Mission Valley The new Milwaukee!

(Mission Valley News, San Diego, CA) – San Diego has now become
ground zero for a new craft beer revolution, and Mission Valley is
home to some of San Diego’s best brewmasters. Dean Rouleau is the
beermaster at San Diego Brewing Company, one of the original local
breweries. Located at Mission Gorge Road and Friars, San Diego
Brewing Company has been brewing top-notch beer for almost 20
years. Dean Rouleau has been beermaster for 6 years and spends most
of his time amid the chilled stainless-steel beer vats located in
the brewing room. This is where the magic happens and it usually
takes around 7-10 days to produce a batch.

Dean’s Grandfather and Uncle were beermasters, so for him, it’s
literally in his blood. After a stint at the Siebel Institute in
Chicago where he enrolled in the master brewer program, he then
traveled the globe setting up brewing operations and learning
different styles of beermaking. Dean’s favorite style of beer are
the thick English ales and his recipe won best of show at the
Campaign For Real Ale competition in London. Says Rouleau, “For a
scrappy young American to go to London and win Best of Show was
really validating for me”. Later a visiting Bill Clinton came by
and had a glass of his beer. Jolly good show!

Dean’s awards do not stop there, he won a gold medal at the 2008
World Beer Cup for his “Hopnotic IPA”. San Diego’s brewers have
begun a love affair with IPAs which stands for India Pale Ale. This
is considered a very “hoppy” beer because of the blast of hop
flavor upfront. Hops are used to flavor ales and the acids and oils
in the hops can produce all sorts of exotic flavors. Dean says that
hops from different areas of the world produce different nuances.
American hops have citrus notes, while German hops have spicy
nuances. New Zealand hops have a tropical mango/guava hint while
Japanese hops are floral. San Diego Brewing Company is the largest
user of local hops which come from The Star B Ranch in Ramona.
Ramona has discovered that grape vines and hops flourish in the
climate, which is good news for San Diego drinkers. Dean likes
ordering the hops local because they arrive whole instead of
processed into pellets. He says whole hops produce a much coveted
floral/rose nose that pellets cannot.

John Wilson is the beermaster at Oggi’s in Mission Valley and also
does work for Green Flash Brewery. Like many local beermasters,
John got his start home-brewing beer with the help of the Whole
Earth Catalog. With experience as a kitchen manager and a
certificate from American Brewers Guild online, he landed an
internship with Tommy Arthur of Pizza Port. Pizza Port is one of
San Diego’s local brewing pioneers and now have several locations
across San Diego. Like many local brewers, he gets his hops from
Hop Union which is a major hop supplier located up in Washington.
John prefers bright clean pilsners as opposed to dark or hoppy
beers. John’s hefeweizen is the best I’ve tasted this side of
Bavaria!

Douglas Hasker is the beermaster at Gordon Biersch Brewery in
Mission Valley. Gordon Biersch was founded in Palo Alto back in
1990 by Dan Gordon and Dean Biersch. Dean had a degree in
hospitality and Dan had studied beermaking in Munich, Germany. This
resulted in Gordon Biersch adopting a very Bavarian style of beer
making which focuses on lagers. Doug started off as a graphic
artist and bar-tended on the side. He learned home brewing from
Dean Biersch himself and joined the Gordon Biersch from the get-go.
After opening a few restaurants up north, Doug was asked where he’d
like to live, and Gordon Biersch San Diego was put into effect.
Gordon Biersch features German style lagers such as Bock, Marzen,
and Schwarzbier.

The beer making community in San Diego is a tight knit group, and
all the beermasters know each other. As I was interviewing Doug,
Yiga Miyashiro head brewmaster at Pizza Port Ocean Beach walked in
with a growler of his latest creation which he called Ocean Beach
Chronic. Doug worked his way up from a delivery driver to assistant
brewer at the Solona Beach and Carlsbad locations. Yiga says their
are sixteen beers on tap at at Pizza Port in which four are shared
company recipes. This leaves twelve recipes that Pizza Port lets
Yiga come up with on his own. Yiga thrives on this creative freedom
and says as far as a beermaster goes, he’s hit the jackpot!