Crafting the Perfect Brew

Photos by Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego Publications

UC San Diego alumni help lead San Diego’s growing microbrew industry

George Thornton made his first batch of beer at his sister’s apartment, using the spare bedroom to store the fermenting ale. Today, the UC San Diego alumnus is the owner of The Homebrewer in North Park, a supply store and educational resource for both beginning and advanced homebrewers. Here, customers can choose from a variety of hops, yeast, grains, additives and equipment, as well as participate in classes taught by fellow homebrewers. Next year, Thornton will open a small production brewery and tasting room next door.

Thornton is one of many UC San Diego graduates involved in the booming craft beer industry in San Diego. Many of the region’s breweries—from Ballast Point and AleSmith to Rough Draft and Benchmark Brewing—got their start from homebrew operations.

Jeff Silver, a 1994 UC San Diego graduate, opened Rough Draft Brewing Company in 2012 after a career in finance and nearly 20 years of homebrewing as a hobby.

“We have a very strong homebrew community in San Diego,” said Silver. “I think that’s one of the reasons the industry has thrived here.”

Local Brews with UC San Diego Ties

UC San Diego alumni are involved in some of San Diego’s most notable craft beer companies. Following is a sampling of places where you can raise a glass and toast the work of fellow Tritons.

AleSmith Brewing Company – Lead brewer Anthony Chen graduated from UC San Diego in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in history. Known for artisan ales in a variety of styles, the microbrewery’s most recent release pays tribute to the late Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres. Alesmith is releasing limited quantities of its San Diego Pale Ale .394, a beer brewed with input from Gwynn before he passed away.

Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits – Yuseff Cherney, a 1992 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, is the chief operations officer, head brewer and co-founding distiller of Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits. One of the earliest craft breweries in San Diego, Ballast Point Brewing was opened in 1992 by Cherney and Jack White, the founder of the supply store Home Brew Mart. After a decade of growth on the beer side, Cherney and White decided to take on a new challenge: distilling. Ballast Point now makes seven spirits, all made and bottled in Scripps Ranch.

Benchmark Brewing – Matt Akin graduated from UC San Diego in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Today, he is the brewmaster and co-founder of Benchmark Brewing in Grantville. A passionate homebrewer, Akin began his pursuit of a career as a professional brewer at AleSmith, where he worked his way up from scrubbing kegs to head brewer. Benchmark Brewing opened in 2013 and makes five different beers available year-round, as well as “occasional” and “celebration” beers. The company also shares its experimental recipes for homebrewers to try on their own.

The Homebrewer – George Thornton graduated from UC San Diego in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in history and opened The Homebrewer in 2012. Located in North Park, the store provides supplies for both beginners and experienced homebrewers. It also serves as an educational resource, providing classes and literature for both those who make beer at home and those who simply want to learn more about the beverage they enjoy. By early next year, The Homebrewer plans to open a small production brewery and tasting room.

Rough Draft Brewing Company – Jeff Silver is the owner of Rough Draft Brewing Company and a 1994 alumnus. He earned his bachelor’s degree in cognitive science at UC San Diego, then his business degree at UC Irvine. After a career in finance and nearly two decades of homebrewing experience, Silver opened Rough Draft in Mira Mesa. The company embraces customer feedback, trying out new brews in the tasting room before deciding which are put into distribution.

Stone Brewing – Chris Chochran, who graduated from UC San Diego in 1990, was brought on as Stone Brewing’s community relations manager in 2001. San Diego’s largest craft beer provider, Stone is recognized as much for its iconic marketing and design as it is for making premier ales. Founded in 1996, the company now has two breweries, one in Escondido and one at Liberty Station in Point Loma, as well as company stores in South Park, Oceanside and Little Italy. Next, they plan to open a brewery in Berlin, Germany.

White Labs Pure Yeast and Fermentation – Alumnus Chris White, who holds a doctorate in chemistry and biochemistry from UC San Diego, is the founder of White Labs. White opened the company in 1995 to manufacture yeast cultures and provide fermentation services to the brewing, wine and distilling industries. Headquartered in Miramar, the company provides access to a variety of fresh yeast strands for San Diego brewers. At the 2014 Great American Beer Festival held in Colorado, 48 percent of the medal winners were customers of White Labs.

The craft beer revolution

President Jimmy Carter paved the way for the craft beer revolution in 1978 when he signed H.R. 1337 into law, allowing any adult to produce up to 100 gallons of beer or wine per year for local consumption. Not long after came the rise of homebrewing operations, some of which grew into commercial craft breweries. In San Diego, Karl Strauss Brewing Company became the city’s first commercial craft brewery when it opened in 1989.

Since then, the region’s craft beer industry has grown exponentially. Today, there are nearly 100 breweries throughout the county. A study last year by the National University System Institute for Policy Research estimated that in 2011, San Diego craft breweries generated $299.5 million direct regional economic impact, as well as $680.9 million in sales. To put that number in perspective, Comic-Con International generates a $180 million regional economic impact, the report stated.

Two UC San Diego alumni have played a significant role in the local rise of craft brewing: Yuseff Cherney, a 1992 graduate, and Chris White, a 1996 doctoral graduate. Cherney and White met on campus, when Cherney was teaching a homebrewing class at the Crafts Center and White, a graduate student in the department of chemistry and biochemistry, attended one of his first classes. They collaborated as homebrewers before each started their own projects.

White founded White Labs in 1995 to manufacture yeast cultures and provide fermentation services to brewing, wine and distilling industries. The enterprise has given San Diego brewers access to a variety of fresh yeast, encouraging experimentation on the traditional styles of beer.

Cherney teamed up with Home Brew Mart’s Jack White to open Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits in 1996—one of the region’s earliest craft breweries. From a “back room” brewery out of Home Brew Mart, Ballast Point has expanded to a larger production facility in Scripps Ranch and has opened a new brewery, restaurant and tasting room in Little Italy.

The science of beer

Making craft beer is both a science and an art. Like chefs, brewers use precise recipes and then tinker with different variations to come up with their own styles and new creations. It takes a combination of experimentation and experience to know how each ingredient and variable will influence the final result.

To do that well, an understanding of the chemistry and biology that turns barley, yeast, water and hops into a tasty brew is a must.

“Understanding the flavors is one level, understanding what each ingredient is contributing to the process of making the beer at a molecular level is a whole other level,” said Matt Akin, a 2003 graduate and co-founder of Benchmark Brewing.

“Successful brewers have notebooks full of records of everything from pH at 10 stages in the process of beer-making to what the finished beer smelled like. The synthesis of all of that data into an understanding of how to repeat the process and improve upon it next time requires both science and art.”

Silver, who earned his bachelor’s degree in cognitive science, noted that the science and math classes he took at UC San Diego provided a good background for the art of beer-making. Thornton, who majored in history as an undergraduate before opening The Homebrewer, agrees. “Any good brewer knows that understanding the biology is very important to quality and consistency in beer.”

Research and education are a core part of Thornton’s vision for The Homebrewer. He plans to use their new production brewery to experiment with variations on recipes and collect data that will be a resource to his business, as well as to fellow homebrewers. That could mean trying different strands of yeast or varieties of hops to change the flavor profile of a particular beer—which customers could then sample side-by-side in the tasting room. Thornton also envisions more subtle experiments.

“We might change the number of yeast cells used, or amount of dissolved oxygen—changes that customers wouldn’t notice in the results, but that brewers know are important for consistency and quality.”

From UC San Diego to brewery and back

Today, UC San Diego alumni-crafted beer can be found on tap at campus eateries such as Home Plate, Round Table Pizza and Porter’s Pub. Alumni brewers are also coming back to campus to help train the next generation of industry leaders.

In 2013, UC San Diego Extension began offering its Brewing Certificate program, designed to provide academic and practical training for entry-level brewing professionals. Alumni including Cherney (Ballast Point) and White (White Labs), as well as brewers from Stone, Rock Bottom, Karl Strauss and others, are among the program advisors and instructors. Students take courses ranging from “Yeast and Fermentation Processes” and “Wort Production and Recipe Formulation” to “Technology of Brewing.” The program also includes business curriculum to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to administer the financial and managerial operations of a brewery.

“Craft beer is growing rapidly, so I’m very glad that UC San Diego has started a program to educate people who are looking to get into the industry,” said Akin. “For quite a while, many of the people trying to get in had no experience or education and it made hiring and growing difficult. Now, with the flow of well-educated people entering the workforce, we are going to be able to grow even faster.”

From homebrewers experimenting in their kitchens to established professionals who are training the next generation, UC San Diego alumni are playing a large role in the growth of San Diego’s craft beer industry. It turns out, a campus steeped in science and research is also a fertile training ground for making good beer.

“I never imagined I would be doing this when I was in school,” said Silver. “To come back to campus and see Rough Draft on tap is pretty wild.”