By Peter Egelston

Yes, you heard right: Tod Mott is leaving the Portsmouth Brewery. After toiling for eight and a half years in our little submarine-hull sized brewery, producing a seemingly endless river of fine beers and sharing his deep passion for his craft with an eager and growing audience, he has decided to move on. I enjoy reminding people that I hired Tod Mott at precisely the same time the Red Sox signed Curt Schilling. The Sox thus took a first step towards ending their 86-year World Series drought, and we at the Brewery embarked on a journey that has led us to become one of New England’s premier beer destinations. Tod arrived shortly after the Brewery had entered its second decade in business, at a time when the craft beer industry was picking itself up and dusting itself off after the brutal shakeout of late nineties had flushed a lot of small breweries and crappy beers out of the marketplace.

Brewers who survived those dismal times began to dare to think that maybe, just maybe, our ships might actually come in, that small-batch, handcrafted beer might finally emerge from its beer-geek ghetto and draw the attention and appreciation of a wider audience. Tod Mott could not have arrived at the Brewery at a better time. We were looking for a rock star, and he was looking for a stage that fit his big personality and his boundless enthusiasm for fine beer and comestibles, not to mention his magnetic physical presence. It felt like a match arranged by the beer gods. And it almost didn’t happen.

To read the full story on Smuttynose's blog, click here!