The job of a head brewer should not mean you are the best brewer in the room every day.
This was the message from Pietro Maltinti, the head brewer at Deya Brewing Company, speaking in London yesterday.
Maltinti was delivering a talk at The Brewers Congress where he shared his advice on moving away from the idea that the head brewer “does and knows everything” and instead, moving towards a more modern approach on creating a successful team.
“Your job is not to be the best brewer in the room every day. It’s to build a team that doesn’t need you to be,” he told the audience.
Maltinti also dispelled the “Hero myth” where many head brewers insist on being the first one in, the last one out and tasting every batch yourself.
He said: “It feels like dedication but often it’s a trap you built yourself.¨
Born and raised in Tuscany, Pietro started on the brew floor and worked his way up to running brewing operations for Molson Coors leading a team of 80 people.His path took him through some of the industry’s most respected names: BrewDog, Partizan, Northern Monk, Lagavulin (Diageo).
From independent startups to large-scale global operations across several countries, few people have led both very small and large brew teams.
That range gave him hands-on experience of every part of the brewery, from production and quality to the technical and financial decisions behind great beer.
During his talk, Maltini also discussed the topic of delegation and argued that the process is not a case of “I don’t want to do this, so do it for me”
“It’s coaching someone until they have the judgment and context to own an outcome,” he explained. “Then handing them ownership and authority while you remain accountable.”
Much of Maltinti´s work is translating strategy into brew floor reality, making what the business needs practical for the people doing the job, and clearing what gets in their way: the non-value-adding tasks, the habits that no longer serve where breweries are heading.
Today at Deya, Pietro focuses on exactly that: building the systems, data, and quality frameworks that let a brewery expand confidently while staying true to itself.
Above all, he loves developing people. He believes the best results come from teams who are trusted, given room to grow, and genuinely love beer.
