Last month, The Bell Marker debuted in the former home of defunct Gaslamp Quarter brewpub, The Beer Co. While little was known about the project leading up to its opening, one solitary fact created a great deal of optimism for fans of San Diego beer: Noah Regnery was helming brewing operations.
Regnery is well known locally for the many award-winning beers he crafted while a member of the Pizza Port brewpub chain. The highlight of his success with that organization was winning Small Brewpub of the Year for its San Clemente location at the 2010 Great American Beer Festival (GABF). He left the company in 2011 to become head brewer at Hollister Brewing Company in Goleta, California. Following that, he moved to Healdsburg to help run his family’s restaurant before accepting a director position with Los Angeles-based Artisanal Brewers Collective, the parent company of The Bell Marker.
Today, news broke that another key member of the Pizza Port team is joining The Bell Marker brewing team. Ignacio “Nacho” Cervantes has resigned from the company he spent the past 11 years at to assist Regnery. It’s a high-profile move for a high-profile brewer who previously oversaw Pizza Port’s Carlsbad and Ocean Beach brewpubs.
During his tenure with Pizza Port, Cervantes earned gold and bronze medals at GABF as well as a pair of awards at the bi-annual international equivalent of that competition, the World Beer Cup. Acquiring this talented brewer’s services is quite the coup and will undoubtedly draw interested beer enthusiasts to the spacious downtown brewpub.