A conversation with Brie Devlin, the new executive director of the Brewers Guild of New Jersey, about her role and the Guild’s plans to expand New Jersey’s craft beer culture.

The first brewery in New Jersey was opened by a Dutch settler, Aert Tewisson Van Patten, in 1641, in what is now Hoboken. This first craft beer venture was short-lived: Two years later, the brewery burnt down, and Van Patten was killed amidst a series of skirmishes with the local Leni Lenape tribes.

Almost 400 years later, the craft beer industry in the state stands at around 160 breweries and brewpubs. While not faced with the dangers Van Patten encountered, challenges to business survival abound. Increasing costs, regulatory hurdles, and a general reduction in beer consumption have all created an uncertain environment. There exists, however, the Brewers Guild of New Jersey (BGNJ), and newly in charge Executive Director Brie Devlin has wasted no time in trying to help the members navigate the perilous terrain and advance the industry’s collective profile.

The BGNJ was founded in 2018 by a member of the New Jersey Brewers Association. This splintering off was because of conflicting focuses in the membership, though the two groups came together to jointly lobby the state in 2024 to help secure legislation critical to the survival of many operations. A proposed bill eased restrictions on breweries’ ability to host events, and once the bill was signed, the two groups merged.

In January 2025, the Brewers Guild board announced the hiring of Devlin as executive director. Meeting her shortly after she took over the position and hearing some of what she already hoped to enact, such as the first New Jersey Craft Beer Week in July and the first New Jersey Beer Conference in October, I invited her to sit down for a conversation with Edible Jersey. Devlin discussed her position, the Guild, and the state, and the condition of New Jersey’s beer industry.

EDIBLE JERSEY: Before we get into your new role, let’s talk about how you came to be in New Jersey and then got into beer.

BRIE DEVLIN: I knew you were going to ask about me, but not that much! [laughter] I was born in Queens, and we moved to Florida when I was 9. We were going to move again, and I was entering my senior year of high school, but being able to do the last year virtually, my mother agreed that I could move to New Jersey to live with my sister.

EJ: What led you to beer as a profession?

BD: I started working in a restaurant as a server and then a bartender. They had two local beers on tap, both from Magnify Brewing (in Fairfield).

EJ: That’s a good one for an introduction to New Jersey beer.

BD: Yes, and it was the first time I had heard of craft beer. At that age, beer is beer, right? The Budweiser that your friend’s dad liked was beer to me. The first two styles I remember being aware of were a saison and a session IPA.

After a few years, I realized if I stayed working in restaurants, that would be my path, and I didn’t see myself doing that. A friend told me about an opportunity at a pretty new microbrewery, Czig Meister Brewing in Hackettstown. I applied and nothing came of it until I got a text one day while working at the restaurant asking if I could come in and help cover a shift that night—a Friday, at 5pm. I was free and said I’d be there at 4:45. Three months later, I was the taproom manager and eventually took on and expanded the marketing and events roles.

EJ: It wasn’t the first time working directly in craft beer crossed your mind.

BD: I was 19 or 20, and the father of my co-worker’s boyfriend owned Cricket Hill Brewing (also in Fairfield), and it’s funny to say this having worked for breweries and now representing them: I thought it would be so cool to own a brewery. Little did I know then what that took, and little did I know I’d eventually do just about everything else in the craft beer industry.

EJ: The merger happened in January 2024, and they eventually decide to bring in a full-time executive director.

BD: I had volunteered for two Guild committees, Marketing and Bylaws, but had to step back because I was busy with my work at Czig Meister and starting my own marketing company (Something Good, helping small food and beverage businesses). Scott Wells of Bolero Snort Brewery (in Carlstadt), the president of the Guild, called to gauge my interest. I had conversations with him and other board members, spent a lot of time considering it, and decided to accept the position. I was feeling a bit of imposter syndrome, but my boyfriend, who also works in the industry, encouraged me. An opportunity at my age to have that title with these responsibilities was too good to pass up.

EJ: Why do you think the BGNJ approached you, and how does that translate to representing breweries in New Jersey?

BD: I am here to represent all the breweries and the people within them. Those are the people we need to harbor, the future of the industry. As a 29-year-old woman, I represent younger people and women, both groups playing a big role in the industry here. I have held almost every position one can have, excluding ownership. I have been a bartender, a taproom manager, an employee—a frustrated employee, at times. I have done marketing, administration, and I understand brewing. And I am also a consumer.

You need that different set of views, different set of eyes, because most people are only focused on one view, and it’s New Jersey and no one wants to give in. [laughter]

EJ: You are less than a year in. How’s it going?

BD: I started in January and had a good sense already of what was being done and what wasn’t. I also had an excellent resource in (one-time Executive Director) Alexis Degan. She was the person who was instrumental in merging the two organizations, too. Without her, I am not in this position.

Much of the time has been spent reaching out to Guild members and organizing two big first-time events: New Jersey Craft Beer Week, which was in mid-July, and the New Jersey Beer Conference, which will be held in October.

EJ: Having been actively involved in the first Garden State Wine Expo last year and seeing the success of that, this sounds really exciting. And I do plan to attend. What are some of the details?

BD: Originally, they wanted it to be in February, the month after I started and, well, that wasn’t happening. Then they said they were hoping to have 50 people attend.

EJ: That sounds more like a happy hour. [laughter]

BD: We engaged a conference-planning company since it is our first one, and there are a lot of details in putting this together, especially a first time. It will be held in Hackensack, October 13–15. A two-day conference with a kick-off party the night before for members of the industry. There will be panel discussions and an education focus. Really, it is for our members and people who work in the trade and will be a great way to show New Jersey is finally a unified state for craft beer.

EJ: But some people think there are too many breweries in the state and point to the closing of some higher-profile ones as proof. What’s the state of the state?

BD: There are ones opening, too. It is a concern, but the fact is New Jersey ranks ninth of all the states in craft breweries per capita. With the resolution of the legislative issues for now, we need to turn toward getting more people into the breweries. Only 3 percent of the beer consumed in the state is made here. We need to take care of and develop the people working in the industry.

I have always made my mission, and what I’m really hoping to bring to the state, is that beer is for everyone. It should be for everyone. To do that, we have to create a New Jersey craft beer culture. There is a general craft beer culture, and the individual breweries have their own cultures and personalities. The one thing I think that has been lacking is a unified culture of the craft beer industry in the state. There hasn’t been a voice to what beer in our state is and can be.

EJ: Last question—what’s your favorite beer style?

BD: This is actually a pretty easy question for me. My favorite, and I will order it every time I see it, is schwarzbier, or black lager. I can crush a lager. Schwarzbiers have my heart.

Learn more at brewersguildnj.com