Anna Buxton
Steeplejack Brewing Company | Portland, OR
JULY 2023
Before she got into brewing, Anna Buxton lived the van lifestyle for almost a decade, bouncing around the Pacific Northwest and picking up work as a raft guide in the summer and a ski technician in the winter. Looking to move into a more steady lifestyle, Buxton considered going to trade school for plumbing, but in the meantime, picked up a bartending job at a brewery. Buxton was fascinated by all of the tubing and the mechanical underbelly of the brewery, and saw a possible new career path. She moved to Portland in 2016, and began an apprenticeship at Rock Bottom Brewery.
In 2017, Buxton took over as the head brewer at Uptown Market in Beaverton, developing larger format recipes, and in 2018, she moved down to California for the head brewer position at Rock Bottom’s Long Beach location. There, she became fascinated with low ABV beers, specifically English pub-style brewing. She dedicated herself to learning about making beers that were lower in calories but big on flavor. She moved back up to Modern Times Beer in Portland in 2019, where she started down in the cellar, and by 2021, was one of the lead brewers. By the end of that year, Buxton was ready to be in command of a brewery's entire portfolio. She was asked to join Steeplejack Brewing Co., a Broadway brewery housed in a former Unitarian church, where she now resides as head brewer. Buxton continues her focus on English pub-style brewing, zeroing in on bitters, table beers, and cask ales that are made to drink all day, with tons of flavor from local ingredients.
