{"id":16188,"date":"2017-01-10T13:17:18","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T21:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=16188"},"modified":"2017-01-10T13:17:18","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T21:17:18","slug":"qa-mikkel-borg-bjergso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2017\/01\/10\/qa-mikkel-borg-bjergso\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Mikkel Borg Bjergs\u00f8"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>Owner & Brewmaster, Mikkeller Brewing San Diego<\/em><\/p>\n

Last year, 10-year Denmark-based gypsy brewer Mikkel Borg Bjergs\u00f8 <\/strong>hammered down stakes in Miramar, transforming AleSmith Brewing Co.<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s original brewery into Mikkeller Brewing San Diego<\/a><\/strong>. His brewing team spent most of 2016 getting the feel of the facility. Now that group feels ready to be more aggressive in its fermentation activities. Bjergs\u00f8 has vowed his brick-and-mortar will debut one new small-batch beer on a weekly basis<\/em> beginning January 12 <\/strong>at its tasting room with a trio of new offerings: bourbon barrel-aged Beer Geek Brunch imperial oatmeal coffee stout, Fruit Face raspberry-coffee Berliner weisse and Uklar IPA. Future \u201cSan Diego Beer Release Series\u201d debuts will take place every Saturday starting January 21<\/strong>. Keeping up with such a rapid rate of innovation and execution is no easy task. Curious about this and what it\u2019s been like for this world-famous brewer to find his feet in San Diego, we sat down with him to pick his brain.<\/p>\n

WC: What are some surprises you\u2019ve encountered in San Diego?<\/strong>
\nMikkel Borg Bjergs\u00f8: <\/strong>It’s been surprising how different the beer scene is in the U.S. compared to Europe. There are so many great players\u2014especially in San Diego\u2014and so many great beers. You really have to make an effort to stand out. I think with the new special-release series we will.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>WC: What drove the decision to release a new beer every week?<\/strong>
\nMBB: <\/strong>Brewing a lot of different beers and beer-styles is in our DNA, and it was only a matter of time before we set out to launch a similar release schedule in San Diego. At this point we have an amazing crew in place, the brewing equipment is all dialed in, and our management setup is so in\u00a0tune with our vision that we are confident now is the time.\u00a0Most people will associate us with a hectic output of beers in all styles, shapes and formats, which is exactly what they should expect. That, and the totally unexpected, of course. Having your own brewery opens up a world of possibilities that are not usually doable when working in someone else’s brewery, whether it’s contract brewing or on a collaboration basis.
\n
\nWC: What is your day-to-day involvement like regarding brewing at Mikkeller SD?<\/strong>
\nMBB: <\/strong>We’ve had to adjust to both the physical distance and time difference, but I am fortunate in the sense that I have to rely on the very capable hands of our head brewer Bill Batten<\/strong> and his team of skilled assistant brewers. It’s still my recipes and vision, which we will discuss through our daily email chains and our weekly conference-call.<\/p>\n

WC: What other interesting or exciting developments are on the horizon for Mikkeller SD?<\/strong>
\nMBB: <\/strong>There are a lot of super-exciting things under development, but the sour and barrel-aged beer programs are two projects we are putting a lot of effort into. We have such a creative team over there, and it seems that no matter how crazy the idea and\/or recipe I throw at them, they enthusiastically turn those into great beer. We are also working on new collaborations with other breweries, and non-brewers as well.<\/p>\n

WC: You\u2019ve spent more time than ever in San Diego. What are some of your favorite local breweries?<\/strong>
\nMBB: <\/strong>I hate to name favorite breweries as it pushes the rest to the side. In the San Diego area there are obviously a ton of amazing brewers, from the old guys like Stone Brewing<\/a><\/strong>, Green Flash Brewing Co.<\/a><\/strong> and Ballast Point Brewing<\/a><\/strong>, to the young guns like Abnormal Beer Co.<\/a><\/strong>, Toolbox Brewing Co.<\/a><\/strong>, Modern Times Beer Co.<\/a><\/strong> and many others. I still have a big heart for our friends at AleSmith, so if I have to name one\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Owner & Brewmaster, Mikkeller Brewing San Diego Last year, 10-year Denmark-based gypsy brewer Mikkel Borg Bjergs\u00f8 hammered down stakes in Miramar, transforming AleSmith Brewing Co.\u2019s original brewery into Mikkeller Brewing San Diego. His brewing team spent most of 2016 getting the feel of the facility. Now that group feels ready to be more aggressive in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16189,"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":[367,368,369,1],"tags":[1353,1674,865,52,376,3496,1436,3497,1289,2067,442,391,1350,2860,2632,1119,2483,1010,1348,1349,880,1006,1439,1473,1474,1832,1637],"class_list":{"0":"post-16188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-beer-events","8":"category-beer-news","9":"category-beer-styles","10":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","11":"tag-sdbeer","12":"tag-abnormal-beer","13":"tag-alesmith","14":"tag-ballast-point","15":"tag-beer","16":"tag-beer-geek-brunch","17":"tag-beeramar","18":"tag-berlienr-weisse","19":"tag-bill-batten","20":"tag-bourbon","21":"tag-brandon-hernandez","22":"tag-craftbeer","23":"tag-denmark","24":"tag-europe","25":"tag-green-flash-brewing","26":"tag-hops","27":"tag-indiebeer","28":"tag-ipa","29":"tag-mikkel-borg-bjergso","30":"tag-mikkeller","31":"tag-miramar","32":"tag-modern-times-beer","33":"tag-san-diego","34":"tag-stone-brewery","35":"tag-stone-brewing","36":"tag-toolbox-brewing","37":"tag-west-coaster","38":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/mikkel_01B.jpg?fit=625%2C1000&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-4d6","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16188","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=16188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}