Meet Our BJ's Brewers | Award Winning Hand-Crafted Beers

After honing his brewing skills as a home brewer, Alex started his career as a craft brewer at some of the first brewpubs in Orange County and Los Angeles. He joined BJ’s when we built our first brewery in Brea in 1996. Alex has been a beer judge at the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup for three decades. With his wealth of experience, Alex has led BJ’s skilled and creative brewing team to excellence over 25 years, consistently earning prestigious awards for their world-class beers.

As Director of R&D for BJ’s in Boulder, Aaron has developed a loyal following among craft beer drinkers and fellow brewers in a city famous for its craft breweries. Aaron got his start with BJ’s in 2009 as head brewer for our original Boulder brewery on Pearl Street. When we relocated the restaurant to 29th Street Mall, Aaron assumed a vital role creating new BJ’s beers in a small brewery dedicated to R&D. Over the last 10 years, Aaron has developed many new beers to add to our seasonal beer lineup, while also designing exclusive small-batch beers for BJ’s Brewhouse Beer Club members.

Josh came to BJ’s from a Miller Brewing Co. in Ohio, where he was brewing and packaging team leader. Lucky for us, Josh began looking for opportunities in craft brewing after several years with MillerCoors. He joined BJ’s in 2014 to manage the startup and operations of our new production brewery in Temple, Texas, along with our existing production breweries in Temple, Reno, West Covina/Brea. Josh’s experience and skills in managing production in a large brewery have proven invaluable to our brewing team as we continue to expand brewing and packaging capacity to keep up with BJ’s restaurant growth and off-premise beer sales.

Oscar has quite a history as a brewer with BJ’s. He was originally hired as an assistant brewer when he was just 17 years old. Oscar gained experience as a young brewer in four of our Southern California breweries before his promotion to head brewer in Brea on his 21st birthday in 2005. Oscar then assumed the role of head brewer in West Covina in 2007. Today, he is still based in West Covina while also managing our sour beer production in Brea. Oscar’s beers have earned many awards, including gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup.

Brett got his start with BJ’s as a server and bartender at our restaurants in Tyler and Arbor Walk. A home brewer on the side, his passion for beer showed through in his work at our restaurants. When he learned we were opening a brewery in Temple, he made his interest known. He started as an assistant brewer in 2015 when brewery opened, and again his passion for beer was evident in how quickly and efficiently he learned every aspect of brewery operations. Just three years after starting in the brewery, he was promoted to head brewer.

Joe grew up in Arizona and began his brewing career at Uncle Bear’s Brewery. He started with BJ’s in 2016 as the head brewer in our Chandler brewery and flourished in this smaller production brewery, which primarily supplies beer to the six BJ’s restaurants in Arizona. When a vacancy opened in 2018 at BJ’s larger production brewery in Reno, Joe jumped at the chance to grow his skill set by managing a larger brewery—and to enjoy some awesome mountain biking.

Alex Tamboury attended brewing school in Southern California shortly after his enlistment in the Marine Corps. After graduating he and his wife moved to Texas where he managed the purchasing department at a home brew shop in Austin where he furthered his knowledge of the brewing process. In 2021 he started as an assistant brewer with BJ’s. Shortly after he was given the chance to further improve his brewing skills when he was promoted to Lead Brewer. 

Hugo Ramirez has been with BJ’s since 2009 in the Reno Nevada.  He has had wonderful mentors in the brewery industry so he has been able to grow and succeeded in his current position as a Lead Brewer. In 2012 he won Brewery Team Member of the Year. He has a wife and two beautiful girls. Family is everything to him. Hugo loves to exercise and always takes care of himself.