates,\u201d Miles said.<\/p>\n

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Head brewer Mike Bennett poses for a photo at Broken Compass Brewing in Breckenridge.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Broken Compass Brewing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Miles replaced former head brewer Mike Bennett, who is now the head brewer at Broken Compass Brewing in Breckenridge. A Georgia transplant living in the county for 22 years, Bennett took the reins from Brandon Smith, who previously worked with owner Jason Ford at the taproom for three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a wide variety of interests, and I geek out on just about anything,\u201d Bennett said about his love of brewing. \u201cIt\u2019s a very eclectic occupation. It can be artistic, but it could be business, and it could be science.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fan of IPAs, Bennett is responsible for the brewery\u2019s popular Here\u2019s Your Dam IPA, various New England IPAs and other seasonal beers such as the Peach Hefeweizen and Farmhouse Blonde Ale.<\/p>\n

Though Bennett enjoyed his time at the Dam, he made the career switch to focus more on the brewing. Dillon Dam Brewery is a pub with a full kitchen and bar, but Broken Compass Brewing is only a taproom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you take (distribution) and the restaurant out of the equation, it\u2019s just focusing on the culture and creation of good beer,\u201d Bennett said.<\/p>\n

Like the Dam, Bennett wants to keep making a wide variety of beers to please the palates of his customers. The Coconut Porter and Ginger Pale Ale won\u2019t go anywhere, yet customers might see a few more IPAs pop up as well as a chocolate pumpkin beer currently in the works.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy playing around with different hops,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cEspecially these days, they\u2019re coming out with new variety of hops that give different qualities that you weren\u2019t able to get as much in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Brandon Smith, former head brewer at Broken Compass Brewing, stands inside Orange Hat Brewing Co. in Knoxville, Tennessee. Smith recently became the new head brewer at Orange Hat, which plans to open up this winter.<\/strong>
Courtesy Brandon Smith<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Orange Hat Brewing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Smith has moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, to join a brewery that is still under construction. Called Orange Hat Brewing, the brewery in the Hardin Valley area plans to open later this winter.<\/p>\n

Smith and his wife are originally from rural Kansas and wanted to return to a similar lifestyle offered by the new locale. He\u2019s lived in Colorado for about a decade, and before joining Broken Compass he spent time at Backcountry Brewery in Frisco, Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs, and he even made cider and kombucha for Big B\u2019s in Hotchkiss.<\/p>\n

Now, with a 15-month-old child of his own, Smith is excited to be at a community-oriented taproom. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith us having a young family, it\u2019s very cool to see that and help be a part of that,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt\u2019s kid friendly and everybody can show up with their families in a safe place, have a beer and meet friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also looking forward to craft easy-drinking lagers and pilsners like the ones he did at Broken Compass and take Summit County\u2019s collaborative nature with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the brotherhood of Colorado beer, and I\u2019m very excited to bring some of that to Tennessee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jefferson Geiger is the arts and entertainment editor for the Summit Daily News and managing editor for Everything Summit. Have a question about beer? Send him an email at <\/em>jgeiger@summitdaily.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Head brewer and brewery manager J.J. Miles flashes a smile while at work Friday, Oct. 4, at Dillon Dam Brewery in Dillon.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com FRISCO \u2014 Kegs get kicked, seasonals rotate and sometimes breweries close. Change is inevitable in the beer industry, but it\u2019s not always bad. Worth celebrating is the recent shuffling of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-800313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 03:05:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}