Ann Fahy-Gust has been brewing professionally for most of her life. She started off working as a lab technician at Coors, and after falling in love with brewing beer, she worked her way to being one of the first female Master Brewers in the United States. While with Coors, she had the opportunity to rebuild breweries in Memphis & Spain, brew Coors products in Japan, and build a brewery from the ground up in South Korea. After Coors, Ann continued to excel in the industry by working for Guinness and then running Britain’s largest brewery - The Berkshire Brewery. After launching hundreds of breweries, All of that experience and education is now focused on SxSE and the Pine Island community.

Ann’s personal motto Micah 6:8 “Seek Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly with your God” is on display as she teaches and shares her passion of brewing with all those around her. In her spare time Ann can be found creating beautiful stained glass work, just check out the sink area at SxSE’s restrooms!

Tessa Leung has an interesting mix of creativity and science along with her love of entertaining guests which sums up why she is in the brewing industry. She started working in the hospitality business at age 15, although she was inspired to become an entrepreneur as a kid by her Grandma “Jewel Box”. Her Grandma sang, played accordion and owned her own jewelry store. Tessa loved working at that jewelry store when she was young, and learned a lot about hard work through that experience there.

Tessa continued to work in hospitality throughout college, until she started as a Bone Marrow Transplant nurse. Shortly after starting off in the clinic, Tessa decided to pivot to culinary and sommelier school. In 2006 she opened her first restaurant and catering company. She went onto open a brew pub in 2015. She is now the co-owner of SxSE and puts her focus on running the sales and events side of the business. Tessa’s personal motto is “ it always seems impossible until it is done”.

Head Brewer

Conor Fahy’s playground as a kid was his dad’s micro brewery in Denver Colorado. He remembers playing with tri clamps and piping when he was young. He also credits his love of brewing to his Mom, who took him with her to the various breweries she was working at during his youth. The site of Coors, Guinness and The Berkshire Brewery were awe inspiring and exciting. It is no surprise that he is so passionate about brewing amazing beer. Just check out his tattoos!

Conor comes to SxSE from West O Brewing in Okoboji, IA, where he was head brewer for the past 5 years and assistant brewer for 2 years prior. Conor’s breadth of production experience on a large scale will help support the growth planned for South by SouthEast as we expand the brewing operations and sales/distribution base in 2022.

Conor is looking forward to bringing his experience in large production processes and working with the existing team to bring the expansion dream to fruition. He is also looking forward to creating a family business with his Mom who is co-owner of SxSE.