Meet Ben Estes
Head Brewer
Ben Estes is a chemist, a brewer, and a yeast whisperer.
Estes grew up on a horse farm in Central New York and from a young age was taught valuable lessons in hard work and the effort it takes to grow agricultural products. Even as a young man, fermentation was in his blood, as he would help his father pick and press homegrown apples to make cider, wine, and vinegar.
Ben started home brewing while in graduate school at SUNY ESF in Syracuse, NY, and quickly became obsessed with brewing science. In 2009 he started working part time at a local brewery while finishing his thesis. Upon completion of his masters in bio chemistry, Estes started full time at Cortland Beer Company and soon worked his way up to head brewer, winning silver medal at Tap NY for Cortland Beer’s bourbon barrel old ale. His time spent at Cortland Beer furthered his yeast management skills as it was common place to have multiple house yeast strains going while propagating new strains for future batches. Ben also started brewing light lagers before it was cool, for the very thirsty SUNY Cortland college students who needed something on the lighter side (in 2012 it was uncommon for a small microbrewery to brew a 4.2%, 110 calorie light lager).
In 2015 he and his wife moved to Rhode Island, where she worked at Johnson & Wales University and Ben started with The Guild in Pawtucket as the brewing associate of laboratory and cellar operations. At the Guild he worked in collaboration with several breweries including Narraganset, Night Shift, and Peak Organic. He also brewed many popular beers for the tasting room on the pilot system, as well as managed the barrel aging program.
Most recently, Ben hails from Proclamation Ale Company in Warwick where his role as technical manager supported the growth of their distribution portfolio, as well as revamped their yeast program and streamlined cellaring techniques to allow for more production of lagers and other beer styles. Estes also was able to play around in the sour room, growing up wild cultures for the Oakville program, brewing up some tasty wild ales.
Ben is excited to be part of the growing and enthusiastic team at Moniker Brewing Company as the Head Brewer in the West Side of Providence, which has seen an insurgence of breweries and beer halls pop up in the past few years. He is thrilled with the opportunity to use all of the brewery knowledge and science he has learned over the years to make some truly great beer for Moniker’s patrons. His brewing specialties include pilsners, but he can brew some fantastic IPAs and Sours as well.
