{"id":18819,"date":"2017-11-14T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T16:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=18819"},"modified":"2018-04-17T11:36:29","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T18:36:29","slug":"craft-qa-carli-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2017\/11\/14\/craft-qa-carli-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Craft Q&A: Carli Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Head Brewer, Bold Missy Brewery<\/em><\/p>\n

I first met Carli Smith<\/strong> after being introduced by her mentor, Marty Mendiola<\/strong>. The former had recently resigned from his long-time post at Rock Bottom<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s La Jolla brewpub to start his own business, Second Chance Beer Company<\/strong><\/a>, and wanted me to meet the prot\u00e9g\u00e9 who would be taking over his role. (Author’s Note: Smith also apprenticed under Doug Hasker\u00a0<\/strong>at\u00a0Gordon Biersch<\/strong><\/a>‘s Mission Valley brewpub). About five minutes in, I was confident Mendiola\u2019s brewhouse was in good hands. Smith is a brewer\u2019s brewer with a passion for the history and art of beer-making that has nothing to do with the pursuit of money or stature. She just loves beer and the camaraderie of her chosen industry. During her time at Rock Bottom, she\u2019s consulted and collaborated with many local brewers while also playing a vital role in the San Diego chapter of the industry\u2019s women\u2019s-advocacy group, Pink Boots Society<\/strong><\/a>. This has led to her becoming a popular and respected figure in the local beer scene, which makes the news that she\u2019s moving cross-country to take a new position as head brewer at Charlotte, North Carolina\u2019s Bold Missy Brewery<\/strong><\/a> even harder for many to accept. But before she moves onward and eastward, we took a moment to get some details.<\/p>\n

What inspired you to move from your lifelong hometown?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m ready to try something new. About a year ago, I decided it\u2019s time to make a move. I\u2019d made some personal life changes and it got me to the point where I can be more flexible with my living arrangements. Since Rock Bottom has locations everywhere and I really enjoyed working for them, I started looking to see if there were openings at places I could transfer to. Some opportunities came about but nothing came to fruition, so I started looking outside the company. My only parameters were to go somewhere besides California, Texas or Florida\u2014I was open to pretty much anything else. I loved the Pacific Northwest and Colorado\u2014I have some family there\u2014but I only did a little research into the East Coast. But a friend of mine I grew up with in Poway moved to Charlotte four years ago and has been trying to get me to move there ever since. That\u2019s where it all started.<\/p>\n

How did you learn of the opening at Bold Missy Brewery?<\/strong>
\nThey actually found me and offered me this job a year ago. They learned of me through the membership directory on the Pink Boots Society website. They sent me an email that got caught up in my spam folder, so I didn\u2019t see it until four months later. I wasn\u2019t actively searching outside Rock Bottom at the time and I felt rude responding after so much time. But when I went to Charlotte to visit my friend recently, I decided to visit and see what I missed out on at an event they were holding. Bold Missy had opened a couple weeks before and it was a beautiful place. I figured they\u2019re open and they have a brewer so they must be happy, but then the owner got up to speak and mentioned they were still looking for a brewer and having a hard time finding someone who would relocate. She also mentioned they specifically wanted a female brewer. My friend gave them my info and they reached out again. This time I got it, spoke with the owner, did a technical brewer\u2019s interview, went out for another visit and then accepted their offer.<\/p>\n

Tell us a little about Bold Missy.<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ll be working on a 15-barrel, American-made system. They have four 15-barrel fermenters and four 15-barrel jacketed bright tanks. They\u2019re only using about 30% of their space at present so there\u2019s lots of room for expansion. The ceiling is high enough that I can put 60-barrel fermenters in there, and they have a really big tasting room with a large patio out front plus a small kitchen doing specialty hot-dogs, flatbreads, pretzels and items like that. In North Carolina, a brewery has to have at least two food items to sell beer\u2014much different from here.<\/p>\n

What are Bold Missy\u2019s current beer offerings and do you plan to change anything up?<\/strong>
\nTheir core beers are an IPA, brown ale, blonde ale and a tangerine Belgian witbier, and their names are inspired by women throughout history. The IPA is called Rocket Ride for Sally Ride, Solo Flight Brown is named for Amelia Earhart and the blonde is called Git Your Gun for Annie Oakley. I want to pull back on the extract in the wit and use tangerine peel, juice or pulp to make it all-natural. I\u2019m excited a brown is a core beer because that\u2019s my favorite style to drink and brew. Right now, it\u2019s American-style, but I\u2019ve talked to them about doing an English-style brown ale instead. Barbecue is huge in Charlotte, so I want to brew my smoked porter out there. I also want to try to bring some West Coast flair and West Coast-style IPAs. There are lots of hazy IPAs in the market out there, so I want to introduce clean, clarified beer and show them that can be hoppy and “juicy,” too.<\/p>\n

Do you plan to remain involved with Pink Boots Society?<\/strong>
\nPink Boots has a state chapter in North Carolina but there aren\u2019t lots of city chapters yet. I think after I get settled I may look into trying to put together a city chapter. I really enjoyed helping to make San Diego\u2019s chapter very educational and empowering with monthly get-togethers where you\u2019re learning something new, advancing knowledge or sharing something with other members.<\/p>\n

Do you have any parting words for your many friends in San Diego?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m so excited but I\u2019m going to miss everybody terribly. What\u2019s great is that twice-a-year we have big national get-togethers\u2014the Craft Brewers Conference and Great American Beer Festival\u2014so I\u2019ll see everyone there. And I\u2019m really excited that Dan Anderson<\/strong> is taking over for me at Rock Bottom La Jolla. I know he\u2019s going to do an amazing job and put out some really great beers. A big plus for our regulars who enjoy Belgian-style beers is that there\u2019ll be more of them now than when I worked there because he actually likes them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Head Brewer, Bold Missy Brewery I first met Carli Smith after being introduced by her mentor, Marty Mendiola. The former had recently resigned from his long-time post at Rock Bottom\u2019s La Jolla brewpub to start his own business, Second Chance Beer Company, and wanted me to meet the prot\u00e9g\u00e9 who would be taking over his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":18848,"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":[368,4905,1],"tags":[1353,4466,4465,376,4462,442,877,3742,1918,4464,4463,390,4461,262,3624,263,2483,1946,275,1504,4384,521,1052,4467,1439,1947,4468,2683,1637],"class_list":{"0":"post-18819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-beer-news","8":"category-craft-qa","9":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","10":"tag-sdbeer","11":"tag-amelia-earhart","12":"tag-annie-oakley","13":"tag-beer","14":"tag-bold-missy","15":"tag-brandon-hernandez","16":"tag-california","17":"tag-carli-smith","18":"tag-carmel-mountain","19":"tag-carolina","20":"tag-charlotte","21":"tag-craft-beer","22":"tag-dan-anderson","23":"tag-doug-hasker","24":"tag-florida","25":"tag-gordon-biersch","26":"tag-indiebeer","27":"tag-la-jolla","28":"tag-marty-mendiola","29":"tag-mission-valley","30":"tag-north-carolina","31":"tag-pink-boots-society","32":"tag-rock-bottom","33":"tag-sally-ride","34":"tag-san-diego","35":"tag-second-chance-beer","36":"tag-texas","37":"tag-utc","38":"tag-west-coaster","39":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/carlismith_01.jpg?fit=700%2C750&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-4Tx","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18819","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=18819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}