Ex Novo Hires Veteran Brewer Dave Chichura to Head Production Brewery

Portland's Ex Novo Brewing Company is in the midst of building out a second pizza pub in Beaverton, OR and has now added veteran brewer Dave Chichura to head their upcoming New Mexico-based production brewery. Read our initial story on Ex Novo's plans for second and third locations here. Ex Novo last Friday announced Dave Chichura as its head brewer, overseeing day to day brewing operations at its production brewery in Corrales, NM. Effective January 2, 2019, Dave will be joining founder Joel Gregory in New Mexico to help complete construction and brewery installation on its new system. He will be working alongside Ex Novo’s current Head Brewer Ryan Buxton, who will continue to oversee production and R&D in Portland, and consistency and QC in New Mexico.Dave’s Bio is below:I started brewing at home in 1994, a few years after discovering “real beer”: more enthusiasm than talent. My first job in a brewery was at the Rock Bottom in Indianapolis in 1996 where I learned the basics of how to operate brewpub equipment to make some decent beer sometimes. It was a new brewery, so I also got to help with install and startup, things I would end up doing numerous times in the future. A few years later I found myself in Kalamazoo at Bell’s, working as a shift brewer. Just a year there, before getting back into a brewpub, this time at Mountain Sun in Boulder, CO. I spent a little over two years there, once again helping to install a new brewery. I started at Oskar Blues in Lyons, CO in early 2005 and worked there until September 2013 as head brewer for 8 years. I was there for a large portion of OB’s growth: from 5,000 to nearly 100,000 bbls; from one brewery in one state to three breweries in two states. A relatively brief stint at Eddyline Brewing in Buena Vista, CO was followed by about four years at Melvin Brewing, where I was Head Brewer/Brewing Director depending on whom you asked. I scaled up recipes from 3 bbls to 30 bbls, helped with many facets of layout, equipment selection and installation, hiring, etc. It was an intense four years, going from a flat piece of land to a mid-size regional craft brewery producing over 20,000 bbls per year.“We are really excited to add Dave to the Ex Novo family and have him anchor our crew here in New Mexico. We were definitely looking for someone with significant production leadership experience, and I’m not sure there’s many people out there with better experience than Dave. Perhaps even more importantly, Dave is a quality human being, and will be a really good fit with our team.”- Joel Gregory, Founder