A veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars turned Vermont brewer has presented a check for more than $5,600 to Norwich University towards its $100 M “Forging the Future” comprehensive campaign. Steve Gagner, founder of 14th Star Brewing Company in St Albans, presented the check to Norwich University President Richard W Schneider on Monday, November 10.
The funds represent profits from September homecoming sales of Citizen Soldier Amber Ale, a special brew produced by Gagner in honor of Norwich University’s five-year 2014-2019 Bicentennial countdown.
Steve Gagner holds his Rising Star award November 6, 2014. VBM photo
A 2003 Norwich graduate, Gagner hatched his plan to start a microbrewery while serving in a forward patrol base in the mountains of Afghanistan.
He started brewing commercially two and a half years ago in a transmission shop in his hometown of St. Albans. Business has grown 4,000 percent since then. 14th Star Brewing Company recently moved into a 16,000-square-foot production brewery with attached taproom on Main Street.
The check Gagner presented last week represented 100 percent of gross profit of the sale of 450 gallons of Citizen Soldier Amber Ale with 20 percent of future profits going towards a Norwich scholarship.
Gagner plans a special brew for each of the five years of the campaign, which is just one aspect of his service to Norwich.
For the past several years, Gagner has guest-lectured in Adjunct Professor Kristine Seipel’s Introduction to Business class.
With these five special Norwich brews, Gagner will collaborate with Norwich students via a “project management team” consisting of Norwich students from the various disciplines involved in a major product launch: business, finance, marketing, art, logistics, etc.
The vision is to take this team of students through the entire product lifecycle: concept, prototyping, market research, financial modeling, sourcing, production, packaging, marketing, distribution, and customer service.
“[Norwich founder] Captain Partridge’s mission of providing an education that enables the student ‘to act as well as think – to execute as well as conceive’ was visionary, and this project will provide students the opportunity to exercise their various fields of study in a real production environment,” Gagner said.
In 2004, prior to his deployment to Iraq, Gagner helped Army ROTC cadre form the Armor Company, an extracurricular club that focused on the tactics of armored warfare and utilized the various training aids available at the National Guard armory on campus. As a captain in the Vermont Army National Guard, Gagner currently serves as the Operations Officer for the 15th Civil Support Team, Vermont’s Weapons of Mass Destruction specialists.
Gagner formed 14th Star Brewing Company in 2011. He serves as president of the Vermont Brewers Association and as Chairman of the Vermont Brewers Festival.
“I believe [those] two honors stem directly from my ability to lead a group of peers toward a common goal – a skill I learned and honed while as a cadet at Norwich,” Gagner said.
Gagner is a contributing columnist for Craft by UMH, a magazine dedicated to craft beverages and the industry. He is also the co-founder of Veterans in Craft, a non-profit organization with the mission of helping war veterans find employment in the very team-oriented world of craft beverages.
14th Star Brewing Company opened their new 16,000 square-foot taproom and brewery in downtown St. Albans on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2014. Its Honey IPA was named by Vermont news weekly “Seven Days” readers as the champion of the Vermont Brew Bracket in 2014.
“Steve Gagner is a quintessential Norwich graduate,” President Schneider said. “He is an innovative, effective leader driven to serve others before self. We are so proud of him!”
Gagner was recently named a Rising Star by Vermont Business Magazine, and 14th Star Brewing Company is nominated for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Veteran Owned Business of the Year.
Source: Norwich 11.21.2014