A Legacy of His Own Crafting — Phil Markowski of Two Roads Brewing in Stratford, Connecticut

Phil Markowski feels typecast.

Despite his three decades in as a homebrewer and then professional brewer across the Northeast, his role as the brewmaster at one of the largest craft breweries in the country, and the impact he’s made leading one of the East Coast’s biggest contract brewing operations, he worries he’ll be remembered for just one thing: Farmhouse Ale.

In the early 2000s, Markowski—then a brewer at City Steam Brewery in Hartford, Connecticut—was asked by the publishing arm of trade organization Brewers Association to pen a book about Belgian Ales. He’d written a series of articles already for the group’s magazine, The New Brewer, and was looking for a bigger project. An editor suggested he’d be the right guy for a book about beer from Belgium. To prepare for writing his draft, he visited beloved Belgian breweries like Brasserie-Brouwerij Cantillon and Brouwerij Boon. When he returned with his research and reporting, his editors simplified his job, tapering the plan from the wide breadth of any ale from an epicenter of European beer culture.

“I went to Belgium and I got all the information I could at all of these breweries,” says Markowski. “And then when I got back to the States, they said, ‘You know what? Let’s just narrow it down to Farmhouse Ales.’”

In 2004, after 18 months of travel and research, his book “Farmhouse Ales: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition” was published. Along with its debut, Markowski had a Saison win “runner-up or best of show or something” in the 1989 American Homebrewers Association homebrew contest, which was held in Cincinnati. While he was technically a pro by then (City Steam was in the R&D phase), he had not yet brewed a commercial batch. The book and medal sealed his fate as craft beer’s resident Farmhouse Ale Guy, a moniker aided by “Farmhouse Ales” selling more than 25,000 copies in almost 20 years, inspiring plenty of amateur and pro brewers.

“Phil literally wrote the book on Farmhouse Ales.”

“Phil literally wrote the book on Farmhouse Ales,” says Tim Adams of Newcastle, Maine’s Oxbow Brewing Company, who specializes in the style. Adams says he was “enchanted” by Markowski’s historical guide, devouring the text ahead of starting Oxbow. He was inspired by the historical and technical writing that also included recipes and insights of brewers at California’s Russian River Brewing and The Lost Abbey.

“I wouldn’t mind if people were to tell me I taught them something other than a Farmhouse Ale,” Markowski admits about his legacy. “Maybe about a Lager or whatever, but somebody wrote a book about Abbey Ales and they’ve been assigned the ‘Abbey Ale Guy.’ You know, that’s just the way it goes.”

THE MAN BEHIND THE BOOK

In his Connecticut taproom, Markowski is seated at a high-top table, surrounded by barrels and fermentation vessels. The room is book-ended in a bar area with two refrigerators full of beers from Two Roads, which focuses on a variety of IPAs and traditional beer styles, as well as Area Two, a Two Roads spin-off that makes sour, barrel-aged, and experimental beers.

Markowski is bespectacled, tall, and lean. He is wearing jeans, a black quarter zip pullover, and a Two Roads flat cap. He leans forward as he speaks, often as he thinks about a question before launching into an answer. When speaking about his beers, he’s encyclopedic, remembering the nuance of each brew day or ingredient.

It’s a folly of humans to believe we define our own legacies. And even though there’s some self-deprecation for what he’s best known for, Markowski really does actually enjoy Farmhouse Ales, as a drinker and brewer. 

It’s born from romance in rusticity—each version of this beer style is wholly unique, whether batch-to-batch or made by another brewer down the road or across the state. Markowski takes this to heart, motivated by the blend of brewing science and artistic touch necessary to make a Farmhouse Ale stand out.

“I’m not a sweets person, I like dry [beers]. The fact that they were hard to find here, if not impossible, forced me to hone in on a recipe and to make them if I wanted [to drink] them.”

“Those beers appealed to my makeup,” he says. “I’m not a sweets person, I like dry [beers]. The fact that they were hard to find here, if not impossible, forced me to hone in on a recipe and to make them if I wanted [to drink] them.” 

The more he talks about what excites him and his taste buds, it’s clear how a nuanced style like Saison appeals to his sensibilities. He loves the science of brewing, technical know-how, and how yeast wraps it all together. Mastering a Saison marries it all.

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’

Markowski may be typecast, but his imprint on craft beer is wide-ranging. He’s been brewing professionally since George H.W. Bush was President of the United States, and his career has spanned not just multiple waves of craft breweries, but multiple waves of craft beer consumers. Two Roads CEO Brad Hittle calls Markowski one of the industry’s “pre-eminent” brewers. To peers, he’s a “brewer’s brewer.” 

The love affair began in graduate school, when Markowski was at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts in the mid-80s. First, he built an age-old collection among college students: Saving cans and bottles from breweries across the globe—bottles of Westvleteren and “some Kenyan Lager”—and showcasing them on a mantle. 

Once returning to his home state of Connecticut, he was working at a small electronics company in Meriden. Inspired by a British coworker, he began to brew on a small scale, and became a regular presence in the Northeast homebrew scene of the 1980s (whose other alumni include the likes of Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver and Tributary Brewing Company’s Tod Mott), traveling around the region to different competitions.

“It was first British ales followed by Belgian ales,” he says. “My motive was to brew styles I had in Europe but were hard or impossible to find in the US. It was also a personal goal to prove that I could faithfully replicate these classic styles.”

“My motive was to brew styles I had in Europe but were hard or impossible to find in the US. It was also a personal goal to prove that I could faithfully replicate these classic styles.”

In 1989, Markowski took his first job with City Steam Brewery in Hartford. He’s been on brew decks ever since—later for Southampton Publick House on Long Island, and then New England Beer Company in Woodbridge, Connecticut. In 2012, Markowski became the first employee at Stratford, Connecticut’s Two Roads Brewing Company, where he now holds the title of brewmaster—“or Master Brewer, whichever term you prefer,” he says.

“In the ’80s and well into the ’90s, and even maybe early 2000s, the United States was seen as the laughing stock of the beer world,” is how Markowski remembers the early days of his career. “There were for generations just macro Lagers, all very similar. And now, and it’s been true the past 10, 15 years or so, we’re influencing them. The American craft beer scene is the tastemaker of craft beer worldwide.” 

When Markowski started, though, it was the inverse.

“Us early craft brewers just looked up to the [Old World] brewers,” he says. “They were our idols, so to speak, or we studied those styles because they were interesting and new and different compared to going to buy a six-pack of Rolling Rock.”

Once he went pro, Markowski focused on faithfully recreating styles that he’d worked and re-worked as a homebrewer. He did so, though, with an aim toward what the consumer wanted, as opposed to what he thought they should be drinking.

“A commercial brewery is a business,” he says. “I’m of the opinion that a professional brewer doesn’t look to brew what he/she likes to drink but rather what styles stand the best chance of selling in quantity. Such decisions should be made by committee, not solely by the brewer, if the business is going to survive in the long term. If anything has been proven it’s that brewers need to shift with the times in order to ensure relevance and financial (business) success.” 

‘I DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING’

Housed inside a massive brick building off Route 95 in Stratford, the Two Roads campus is impressive. The main building hosts the bulk of the 180,000-barrel capacity, as well as a bar area with high top tables and a merchandise room. About three football fields away stands the Area Two Experimental Brewing tasting room, another state-of-the art facility opened in 2019 that houses barrels, stainless steel tanks, and stills. 

The sprawling collection of buildings, public spaces, and fermentation vessels is something of a rarity among American brewers, making Two Roads (along with Area Two) among the top-1% of American craft breweries by production size. Hittle credits Markowski for the expansive growth.

“What really sets him apart from a brewing perspective is his unique combination of being an engineer, having a chef’s palate and nose, and an amazing amount of brewing creativity.”

“What really sets him apart from a brewing perspective is his unique combination of being an engineer, having a chef’s palate and nose, and an amazing amount of brewing creativity,” says Hittle, who met Markowski in the early ‘90s. “Phil is the guy who designed a 200,000-barrel brewery without any experience by working with engineers from our equipment suppliers to come up with the optimal set-up.” 

The Two Roads brand shipped its first beers to the market a little more than ten years ago, and was a cornucopia of styles prevalent at the time: a Double IPA, White IPA, German Pilsner, and, of course, a Farmhouse-style Saison. These types of tap lists seem antiquated compared to  recent trends in beer that have leaned sweeter and juicier, but also more homogenous. This fact makes Markowski concerned that beer is at risk of reverting back to its former form.

“I just hope we don’t get to a point where we go back to being monolithic breweries cranking out the same style, but instead of being macro adjunct Lager, it’s a Hazy IPA.” His worry isn’t entirely misplaced—in trackable chain retail stores, at least, craft Lager styles have been stuck at about 9% of category volume share for years. IPA, meanwhile, has increased from about a quarter of share to more than a third in the last six years.

But Markowski isn’t a curmudgeon wanting for the days of yore to return. Two Roads is decidedly innovative and forward-thinking, both from a brewing and a business standpoint.

FROM BREWERY TO BEVERAGE COMPANY

In recent years, Two Roads has evolved more into a beverage company rather than just making beer, a sign of the times for many of the country’s long-tenured craft breweries. For the Connecticut business, that meant the creation of hard seltzers (H2ROADS), ready-to-drink  cocktails (Daybreaker), and spirits. These beyond beer brands make up a small percentage of total production—Daybreaker is just 4%—but all these beyond beer brands have shown combined growth, according to Hittle.

If nothing else, adding this diversity to the Two Roads menu is a way to keep Markowski sharp.

“I might be old, but I’m not a dinosaur,” he says. “You know, I’m always open to the idea of exploring new things, trying to learn myself, because you never learn it all.” 

“I might be old, but I’m not a dinosaur. You know, I’m always open to the idea of exploring new things, trying to learn myself, because you never learn it all.”

When the company announced the launch of H2ROADS hard seltzer in June 2019, it was after eight months of R&D focused on creating the most flavorful, natural version of the stuff, using only cane sugar and real fruit. It was another way Markowski proved his bonafides well beyond Farmhouse Ales, showing why he’s a leader amongst an industry in transition.

”To give you an idea of how talented Phil is,” says Hittle, “he taught himself how to distill and his first gin was rated 90 at last year’s Ultimate Spirits Challenge. I can’t wait to taste his barrel aged whiskey, bourbon, and rum in a few years when they are ready.”

Markowski admits that he no longer gets involved in day-to-day management at Two Roads and doesn’t have much interest in something like the purchase of new equipment, but he will use it. Retirement is not circled on any calendar, and just as he says he grew in the early years of Two Roads, he says he continues to grow as a brewer today. Markowski still writes recipes and, above all else, hosts a voracious appetite for learning.

“[I’m writing recipes] all the time,” he says, including a new Czech Pilsener and a 10% Stout made in collaboration with a local roastery. “The action of making beer keeps me around. And then the way it’s transformed by yeast into something completely different is still magical to me. I’m not bored of the process. I’m of the opinion that I’ll never get it right, that there’s always stuff to learn. There’s always ways to improve. And, unexpectedly, I am now distilling. I didn’t see that coming.”

Two Roads Distilling currently offers a London gin, vodka, and is in the process of producing an American single malt. Among the space at Area Two, Markowski can tinker with aging and blending his new products.

“Area Two was never solely farmhouse focused,” he says. “It was set up with an emphasis on barrel-soured beers but was always, in general, about pushing the boundaries of ‘beer.’ A refocus came post-pandemic and was largely in response to changing consumer preferences.”

On a cold, winter day in February, Markowski’s team was brewing an Italian cookie Stout. He admits that despite the breadth of beer styles he’s made and flavors he’s explored, “doing beers like Italian cookie stuff” was never on the radar.

“It’s not exactly what I expected myself to be doing,” he says of the “Italian cookie stuff,” but if that’s what customers are curious to drink, “that’s gonna fill this room,” he adds.

“I’m not going to be judgmental about it. We’re in a business, this is not a hobby,” Markowski says. “If I were still brewing as a hobby for myself, I could brew anything I want and that’s nobody’s business.”

That ethos has carried Markowski and Two Roads, which has capitalized on his skill, willing experimentation, and more recently, a venture into contract brewing, which puts Markowski’s storied understanding of brewing to work for other brands.

THE MYTH OF THE BREWER ON DECK

When Markowski was leading Southampton from 1996-2012, he faced the problem of needing to expand but having “no good place to go.” Larger facilities in the Northeast had the capabilities to recreate an American-style Lager, but none at the time could craft newer styles like New England IPAs. When he came to Two Roads in 2012, there was foresight to address the challenge Markowski faced at Southampton and also create financial wiggle room. With an enormous facility, welcoming regional brewers into Two Roads’ fermentation tanks seemed like a no-brainer.

“It’s overhead absorption,” he says. “We were up to 150 employees at one point. It’s a big overhead.”

With contract brewing written into the Two Roads business plan, the CEO and founding brewer of Vermont’s Lawson’s Finest Liquids took note. Sean Lawson built an excellent reputation, but he admits his beer held a “huge draw with far more demand” than he could supply to customers.

“Approaching Two Roads [about contract brewing] had a lot to do with Phil’s reputation as a brewmaster,” he says. “We had the same quality expectations. I found his approach similar to my approach. The set up was built and designed around scale and quantity, not flexibility.”

“Approaching Two Roads [about contract brewing] had a lot to do with Phil’s reputation as a brewmaster.”

Lawson’s Sip of Sunshine Double IPA as well as the brands Little Sip, Super Session, and their new Hazy IPA, Hazy Rays, are brewed at Two Roads, which allows Lawson and his brewing team to use capacity in Vermont for a variety of other brands and R&D.

Lawson’s contracted beers are available in nine states thanks to the arrangement and in 2022, Sip of Sunshine showed volume growth in trackable chain retail at time the entire craft category was almost -8%. This level of scale and scope is a far cry from the days of when drinkers had to make beer pilgrimages to a small shop to get a Lawson’s fix. 

The business reality of this arrangement may clash with the perceived image of the “craft” brewer, but makes sense, especially between Two Roads and Lawson’s. One company has plenty of space and another needs to off-load to a skilled and trusted brewer to care for brands that need to scale fast. Markowski notes a stigma that some professionals or beer enthusiasts may see from the arrangement, saying some even think it’s illegitimate for a craft brewery to make beer in this way. While Markowski admits there is “some truth to it” from his perspective, it’s not so black-and-white. Markowski’s team is able to deftly recreate a wide variety of styles—what he considers an artform in itself. 

“In truth, it often comes down to the individual contract partner’s involvement,” he says. “Some are more demanding than others as to how closely we need to replicate their brands compared to what may be produced elsewhere. After 10 years we know our system pretty well and can translate from a small scale to production-level rather seamlessly. If we can get samples of a customer’s beer prior to test brewing we can advise changes that would make it a closer match.” 

Lawson—along with plenty of others—are happy handing over the creation of beers to someone held in the esteem of Markowski, who’s been making Lawson’s Finest Liquids beers since 2014. “I wouldn’t have started the relationship if the quality wasn’t paramount,” Lawson says.

Two Roads partners with as many as a dozen craft breweries at any given time, and contract brewing accounts for half the total beer made at Two Roads’ campus. Markowski’s hope is that any issues people may hold over one facility making beer for another is receding. For those getting help making brands as a way to free up capacity, access better packaging equipment, or anything else, knowing their product is in the hands of Markowski and team is a benefit.

“There’s less of a stigma because places like Two Roads exist,” says Lawson. “They are  contract brewing very high quality craft beer and changing people’s opinions. Hopefully they have changed a few peoples minds. What matters most is the liquid inside the cans.”

A BREWER’S EVOLVING LIFE

Reflection on a lifespan in any profession will show just how a current can carve a distinct path to a destination. It is never linear, and rarely reflects a planned route. For Markowski, one day he was lining foreign beer bottles on a dorm room shelf. In what may feel like a blink, he’s learning how to distill gin in a massive brewery he helped build. But the lifetime in the middle has influenced countless others and helped built a country’s craft beer culture.

Markowski remains one of the stalwart brewers of an old guard. His brewing life has spanned the bulk of four decades, bringing with it trends that inflated and popped. Few people in the American beer industry have been a part of these changes like Markowski. From homebrewer to savvy veteran, his exploration of new beer styles and categories are a testament to his urge to learn, adapt, and always make the best product, whether beer or seltzer or gin. This level of commitment has left his reputation sterling, but his own reflections on what that means is a language he’s not totally comfortable speaking, so Hittle gave it a shot. 

“[Markowski] is one of the most eloquent and thoughtful beer-orators, and people become enraptured when he talks about our products,” he says. “But what I love most about Phil is his humbleness, sense of humor and being a family man. Nothing goes to his head, he is beloved by everyone at Two Roads, and we’d be nothing without his quiet leadership.

“I could go on and on about Phil, but I’ll conclude by saying he doesn’t get nearly enough credit as an OG American craft brewer, but he prefers it that way.”  

Words by Matt Osgood
Photos by Kat Manning