{"id":22158,"date":"2019-04-23T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T15:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=22158"},"modified":"2019-04-23T07:59:06","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T14:59:06","slug":"my-yard-lives-new-head-brewer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2019\/04\/23\/my-yard-lives-new-head-brewer\/","title":{"rendered":"Craft Q&A: Benjamin “Shaggy” Blaney"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last October, the team behind a family-friendly brewpub project called My Yard Live<\/a><\/strong>, announced they were taking over a former Hometown Buffet in San Marcos. Included in the announcement was information about the veteran San Diego brewer they had hired to lead their brewing efforts. That individual was former Green Flash Brewing<\/a> <\/strong>brewer and barrel master, Pat Korn<\/strong>, who came to the operation with more than 20 years of experience, but ended up departing in January when he and ownership didn\u2019t see eye-to-eye. That set the My Yard Live team on a search for someone to fill his boots. Turns out they only had to look across the 78 freeway, as they have brought on Benjamin \u201cShaggy\u201d Blaney<\/strong>, who most recently served as director of brewery operations for 3 Local Brothers\u2019 <\/strong>brewing arm, Mason Ale Works<\/a><\/strong>, which is based at Urge Common House<\/a><\/strong> in San Marcos. Prior to that, he worked five years at Port Brewing<\/a><\/strong> \/ The Lost Abbey<\/a><\/strong> \/ The Hop Concept<\/a><\/strong>, less than a mile east of his new digs. We asked San Marcos\u2019 most well-traveled brewer about his new job and what to expect when My Yard Live opens this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It had only been a month since you took on the head role at your\nlast job. What inspired you to make this move?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having commissioned the brewhouse\nat the San Marcos location for Mason Ale Works, it was definitely a hard decision\nto make. I had a lot of fun working over there, but we were definitely moving\nmore towards a production brewery style, which I\u2019m just kind of burnt out on. I\nwas really attracted to the idea of essentially being a pub brewer again. I\nthink the hardest part about leaving Mason was the fact that (former director\nof brewery operations) Matt Webster<\/strong>\nand I started a killer sour program over there in the last year and this will\nbe the year that a lot of them will be ready. The My Yard Live guys all have a\npretty solid pedigree of business success, so I don\u2019t think we\u2019re gonna have\nany problem proving this concept will work\u2026as long as I can make some good\nbeers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are you most enthused about regarding your new role?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the most exciting\u2014and intimidating\u2014part\nof this project is the idea of creating something completely new and trying to\nput our mark out there. The idea of starting with a blank template and running\nwith it should be an awesome challenge. I\u2019m exicted to create something from\nthe ground up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it helpful getting in this early in the project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think getting in ahead of time\nwill be extremely advantageous. Construction is cranking along and I\u2019ve got a\nlot of stuff to get done before brewing can happen. Not to mention any new\nbrewhouse is gonna have some kinks to work out. This is also a great way that I\ncan get as many of our beers on tap as possible before we open. I think it\u2019d be\nkiller to have a full lineup for the grand opening. Another bonus to this is having\nsay on the final placement of things, making sure the brewery is properly set up\nconcerning water, power, storage, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What sort of brewery and cellar setup are you putting together?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The system is a two-vessel, ten-barrel brewhouse from Premier Stainless<\/a><\/strong> with five 20-barrel Unitank fermenters and a 20-barrel bright tank. Most of the tanks have the option to act as a serving vessel, but we\u2019re planning on mostly kegging tanks, which will also allow me to fill some taps with \u201cone-off\u201d kegs. By that, I mean adding things such as different fruits or Brettanomyces to just a few kegs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What sort of beers can we expect once My Yard Live debuts?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to always have about 70% of our taps filled with house beer, ranging from the obvious West Coast IPAs to some Belgians, stouts, brown and lager. I love dry-hopped pilsners and saisons. Short answer, I guess, is a little bit of everything. I want to have enough beers on that no one gets bored of our list, especially since we will have the live-music aspect and a big outdoor vibe. I want to make plenty of beers that people can enjoy in our awesome SoCal weather. I\u2019m planning on about ten or so \u201ccore styles\u201d that will cover a broad spectrum, and then five-to-ten rotating seasonals to fill the gaps. I don\u2019t want to just be another brewery that chases the newest hype craze, but rather establish a solid name for ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last October, the team behind a family-friendly brewpub project called My Yard Live, announced they were taking over a former Hometown Buffet in San Marcos. Included in the announcement was information about the veteran San Diego brewer they had hired to lead their brewing efforts. That individual was former Green Flash Brewing brewer and barrel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-beer-news","8":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","9":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/shaggy_01.jpg?fit=1024%2C543&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"Interrogating San Marcos brewpub My Yard Live's new head brewer","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-5Lo","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22158","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=22158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}