Jeffrey Beebe is one of our newest Packaging Operators who joined the production Brew Crew team earlier this year.

“Jeff and his work demeanor are a true asset to our team,” says Packaging Supervisor Paul Greer. “He is always cool, calm and collected. At the same time he is tenacious and has an eye for detail.”

Jeff’s a Cape May local who has had an incredible career already—in law enforcement no less!

Jeff worked at Southern State Correctional Facility for over 30 years.

“This is my retirement job,” he says with a smile. “I went from being behind a desk to working 10-hour days with steel toed boots on.”

[Ed. note: That’s quite the shift!]

“My degree is in health and physical education, and I started out in the recreation program at the prison,” he says.

“I worked my way up through the education department and into administration. In the last 20 years of my career, I was part of the executive staff. I was executive assistant to the warden and associate administrator as well as holding the titles of assistant superintendent and associate administrator before closing out my career as a supervising classification officer.”

We were curious about what a rec program looked like for the prison.

“It was like being a physical education teacher in the prison. At the time, they had intramurals where the inmates would play each other, and then we had varsity programs and we’d travel to other prisons and play,” he says.

“We worked on all different sports, flag football, softball, basketball, boxing, powerlifting, etc..

That program was eventually cut, and Jeff notes that the recreation position at the prison also went away as well. Thankfully he was already in the admin department by that time!

“Towards the end of my career , I was on call 24/7. I did all the Megan’s Law stuff. I was the liaison with every prosecutor in the state and the Attorney General’s office,” he says.

[Ed. note: For those not familiar, Megan’s Law is the name of the federal law in the U.S. that requires law enforcement to make information regarding registered sex offenders available to the public. It’s been in place since 1996, and came about due to a high-profile case here in New Jersey.]

Basically, Jeff’s a certified badass. Like many of our crew that have law

enforcement backgrounds, though, he’s one of the kindest people you’ll meet! “I dealt with a lot of nasty stuff over the years,” he says.

Certainly a far cry to go from that to working at a brewery!

He was even a bouncer at a place in Margate for about 10 years in his early 20s to earthly 30s!

“It was pretty hectic, because you had crowds from south Philly, Cherry Hill, Atlantic City, and different areas, so there were pretty much fights at some point every weekend,” he says. “But I made a lot of good friends there. It was a good job at that point in my life.

Some of the people he ended up meeting included players on the Philadelphia Flyers team!

“Michael Buffer, who does the ‘let’s get ready to rumble’ catchphrase, he would go there when he used to do fights in Atlantic City. For a while, Margate was the place to be,” Jeff says. “It was open until 3:30AM in the morning. Many nights I would come out of there with the sun coming up.”

[Ed. note: Yep. Definitely badass.]

“I retired, and I had reconstructive shoulder surgery,” he says. “I started at Cape May Winery at first, and worked there for about 8months. Then I looked around and found this position.”

Jeff has two sons, and two stepdaughters with his wife Bobbie-Gene.

“Her girls each have two children, so I have four grandchildren,” Jeff says. “The youngest daughter is 28; she lives in the Villas, and the other lives in North Wildwood, so everyone is pretty close.”

Jeff’s youngest son is going to law school and the other son just got married on July 1st.

His oldest son graduated from St. Joseph’s University where he played Division I soccer. [Ed. note: oh hey, Casey McBride!], and now lives with his wife in Maryland. They got married at Abbie Holmes Estate here in the area.

“My youngest graduated from University of Delaware this year with a triple major and a minor and is going to Villanova Law School this fall.,” he says.

The same Villanova as fellow alum and CMBC Co-founder Ryan Krill!

“He had five schools offer him full rides,” he says.

[Ed. note: Talk about options!]

“At his University of Delaware graduation, President Biden spoke at the ceremony,” Jeff shares.

“We had to get there at 6 o’clock in the morning for a 9:30AM graduation because of all the security checks, secret service and police presence,” he says. “ President Biden was sitting down on the stage with other dignitaries from the University of Delaware. It was very interesting to watch all of the secret service and security in the football stadium.

Jeff lives in North Cape May now, but he grew up in Cumberland County. He went to Millville High School, and then Gettysburg before transferring to Glassboro, which is now Rowan University!

“That’s where I got my degree from,” Jeff shares. “I moved to Upper Township in my mid-20s, then down here to North Cape May about six years ago.”

He’s got a really short commute to work now!

“Some of the guys drive an hour in to work, but I did that when I moved down here. I was driving 45-50 minutes one way to the prison every day,” he says. “Friday nights in the summertime coming back down would turn that into an hour and a half drive.”

“Around the time I retired, fortunately I had a lot of vacation time saved up so I would take Fridays in the summer when I could so I wouldn’t have to deal with the traffic,” he says.

[Ed. note: Definitely the way to go! As anyone who has dealt with shore traffic knows, it can take some getting used to!]

“I miss that now,” he says with a laugh. “I got a little spoiled with all of the vacation and sick and vacation days I had built up throughout my career.

Jeff has been going to the gym his whole life (which explains his ease with taking on the bouncer job!), so the physical demands of working in production weren’t a shock compared to the sheer volume of beverages they work with.

“Some days we’ll do upwards of 2,400 cases of beer or the kegs and stuff like that,” he says.

[Ed. note: If you’ve had our beer this year, especially here in South Jersey, chances are that Jeff helped package up that six- or four-pack that’s in your fridge, or that you grabbed at the Tasting Room!]

“I really like the people here, and it was the same at Cape May Winery as well,” he shares. “The atmosphere is great, too.”

In the summer, production runs nearly 24/7 to accommodate the demands for the season, and Jeff adjusted to some odd hours as well!

“I was telling one of the guys that before going on the night shift I hadn’t been up until midnight since New Year’s Eve.” He smiles. “Then I was staying out and working until midnight every night.”

While production is a new experience for him, Jeff had visited the Tasting Room several times before joining the Brew Crew. He even was familiar with some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of brewing!

“We went to Analog-A-Go-Go one year at Dogfish Head and stayed there the whole weekend,” he shares. “We took a tour of that brewery, so I knew what it looked like on the inside, but as far as the volume and amount of beer we put out of here, I was surprised. It’s a lot of product.”

[Ed. note: What can we say, there are a lot of people who like our brews!]

“My wife did the Bikes & Beers event last year with a bunch of her friends,” he says. “Another one is coming up in the fall that she’s doing as well.”

[Ed. note: Stay tuned for more info on that soon—the celebratory after party will be at our Tasting Room again!]

Jeff and his wife have been enjoying being down in North Cape May, where they take bike rides, go for walks, go out on a boat with friends, kayak, or visit local spots like Exit Zero, Red Brick, and Harpoons.

“For much of the time we’ve been here, we would go to the ferry and do the concerts they have there every Wednesday night,” he says. “I’d get done with work early and go down to set up the beach chairs so that when my wife came home it was ready.”

“It’s beautiful being outside over there,” he says.

Jeff’s wife works for New Jersey Travel and Tourism, and she’s even worked with our very own Marketing Director, Alicia Grasso!

“She’s been there about eight years. When I met her, she owned her own bakery,” he says. “Growing up, her parents owned a bakery as well.”

“Her bakery sold everything—donuts, cakes, pies, little pastries. She’s really good at decorating stuff,” Jeff shares. “She still does a little bit of decorating for different events and for family members. She’s very creative and artistic,” he says.

Shockingly, Jeff does not have a sweet tooth, which is probably for the best!

“She doesn’t make things for us because of that, but she’s made wedding cakes for friends before,” he says. “When you have that eye, it just comes easy for her.”

[Ed. note: How cool is that?]

Jeff and his wife bought their most recent home about three years ago, and completely redid the backyard to create an enviable hangout space.

“We have a big concrete natural gas fire pit, and got some nice furniture from Cape May Wicker, so we hang out in the back, and we have a pool for the grandkids in the summertime, so we spend a lot of time out there,” he says.

Living in a dream vacation spot, there’s less pressure to worry about traveling for vacations as well. Jeff mentions that a lot of their time visiting the East Coast was through his son’s travel soccer team.

“All my weekends from the time my oldest son was 8 years old through high school were spent traveling,” he notes. “His league games were from Virginia to New York, so we traveled up and down the east coast.”

“That was pretty much our vacations,” he says with a grin.

“I coached baseball for my youngest son growing up as well,” he says. “We even made it to the Babe Ruth World Series in Williston, North Dakota.”

“We’ve had some good athletic and father-son experiences together,” he says. “That was a lot of fun.”

“When we first moved to North Cape May, we lived across the street from the bay, it was like being on vacation all the time,” he says. “We had a high top table where we sat outside for dinner and we could see the dolphins from our deck.”

“Nine months out of the year, we were sitting outside every night,” Jeff shares. “It was like a Maxwell House commercial—people walking down the street would stop and talk to you.”

Jeff keeps it classic with his beer choices. His go-tos are Cape May IPA, Coastal Evacuation, and our lagers.

“I had the IPAs before I started here, but Longliner is a new one that I like,” he says. “I drink bourbon, tequila, and dry red wine, too.”

We’re so glad to have Jeff on board with us. The next time you see him around Cape May, or in the Tasting Room, make sure to say hi!