“From Avocation To Vocation: How I Turned My Hobby Into A Career” With Mark Edelson of Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant

An interview with Phil La Duke

Sleepless nights — When the going gets tough, your employees can always go and get another job. You have your all your eggs in the basket and always have to find a way to persevere.

As a part of our series about entrepreneurs who transformed something they did for fun into a full-time career, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark Edelson. Since co-founding Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant in 1996, Mark Edelson transformed a personal home brewing hobby into an influential, award-winning career. He has been instrumental in securing 70 prestigious beer awards over the course of 23 years for the Wilmington, DE-based brewery and restaurant group. Edelson strives to ensure the continual integrity of the craft beer brewed throughout the company and maintains the reputation level of unsurpassed brewing creativity for the restaurant group. As part of his role, Edelson oversees all brewery operations including budgets and logistics of the group’s new and existing locations. He manages the existing team of regional and local brewers and supervises the annual beer…