San Diego Brewers Guild

Matt Akin

Matt Akin graduated from the American Brewers Guild in 2005 and has been promoted to brewing duties at AleSmith.  In addition to brewing many of the batches, Akin is also responsible for the daily tasks of racking, filtering, kegging, and bottling. 
A talented and versatile brewer, Akin is a major part of the AleSmith team.  

Bill Batten

Bill Batten is an award-winning homebrewer and has been working at AleSmith since 2002 handling mostly sales, distribution and in more recent years, brewing. Batten is a major force in getting things done at AleSmith and has a seemingly unlimited supply of energy.
He is also an experienced cellarman and takes care of the real ale casks at AleSmith.
(see recent newsletter for more information on AleSmith cask events)

Tod Fitzsimmons

AleSmith brewer since 1996, is the heart and soul of AleSmith.  A former president of the National champion homebrew club QUAFF, Fitzsimmons has had a major role in the creation of many of the AleSmith beers including his masterpiece, Evil Dead Red.         

Peter Zien

Peter Zien is an accomplished and highly decorated homebrewer who "always wanted to own a brewery." Since he began brewing in 1995, his beers have earned over 400 medals and honors.

In addition, he is San Diego County’s only BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) "Grand Master" Level One Beer Judge, one of their highest ratings.

Pat McIlhenney

Pat McIlhenney serves as a captain with the San Miguel Fire Department and also finds time to operate Alpine Beer Company, recently ranked as the nation’s fifth best brewery by Beer Advocate magazine. Contact Pat at mcbrew@alpinebrewing.com

Shawn McIlhenney

Shawn McIlhenney was born and raised right in Alpine.  He joined the family business early on, and now he’s busy getting lots of experience in all phases of beer production.  He’ll probably take over if Pat’s not careful.        Contact Shawn at shawnmcilhenney@yahoo.com

Adam Carbonell

Head Brewer- Backstreet Brewery Vista

 I was born in a pot still to Georgia moonshiners. Obviously a position in law enforcement was out of the question and I sure as hell wasn’t gonna be no lawyer. No, it was a life in beer that was to be my destiny. I think I’ve made the right choice.

Colby Chandler

President of the San Diego Brewers Guild. Spent time growing up as a Navy Brat at multiple locations around the United States. Lived in Japan for two years and then Hawaii for 11 years before moving to San Diego in 1994. His parents lived in the Seattle area, so this is where his habitual consumption of craft beer got it’s start. Began brewing beer in San Diego as a hobby, while employed as a national corporate trainer for Ruth’s Chris Steak House . Burnt out on 11 years of the restaurant business, he decided to go after a job he enjoyed, instead of one for money. Colby has been the General Manager and a Brewer for Home Brew Mart / Ballast Point Brewing Company for the past 11 years. With the opening of the new Ballast Point Production Brewery at Scripps Ranch, he remains the General Manager of Home Brew Mart and his brewing duties have switched over to mostly specialty brews. Colby is also a Certified BJCP Judge. San Diego has some of the best beers in the world and Colby is happy to be a part of this great San Diego brewing community.

Doug Duffield

Assistant Brewer at Ballast Point

Team Home Brew Mart (He will teach you how to Homebrew)

Member of QUAFF

National Award Winning Homebrewer

Yuseff Cherney

Head Brewer

I started out as a home brewer in 1991 and began brewing professionally in 1996 with Ballast Point Brewing Company. Ballast Point’s production facility in Scripps Ranch is my home.

Alex Culver

Alexander Culver
Brewery Assistant

“Ballast Point is the greatest place to work. Everyday I am able to follow in the footsteps of my greatest brewery heroes: Norm Peterson, Homer Simpson, and Peter Griffin. Stop by our Old Grove location and get hooked on San Diego’s number one microbrewery!” 
(Voted number one by me and anyone else who has tasted our beer!)

Ryan Glenn

Distribution Manager/Brewer

I just want to give all these guys a big hug for being so good at what they do.

John Maino

James Murray

Started working for Ballast Point in early 2005 as a brewery assistant. In late 2005 was taken under the wing of Yuseff Cherney as an Assistant Brewer and later became a Brewer. I have been professionally brewing for the better part of 2 years. I love beer, drinking it, brewing it, and doing all i can to help "The Scene."

Shawn Dewitt

Shawn Dewitt

Vice President of the San Diego Brewers Guild

I am a founding partner of Coronado Brewing Company and have been brewing for Coronado since our opening in Aug. of 1996.  I began my brewing career learning to brew at the old La Jolla Brewing Company in 1995.

Contact Shawn at

shawnetti4@sbcglobal.net

Sean Farrell

Brewer

I was introduced to the world of Brewing through Charlie Bamforths brewing classes while enrolled as an undergrad at UC Davis. I gave up an engineering career for the Stone bottling line and have since been blessed to be a brewer in my hometown of Coronado.

Chris Finch

 brewer / owner

contact me at cfinch@firehousebrew.com

Doug Hasker

 Head brewer / Southwest Regional  Head Brewer

Contact Doug at      dhasker@gbrestaurants.com

Chuck Silva

 As head brewer Chuck can be reached at chuck@greenflashbrew.com

Matt Johnson

Brewer

Matt Johnson currently brews for Karl Strauss Brewery Restaurant, Costa Mesa.

Matt Lee

Brewer

Paul Segura

Head Brewer

Paul Segura, the Brewmaster for Karl Strauss Brewing Company is a member of the first graduating class of the American Brewers Guild’s Intensive Craft Brewing Science and Engineering Academy. Paul has over 17 years of brewing experience and his beers have won several international medals. He has extensive knowledge in brewing most of the classic beer styles including British, Belgian, German, and American.

Segura has been with Karl Strauss Brewing Company for over 8 years and has been the Brewmaster for the last year. Before joining the Karl Strauss team, Paul had been Head Brewer at Hang Ten Brewing Company as well as Hops! Bistro and Brewery. Since coming to Karl Strauss, he has been Involved in the production of roughly 500,000 kegs of beer. His responsibilities include overseeing the brewing staff, quality control, raw material procurement, production scheduling, beer training, and all other beer-related issues for the company.

Paul has a deep passion for good beer and brewing techniques, and loves exploring all the possibilities of pairing beer and food. Paul is married and has two young daughters.

Matt Walsh

Senior Brewer

Nolan Clark

Brewer

Castle Park Highschool Graduate, Fell in love with the many flavors of beer at a young age. Born and raised in Chula Vista California now 24 yrs old.

Other then the love for beer, I love making music and drinking beer while doing it.

Ian Young

Brewer

Born and raised in San Diego, Ian Young grew up with a rich culture of music and beer. He found out as a young man that he wanted to persue these creative beauties of life. Beer and Music, became his life. He continues to spread good vibes and good beer which has surfaced from his San Diego roots.

"support your local brewery"

Kaiao Archer

Brewer

Pat Korn

 Contact Pat, the head brewer, at mrpatkorn@hotmail.com .

Jim Crute

I came into brewing beer from a different direction than most brewers. When I was a graduate student in Biochemistry I started brewing my own beer to enjoy better beer than was commonly available and to save on my budget. There was an activation barrier to getting started. However, on thinking if primitive man could make beer under Bronze Age conditions, modern man should be able to do the same in his kitchen. I also thought that since I knew the basics of enzymology and fermenation biology I should be most of the way there.

I wound up making a lot of ales. these included big malty beers, not so malty beers, bitter beers, not bitter enough beers. In a sense, a fairly broad spectrum. So, I brewed beer through graduate school, as a postdoctoral fellow, for most of the time I was a project leader at an East Coast pharmaceutical company, and when I moved to San Diego for a department head position at a local biotech company. When the industry contracted and on deciding to make a lateral career change, I though that brewing could be a way to go. It had a few things going for it in San Diego: 1. There was a clear recognition of microbrewery beer as a premium beverage, 2. most breweries focused on a subset of what I would call the full spectrum of beer styles, and there was an established community of great brewers that could point me towards good suppliers and services. Probably the biggest thing was that my wife fully supported my change in career. Her response was that she has seen me do things in the science trade that no one else had been able to pull off and was equally sure that if it was possible to do the same in the beer industry, I would be able to do it.

The first step in starting the Lightning Brewery was a combination of developing the brewing skills necessary for making distinctive beers and some market research. For the first part, I focused on brewing beer at home as a full time job. The goal was to develop recipes that could be translated to the anticipated brewery at the same time as figuring our which beers to make.

I found that there was a number of West Coast-style IPAs and Belgian beers made in town, but not many lagers, in general, or German styles, specifically. There were also not many true to form UK style Ales. Well that was where I started with making and refining recipes for German-style Pilsner, Kolsch, and Hefeweizen. I also further refined my recipes for what used to be “Jim’s American Amber,” a traditional Pale Ale, and a big, malty porter. Both were favorites of many of my friends since being in school. That may not seem like a lot, but it was a lot of iterative work getting to know the specifics of brewing from straight malted grain and modestly changing formulas to get better results.

Those beers became the first beers made at the brewery: Elemental Pilsner, Lightning Kolsch-style Ale, Thunderweizen Ale, American Amber Ale, Fair Weather Pale Ale, and Black Lightning Porter. There have been a few new seasonal varieties since then, but that year a home save an inordinate amount of hair pulling at the brewery proper.

The fairly novel modification we have made at the Brewery is to include step mashing and decoction mashing as brewing options. We purchased standard equipment that we had modified by a local welder to allow for heating of the mash. We also secured a separate vessel for boiling up or decocting part of the mash. That has proven very useful for making beers that are traditionally decocted and thereby improving their maltiness and finish.

Presently, I am the head brewer and president of the Brewery. That may not last forever as we expand, but you can rest assured that we areand will remain committed to making beers that are distinct from other made in San Diego County.

Prost!

Contact Jim at jim@lightningbrewery.com

Mark Purciel

Contact Mark, owner/head brewer, at mpurcy@sbcglobal.net

Joe Lisica

Joe has been the brewer at Oggi’s Pizza and Brewing Co. Carmel Mountain Ranch since early 2007, and has created several excellent seasonal brews while pumping out the regular Oggi’s favorites.

Jeff Bagby

It’s not often that you get to welcome back one of the best brewers you know. we knew two years ago when Jeff left us to become the Head Brewer at Oggis in Vista that someday, the opportunity to bring him back would arise. The time is most certainly at hand and today Pizza Port is proud to announce that Jeff Bagby has returned home and will take over the production at Pizza Port in Carlsbad.

Like other great San Diego Brewers, he is a native of this great city born and raised in North County San Diego. Jeff got his brewing start with the Stone Brewing Co. When he was hired, there were less than 10 employees in the entire company. Jeff worked his way from delivery driver to the brewery where he spent some time working with Steve and Lee and learned the lessons of production brewing. After a few years in the beer biz, Jeff headed out for greener pastures at the YMCA in Encinitas (the famous home of Tony Hawk and other great Skateboard legends).

Missing the beer world more than he imagined, Jeff soon found himself working for White Labs in San Diego . This company supplies liquid yeast to both professional and home brewers around the world. During his stay at White Labs, Jeff began working with Tomme in Solana Beach and soon was hired to work full time in the brewery with him. During his stay in Solana Beach , Jeff and Tomme developed many of the experimental and rotating seasonal ales that are on tap each and every day.

In 2003 a great brewing opportunity with Oggis arose and Jeff left for his first Head Brewing position. Two months later, he won his first solo GABF medal (Sweet Spot Hefeweizen). In the spring, Oggis and Left Coast received the 2004 World Beer Cup Small Brewery of the Year award and Jeff contributed two of the three beers that won medals at this competition.

Jeff has his sights set on winning a GABF Brewpub of the Year award and we most definitely believe it is in his future as well. Jeff Bagby can be reached at jeff@pizzaport.com

Ignacio Cervantes

Brandon Edwards

Date of Birth- April 11, 1983

Start of Employment with Pizza Port- September of 2003

Job(s) Held with Pizza Port- Pizza Builder, Dough pro, Bartender, Manager, Beer Delivery Guy, “THE’s” Brewery Bitch

Current Job Title- Brewer Pizza Port Carlsbad

Previous work experience outside of Pizza Port- Brookstone(cell tower manufacturing), Wharehouse music, Beer, Beer and More Beer- Homebrew Supplies and Spandex Model.

Place of Birth-Concord, CA.

Interesting places you have visited- Kuai, Oahu, and TJ which is always interesting when I am there.

Beer philosophy- Just eyeball it.

Favorite brewery other than Pizza Port-Too close to call

Favorite Type(s) of beer- All kinds depending on the day.  A 40 of Mickeys fine malt liquor can be nice.

Favorite Pizza Port Beer(s) and Why-Doc Mason’s XPA- Refreshing and balanced, Dawn Patrol on Cask summer 2004- simply amazing.

A memorable Pizza Port experience- The Synergy Bottling trip of 2005 when Fozzy was wandering the streets of San Francisco with a bottle of Champagne in his hand while Greg was getting bounced around in the van with empty and full kegs.

Your goals as an employee of the greatest brewery in the world- Make great beer and lots of it.  To have more beers on tap then Solana Beach at all times and someday win more awards than “The” Tomme Arthur, Piss off Greg, Educate and contribute to the beer community.

Hobbies- Creating music and cinema.

Pets and Pet Peeves- Only pet peeves MTV, Flakiness, people who think dancing is cool

Other interesting things that people should know about you-  I invented the Chainsaw as a means of controlling the over seeding of pine trees.

Yiga Miyashiro

Greg Peters

Greg Peters    Head Brewer  - Solana Beach

Greg came to Pizza Port in 2003 as a restaurant manager at our Solana Beach location. During his two years in Solana Beach , Greg also was responsible for beer ordering and deliveries for Port Brewing. Greg broke into the beer and pizza scene in Davis, CA. at Woodstock ’s Pizza.
Greg has been a vital part of Pizza Port and Port Brewing for the last two years and decided that a change of scenery (away from the daily restaurant grind) to the brewery would be good for him.

Like many Pizza Port employees, Greg enjoys overhead surf, playing guitar and horticulture. He and some of our employees play in a band and we wish them all the best in the future. Greg Peters can be reached at greg@pizzaport.com

Tomme Arthur

A native San Diegan, Tomme returned home to San Diego in 1995 after earning his Bachelor of Arts in English from Northern Arizona University where he cultivated his passion for brewing. In March of 1996, Tomme began his professional brewing career at the now defunct Cervecerias La Cruda (The Hangover Brewery) in downtown San Diego. Working under the guidance of Troy Hojel, Tomme developed his passion for brewing flavor driven beers. The two brewers worked on many new recipes and processes that Tomme still uses today. Cervecerias La Cruda earned a Gold Medal at the 1996 Great American Beer Festival and at that point it was only the second Gold Medal earned at this prestigious competition by a San Diego brewery.

After La Cruda closed it doors in March of 1997, Tomme went to work for White Labs in San Diego. Working with Chris and Lisa White, Tomme spent his days selling yeast and in product development as he waited patiently for the right brewing job to become available. In May of 1997 he was hired by Pizza Port in Solana Beach where he remained the Head Brewer until June of 2005 when he was named Director of Brewery Operations for Pizza Port and Port Brewing Co.

During his tenure in Solana Beach, Tomme earned the respect of his brewing peers and the community of beer enthusiasts for his unwavering commitment to great beer and the promotion of San Diego as a great beer town. Along with Tom Nickel and Jeff Bagby, he founded the San Diego Strong and Real Ale Festivals which have become synonymous with good beer and good cheer in San Diego. These annual events take place at the Pizza Port in Carlsbad. In 2001 they added the 12 Hour Belgian Beer Party to the list of events which take place each year.

In addition to promoting San Diego as a great beer city, Tomme worked to create the most unique beers at the Pizza Port in Solana Beach. His ongoing experiments included oak aging of beers, using fruits, herbs and spices along with numerous wild yeasts and micro-organisms. Each of these experiments further emboldened Tomme to try new processes and even some time honored processes (like barrel aging) as he and the brewers of Pizza Port Solana Beach sought to make the most interesting beers possible.

In their quest to be innovative, they created beers like Cuvee de Tomme- named the 2001 Malt Advocate Domestic Beer of the Year. Other beers like Hop 15, SPF 8 and SPF 45 Saison became highly anticipated seasonal releases. Old Viscosity was brewed to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of the San Diego Strong Ale Festival. In 2002 Late Harvest was produced blending elements of wine and beer making as the brewers used fresh Carignagne Grapes for a unique twist. More recently, Mo Betta Bretta became the first 100% Brettanomyces fermented beer produced in the United States. As more oak barrels were added, new beers were released. Two of these beers Le Woody and Le Woody Brune will be recreated as part of the Non Denominational line of Lost Abbey Beers.

During the 8 plus years that Tomme was the Head Brewer in Solana Beach, the brewery won 13 Great American Beer Festival Medals, numerous medals at the Chicago Real Ale Festival as well as other regional and national competitions. In 2003 and 2004 Pizza Port Solana Beach was named Small Brewpub Brewery of the Year. Tomme Arthur was also named Small Brewpub Brewer of the year for 2003 and 2004.

Tomme remains the Director of Brewery Operations for Port Brewing and will oversee the brewery operations for The Lost Abbey serving as the Head Brewer for this entity as well.

He can be reached at:
Tomme@lostabbey.com

Marty Mendiola

Marty Mendiola

Hometown
Ravenna, OH

Personal Background
BS Business California State University, Chico ’92

Master Brewers Program, UC Davis ’97

Associate Member Institute of Brewing
Member MBAA

How I Got Started Crafting Beer
Attending college in Chico, CA got me hooked on Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. When I graduated, I started home brewing while working at a brew pub. After the beer program at UC Davis and working as an assistant at the Walnut Brewery in Denver, I have ended up back in San Diego where I was raised.

Brewing Philosophy
As silly as it may sound, I do not brew beers so that everyone will like all of my beers. Instead, I try to brew clean tasting beers that are true to the original style, while adding a little personal creativity.

Favorite Quote
"Give a man a beer and he’s happy for a day. Teach a man to brew and he will be happy for a lifetime.”

Awards
2000 Great American Beer Festival:
*Gold - Bumble Beer Honey Ale
*Bronze - Ragtop Red Ale
2002 World Beer Cup:
*Bronze - Bumble Beer Honey Ale
2004 World Beer Cup:
*Gold - Black Sheep ESB

Dean Rouleau

I’m a gypsy brewer who’s found a home! Contact me at pubbrewer@hotmail.com