Meet Zach Miller, a Quality Lab Technician here at Victory Brewing Company.
Q: How long have you worked for Victory?
A: 7 months
Q: Describe for us what you really do here at Victory.
A: I propagate the yeast and do microbiological assessment of beer from the very beginning stages of production to when it is packaged, which means I make sure the beer that is shipped to the consumer is of the highest quality. Also taste testing.
Q: What is the coolest thing about your job?
A: Taking yeast from a very small culture and propagating it to a size large enough to ferment a beer, that’s the most interesting part of my job.
Q: How big is the yeast when you start?
A: It’s about a big as the tip of the pen. I take it from the size of a tip of a pen to a volume big enough to fill up 17 and a half kegs.
Q: How do you do that?
A: It’s increments of adding hopped wort to the yeast, and letting it multiply. Basically, I feed it, and it grows.
Q: What is the worst job you’ve ever had?
A: I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad job, just a lot of experiences that told me what I didn’t want to do with the rest of my life. Frying chicken, for example. Also motorcycle assembly.
Q: Tell us something about yourself that no one would know just by looking at you.
A: I own exactly 70 different pairs of Nikes and Air Jordans.
Q: Do you wear them?
A: Not all of them. When I worked in college, when I would get paid I would spend my money on two things — shoes and beer. So I make one a profession and one a hobby. Shoe collecting is my hobby.
Q: Do you display them?
A: No. Most of them I just have shoved away in my closed, but a couple of the really good custom ones I bring out every once and a while just to look at.
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I always wanted to be an orthodontist. I had a really good orthodontist as a kid, and from that point on I always wanted to be one. But then got to college . . . and beer. Things changed and I decided just to join the workforce right after college.
Q: Now that you’re an adult, what do you want to be when you grow up?
A: That’s a tough question because I’ve never really been one to make plans, but I always thought a senior PGA tour player would be a good gig. Even though I’m not really good at golf, I just want to have the time to play golf.
Q: Finish this sentence. Beer is . . .
A: Something that should be in my hand right now. Something that is mysteriously absent from my hand.
Q: What’s your favorite candy?
A: Nobody lays a finger on my Butterfinger!
Q: When you were a kid, after finishing trick-or-treating on Halloween, what candy would you trade away to your friends?
A: If anyone gave out fruit, that was number one to go. Also anything with caramel.
Q: What is your favorite TV show?
A: Currently I would have to say “The League on FX.”
Q: Are there any movies that you will always watch when they come on television?
A: “Death Race” with Jason Statham. I have an unhealthy obsession with that movie. It’s so bad but it’s so good.
Q: What is your favorite Victory beer and food pairing?
A: I think a jerk grinder and HopDevil. The hops really accentuate the spiciness of the jerk seasoning.
Q: They’re making a movie about your life, and it starts filming tomorrow. Who is cast as you, and who is cast as your love interest?
A: Daniel Craig and Daniel Craig. No, Daniel Craig and Scarlett Johansson. I love Scarlett. I also have such a man-crush on Daniel Craig.
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