Own your beer.
The Full Barrel Cooperative’s aim is to establish a community-owned brewery in Burlington, Vermont. We aim to create a hub where diverse community members and groups can meet, share ideas, and organize to continuously improve our collective lives. Inspired in part by the success of Black Star in Austin, TX, we legally incorporated as a co-op in February, 2015, and since then have almost doubled our membership. Our growing community is currently in the process of recruiting members and volunteers, compiling ideas, securing Real Estate, holding informational meetings and parties, and of course, brewing and drinking excellent beer!
We appreciate and encourage any help spreading the word about this fun and fabulous endeavor; please feel free to view/download/print/share/insta-/snap/post our quicklook document.
JOIN our COOPerative!
If you want to get involved, become a member (and like us on Facebook)!
Matt Cropp, President (Term to 2020)
He/Him/His
Matt is an all around co-op geek who loves good beer. His day-job is as Co-Executive Director of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center, which educates and supports business owners considering exiting their business to employee-ownership. He’s also involved with a variety of projects in the co-op movement, including as Chair of the Vermont Solidarity Investing Club, which invests exclusively in cooperatives. His interest in co-ops was sparked by learning about credit unions during the 2008 Financial Crisis, and he subsequently wrote his History M.A. thesis on the founding and first 25 years of the Vermont State Employees Credit Union (now VSECU). Matt lives in the New North End of Burlington with his partner Allison and their rabbits Coady and Harry.
Eric LaMontagne, Vice PresidenT (term to 2022)
Eric grew up in the Upper Valley area of Vermont, and moved to the big city of Burlington for school. He never left. He is a man of many hats. Following 7 years in the non-profit development world, he recently started a company for the purpose of helping facilitate strong community partnerships between for-profit businesses and non-profit organizations. He is also the Executive Director of Campaign for Vermont, a non-partisan advocacy organization focusing state wide on their Three E’s of Prosperity - Education, Ethics, and Economics. Additionally, Eric works with the crew at Groennfell Meadery and Havoc Mead in Colchester. For fun you can usually find Eric (and often his dog Joules) somewhere outside, either fishing, hunting, kayaking, or hiking.
Jessica Avison, Secretary (Term to 2021)
She/Her/Hers
Jessica made her way to the Green Mountain State from Maryland in 2008 to attend the University of Vermont. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Studio Art. After college she served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member with Mobius the Mentoring Movement and worked to increase public awareness for local mentoring programs. Along the way she has also worked with various nonprofits, including the Intervale Center and Food4Farmers, to assist with event planning, branding, and the creation of print materials.
Having found a home in Vermont, Jess loves to share our great state with anyone who cares to listen. In her day job, she works in tourism and hospitality management and strives to connect guests with all the best Vermont has to offer- it's beautiful landscapes, great food, and of course amazing craft beer. When she's not on the clock, she likes to get outside and discover all of Vermont’s nooks and crannies, by land and by lake, with her partner Trevor and pup Juniper. She is excited to work with co-op members to connect brewers, beer lovers, and the community in an impactful (and delicious) way.
David Smith, Treasurer (term to 2022)
David has lived in Chimney Corners for 20 years and operates his business MacKenzie Smith, Inc.dba FullColorCoasters.com from there. He has been self-employed in B2B since the 1970's and has been involved in all areas of operating a small business. Since moving to Vermont from Maryland in 1984, he has primarily been in the promotional products business and has worked with craft brewers since Vermont Pub & Brewery opened in 1988. Since 2012, his business has been focused exclusively on organizing group production runs with craft brewers nationwide and in Canada of full-color coasters and other brewery promotional items. Now with a staff of 4, he spends much of his time interacting with nearly 1,000 craft brewers and distillers, picking up tidbits of what makes a craft brewery successful.
Windy Jones, Jester (term to 2020)
He/Him/His
Windy grew up in California and moved to Seattle, WA in 1993. He worked in the computer/tech industry until his recent retirement. He and his wife fell in love with the Burlington area after visiting Vermont several times on vacation, and decided to make it their retirement home last year. They are settling in and really enjoying life here!
Tasting nano brewery beers, very popular in the Pacific Northwest, sharpened Windy’s interest and changed his outlook on the brewing industry. 11 years of brewing on his all grain home system and designing and building his own eight-tap kegerator, have resulted in many successful and occasionally interesting homebrew batches and adventures. He has also been researching starting his own nano brewery, attending American Homebrewers Association (AHA) meetings, reading beer informational articles, studying recipes, and listening to relevant podcasts. Windy is eager to take advantage of all the opportunities the craft beer industry has to offer in the state of Vermont, and is looking forward to working with all the co-op members. He enjoys sharing his craft brewing experience with everyone.
Laura Jacoby
Laura grew up in Vermont and remembers when the Vermont Pub and Brewery opened and Long Trail Ale hit the shelves in 1988 and1989 respectively; we have come a looong way since then. She left Vermont shortly thereafter (events not related) and spent the better part of the next 25 years in Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. She was very happy to return home in 2016 to help run Old Spokes Home, ride bikes, and drink good beer.
Peter McConville (Term to 2021)
He/Him/His
Peter moved to Burlington in 2003 to pursue concurrent Master’s degrees in English and Education and feeling that he found home, he hasn’t left. Since joining the faculty at Burlington High School in 2005, he has actively pursued issues related to sustainability both in and out of the classroom. He is currently one of four staff members of the Burlington City & Lake Semester, an immersive semester program offered through Burlington High School focussing on thriving communities.
Peter’s interests in beer really took off when he realized that, unlike wine, he actually understood the complexities of the beer world, and in the end, nuances aside, that they aren’t all that complex. He loves teaching people about the brewing process and pairing good beer with good food. He lives in Burlington’s New North End with his wife, two children, two dogs, and some chickens.
Casey Thomas
Casey is a self proclaimed design nerd and homebrew fanatic. He also loves creating and has built a plethora of things such as guitars, a boat and a cabin. He enjoys reading about brewing techniques, working on beer recipes and playing with new brewing equipment. Casey has boundless creative energy and always has a project in the works. Casey seeks out outdoor pastimes like fishing, paddling, skiing the snow covered peaks of Vermont and camping with his wife Lauren, and their two children.
Ted Assur
Ted was raised by wolves and homebrewers in a small hamlet outside Portland, Oregon. After discovering competitive brewing in 2012 he started entering, and then running and designing homebrew competitions and has a rack of medals and ribbons to show for it. In 2014, he was elected President of the Oregon Brew Crew, the oldest homebrewing club in Oregon. During that time, he started and collaborated on several local beer education projects including the “Cascadia BJCP Judge Calibration Program” and the “City of Infinite Beer”. His beer-Ed related work in Portland culminated in the creation of what would ultimately be called the Pacific Northwest Homebrewers Conference.
In 2015, when it came time to move his family to more peaceful pastures, Ted brought them to Burlington, a place he and his wife had fallen in love with 15 years earlier. By day, Ted happens to be an IT superhero.
While he enjoys making (and drinking) every kind of beer, his favorites are historical styles and those made with foraged ingredients.
Board Minutes (member-access only)
We post meeting notes from the three most recent meetings. Full paid-in FBC members have access to our full meeting minutes archives, via the meeting minutes thread, within our FBC Member Loomio space.