Throwback Brewery was founded by Annette Lee and Nicole Carrier in 2010 as a way to combine two passions: brewing great beer and supporting local agriculture. We started selling beer in July of 2011 and haven’t looked back since!
Annette Lee
Co-Founder & Head Brewer
Annette is the Head Problem Solver, Chief-Optimist and certified MIT card-carrying engineer (which every good brewery needs!). Annette spent close to 20 years working as an environmental engineer before making the jump to a small brewery owner. Annette started crafting her brewing skills almost two decades ago when she borrowed a few buckets from a friend, bought the necessary ingredients, and started to homebrew. It didn’t take long for Annette to get hooked, and for friends and family to start bugging her for beer! In 2007, Annette started taking brewing courses from the renowned Siebel institute in Chicago. In 2008, she completed Siebel’s World Brewing Academy Concise Course in Brewing Technology, while also doing an internship at Smuttynose Brewery. In mid-2010, Annette started pursuing her dreams full-time, launching Throwback Brewery. Annette is a tireless worker, an amazing brewer, one of the smartest women you will ever meet, and truly passionate about our vision!
Nicole Carrier
Co-Founder & President
Nicole is our Marketing Guru, Chief Realist, and card-carrying M.B.A, handling marketing, business strategy, social media, and technology. In October of 2020, after helping make thousands of pounds of sausage for happy Throwback customers, Nicole launched Lady Sausage – Throwback’s sassy lineup of sausage and salami. In addition to serving as our “Queen of Wien”, Nicole’s favorite aspect of owning a brewery is getting to meet and interact with all of the amazing people in the community- from the farmers, to the chefs, to the fellow brewers, and, of course, Throwback’s amazing customers. Nicole has a B.A. from Dartmouth College in Economics and Math, and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She is also a former IBM executive and former President of the New Hampshire Brewers Association (2017-2019).
Our Valuable Team Members
Annette & Nicole are backed up by a small, but passionate crew of full- and part-time employees and volunteers. The whole Throwback team is not just focused on local sourcing, sustainability, and green practices because it is the hip thing to do. Rather, we have spent most of our lives trying to support local farmers and reduce our carbon footprint. Being “green” is a passion of ours, and, as a result, it is simply part of our company’s DNA. Besides, we have always been slightly more geeky than hip anyway.
Adam Jones
Brewer
After 12 years working in beer distribution and for a small craft brewery, which included sales and marketing, our man Adam decided to turn his hand to brewing. After a lifetime spent in Iowa, he and his family decided to venture East, and that’s when he found us. The Throwback relationship between brewery, restaurant and farm, combined with our mission of sourcing local, really spoke to Adam, who has a passion for growing his own food as well as gardening. A lover of hoppy West Coast IPAs (must be the midwest calling) and Lagers, Adam is loving our Oma’s Tribute and new Rule the Roost House IPA. When not in the brewhouse, you can find Adam outside – hiking with his two dogs Walter and Ollie, at home in his garden in Durham with wife Tia and son Ethan, or taking photos.
Carrie Dahlgren
Head Chef
Chef Carrie brings a deep appreciation for local agriculture, sustainability, and the connections between food, community, and the land. A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu and holder of a Bachelor of Science in Business from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, she combines classical culinary training with a passion for seasonal, ingredient-driven cooking.
Before joining Throwback, Carrie spent eight years at Black Trumpet, where she worked her way up from dishwasher to Chef de Cuisine. Along the way, she developed a deep appreciation for thoughtful sourcing, seasonal cooking, and the collaborative spirit of a great kitchen. Since arriving at Throwback, she led the design and implementation of our food program, working closely with local farmers, fishermen, and producers—including those right here on Hobbs Farm—to create menus that celebrate the best of New England’s seasons.
What guests love most about Carrie’s cooking is her ability to take familiar comfort foods and elevate them in unexpected ways. Whether she’s featuring vegetables harvested from the farm, eggs from her own chickens, or preserving the season’s bounty for the months ahead, her dishes are thoughtful, approachable, and full of personality. Her creativity, warmth, and commitment to great ingredients help make Throwback a place where memorable food and community come together around the table.
Kitchen Squad
Even if we begged the kitchen gods, we don’t think we’d get a more dedicated, talented, and fun-loving crew than our beloved kitchen squad. Not only do they continually fatten us all up with their culinary skills, they also each bring new and creative ideas to our seasonally changing menu and weekly specials. And since they take turns controlling the kitchen tunes, you never know what you’re gonna get when you cruise by the line. Thank you kitchen crew – for all you do!
Alissa Holmes
Marketing & Events Manager
Alissa discovered Throwback in the early days of our warehouse space. Always looking for a party, she asked if we ever hosted events. Annette responded with a convincing ‘yes?’ and the rest is history. Here at the brewpub there is always something going on and Alissa is the one to keep up with it all. With a communications degree from the Newhouse School at Syracuse, Alissa collaborates with the rest of our staff to get the word out regarding all the happenings here. Passionate about beer, she loves checking out all the local breweries with her husband Steve when not spending time with their two children, Brooke and Tyler.
Peter Kane
Farm Manager
Pete is one of those old souls whose joyful personality belies his serious intentions. A huge fan of the local food movement, sustainability, and building community, Pete witnessed first-hand the struggles local farmers face while growing up in Pepperell, MA. That drove him to get a BS in Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems at UNH. There, Pete joined FarmtoYOUNH, then went on to run it for six years. Working directly with Chefs at UNH bringing fresh produce into dining halls and catering left him uniquely suited to join our team, first as a part-time farmer, then Farm Manager. We love to witness his collaborations with Chef Carrie to bring food from our fields to your plate. Pete now lives in Portsmouth, but he’s mostly found in the woods – well, that’s when he’s not playing, recording, or writing music. He even runs our Open Mic night here!
Farm Team
We’ve got a rockin’ crew here at Hobbs Farm – working hard every day to bring the freshest and most delicious veggies from our hoop houses and gardens to our kitchen, CSA members, and Farm Stand. They also bring the love to our wonderful farm animals, Jane and Rocky (our donkeys), Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy (our Nigerian pygmy goats), and our Houdan heritage breed chickens. Go Farm Team go!
Over the years since we started, we’ve been lucky enough to have a handful of very special people touch our lives. We not only thank them for their support – we want you to know their contributions as we continue on this ever-changing journey. We honor them here!
Katherine
Honorary Founder
If you’ve ever been to our original tasting room in our warehouse, chances are that you have seen our friend Katherine helping out. Katherine’s a master of organization, fun, funny, and always game for adventure. Katherine has helped us out so much in the beginning that we consider her an honorary founder.
Cheryl Parker
Brewer Emeritus
In her time at Throwback, Cheryl served as brewer, lab manager, and lay-down-the-law enforcer of cleanliness and safety in our Brew House. Cheryl came to us from UNH as lab supervisor, and has returned to UNH as their Brewery Manager running their pilot brewing minor. But she’ll always be one of us!