In the most reputable beer books, among pages and pages of information on brewing, tasting, and classifying beer, you’ll find the admission of fact that breweries nationwide already know: packaging beer can be the most difficult aspect of the entire production process. With that knowledge in mind, here at Zipline we entrust our precious brews to the hands of Adam Tiffany, our Packaging Manager, to ensure each batch gets safely tucked into bottles and kegs for your enjoyment.
An Electrical Engineering graduate of UNL, Adam began his engineering career long before he entered college. Constantly taking apart old VCRs, walkmans, and any other electrical device he could get his hands on, curiosity drove him to figure out how everything works. He puts this curiosity to work at Zipline seeking out the latest technology and improving efficiency on the bottling line.
“I wasn’t cut out for the desk world,” said Adam, and it’s a good thing, too. These days you’re more likely to find Adam wedged under our filling machine, learning yet another facet of what has become his crankiest co-worker. The hands-on nature of running the bottling line is a complete 180 from the design work he was doing before (to put it mildly). “I always wanted to be in the lab or doing something with my hands,” he noted about his previous job. Here at Zipline, his wish came true, with the bonus of working in a laid-back industry with a group of fun folks who care about each other.
A year into his role as Packaging Manager, Adam has already learned one of the best lessons of craft brewing: we’re all in this together. The team mentality within both Zipline and the entire craft brew industry makes all the difference for Adam, after years in a corporate engineering position. “It’s more genuine here, for sure,” he observed. His packaging team appreciates his supportive leadership and his commitment to quality. “It’s got to be perfect,” said Andy Pitsch regarding Adam’s expectations, explaining that Adam elevates the whole team to make sure everyone works at the highest level.
Outside of work, Adam stays sharp as member of a championship-winning darts team. He’s an avid reader, anxiously awaiting the big screen debut of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. When he has vacation days, he can be found hitting the slopes on his snowboard.
So next time you see Adam, be sure to thank him for taking such good care of your beer from tank to bottle, and maybe start a debate about Idris Elba as The Gunslinger.