Eric Ritchson is the older brother of actor Alan Ritchson, but his own public career has developed far from film and television. The documented Eric Joseph Ritchson is a chemical-engineering graduate whose work has included industrial engineering, brewery facilities and operations, wastewater management, and technical leadership in the brewing industry.
A Purdue University chemical-engineering record identifies him as Eric Joseph Ritchson and records his M.S. in Chemical Engineering in December 2005. Nearly two decades later, an August 2025 Brewing Summit profile listed him as Chief Operating Officer of Pizza Port Brewing Co. That is the latest authoritative dated employment listing available here; it should not be treated as confirmation of his exact job title in October 2026.
Eric Ritchson and Alan Ritchson
Eric’s connection to Alan Ritchson is straightforward: he is Alan’s older brother. A 2024 Hollywood Reporter profile, syndicated by Yahoo, explicitly referred to Alan’s “older brother, Eric.” The relationship is also consistent with Alan’s own description of his family.
In a July 2026 appearance on Armchair Expert, Alan described an older brother who is 18 months older, became a chemical engineer, earned a master’s degree and had been a strong runner. Those details closely match Eric’s independent academic and athletics records. Alan also said he looked up to his older brother. The transcript does not name Eric in that particular passage, so the family identification rests on the separate report that explicitly names him.
That distinction matters because the Ritchson surname is now closely associated with Alan’s acting work, particularly Reacher. Eric’s documented professional record, however, is in engineering and brewery operations rather than entertainment.
Education and engineering background
Eric attended Florida State University before going on to Purdue. A Master Brewers professional biography states that he earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Florida State in 2003. Purdue independently identifies Florida State as his undergraduate institution, although a separate FSU degree-conferral record was not established.
At Purdue, Eric completed an M.S. in Chemical Engineering in December 2005. His thesis was titled Developing Methods for Catalyst Characterization in Micro Reactors, and Purdue lists Chelsey Baertsch as his adviser.
The same university record gives a useful snapshot of his first documented job after graduate school: Production Engineer at Ablestik Laboratories. That provides a clear starting point for his professional career, although the intervening years between Ablestik and Pizza Port are not fully documented. Master Brewers later described those years more generally as a period spent in engineering and operational-management roles outside the brewing industry.
From engineering to Pizza Port Brewing
By the time Eric appeared in a Master Brewers profile tied to an August 2019 podcast episode, he was identified as Director of Facilities and Operations at Pizza Port Brewing. The episode, Think Twice Before You Dump: A Journey to Wastewater Compliance, featured Eric and Ann Spevacek discussing water use and Pizza Port’s experience with wastewater compliance.
That subject became one of the clearest documented themes of Eric’s brewing-industry work.
In August 2021, Eric posted directly in the Master Brewers Association community about a Spill Prevention and Response Plan. He offered to share Pizza Port’s Slug Control Plan with another brewer and signed the post as Director of Facilities, Pizza Port Brewing Co.. The post provides direct evidence both of his role at the time and of his involvement in practical wastewater and compliance issues.
The available chronology suggests professional advancement rather than conflicting job descriptions. Eric was publicly identified in Director-level facilities and operations roles in 2019 and 2021. By August 2025, the Brewing Summit presenter profile listed him as Chief Operating Officer of Pizza Port Brewing Co.
Technical work in brewery wastewater and engineering
Eric’s work at Pizza Port extended beyond internal facilities management. He also contributed to technical material used within the brewing industry.
A Brewers Association white paper on wastewater side-streaming cites a 2020 Technical Quarterly article co-authored by Ann R. Spevacek and Eric J. Ritchson titled The Effect of Waste Side-Streaming on Brewery Effluent Strength. The paper appeared in volume 57, issue 4, pages 213–217, with DOI 10.1094/tq-57-4-1105-01.
The original article was not separately examined here, so its detailed methods and conclusions should not be reconstructed beyond what the Brewers Association citation establishes. Its existence is nevertheless significant because it shows Eric’s wastewater work entering the industry’s formal technical literature.
His role also expanded into professional committee work. In an August 2023 announcement, the Brewers Association identified Eric as chair of its Maintenance and Engineering Subcommittee. The committee focused on practical engineering, maintenance and facilities issues affecting breweries.
By the 2025 Brewing Summit, Eric was described as co-chair of that subcommittee and took part in a brewery-engineering session. The shift from “chair” in 2023 to “co-chair” in 2025 is best understood simply as a change in the dated title; the available material does not establish why the wording changed.
Eric Ritchson’s running career at Florida State
Before his engineering career, Eric competed as a runner.
Official Florida State results from October 10, 1998, list Niceville High senior Eric Ritchson finishing fourth in the Seminole Invitational 5,000 meters in 16:22.21. The following year, Florida State identified freshman Eric Ritchson as part of its cross-country program.
His collegiate running record continued into track competition. Clemson University’s official results from the 2000 ACC Indoor Championships list Eric Ritchson of Florida State running 4:26.46 in the mile preliminary and 9:15.41 in the 3,000 meters.
Those results provide a firmer basis for describing his athletic background than later family recollections. Alan Ritchson has spoken admiringly about his older brother’s running ability, but an objective national ranking corresponding to Alan’s superlative description has not been established.
What is Eric Ritchson doing now?
The most recent authoritative professional listing available is the August 13, 2025 Brewing Summit profile, which identified Eric Ritchson as Chief Operating Officer of Pizza Port Brewing Co. and as co-chair of the Brewers Association Technical Committee’s Maintenance and Engineering subcommittee.
That status should be dated carefully. No newer authoritative Pizza Port leadership record is available here to confirm whether the COO title remained unchanged as of October 2026.
One source can create confusion: the Master Brewers guest page currently displays a June 22, 2026 date while still describing Eric as Director of Facilities and Operations. But the page itself identifies the associated episode as August 2019. The 2026 date reflects the current feed entry or republication context, not a new interview or proof that the older Director title had again become current.
What is publicly known about Eric Ritchson
Eric’s education, athletics and professional work are comparatively well documented. His private life is not.
Reliable records support his Florida State and Purdue education, his early Production Engineer role, his work at Pizza Port, his brewery wastewater publication, his Brewers Association involvement and his college athletics history. They do not provide a dependable basis for widely circulated claims about his exact birth date, height, spouse, net worth or private residence.
For readers searching for “Eric Ritchson movies,” the distinction is equally important: the verified public record described here concerns chemical engineering, brewery operations and technical industry work. It does not establish a professional acting career comparable to Alan Ritchson’s.
Eric Ritchson is therefore best understood through the career he has actually documented: a Florida State and Purdue-trained chemical engineer who moved through industrial and operational work into brewery facilities and senior management, with a particular public record in wastewater compliance, maintenance and engineering. His connection to Alan Ritchson explains much of the public curiosity around his name, but his own professional history stands on a separate set of university, industry and technical records.