{"id":12682,"date":"2016-02-03T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T16:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=12682"},"modified":"2016-01-21T09:14:24","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T17:14:24","slug":"qa-mike-sardina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2016\/02\/03\/qa-mike-sardina\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Mike Sardina"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"San<\/a>
San Diego Brewers Guild president Mike Sardina (Photo: Matthew “Fuj” Scher)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

President, San Diego Brewers Guild<\/em><\/p>\n

Each year, the San Diego Brewers Guild<\/a> <\/strong>elevates a member of the local brewing industry to the role of president. Unlike the American presidency, candidate selection comes without muckraking, spouting of platitudes or child-like behavior. The Guild is all for one and one for all, with this year\u2019s one-for-all being Mike Sardina<\/strong>. The assistant executive officer for Kearny Mesa\u2019s Societe Brewing Company<\/strong><\/a>, Sardina volunteered for the position, serving first as vice president under last year\u2019s leader, Kevin Hopkins <\/strong>(Mother Earth Brew Co.<\/strong><\/a>) to get a feel for the position before taking it on. A trip to the SDBG\u2019s oval office resulted in the following presidential interview outlining some of Sardina\u2019s initiatives for 2016.<\/p>\n

What inspired you to throw your hat in the ring for Guild presidency?<\/strong>
\nMike Sardina: <\/strong>Even before I transitioned into the industry, I was a fan of the beer community and the camaraderie among the brewers here in San Diego. Coming down here from San Francisco to visit and explore all-things-beer, it was clear that the Guild played a big role in making San Diego a magical place for beer. After I joined Societe, I started attending Guild meetings. At an early meeting, I saw (California Craft Brewers Association<\/a> <\/strong>executive director) Tom McCormick <\/strong>present his legislative update and I knew then and there that I wanted to be as involved as possible with the Guild to help promote San Diego beer and the interests of local brewers. This led me to the Board of Directors and into the position of vice president in 2015.<\/p>\n

What does being president of the Guild entail?<\/strong>
\nMS: <\/strong>There are many facets to the position, but it\u00a0ultimately\u00a0comes down to working as hard as possible at every opportunity to achieve the mission of the Guild, which was founded in 1997 in order to promote San Diego breweries, create an open line of communication between brewers and advocate for more modern beer laws.\u00a0I am involved with fielding media inquiries, hosting folks from out of town and sharing my favorite San Diego breweries with beer tourists.\u00a0I host the Guild’s general meetings and organize formal and informal meetings between brewers.\u00a0I also work on legislative issues facing brewers at the local, state and national levels.<\/p>\n

What are some initiatives you are excited to introduce and work on?<\/strong>
\nMS: <\/strong>I am excited to push harder this year to get more people involved and working collectively toward advancing the idea and the story of San Diego beer.\u00a0Two specific areas of interest are establishing working committees within the Guild, one that focuses on technical brewing and quality, and another that focuses on beer tourism, hospitality and marketing the concept of “San Diego beer” at the national level. I fully believe that if we all focus on quality beer and technical brewing proficiency at each San Diego brewery, and if we all focus on promoting San Diego and the incredible beers being brewed here, we can help our county\u00a0achieve\u00a0the recognition that it deserves as being the best beer city in the world.<\/p>\n

What are some opportunities for success for local brewers that the Guild can help with?<\/strong>
\nMS: <\/strong>Getting exposure for breweries, introducing beer drinkers to their beers and stories.\u00a0The Guild publishes the San Diego Brewers map<\/a><\/strong>, an important resource and tool to help promote beer tourism and brewery visits in San Diego.\u00a0Third is San Diego Beer Week<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0Get involved with the Guild during San Diego’s biggest annual celebration of beer.\u00a0SDBW should be a highlight for beer brewed and poured locally, and the brewers and bars here are directly responsible for that.<\/p>\n

What is a major problem facing local brewers?<\/strong>
\nMS: <\/strong> First and foremost is beer quality.\u00a0If you’re not brewing good beer, that is an issue, and you are doing a disservice to the entire community in San Diego.\u00a0We can’t accept bad (or even mediocre) beer.\u00a0 If we want San Diego beer to be representative of the best beers in the world, then every brewery here needs to be brewing world-class beer. Fortunately, there are members of the Guild who are willing and able to help fix quality issues.\u00a0Be open and honest about your beer and don’t be afraid to ask for help.\u00a0One bad glass of San Diego beer reflects poorly on us all. Don’t cut corners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President, San Diego Brewers Guild Each year, the San Diego Brewers Guild elevates a member of the local brewing industry to the role of president. Unlike the American presidency, candidate selection comes without muckraking, spouting of platitudes or child-like behavior. The Guild is all for one and one for all, with this year\u2019s one-for-all being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[368,1],"tags":[1353,376,442,1562,2384,1046,390,926,2038,1375,1161,1439,909,276,1637],"class_list":{"0":"post-12682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-beer-news","7":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","8":"tag-sdbeer","9":"tag-beer","10":"tag-brandon-hernandez","11":"tag-brewers-guild","12":"tag-california-craft-brewers","13":"tag-ccba","14":"tag-craft-beer","15":"tag-kearny-mesa","16":"tag-kevin-hopkins","17":"tag-mike-sardina","18":"tag-mother-earth","19":"tag-san-diego","20":"tag-san-diego-beer-week","21":"tag-societe","22":"tag-west-coaster","23":"entry","24":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-3iy","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}