Kyle Hurst, Big aLICe Brewing
Kyle Hurst is an owner and co-founder of Big aLICe Brewing Company, which opened in 2013 as a very small production facility (15 gal) in Long Island City, Queens, added barrel-aging location with additional taproom in Industry City, Brooklyn in 2019, and expanded to New York’s Finger Lakes region in 2021 adding a 15 bbl production facility and taproom in Geneva, NY.
In 2022, Big aLICe moved all of its production to the Finger Lakes location in Geneva.
In addition to his daily duties and responsibilities with Big aLICe, Kyle has been very active in the New York brewery scene. He served on the board of the New York City Brewing Guild (NYCBG) from 2015-2019 and was board Vice President from 2016-2019. In that time, NYCBG membership more than doubled and grew in profitability.
Kyle began homebrewing in the late 1990s while living in his home state of Wisconsin. In 2008, Kyle moved to New York, where he continued his enthusiasm for homebrewing which eventually led to the founding of Big aLICe in late 2011, one of the first farm breweries in New York State. The brewery began production in 2013, starting out with manufacturing beer only to satisfy subscriber orders. Because of increasing popularity, evident from the growing waiting list for subscribers, Big aLICe significantly increased its production capacity in 2014 to 5 bbls and opened its Long Island City taproom.
The Big aLICe production team has received a number of awards for their beers, including GABF Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the year in 2020 and the Governor’s Cup for “Best in Show “in the 2020 New York State Craft Beer Competition.
Since inception and continuing through to today, Big aLICe has incorporated local and diverse ingredients into their beers specifically from New York farmers, maltsters and other local businesses. It is through these choices and others that Big aLICe has made a conscious choice to support local agriculture and even includes the mantra “Agriculturally Focused” on its crest.
Micah Krichinsky – Strangebird Brewing
With his formal education in microbiology and biochemistry, Micah brings an astute scientific background to brewing. After interning at the District Chophouse Brewery in Washington, DC during graduate school, he knew he wanted to become a brewer. After grad school, he got a job at Capitol City Brewing Company in Washington, DC. Micah left Cap City to attend the Master Brewer’s program at U.C. Davis. He was recruited to work at Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware, while at U.C. Davis. Micah was a brewer at Dogfish Head for five years.
The craft beer market is more mature now, forcing craft breweries to step up our game in QAQC. If elected to this position, Micah will use the platform to emphasize the importance of quality to member breweries with an eye towards efficiency and cost savings. Micah will continue to promote the quality beer currently being produced in the W-Central Region.