Meet Your Maker: Movement Brewing Company

On any given Friday afternoon at Movement Brewing in Rancho Cordova, you might find Director of Brewing Operations Tommy Hamilton and Head Brewer Ryan Normile huddled around a hot dog roller affectionately named "Glizzo," grabbing Frankfurter Friday lunch between brewing sessions. It's a small ritual, but it perfectly captures the culture they've built: Serious about craft, but never taking themselves too seriously.

"Every Friday, I eat at least four hot dogs," Ryan admits with a laugh. "It's such a team morale thing."

But behind the levity lies a formidable brewing partnership. Tommy, a West Coast native with a background in wine and business, and Ryan, an East Coast graphic designer turned brewer with a UC Davis master brewers certification, have created something special in Sacramento's increasingly vibrant craft beer scene: a brewery that wins awards while maintaining an almost-familial sense of community and collaboration.

Tommy Hamilton (Left), Director of Brewing Operations, and Ryan Normile (Right), Head Brewer, of Movement Brewing Company are brewing award-winning beers and a sense of community in the Barrel District.

From Wine Country to Craft Beer

Tommy's journey to Movement began in the wine industry. After spending nearly a decade bartending and working in production at wineries around Temecula and Murrieta, he fell in love with the production side of craft beverage. He even studied enology and viticulture at UC Davis before "getting bitten by the beer bug."

After graduating with a business degree, Tommy took a sales position with Constellation Brands, continuing to home brew on the side. But sales wasn't fulfilling. When an assistant brewer position opened at Surf Brewery, he faced a difficult choice: stay in a stable, well-paying job or follow his passion at literally half the salary.

"My wife was so supportive," Tommy recalls. "She was like, 'If it's gonna make you happy, do it.'" With a six-month-old baby at home, they took the leap and moved to Ventura.

There, Tommy refined his skills on a 15-barrel brewhouse (ironically, the exact same system Movement would eventually use). He quickly progressed through the brewing ranks, eventually taking a head brewer position at Island Brewing in Carpinteria. When his brother-in-law, Nick, told him the family bought the former American River Brewing space in 2020, Tommy moved north to help launch Movement.

East Coast Graphic Designer Turns West Coast Brewer

Ryan's path was equally unconventional. In 2017, as a 21-year-old graphic design student in Massachusetts, he landed a bartending gig at River Styx Brewing in Fitchburg. When the brewery needed packaging labels, Ryan saw an opportunity.

"I got pretty confident after a shift beer one night, and I said, 'I'll do the first one for free if you let me do the rest of them,'" he remembers. "So I started doing all of their packaging and identity design, but I would have to go in and meet with them on days that they were brewing."

Between design edits, the brewing team would have Ryan assist with different aspects of production. And, as Ryan puts it, “I fell in love with the process.”

Years later, Ryan was promoted to Operations Manager, helping the brewery grow from 800 to 3,000 barrels a year. But he wanted more formal training, so he applied to the prestigious UC Davis Master Brewers Program. When he got in and moved to California in 2023, Movement's co-owner Nick Cavanagh had already been tracking him on Indeed.

"Nick scouted me over Indeed like five months before I moved out here," Ryan says. "I came out to Movement for their three-year anniversary as a customer. Three weeks later, I woke up to a text from Nick: 'Hey man, we need a brewer. Do you want to come make beer?'"

Movement gave Ryan the flexibility to start the job, complete his four-month UC Davis program, and then return full-time. He's been "cooking ever since."

Brewing Sustainably and Efficiently as a Team

For Ryan, the UC Davis program was transformative. Not because it taught him brewing from scratch, but because it revealed the science behind what he already knew intuitively.

"I spent six years in one production facility only knowing one way of doing things," Ryan explains. "UC Davis affirmed what I knew and reinforced the things I didn't know, and then taught me the science, philosophy, and process behind that."

This education has proven invaluable in his partnership with Tommy. Together, they're not just trying to improve flavor and aesthetics. They're working to make Movement more efficient and sustainable from both financial and environmental standpoints.

"We're able to become this really rock solid team where we're trying to figure out how to be more efficient and sustainable brewers," Ryan notes. "I owe a lot of that to UC Davis."

Creating Clarity, One Beer at a Time

When Tommy and Ryan develop new recipes, which they now do collaboratively, they work "glass backwards."

"What do we want this to taste like? What do we want this to smell like?" Ryan explains. "Once we get those ideas going, I talk about a term called clarity. Yes, you can see through the beer, but I'm talking about a clear line where you taste something, and you're able to say what that tastes like."

If a customer, beer geek or fellow brewer can taste their beer and immediately identify the flavor profile, mission accomplished.

Their process reflects both their backgrounds. Tommy brings his wine production expertise and business acumen. Ryan contributes his artistic sensibilities and scientific knowledge from UC Davis.

"My background in teaching chemistry and physics, and his artistic design background; we both come together from different aspects," Tommy says. "Whenever there's an issue with a beer, we sit down and think about it: If we did this, what would happen? We come up with a solution together."

The brewery is heavily influenced by Pacific Northwest hop culture, with house Citra and Mosaic appearing in nearly every beer. "We're very obsessed with hops," Ryan admits. They also love experimenting with new varieties like HBC 586 (recently renamed Krush), always trying to balance proven favorites with exciting new ingredients.

Their signature Uncle Money Pilsner is always on tap, and they're passionate about West Coast IPAs and lagers. When incorporating new ingredients, their philosophy is simple: "There's no 'play it safe' in the Movement mentality," Ryan says. "We send it,” adds Tommy.

The results speak for themselves. Movement has produced award-winning beers while maintaining a production schedule that hit approximately 1,800 barrels last year. They're aiming for 2,000 this year.

A Family Business with Adopted Members

Movement Brewing is, in the truest sense, a family business. The four owners - Alanna and Nick Cavanagh, and Sarah and Chris Shipley - are all related: Alanna and Sarah are sisters, Nick and Chris are their husbands. Tommy is married to Nick’s sister. The sisters' father handles accounting, and their brother Eric is a taproom lead.

"We always joke it's a family business," Tommy says. "And that we adopted Ryan. We adopted Joe [the third member of the brewing team]. We just want to make sure everyone feels welcome.”

When the family bought the former American River Brewing space in 2020, the world shut down three months into construction. Tommy moved up from Southern California and helped transform a dirt hole into a functioning brewery, all while serving to-go beer from a tiny bar and a kegerator during the pandemic.

"This whole thing was plastic," Tommy recalls, gesturing around the now-open taproom. "Painters' plastic covered all the way around from the fermenters out, just to block us in here so we could brew without getting concrete and dust everywhere."

The support from the community carried them through. "We could not be here at all without our customers," Tommy emphasizes. "It's truly amazing to see how we've gone from that to this."

Collaboration as Philosophy

Perhaps nothing defines Movement Brewing more than their commitment to collaboration, both internally and with the broader brewing community. Their annual 90s Fest has grown from 9 participating breweries to 43, a testament to the relationships Tommy and Ryan have built across the state and beyond.

"The West Coast beer scene is incredibly friendly, incredibly collaborative," Ryan observes. "Everyone just wants there to be better beer within the community. A rising tide raises all ships."

Tommy agrees: "Most industries are so competitive. There's definitely competition with beer, but the difference in the craft beer world is there's so much camaraderie. Everyone wants to see each other get better."

This extends beyond beer festivals. If Movement runs low on an ingredient mid-brew, they'll call friends from other Barrel District breweries.

"It's like asking your neighbors, ‘I need a cup of sugar!’," Tommy explains. "We're very collaborative. We share."

The collaborations born from these relationships push them to improve constantly.

"Anytime we work with other brewers, they tell us something they’re doing, and we're like, why didn't we think of that?" Ryan says. "There are always going to be blind spots we're not seeing."

Many of their collaboration relationships start at beer festivals, where brewers gather, share beers and become fast friends. That's how they connected with brewers from Messorem in Canada – over hibachi dinner in Indiana. Within months, they were exchanging zoom calls about water chemistry and yeast strains.

For Ryan, who spent six years brewing on the East Coast, the West Coast difference is striking. "I've never experienced camaraderie like I have on the West Coast,” he says. “A friend just texted me last night from Oakland who moved from the East Coast to brew: 'Dude, it's a different world out here. I've been brewing for 15 years, and I've never had a place like this.'"

Sacramento’s Rising Beer Scene

Both brewers are impressed by what Sacramento's craft beer scene has become. Tommy, who grew up near San Diego's legendary beer culture, never expected to find something comparable in Northern California.

"San Diego is obviously a massive beer scene," he notes. "I always thought there's so many good craft breweries there. Then I came to Sacramento, and I didn’t know what it was gonna be like. I didn't even know any breweries up here. And then all of a sudden, you do research, and not only is everyone supportive, but they're making some kick-ass beer."

The Barrel District in particular has become a destination. "With us and LogOff opening up, Burning Barrel, Claimstake, Strad [...] it's a nice destination," Tommy says. "People are leaving the [central] Sacramento area and coming out here, making the 20-minute trip."

Ryan sees Sacramento as part of a larger California brewing culture that's uniquely welcoming. "I think it spans all of California," he says. "We've done a fair amount of traveling within the state, met a lot of different people. Everyone's just so nice, and everyone just wants to share and work together. That's a really beautiful thing."

The Movement Mentality

Through pandemic construction, rapid growth, and the daily challenges of running a production brewery, Movement has maintained what they call “The Movement Mentality”: the belief that when faced with obstacles, they'll simply figure it out. And they always do.

"We somehow always figure it out," Ryan says. It's a philosophy that extends to everyone: the family owners, the brewing team, the taproom staff, even the customers who supported them through the hardest times.

Tommy sums it up simply: "We all work very well together. We're very open and direct with each other. We all have very similar senses of humor, which is kind of odd. The three of us have a great time, and we work our butts off. But it somehow gets done."

And on Fridays, they celebrate a job well done with hot dogs from Glizzo, the team morale hot dog roller that might be the best investment Movement ever made.

"Feed your brewers," Tommy jokes. But he's also serious: taking care of each other, supporting the community, and making better beer together. That's what Movement is all about

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