Keith Villa, Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Brewmaster
CERIA Brewing Co.
Keith Villa, Ph.D., is co-founder of CERIA Brewing Co., Arvada, CO, a brewer of non-alcoholic beers both infused with cannabis and non-infused.
Villa is the creator and former brewmaster of Blue Moon Brewing Co. during his 32-year career at MillerCoors. He created the cloudy, unfiltered Belgian-style beer, first brewed at the 10-barrel Sandlot Brewery inside Denver’s Coors Field, that would go on to become the No. 1 craft beer in America, helped in part by the Valencia orange slice he suggested bartenders place on every rim.
Villa became a well-known brewmaster in the industry, appearing in Blue Moon TV commercials, hosting beer dinners at military bases, and serving as a celebrity and judge at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Chicago’s Hamburger Hop and the New York City Food & Wine Festival.
Now retired from Coors, Villa and his wife Jodi are focusing on the next stage in their careers—development of the premier commercially available craft beer infused with THC and CBD, Their CERIA (rhymes with “area”) Brewing Co. launched the non-alcoholic cannabis brew in December 2018 in Colorado. Plans are to expand to other states where the use of recreational cannabis is legal.
Villa earned an undergraduate degree in molecular biology from the University of Colorado Boulder. His first job out of school in 1986 was conducting molecular biology research on yeast for the Coors brewery in Golden. He later earned a Ph.D. in brewing science and fermentation biochemistry at the University of Brussels.
CERIA Brewing Co. offers two cannabis-infused, dealcoholized beers:
- Grainwave, with 5 mg THC—a medium-bodied Belgian-style White Ale brewed with blood orange peel and coriander
- Indiewave, with 10 mg THC and 10 mg CBD—a West Coast IPA made with light caramel malts and Cascade, Citra, and Amarillo hops
The company also offers dealcoholized, non-infused versions of both beers.