Chief Beer Officer heads up Four Points’ Best Brews

Scott Kerkmans (left), chief beer officer for Four Points by Sheraton with Hossain Mosharraf, F&B manager, and beer ambassador, for Four Points by Sheraton Toronto Lakeshore.

TORONTO, ON—Did you ever wonder what happened to the man who beat out 7,800 applicants to become Four Points by Sheraton’s chief beer officer?

Scott Kerkmans has been travelling for the past two years, visiting some of Four Points by Sheraton’s 90 North American properties, making sure the chain’s Best Brew program gets a strong foothold in one of Starwood hotels’ fastest growing brands. Currently there are 133 Four Points by Sheraton properties in 23 countries around the world. Canada has 19 Four Points by Sheraton hotels in seven provinces.

“Four Points by Sheraton is very much a relaxed, uncomplicated brand. “We want to make sure guests don’t have a complicated stay,” Kerkmans told CLN on a recent visit to Toronto, adding, “Beer is not pretentious like wine.”

“We don’t want our guests to have to search the city for great beer.  We have it in the hotel—it’s great for them and great for us.”

The Best Brews program focuses on American and Canadian craft beer.  It kicked off in 2006 at the Los Angeles International Airport property, where it became so successful that the chain decided to do test marketing in several areas, then take it continent-wide.  The next step, said Kerkmans, is to bring the program to the 40 Four Points by Sheraton locations outside North America.

“The program is our way of making sure our guests have a one-of-a-kind experience.  One of the key components is inclusion of local and regional beers, including small craft or microbrewers, and international beers as well.”

Based in Denver in Colorado, a state that boasts 100 breweries, Kerkmans travels to different regions, touring breweries and selecting beers.  The basic guideline is for hotel restaurant operations to have four draft beers and 12 bottled varieties, with a balance of one half local brews, and the other half mainstream favourites or international beers. Each property has a beer ambassador, or in some cases more than one ambassador, sometimes the food & beverage manager and sometimes a bartender.  Kerkmans works with those people to choose the beers.

“If they already have a good selection of local and imported beers, that makes my job easy.  I’m there to step in and ask questions, to ensure the selection is the best it can be.  The beer ambassadors know their customers better than I do.  I make sure they still take care of their customers, and expand their beer horizons.”

The vast majority of Four Points by Sheraton hotels have food and beverage, but often it is run by a third party, and the food is rarely the same from property to property.  “That chef also comes into play,” in these cases, said Kerkmans.  “I help them to include beer in their cooking.”

He gives the example of the Four Points Denver, where the chef uses beer as a reduction to go on poached pears.  While the chef used Guinness to do the cooking, Kerkmans paired it with a Belgian Wit beer (wheat beer).
 
Kerkmans pairs Rickard’s White, a Belgian-style Wit beer with apple pie, garnished with orange slices. The combination works because of the citrussy notes in the beer.  The wheat in the beer goes well with the breadiness of the piecrust.

“A lot of people don’t think of beer for lunch,” said Kerkmans, “but Belgian Wit beers are good for brunches.”

Other combinations include Upper Canada Dark Ale with macaroni and cheese, and Alexander Keith Pale Ale with pepperoni slices.

Kerkmans has planned some special events for the hotels as well.  For example, when the Four Points by Sheraton New York Soho opened, the ceremony involved a beer bottle opening rather than a ribbon cutting.

Kerkmans has been brewing beer since he was 21.  His brother had bought a home brewing kit, and tried to increase the alcohol content of the beer he made by adding sugar—with horrendous results!  He gave the kit to Scott, launching a career that includes five years as a professional brewer, most recently at the Alaskan Brewing Company in Juneau, Alaska.  He has written about beer for a few publications, and sold beer for a distributor.  He has seen the beer industry from the supply chain point of view, and also knows how to make it.

Kerkmans looks forward to the challenge of taking the Best Brews program outside North America.  “We are working with the Export Development Program in the U.S. as one way of getting smaller craft beers to regions that don’t have great beer brewed nearby.  For example, China brews a lot of beer, but not a lot of different styles of beer.

“It seems to me so many people have explored wine and are looking for the next interesting taste or palate—they’re increasingly turning to craft beers,” said Kerkmans. “While it’s hard to put actual numbers on the amount of product sold, I can say that guest satisfaction has gone up because of our Best Brews program.”