Chill Plate

Launching a brewery is difficult and risky work, so to help aspiring and newly-minted brewery operators, we pulled together a top-tier crew of industry vets for the San Diego edition of the Brewery Workshop: Brewery Accelerator. This four-day event included technical tours of breweries, seminars, hands-on learning sessions, brewery business plan pitch slams, and (of course) plenty of great Southern California beer. Above, a few highlights: 1. Curtis and Liz Chism of Council Brewing squeeze every drop possible from their cozy 3 bbl brewhouse; 2. At the brewery finance seminar at Societe Brewing, Founder Doug Constantiner shared intimate details on the operation, while Jonathan Dale and Matt Dynice talked about finance options and Mary Brettman touched on financial management strategies; 3. BSG supplied a variety of hops to rub and explore; 4. Ray Astamendi of Fall Brewing tried to talk everyone out of starting a brewery, but attendees were unfazed, and presenters Jim Wiggins (BSG), Blake Crosby (Crosby Hops Farms), Candace Moon (the Craft Beer Attorney), Dustin Hauck (Hauck Architecture), Patty Aron (BSG), and Brian Crosby (Crosby Hops Farms) enjoyed both the beers and the inside view; 5. Ehren Schmidt of Toolbox Brewing explains how to take yeast cell counts in a hands-on session; 6. Tomme Arthur details the Lost Abbey’s barrel-aging program; 7. Patty Aron (Senior Brewing and Raw Materials Scientist for BSG) went in-depth on hops chemistry; 8. Floris Delée (Kathinka Labs) shared examples of growth challenges at the numerous breweries he’s worked for; 9. The brewery at Mike Hess Brewing’s North Park location is tight, but the group’s subterranean tour with Mike culminated in a brew deck finale; Special thanks to our sponsors BSG, Ruby Street Brewing, Ss Brewtech, and Kathinka Labs for the assist! For more information about this and future Brewery Accelerator events, visit breweryworkshop.com