The founder of Four Quarters Brewing, Brian Eckert, confirmed on January 10 that he has left the business he started in 2014. Interim CEO John Phinney said the team at Winooski's only brewery continues to produce beer and operate its taproom with a full food menu offered daily, plus Sunday pop-ups featuring guest chefs. Four Quarters co-owners Larry Williams and Dan Rowell hired Phinney, 46, to work with the existing team and lead the search for a new president. Williams is a principal in Vermont real estate and development company Redstone, while Rowell is a past president and CEO of Vermont Hard Cider in Middlebury. Phinney's varied management experience includes a decade in the Australian craft beer sector. Eckert, 48, said Williams and Rowell removed him from his role as CEO at the end of May. Eckert remained on the board until early July but left Four Quarters completely in October, he said, which involved relinquishing his ownership stake without compensation. The founder said he could not legally elaborate on details of his departure, but he described himself and his former co-owners as having "had strategic differences that were insurmountable." Phinney declined to comment for the same reason but said, "There is an enormous debt that the business owes to Brian for his creative spirit, his spirit of exploration." Eckert founded the four-barrel brewery on Winooski's West Canal Street in 2014. In 2021, he moved the operation to a renovated 8,000-square-foot building at 70 Main Street, which has more than 80 seats between the indoors and a heated outdoor patio. The brewery grew from producing 100 barrels of beer to about 3,000 a year from a 20-barrel system. According to Phinney, Four Quarters beer is distributed across the Northeast, and sales outside Vermont have exceeded those of the previous year for five of the past six months. He called this trend notable in the current craft beer market, in which "most businesses would be flat to down." Phinney said the owners remain committed to keeping the taproom open and the brewery going. This month, the taproom will continue its weekly Sunday Four Quarters Kitchen Series with Harmony's Kitchen serving soul food on January 19 and Gerber's Joint offering Mexican food on January 26. February 2 will bring Maharaja Spice's Indian menu, followed by Las Hermosas Mexican fare for the month's remaining Sundays. Dougy Fresh Catering will cover March. Four…