Matt Cottrell

Matt Cottrell is the Quality Manager and Microbiologist at Heavy Seas Beer in Baltimore, MD where he has enjoyed living in the Charm City for two years. Matt started his career in the brewing industry in 2016 after completing the Siebel Institute’s International Brewing Technology Program. During his first career as a Microbial Oceanographer, he was instrumental in the utilization of single cell microscopy to explore links between microbial diversity and carbon cycling in the ocean. Oceanographic research took him literally to the ends of the Earth to explore microbial ecology in environments ranging from the coastal waters of Antarctica to the Arctic Ocean. Having an affinity for microbes, rooting for the fungi and bacteria associated with hops was the natural starting point for his work aiming to identify the sources of amylases driving hop creep. But when the data suggested otherwise, he was willing to dip a toe into the uncharted waters of amylases produced by hops to explore the genetic basis of hop creep in Humulus lupulus.