Alex Ganum is the owner and head brewer at Upright. He grew up drinking his father’s German pilseners and his older brother’s Bells Porter before moving to Portland in 2002. After meeting several homebrewers he decided to give it a go and never looked back. Seven years later his love of brewing led him to open Upright, a brewery he thinks is as much part of the community as it is personal. When he doesn’t have beer on his mind Alex is probably thinking about what’s next in the kitchen or on his plate and what digestif to wash it down with.

Gerritt Ill has been brewing for five years. He fell in love with beer drinking a Sierra Nevada Pale ale at a friend’s house in his home state of New Jersey. After moving to Oregon to be closer to the craft brewing culture of the northwest, he began brewing at home. Gerritt’s been with Upright since the beginning, first as an intern and now as a full time employee. He enjoys Upright’s pale, low alcohol beers as well as anything from the Schlenkerla Brewery in Germany. Upright sets its watch to Gerritt’s flawless internal clock, though we generally ignore his belief that Ween should be the only music allowed in the brewery.

Annalou Vincent has a passion for beer… Obviously, she works at Upright on Saturdays, is the Art Director of Beer Northwest Magazine, and is working on a cookbook called Recipes from Beervana. When she isn’t doing one of these three things she’s taking pictures, cooking and eating all kinds of food. Her non-beer/food related activities include riding bikes, hiking, backpacking, reading and listening/dancing to fantastic music, yet she always seems to find a way to include beer or food.

Angelo loves snaggin’ brews, quaffin’, and BSin’ with friends. He co-founded Brewpublic, a website dedicated to…you guessed it…beer. After meeting Alex and Gerritt at Belmont Station, he decided he better make friends with them to cut his beer bills. Somehow along the way he got tricked into becoming their sanitation technician and part time beer titler. So far he is on the hook for Four Play, Fresh Hop of Bel-Air, Anglo Saison and Five. Okay, so the part about naming Five is a lie, but it’s one of his faves. He is still trying to convince Alex to name a beer Ben Love or Illganuminator. Stay tuned…

Ezra Johnson-Greenough aka Samurai Artist is a lifelong supporter and producer of his 3 favorite arts; illustration, beer and music. Designing beer labels for such breweries as Roots Organic Brewing and Upright. He also works with indie bands booking and producing shows and festivals like Hopworks Biketobeerfest, The Manor of Art and the Brewers Summer Games. In addition, he assisted in the creation of Taplister and produced their videos with “snob” Ritch.
In his free time he brews his own beers, writes The New School beer blog and geeks out on films.

Neil and Elsa Yantega are general assistants at Upright, helping out in a variety of ways. Together they enjoy the best food and drink that this region has to offer, spending time with their pooch Kasino and soaking in the sites and sounds of Portland. Neil rocks an orange county lumber jack appearance and Elsa is really the brains behind the two. You can find her hanging out at the tasting room with friends and she is never afraid to throw down on a game of Rack-O. Neil loves anything that comes from Upright’s Firkin and says the brewery reminds him of a little house he used to live in.

Steve Cheseborough re-creates the blues and hokum of the 1920s-30s, interspersing the songs with stories, history and humor. He sounds like Blind Lemon Jefferson or Bo Carter playing, with Alan Lomax moderating and Groucho Marx adding comments. The author of Blues Traveling: the Holy Sites of Delta Blues and one of the stars of Last of the Mississippi Jukes, Cheseborough has the uncanny ability to turn any setting into a 1925 Mississippi jook joint.
You can catch him most Sundays at the brewery tasting room.