Peter Egelston, Founder & President
Peter grew up in southern California but did not remain there long. Dropping out after a year at UC Berkeley, he found his way to New York in 1978 where he earned a degree in Spanish Literature at NYU. Upon graduation, he quit his job as a hotel doorman and took a more "dignified" position - at one third the pay - teaching English as a Second Language. He later found a permanent position teaching in a large public high school in Brooklyn. In 1986, his sister Janet passed through town and talked him into joining her in Massachusetts where they and two other partners would open what is now the oldest brewpub in the northeast: the Northampton Brewery, where Peter served as head brewer until 1991.
That year, they opened the Portsmouth Brewery, the Granite State's first brewpub. In 1993, he attended the auction of the bankrupt Frank Jones Brewing Company. Not intending to bid on anything that day, he ended up purchasing the brewery that was to become Smuttynose. Peter and his sister remained business partners until 2000. She is now sole owner of the Northampton Brewery, and he, with his partner Joanne, is proprietor of Smuttynose and the Portsmouth Brewery.
Today, Peter divides his time among the Portsmouth Brewery, Smuttynose Brewing and various civic and charitable activities. Like the elusive yeti, Peter is notoriously hard to track down. And like the yeti, some have come to wonder if he really exists.