Who are we? We are a bunch of guys that like fancy titles, that’s who we are. Beyond that we’re professors, pastors (yes, we have two of them), students, doctors, financial planners, lawyers, interns, students…. We’re brewers. Below are a list of our officers for 2011-2012. Please feel free to contact any of us. We would love to hear from you.
Jeremy Kees, Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
(kees@mainlinebrewers.com) (personal website)
Jeremy Kees became the inaugural leader of the MLBA when other founding members voted him such when he excused himself to grab another beer at the first meeting (i.e., nobody else wanted the position). His brews have scored well in area competitions, most recently winning awards at the War of the Worts and the Stoney Creek Homebrewers Amateur Brewing Championship. He is an official Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) judge.
When Kees is not brewing, drinking, or judging beer he is usually playing basketball. His accomplishments on the hardwood include being a 1,000 point scorer for the Bruins of Belmont University, leading the faculty/staff team to a Villanova intramural championship, and coaching his son’s basketball team.
Kees resides in Rosemont, PA with his loving wife, two young children, and beagle.
Rev. Matthew Pieters
Chief Communications Officer and Vice President of Public Relations
Matthew Meyer Pieters developed a love for beer in Bavaria at the age of 10 when he tried his first beer in a bier tent out of a 1 L stein while eating bratwurst on a freshly baked German roll. A son of both Belgian and German immigrants brewing beer and enjoying quality beer is in his DNA. Interestingly enough, he didn’t start brewing until he was in graduate school for theology in 1998-02, where his classmates and professors introduced him to the joy of home brewing. Upon brewing his first beer, a Belgian Abby Double with raisins and spices, Matthew exclaimed, “I have come home and I know that God loves me!” Understanding his family linage, his travels as a youth, and his interests in both theology and those men who devoted their lives to Christian brewing, it is obvious why this was and has continued to be the expression of his soul with every sip of finely brewed beer.
Matthew has served as a Pastor since his graduation from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and is an ordained Minister the Presbyterian Church in America. His hobbies include brewing, culinary arts, hiking, running, reading, and watching quality films. Matthew resides in Havertown with his beautiful wife, Lisa Pieters and their two children, Annika Joy, and Christian Gabriel.
Tanu Happonen
Chief Financial Officer
Jeremy Johnson, M.Div.
Vice President of Marketing
Jeremy Johnson has a deep and abiding love for Philadelphia Sports, a robust appreciation for College Football, an impressive background in the Social Sciences from his time of study at Baylor University, and a quirky obsession with the Golden Ratio. Despite, a keen appreciation for the finer things in life and excelling at catching inferior species with a stick and line, he is often misunderstood as being both simplistic and primitive. He doesn’t particularly enjoy long walks on the beach, but could be persuaded to endure one if coaxed with the promise of a free burger and beer.
He recently retired from playing Club Rugby after stumbling upon groundbreaking research out of the University of Alaska Anchorage which found a strong statistical correlation between playing Rugby and suffering high levels of physical pain. A subset of the data also seemed to indicate that there was indeed a positive statistical relationship between brewing beer and experiencing high levels of social interaction with other dudes. As a self-proclaimed Social Scientist, Johnson had no choice but to drastically alter his lifestyle. He now resides in Villanova, Pa and is developing a user-friendly curriculum for his up-and-coming Life Coaching Firm.
Dr. Shawn White
Vice President of Scientific Quality Control
Jeff Ney
Vice President of Gastronomic Excellence and Chief Tasting Operations
Jeff Ney is a man proud to be described in 2 four-letter words…”Beer Snob”. Hence the fancy title with MLBA. He was never much of a beer drinker before “micro-brews”, “craft brews”, or worthwhile imports came into being. Jeff boasts as having had his 1st beer some 15 years ago, when he came upon Chimay Grande Reserve (Blue). Sharing a love of Belgian ales with Rev. Matthew Pieters (see above), Jeff & Matt started brewing a few years ago. Their 1st attempt, together, at a cloned home brew was, in fact, Chimay Blue, which, in a side-by-side taste with the real thing, it was nearly indistinguishable! Matt did most of the work, but Jeff still takes some of the acclaim for its wondrous taste.
This past June Jeff took beer tasting to a new level in Brussels, Belgium. Needless to say, he is more snobbish than ever. We still adore him, though, because he serves us extraordinary libations at the Ney Palatial Estate, and gives us the ‘skinny’ on our own brew creations. Jeff lives by a Proverb which states…’He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.’ Judging from the size of him, one would say he has been refreshed many times. Mistaken for being everything from a Sumo wrestler to a Sherpa, he was more recently mistaken for a rugby player in Belgium. Fact is he had to ask ‘JJ’ (read bio above) to explain the rules. He was, conversely, crucial to the “Anchorage Study”, who solicited his expertise on the sinister enjoyment of violent sporting events.
So, the meat & potatoes of Jeff Ney is that the meat and potatoes matter, but, if full, skip the potatoes, and have another ‘real’ beer! If you don’t know what real beer is, join MLBA. If you’re a drunken mocker or brawler, you probably don’t like good beer anyway (hint…“it’s why you’re so angry”), so don’t bother joining.
God Bless Belgian Monks everywhere!
(None of the aforementioned fabrications of Jeff Ney’s bio have been, as yet, inaccurately falsified; nor unproven to be reasonably questionable.)
Jason Kurth, Esq.
Chief Legal Counsel
Inventory Control and Research Fellow