Meet the Team

Corey Minton

Each month, we sit down with a long-time member of the Rhinegeist squad. This month we shot the breeze with our hustling, jack-of-all-trades maintenance guru, Corey Minton.

What’s your spirit animal?

Coyote. They’re resourceful, they know how to hustle, and they’re not too good to eat stuff off the floor.

What’s your job?

Production Maintenance. I work on all the production equipment. Kegging, all the canning, the BrauKon, the JV system, also any new installations that we do in house, and electrical, to an extent. I do a lot of welding, I do some plumbing, a bit of everything.

How long have you been here?

I’ve been here since 2014- full time in maintenance for about a year and a half now.

How’d you end up here?

The original maintenance person called me up one day after he had gotten the job here. I was working at an IT place and he said, “you work in today?” I said, “no, I’m off”. And he’s like, “all right, well, get down to Rhinegeist, you work here now.” And so I showed up here. We had the old Cask canning line that used to be in the tap room, and this is back before we had the Paktech and before we had the depalletizer, so it was somebody sitting on a forklift, lifting the pallet of empty cans up and raking them off with a stick onto the conveyor belt and then we’d stand at the end of the canning line and snap all the Paktechs in.

Since you’ve been here since that point, how would you describe the changes you’ve seen?

It is almost a different place. Before it was kind of seat-of-your-pants scrambling a lot. The reason I work here at this point is mostly because nobody else knew the machines any better than I did and I was willing to work on them cause I tinker on stuff. So that’s kinda how I slipped into the job.

Is that something that you picked up, growing up or in your free time? That kind of tinkering, always fixing something.

Growing up, dad used to work at—well he still works at—a roofing mill, and he would come home and have tar all over him (they made shingles so everything was super dirty) and he would destroy whatever car he was in just by using it and being in it, so he always had a beater to drive back and forth to work in. We were constantly out in the garage working on it, and I just sort of picked up the trade.

What gets thrown your way since your hands are in so many pots? Is there a typical day?

It depends. If we have a big installation going, like when we were installing the Hopback, there were multiple days of us running the airlines and running the electrical and making sure all the wire trays were installed. That could be ongoing for days at a time. Other days it’s “there’s a leaky valve over here and a leaky pump over there.” Just chasing down odds and ends. There are also projects that get thrown our way. The sour world guys, they had a giant filter that was on three little toothpick legs and they’re like, “oh, we need it to roll.” I had to weld up a frame for it and put casters on the frame because the legs wouldn’t hold it by themselves. It’s a little bit of everything.

What’d you have for breakfast?

I do a protein shake, a banana, and some oatmeal.
*editor’s note: this is the most complete and confident answer to the breakfast question in the history of Meet the Team.*

Do you have a favorite Bagel topping?

Probably strawberry cream cheese.

Do you have a favorite Rhinegeist beer?

I gotta say Trips from our third anniversary party.

Similar question, If you were a Rhinegeist beer what would you be?

If I was a Rhinegeist beer, I’d like to think I’d be Café Ink. I like stouts, I like the hearty flavor of it. It’s dark but then the coffee is kind of like a comforting cozy kinda thing.

What’s the best part of your personality?

I fix stuff. There’s not an “oh well, I tried.” If it doesn’t work yet, we’re not done yet.

What do you do when you’re not at work?

I go outside, I like to go hiking, exercise, I like to lift. I box. I train with Zach, the Cincinnati Trainer. So I pay him to punch me in the head. *laughs*
I’m still restoring and building a 1988 Jeep Comanche. It’s been ongoing for longer than I care to admit.

Any TV show you’re currently watching?

I just finally got caught up on Game of Thrones. Also Westworld.

If you’re giving Cincinnati area food recs, what are you good to spots?

If you want Mexican food, go to Deli Gutierrez across the street from Wunderbar in Covington. It’s a little Mexican grocery store, but they sell burritos out of there. Get a chicken burrito. I won’t say life-altering, but it’s pretty close.

Is there anything about the brewery that you think people don’t know?

When you walk into a brewery, most of the time you see the shiny part, you see the tap room, you see the bright shiny tags and the brewers carrying sacks of grain. But you don’t see when a tank leaks, and there’s beer everywhere and you’re climbing a ladder and you’re covered. Or when you gotta work on the grain mill here. You walk out and you’re more dust than person. Behind the scenes is sometimes more interesting to see than the front of the house.

Anything on the horizon you’re looking forward to?

Boringly, I’m looking forward to selling my house and moving somewhere cooler. I’m also hoping for a rematch from last year’s Punch Out. I got a bone to pick with that dude. *laughs* Looking forward to doing some traveling with my girl, Sarah, and probably getting some more ink.

rhinegeist brewery meet the team corey minton
rhinegeist brewery meet the team corey mitton
rhinegeist brewery meet the team corey minton
rhinegeist brewery meet the team corey minton