2020 Grand Marshal - Brent Ryan and Derek Luke

2020 Parade Grand Marshal

Brent Ryan & Derek Luke

Brent Ryan

After growing up in western Connecticut, Brent attended Colby College inWaterville, ME where he studiedBiochemistry and Mathematical Economics and met his “Co-Grand Marshall”, Derek Luke. While in Maine he formed a deep interest in the burgeoning craft beer scene and upon graduation in 1997, he began plans to open up a brewery. In 1998 he and Derek, along with two other friends from Colby, moved to Newport and founded Coastal Extreme Brewing. By the middle of 1999 they were brewing Newport Storm beers out of their garage bays in the Middletown Tradesman Center. It was the first packaging brewery in Rhode Island since the early 1980s.

Brent and his business partners settled into a house in Newport and worked to be active participants in the community. Whether it was volunteering for a charity event, donating beer to fundraise for a cause, or putting together a fun event for brewery fans to attend, he was always working to support the community he calls home. In 2011, he and his business began partnering with the Newport St Patrick’s Day Parade helping to support their efforts over the last decade. Shortly thereafter, he joined the Ancient Order of the Hibernians (Newport Division).

Brent met his wife, Claire, in 2001 while hosting one of many events at “Club Storm” (the name that was affectionately given to his Newport house by friends). He and Claire, a scientist working at NUWC, were married in 2007 and moved to the Fifth Ward where they had 2 children, Sabrina (10) and Sebastian (7). Their children have enjoyed countless hours playing in King Park and trick-or-treating all over the neighborhood.

Brent has involved himself in a variety of causes that he felt were important to Newport and Rhode Island. For almost a decade he and his brewery hosted Fort Adam’s largest fundraiser (The Newport Storm Luau) which raised over $100,000 for the restoration of the fort. In 2010 he and local restaurant, Pour Judgement, founded the Newport Craft Beer Festival and have raised over $200,000 for RI non-profits during this time. In 2013 he helped found the Rhode Island Brewers Guild and served as its President for 4 years working to help promote all RI Brewers. He has also served on Newport’s North End Planning committee and numerous American Craft Spirits Association committees.

In 2003 he was awarded the Rhode Island Small Business Administrations’ “Young Entrepreneur of the Year” award. As the master distiller at his company, in 2006 he obtained the first license to distill spirits in RI in 135 years. He has also been featured in the New York Times, on an episode of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, and in the Vineyard Vines catalog.

While not as frequent as when he was single, he still loves to enjoy the bar and restaurant scene in Newport with his local friends and out of town visitors. In the summer he is easily spotted wearing one of his many Hawaiian shirts and can be identified year round while driving his 30 year old BMW that he refuses to give up. When not on Aquidneck Island, he and his family can be found skiing in VT or visiting family on Cape Cod and in California

Derek Luke

Derek Luke was born in Montrose, Colorado in 1975. With his parents, Robert and Barbara Luke, and sister Christina, the family moved to Maine in 1977 where his folks still live. Derek grew up, baseball, skiing and beach activities (these are very important life skills). As a high school sophomore, he enrolled at Sugarloaf's Carrabassett Valley Academy, graduating valedictorian in 1993 (there were only 13 students in his class). This "ski academy" set the pace for Derek's go-go-go attitude with mogul and aerial skiing in season and cycling off season, landing multiple top five national finishes.

He started college in Dijon, France for his first semester, and still keeps in touch with the French family he lived with. Returning to Maine in January 1994, Derek excelled in his skiing passions and Biology studies at Colby College, ultimately taking an academic hiatus to compete in the World Cup Qualifiers for the 1995-1996 ski season. Looking back on this important year, Derek learned two things: he would never be an Olympian and how to homebrew beer. At the time, Derek wasn’t 21 year of age and homebrewers were rare. So, Derek made a deal with Mom: he was allowed to brew at home, as long as he only consumed it at home. Lots of brewing ensued….

Returning to school at Colby to finish his degree in Biochemistry, Derek solidified lifelong friendships with future business partners Brent Ryan, Mark Sinclair and Will Rafferty, sharing his new fermentation passion and dabbling in the professional brewing side at Oak Pond Brewing in Skowhegan Maine. On the cusp of graduation in the spring of 1997, Derek turned to Brent: "Hey man, do you want to start a brewery with me?" Since then, Derek's life has literally been all about brewing beer.

Derek moved to Newport in 1998, working at the Clarke Cooke House and Sardella’s by night, and conferring with future business partner Brent while test batching beer by day in Sardella's kitchen.

Restaurant crew were all taste testers of initial recipes still brewed 20 years later! Brent and Derek established Rhode Island’s current oldest microbrewery launching Newport Storm Beers in 1999, incorporated RI's first distillery since the mid 1800s in 2006, built the current production facility (2010), and rebranded the business along with Brendan O'Donnell in 2017 (Newport Craft Brewing and Distilling). Suffice to say, since summer of 1999, brewing, promoting, selling beer night and day have been Derek's focal points and sole career. Surfing, skiing and kiteboarding still are avidly on the docket when nature and time provide.

In 2011, Derek married 11th generation Aquidneck Islander Annie Sherman, welcoming son Trebor Luke in May 2016. Between Annie's work at Newport Life Magazine and current freelance writing, her family's involvement at The Newport Daily News, and Derek's brewing community outreach supporting countless events, our family is proud to call Newport home. We enjoy beach time year-round with our superdog Tasman (now 6), supporting the community's restaurants, and are looking forward to this great honor leading the Saint Patrick's Day Parade in 2020. We've been a part of every one of them since 1999!

The Parade Committee is proud to announce their selection of Brent Ryan & Derek Luke as the 64^th Annual Grand Marshasl of the Newport Saint Patrick’s Day Parade.

About This Year’s Button:

Our yearly button designs try to incorporate the vocation or interests of our Grand Marshal. For the 2020 Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, we have two Grand Marshals, Brent Ryan and Derek Luke, founders of Costal Extreme Brewing Company (now Newport Craft Brewing & Distilling Company). How do you design a button that represents two very different people with different hobbies and interests? You focus on the similar. That is beer. This year’s design displays two symbols all brewers know well; hops and barley. And, of course, two of the primary colors of the Irish tricolor – green and orange. The hops are delicately rendered and intertwined to form the Irish shamrock. The two stalks of barley, positioned at the bottom like a Greek or Roman radiant crown, cradles the shamrock of hops and represents the two Grand Marshals.

The Parade Committee, an all-volunteer group of people, work tirelessly year-round to perform the countless tasks required to produce the many events that take place, culminating in the Parade. One of most enjoyable tasks is designing the Official Parade logo honoring our Grand Marshal. Working with a designer, we go though many prototypes. From original ideas, to sketches, to concepts. This year let us share some of the prototype designs with you. Hope you enjoy it!

So why do we choose one design over another? Some of it is subjective – we might like one design more than another. Some of it is technical – number of colors, complexity, printing, et cetera. But in the end, the best design honoring our Grand Marshal is chosen. Thanks for all the hard work by the designer, Mike Marshal, and the Committee!