Brewing Up a Boiling Pint

Wendy-Papadopolous

Introducing Wendy Papadopoulos and Big Tide Brewing

It is funny how life works. Sometimes you can connect the dots looking back and it all makes sense, but you would have never guessed where you would have ended up at the beginning of your journey. Wendy Papadopoulos is a great example of this.

Wendy is now the brew master at Big Tide Brewing, Saint John, New Brunswick first and only brew pub when it opened. Wendy got her start after finishing her undergraduate degree in microbiology and took her first post-university job as an assistant brew master in Canmore, Alberta. After ten years and progressing through the ranks at the brewery, Wendy returned to New Brunswick and took a job working in economic development, then communications, then investment attraction, and then small business support. Wendy even taught a university class on how to start a small business.

This path eventually brought her back to her passion for brewing beer at Big Tide. Check out this episode of Boiling Point to see how the collection of knowledge and experiences you have had can combine into your next big venture.

In this episode

  • Wendy surprises Greg and Dave with a growler of Tool Shed Root Porter.
  • We hear about the New Brunswick craft beer scene tends to view competitors as collaborators and how the scene has exploded over the last number of years.
  • There is a discussion how this collaborative environment may be a regionalized phenomenon.
  • We hear how a collection of ideas scribbled on a napkin turned into the multi-award winning Big Tide Brewing.
  • Wendy lets us in on her past and what lead her to the position she is at today.
  • We discuss how it is important for each Big Tide beer to have an interesting name, label, and story behind it.
  • Dave, Greg, and Wendy devise a plan to make the world’s first podcast beer, Boiling Point Ale.
  • Greg wishes he could have more beer, but needs to drive. He notes that listeners who have an entrepreneurial spirit, but might not have the ability to leave their day job can still get something started.
  • Dave noes that when you look back at your life you can start to see all of the knowledge and experience you have gathered and that is the fuel to starting your own potential business.