Tighthead Brewing Company

After you leave a two-decade run in corporate America, the only fitting way to toast what’s next is to brew the beer yourself. 

For 20 years, Tighthead Brewing owner Bruce Dir had two jobs: one in corporate America and another at home. His job at home was figuring out how to leave his job in corporate America. It all started in 1993 when Dir was given a home brewing kit for Christmas by his wife. Compared to now, the Illinois craft beer scene was infantile, but

Dir’s already deep-seated passion for gardening and canning was greeted by an intimate group of like-minded brewers in his hometown, the Chicago suburb of Mundelein. For Dir, focusing on his passion for craft brewing came easily, given that he was no stranger to tending to flavors grown in his own backyard, balancing taste profiles, and putting personality into his craft. Already immersing himself in Mundelein’s intimate home brewing scene for over 16 years at this point, fate presented itself in the form of a corporate company reorganization and he took the hint. Goodbye, corporate America. Time to start a brewery. Dir teamed up with the prolific brewmaster Billy Oaks, and now the brewery’s 15-barrel brewhouse produces 3,500 barrels annually—which Die and Oaks keep a close watch on as flavors develop.