I had envisioned the path of a “World Cup Brewmaster” to be a rather folkloric journey, one following hundreds of years of family tradition or perhaps a laborious apprenticeship alongside a bacchanalian teacher. But Oliver’s road to accomplishment was entirely of his own making.

“I was wondering what to do with myself and bought this book called Unique Careers,” said Oliver, “and stopped when I got to ‘Brewmaster.’”

Soon thereafter, in 1995, he got his first job at “The Wharf Rat,” one of Baltimore’s best- known breweries – owned and operated by the Oliver family, with no known relation to Jason except for their shared kinship in beer-making. Oliver realized that his future potential was something to be taken seriously, and enrolled in the Professional Brewers Program at University of California, Davis – the only such program in North America accredited by the esteemed Institute of Brewing in London. After receiving his Master Brewer certification, he moved back east to work and stumbled across the opportunity at Devil’s on a brewing website forum. He communicated with brewery founder and owner Steve Crandall, and was invited to partner in the new venture.

“Part of what sealed the deal for me was finding out about the amazing equipment Steve was installing in the brewery,” said Oliver. “I knew I would have a lot to work with.”

Oliver led me into the backbone of the brewery and showed me the German-

engineered brewing system Crandall had purchased in Japan – a tall metal unit with an intimidating panel of dials, meters and buttons, stopping briefly along the way to give me a crash course in diatomaceous earth (DE) filtration. Climbing up to the brew kettles as we stepped over tubes leading into bubbling buckets of CO2 output, he explained that his beers use only natural carbonation, unlike “about ninety percent” of most beers made in the U.S. Suddenly Oliver seemed less chef, more mad scientist. He checked the kettles, lifting up rubber coverings that revealed glass gauges showing the color and body of the beer inside. I asked him how he could tell when a beer is “done.”