Yankee Brew News Archive

New England Beer People: Redbones Cellarman Paul Yeghiayan

Originally Published: 08/97

By: Kerry J. Byrne

Little more than a year ago, Paul Yeghiayan was studying for a master's degree in public administration in the Pacific Northwest. Today he finds himself firmly entrenched in Somerville, Massachusetts, as the first cellarman at Redbones, one of New England's premier restaurants for good beer. A common job in England where numerous pubs serve real ale, the cellarman, who prepares the beer for serving and ensures its proper care and handling, is a rarity in the United States.

Yeghiayan, 28, a native of Olympia, Washington, hopes to bring the beer selection at Redbones "to the next level." Recently he took time out of his busy schedule of ordering beer, serving beer and tasting beer to speak with Yankee Brew News.

YBN: If you were to drown in a vat of beer, what would you prefer it to be?

PY: I would want to drown in Hoegaarden. It's the tastiest white beer in the world. We're trying to get it in keg right now. We're trying to work out a deal to see what we can do about getting it here.

YBN: What brings a Northwest guy like yourself to the Athens of America, or to Somerville anyway?

PY: I came out here because a friend of mine that helped start the beer program at Redbones told me they needed somebody to take it full time and take it to the next level. I came out here, cultivated the relationships I needed to and they hired me.

It's been a learning process since then. Every day I learn something new talking to brewers and other beer people.

Boston is like Seattle in a lot of ways, so it's been sort of an easy transition for me to come out here. And hell, how many jobs do you get to drink on the job. I've got a great job. I drink world-class beer because that's what I'm supposed to do. There's a lot of worse jobs.

YBN: There's a lot of good beer bars in the Boston area, what makes Redbones different?

PY: The fact that we do heavy rotations on our beer lines. We develop a lot of relationships with brewers, overseas and locally, and try to get a lot of beer nobody else can get. We try to build future pathways for other beers to come here that aren't necessarily mainstream.

At Redbones you're pretty much guaranteed that the beer will be fresh. We're pretty strict about not having too many (draft) lines. I have no reluctance about returning beers that aren't up to satisfaction.

YBN: You said you're not trained as a cellarman in the traditional British sense.

PY: Most of my cellarman training so far has come through Commonwealth (Brewing Company) and the Tremont (Atlantic Coast Brewing Company) guys. At the last cask beer festival we had (in late June) we flew over four cellar masters from England. One, they were going to bring the beer, and two, they helped train me so I can learn more about cellaring in general. Redbones is sending me to the Great British Beer Festival in August to work there as a cellarman for a week. That will help consummate a lot of my training. That plus learning the regular CAMRA (British Campaign for Real Ale) techniques in their manuals.

YBN: How did you develop your appreciation of good beer?

PY: Let's see...my appreciation developed back in the Northwest around 1984 or 85 when, essentially, the micro revolution exploded over there. I was just starting college at the time and seemed like every bar over there had 180 you could get. We went out and tried every beer we could. As my income increased I could afford better beers. I was fortunate when out there because of guys like Redhook, Hart breweries and Pyramid. I was very, very spoiled.

YBN: How do the beers of the Left Coast compare to those here?

PY: In general, the beers from the Northwest are a lot hoppier than they are here. In general the hop profile of most beers is much higher than what we've got here. It's definitely initially in the aromatics, but I definitely think also that in the finish you really get a lasting hop flavor in a lot of the Northwest beers that you don't get here.

Here the beers are very smooth, but much more in the English style; a lot more mild. I think beers in the Northwest are much more aggressive and would probably appeal to a much smaller segment of beer consumers because most haven't developed an appreciation for that profile. But I think that's changing.

YBN: What efforts will you make to insure the quality of beers served at Redbones?

PY: I'm always insuring that the beer lines are cleaned. That's critical.

When ordering beers, particularly imports, I want to know dates: When did it come in? When was it produced? What type of facility was it stored in? Was it sitting on an airport tarmac in 95 degrees or has it been kept cold the whole time? Temperature fluctuations are a big deal.

We're always trying to get the smallest container possible just because we'll go through it faster. If I see beer sitting there for a while we'll pull it off line. We don't usually have a problem with that, but once in a while. If it doesn't move, it's gone - particularly for foreign beers. We spend a lot of money for those, four times the price of normal beer, so it's worth it for us. Our primary goal is to provide the consumer exposure to as many beers as possible.

YBN: Amidst all the great beer Redbones serves is an anomaly: Pabst Blue Ribbon on draft. Did Redbones lose a bet with the Gods of Cheap Beer?

PY: One reason we decided to carry PBR is it's a great American beer, a great American lager. We try not to be pretentious about beer and about judging people's tastes. We have a wide variety of beer consumers that like a wide variety of beer. Our job is to have what they want to consume.

Pabst has a great history. A lot of people remember their grandparents drinking it. It's a very refreshing beer. A lot of people like drinking it, and it's a nice counterbalance to the Belgian ales and more flavorful local ales we carry. And sometimes people just want it. I don't know anyone else in town who has Pabst on draft.

Plus in a small way we did it as kind of a joke, to see what kind of reaction it would get. But mostly we did it because people like it and we want to carry what people like... and it's a great American beer. Is it the best in the world? Probably not. But if you don't like it, don't drink it.

YBN: Are you afraid of dying young of heart disease due to the massive consumption of Arkansas ribs, Texas ribs, Memphis ribs and baby back ribs that likely comes with working at Redbones?

PY: I'm actually moderate in my diet here. It's excellent food, but I definitely realize my limitations and like to get as much variety as I can with my beer and food. Got to watch the figure there.

But, oh yeah, sometimes it's tough. It definitely is. I might get sick of looking at all that food, but you smell those ribs and say "Oh boy, that's good!" and before you know it you might have downed a couple of them.

YBN: Isn't beer the true opiate of the masses, not religion as Marx would have us believe?

PY: Well, beer certainly helps.