When it comes to brewing beer, Albert Rivera can take you down memory lane and tickle your imagination. Maybe you’ll like his butternut squash brew. Or perhaps you’ll like his orange schnitzel ale? Maybe jasmine tea? These are just some of the 37-year-old Miami native’s unique flavors.
Rivera is co-owner of Bread and Beer Buds, a startup craft brewery that has showcased a multitude of beers at brewing festivals all over South Florida, including the 2023 North Miami Brewfest. He is also a brew science technician at Florida International University’s Chaplin School of Hospitality, inspiring students and staff every semester.
“It is phenomenal,” Kaleena Salgueiro-Czaykowsky, Rivera’s former advisor at FIU, raved about his rosemary gruit, a 1,300-year-old brew that doesn’t use hops. “It’s not like anything you’ve ever tasted before.”
Rivera is part of an industry that, according to GuildSomm International, has ballooned from just a few dozen big companies making millions of gallons each a few decades ago to thousands of artisanal small-batch brewers today.
Born in Queens, New York, on August 17, 1987, to a Dominican mother and a Bolivian father, Rivera’s journey to Florida mirrors his winding journey to his career.
In August 1992, his family of seven jammed into a junker-turned-van for a 20-hour journey from New York to Miami. Just two weeks before Category 5 Hurricane Andrew hit, the Rivera family settled into their home in Miami. They immediately had to face one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in the area’s history.
As the storm blew through the neighborhood, 5-year-old Albert alongside his older brother, sister, parents and grandparents crammed into the first-floor bathroom. They shielded each other while doors and windows flew off.
“I just remember the chaos”, said Rivera. He chuckled as he shared the story of how he found a little orange cat inside the closet of their then-destroyed home. The animal became a symbol of resilience that stayed with him as he continued his life.
In the years that followed, Rivera strived to fulfill his immigrant parents’ one wish: that he get a college education.
In 2005, he enrolled at FIU as a civil engineering major before deciding it wasn’t his path. He changed his major twice, prolonging his college career for 12 years.
“When I brewed beer for the first time, I was hooked,” Rivera shared about his experience in 2016. “I told my family I was switching my major again.”
In 2017, two months after Rivera graduated with a bachelor’s degree in hospitality, he began working at FIU. Then, Rivera received a text from an old friend, Alex Quevedo — “Do you like Avatar: The Last Air Bender?” This rekindled their bond from childhood. What started as Quevedo coming by to help Rivera make beer shifted into a shared business: Bread and Beer Buds.
Their very first brew was a gruit-style beer named “Uncle Iroh,” after the Avatar character. It features a jasmine tea base as a nod to Quevedo and Rivera’s love for the show and tea. Albert ferments the jasmine tea with lemons and honeycomb. They first unveiled the beer at the 2019 Lauder Ale Home brewing competition in Fort Lauderdale.
“This is the first time I got actual feedback . . . from strangers,” Rivera said. “It was astoundingly positive”.
Their beers are as unique as their friendship. They craft flavors inspired by shared memories, like their German Altbier “Schnitzel,” inspired by their days eating orange slices after soccer games. This beer was invented around 2017 and Rivera describes it as a malty beer that resembles biting into an orange.
Another signature beer, Sweet Buttery Nuts, was born out of a 2019 Friendsgiving gathering. They used ingredients like butternut squash and sweet potato to create a flavor that received a lot of compliments. Rivera describes roasting butternut squash and sweet potatoes until caramelized. This added many dessert notes while also giving it a very high percentage alcohol percentage.
By 2019, their business took off and they began looking for investors. But then, COVID-19 delayed their growth. Rivera stopped receiving invites to festivals due to closures, losing crucial exposure. Rivera no longer had the drive and the joy that brewing once gave him.
Now, he is regaining his momentum by experimenting with beers again and slowly finding his way back to the business side of things.
”I put mangoes in a very light American ale,” Rivera said, hinting at a new flavor that will debut at the 2024 North Miami Brewfest on November 16. “That one’s gonna go really well.”
When Rivera is not brewing, he’s baking and teaching. In addition to his role at FIU, he teaches young kids and adults how to bake bread. The flour is made from leftover grains that were used when he was brewing beer. His innovative brewing, baking, and teaching approach has left a lasting impression.
“His personality is different than anyone else I’ve seen in the brewing community,” Salgueiro-Czaykowsky said. “He has a passion for sustainability, ensuring everything gets used.”
Now, Rivera is returning to the North Miami Brewfest, bringing with him not just five gallons of his beer but also 20 loaves of bread. His attitude toward life is similar to his outlook on brewing.
“Whenever I mess up on something,” he says. “I’m just like, ‘Yeah, it can get cleaned up. It can get fixed. We can work with this. It doesn’t matter.’”
