Portrait of a Brewer: Jim Millea, OB Brewery

There are hundreds of talented brewing professionals giving their all to help maintain the San Diego beer industry’s storied reputation. While these industrious practitioners share numerous similarities, each is their own unique person with individual likes, dislikes, methodologies, techniques, inspirations, interests and philosophies. The goal of San Diego Beer News’ Portrait of a Brewer series is to not only introduce readers to local brewers, but dig in to help them gain a deeper appreciation for the people making their beer and how they have contributed to the county’s standout craft-brewing culture.

Today’s featured brewer is…

Jim Millea
of OB Brewery

What is your current title?
Head Brewer  

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Beverly, Massachusetts, a small-ish but not tiny coastal town about 25 miles north of Boston.  

What brought you to San Diego?
I first visited San Diego in the summer of 1998 on my way back to Massachusetts from a semester abroad in Australia. My cousin Lisa was living in Ocean Beach on Cape May Avenue just a couple blocks from the beach. After parking in front of her apartment, I’ll never forget stepping out of her car wide-eyed and beholding the view of the sand and the ocean beyond. I thought, “Oh yeah, I could do this.” A couple years later, after working in and around Boston, a great buddy and I decided to make the move. We quit our jobs, packed up my truck with camping gear, kayaks, bikes and all the other belongings we could fit, and hit the road. We spent six weeks exploring the country with San Diego being the end goal.  

What was the first beer and/or alcoholic beverage you ever had?
Budweiser. I believe I was about six years old, and my Dad gave me a sip off his can of the “King of Beers” lager. I remember it tasted bitter. I was not a fan.

What was your a-ha moment that turned you on to craft beer?
I remember in college being stoked when a brewpub opened up nearby. I also remember going to Boston Beer Works in the ‘90s and enjoying fresh microbrews on tap from time to time. When I wanted a break for the cheap light lagers my friends and I drank in mass quantities, I’d occasionally grab some Newcastle, Bass Ale, Pete’s Wicked Ale or Guinness. I made my first homebrew in the late ‘90s and got myself a nut brown ale kit that came with everything, including a bucket to ferment it in. It came out pretty good and I was stoked that I had made a solid, drinkable beverage in my kitchen. I don’t think I really got that “a-ha” moment, however, until I moved to San Diego and started drinking beers from Ballast Point Brewing, Green Flash Brewing, Pizza Port, AleSmith Brewing and others in the early 2000s. I think what really did it was meeting some friends that made delicious beer for a living. That really made an impact.  

What led you to consider a career in brewing?
I never seriously considered a career in brewing until I had established a group of friends that were already doing it, and doing it really well. That made it seem like more of a real possibility. Still, I was reluctant because I thought I wouldn’t be able to survive on the money a brewer makes. I loved homebrewing and knew I had a knack for it, and just focused on that instead. What really helped break me through the barrier was when I started taking vacations from work to do beer stuff. In 2009, I went to Anchorage, Alaska with Ballast Point’s specialty brewer, Colby Chandler, to help pour beer at the Great Alaska Beer and Barleywine Festival. We stayed at the home of Colby’s colleague, Gabe Fletcher, who was brewing for Midnight Sun Brewing at the time. We made a collaboration beer while Gabe’s crew cooked up fresh salmon on the grill outside in the icy cold. We went snowboarding at the nearby Aleska Resort. We did a beer-and-food-pairing dinner, which was pretty new to me (and perhaps many) at the time. We worked the festival and took turns pouring and perusing the room for other tasty brews to drink. I kept thinking how I was using the limited vacation time from my corporate desk job to go on my buddy’s “work trip”.  That really sparked the fire to figure out how to make it happen for myself.

What was your first brewing/brewery position?
September 18, 2014 was the first day I got paid to make beer! Ed O’Sullivan hired me to be his assistant brewer at O’Sullivans Brewing Company in Scripps Ranch. It was a small, fun three-barrel brewery that is now occupied by Night Parade Brewing. Ed and I were in the UCSD Extension brewing program together and I jumped at the chance when he asked me if I’d like to help him make beer.   

What breweries have you worked for over your career and in what roles?
I never officially worked there, but the first professional system I learned to brew on was the 15-barrel brewhouse at Ballast Point’s Home Brew Mart. From time to time, Colby would call me to say, “Hey I’m brewing Thursday night,” and tell me I could hang out and help out where I could. A few years later when Ballast Point opened their amazing Little Italy brewpub, I did an unofficial internship there for five or six months. During this time, I learned how to work in the cellar: cleaning tanks, transferring beers, carbonating, kegging…so many important skills that helped me learn how to be an asset at a professional level. After this, I started my assistant brewer job at O’Sullivan Brothers, and while doing that I did my UCSD brewing program internship at Benchmark Brewing. From there, the opportunity for OB Brewery opened up and I scored my dream head brewer job, which I still have.  

Who have been the individuals that have helped you the most to learn and advance in your career, and how?
Colby has had more impact on my life as a brewer than anyone. I met Colby 25 years ago on a camping trip in Baja through a mutual friend. This guy had beer on draft at our campsite. Legend! Colby introduced me to the world of craft beer more than anyone, and through him I was exposed to so many industry people and opportunities. He shared homebrew recipes with me that became some of my favorites. He was the first person to train me on a professional brewhouse. Perhaps most importantly, Colby taught me what I can only think to call the “whats and whys.” Why are you opening that valve? What is going to happen when you do? If I say I like a beer, he might ask, “Why do you like it?” If I follow up that the beer has a nice “citrus” character, he might ask, “What type of “citrus?” He really keeps me on my toes! It has really helped me develop my skills by looking beyond instructions in a book and continuing to search for deeper understanding of what I am doing and why.  

Nate Stephens also played an early role in my development as a professional brewer. He was my day-to-day mentor at Ballast Point Little Italy and taught me attention to detail in the cellar. My first day he had me clean and polish the brewhouse, fermenters and brite tanks. Then he helped me with basic things like attaching tri-clamps to connect hoses and fittings. He guided me through filling kegs, transferring beers, cleaning tanks, dry-hopping, dialing in carbonation. He stood over my shoulder when I needed it and slowly backed off to his office when he was comfortable that I knew what I was doing. Nate really helped me learn detailed technique and process for many things that most homebrewers don’t even have the equipment to learn about.  

Another brewer I had the good fortune to work with was Matt Akin back in the glorious days of Benchmark Brewing. Benchmark was the home of my official brewery internship for the UCSD Brewing Certificate. Matt (who is head brewer for Duck Foot Brewing now) has a very disarming and laid-back persona while remaining very thorough and detailed in his approach to both brewing beer and judging the final product. He helped me hone in my sensory evaluation with tasting panels he would perform, blind tasting his own beers with others of the same style. In the brewhouse and cellar, he provided me with a perspective that helped me define my own practices. After learning what I thought was the one-and-only way to do certain things at Ballast Point, Matt’s slightly differing techniques on accomplishing the same goal were eye-opening. Matt’s ability to take the problem of the day in stride helps me try to do the same, all the while doing all the little things with care to help ensure my beers stay “happy”.

Lastly, I would like to give a nod to Brian Carl. I met Brian during my internship at Benchmark while he was Matt’s assistant brewer. Similar to Matt, Brian also helped provide me with a different perspective on how I might come to do things in my own way while also doing it “correctly”. He has also been a great sounding board for talking through issues and finding solutions with enthusiasm and good humor. When I first started getting my arms around OB Brewery, Brian helped me dial in my process and the brewery itself. When he got the opportunity at Fox Point Brewing, where he currently runs the ship, I got to learn from him while also helping him figure out how to design the layout of the brewery tanks, drains, storage and flow from the ground up. We still talk about things that come up on a regular basis.  

Colby, Nate, Matt and Brian all deserve much thanks for the significant impact they’ve had and continue to have on my career as a brewer.  I could continue on to many others.  When OB Brewery was just getting rolling Shawn Steele invited me to Karl Strauss “anytime” to use his lab.  I was able to harvest yeast, do cell counts, his crew even helped me with lab testing and a tasting panel on an early beer I had issues with.  Overwhelming support and I barely had to even ask for help.  The list goes on and on.  I have and continue to learn from so many I would have to write a book to give credit to them all.

(Editor’s Note: This is quickly becoming a book, but with answers this thoughtful, we’ll allow it.)

What singular piece of advice would you give to someone interested in becoming a professional brewer?
Be willing to accept knowledge and gratitude as a reasonable substitute for financial compensation.  

What ultimate career goal would you like to achieve?
Freedom and balance. I would love to work for myself with nobody looking over my shoulder telling me what to do. The freedom to make my own schedule. Luckily, at the moment I have many of those things going for me already. Ultimately, I would own my own successful small brewpub by the beach or in the mountains and have great people help me run it. It would have an employee ownership style where those who help the success of the business have a stake in it…and perhaps they could also have a steak in it, because it would be great to serve one!

What is your favorite beer you’ve ever brewed, be it on a professional or amateur level?
It could be a tie among many, but I’ll go with OB Brewery’s German-style dunkelweizen. Dunkelweizen was the first “craft beer” I ever tasted, and it was well before I knew anything about the craft itself. I was lucky enough as a 17-year-old kid to go to Germany on a high school exchange program. My taste for the language itself didn’t mature much, but I loved the beer! Fast forward to my brewing years, and I went through multiple trials homebrewing this style until I started getting that deliciously light-bodied but bready malt character along with notes of banana and a hint of chocolate. At OB Brewery, I continued refining the style while I scaled it up and brewed one I was proud of to serve to the public. A customer was sitting at the roof deck bar, drinking a pint from the first batch of this beer, and said that the beer was a “hidden gem”. The name of the beer was born! About a year later, it won me my first-ever award with a silver medal at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival. I love making and drinking this beer as much as any other.  

What is your least-favorite beer you’ve ever brewed on any level?
I tried to make a horchata stout once on my five-gallon homebrew system. It was terrible! It finished out very sweet, probably from using too much lactose. For the horchata flavor I used vanilla bean and what I thought was a light-handed five cinnamon sticks. Yuck! Too sweet and all cinnamon. I tried to fix the beer by adding some rum-soaked oak chips (and rum) in the hopes that higher alcohol and rum-barrel flavor might balance out the sweetness and cinnamon. Nope. It was one of the very few beers I’ve had to dump, and a great advertisement for “beer-flavored beer”! 

What are your favorite and least-favorite hop varietals at present?
I love Simcoe, although I can’t say I use it as much as I like. Cascade might be my favorite classic hop to use, along with Centennial. An honorable mention I’d like to cite is Calypso. It has super-pungent tropical and stone-fruit aromas, and I don’t see much of it being used out there. My least favorite? Hmmm…maybe Apollo. I used this high-alpha hop a lot when OB Brewery first opened and it had too much garlic character. Perhaps it was just how I used it. My beers with it did, however, pair great with a burger!  

What are some of your favorite brewing ingredients that aren’t hops?
It is fun playing with different malts and yeasts, although I have only scratched the surface with what is available. So many layers and levels of flavor come from combining these ingredients in different ways. Outside of basic ingredients, in my homebrewing days I used to use lemon, lime and orange zest quite a bit in various beers. As a professional, I haven’t used them much beyond adding some lemon zest to a Belgian witbier, but it would be fun to play with them some more.  

If you weren’t a brewer, what do you think you would do for a living?
I would probably be back working my old desk job in the construction claims and management business, hopefully remotely so I could stay home or travel.    

In your opinion, what non-brewing position is of great importance at a craft-beer company but often gets overlooked or less credit than those making the beer?
For any brewery selling kegs to bars or cases to stores, I’d say delivery drivers or whoever is responsible for getting fresh beer on the shelf, and perhaps more importantly for getting out-of-code beer off the shelf. Sometimes these guys are also responsible for keeping lines clean at accounts that don’t do it themselves. I believe this is one of the biggest issues that craft beer overall is currently missing the mark on. For non-distributing brewpubs like where I work, it would be general management. Somebody that has their fingers on the pulse of everything that is going on overall and can understand how all the pieces of the business need to balance together for success.  

What is your favorite beer style?
I’d probably have to say pale ale. It was one of the major “crossover” beers that helped build the bridge between light macro lagers and craft beer for me. They are lighter in body and alcohol compared to an IPA while still providing some malt and hop flavor when compared to a light lager. The best pale ales for me have a delightful balance of malt and fresh hop flavors. I also like to have a few pints without the level of buzz I’d get from drinking the same amount of something stronger.  

If you could wipe one style of beer off the face of the earth, what would it be?
Hazy IPA, hands down. I’ll admit I’ve had some fresh and pleasantly delightful hazies, but I just don’t like the style overall. If I could, I’d drop “hazy” and keep “juicy IPA” as its own category. Keep the fruity hops and maybe cut back on the bitterness from high to medium, and just make me a clear beer please!

What single brewing company’s beers and/or ethos/style has been most influential on your style?
Ballast Point. I started going to Home Brew Mart in 2000 when I first moved here. I loved the crazy range of beers they made and made well. In their heyday, they had so much going for them at all levels. The homebrew shop was excellent for being able to purchase fresh ingredients and bounce ideas off the staff over a taster of something delicious. I was able to watch them grow up into a production brewery with Scripps Ranch and, later, Miramar. They still have an amazing brewpub in Little Italy. While I never officially worked there, I had the opportunity to share in their journey while I developed my own style.  

What is your favorite San Diego County brewing company?
At the moment, Pizza Port. They seem to be the best at getting and keeping deliciously fresh beer available both at their brick-and-mortar locations and on the shelf. Last year, for example, I went to Mammoth Lakes on a snowboarding trip and hit up the local grocery store to get some beer. Of the selections on the shelf, Pizza Port had six-packs of Swami’s and other offerings that were three weeks old. Six-packs and four-packs from other breweries, including Mammoth Brewing, didn’t even come close. That’s another thing: they sell reasonably priced six-packs of 16-ounce cans. 

What is your favorite brewing company outside of San Diego?
Perhaps Sierra Nevada Brewing. I had the good fortune to get an insider tour once and the place is amazing. Immaculately clean. Huge tanks full of delicious beer. I will not soon forget getting a taste of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale straight from the tank, poured through a pigtail right next to an impressively large sight glass in the process piping. I can still see the delightfully clear and slightly reddish color.  

What three breweries that you haven’t yet visited—local or elsewhere—are on your current must-see bucket list?
I would love to get to Bamberg, Germany someday and sample some fresh rauchbier (smoked beer) right from the source at Schlenkerla. A little closer to home, I’d like to find and visit Chuck Silva and drink his beers. I miss Silva Brewing, but luckily for craft beer in and around Seattle, Chuck is working up there at Reuben’s Brews. Since he’s there now, I’d put that second. Even closer to home is Chad Stevens’ Lyon’s Peak brewing in Jamul. What a great story of Belgian-style lambics made right here in San Diego County with handpicked Schaerbeek cherries, grown in the backyard orchard Chad planted himself after importing the trees from Belgium. Talk about a craft beverage!  

What are your favorite local beer events?
My favorite beer event over the years has been the “Fling” disc-golf tournaments, held during San Diego Beer Week (SDBW) and occasionally in the spring. Such a great day to spend hanging out with old friends and making new friends. It starts with getting outside in one of the best parks around and finishes in a fun brewery with beverages and food. It’s a great social activity event centered around craft beer and those who celebrate it. Other than that, I like just about any event where there is a beer-and-food-pairing component. This past SDBW there was an event at Tom Hamm’s Lighthouse, which currently holds the torch for my favorite. Multiple chefs and brewers teamed up for unlimited pairings amid live music and a beautiful view. 

If you were to leave San Diego, where would be the next-best place you’d want to brew?
Another beach or a mountain town. If I could financially make it work, I’d go to California’s Central Coast to Morro Bay, Los Osos or somewhere nearby. I would also move to Mammoth Lakes or Bend, Oregon for the right opportunity.  

Which musical genre or artists are on your brew-day soundtrack/playlist?
On many a typical brew day, I love to start it up with Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti. If I’m feeling mellow, I might opt for some Van Morrison. After that I keep a range of genres and artists in the mix. I’ll go from the Allman Brothers to NWA, then maybe switch gears to Bob Dylan or some Steele Pulse. Sometimes I want some Stevie Ray Vaughn, and other times I might go for more Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam. For a collaboration, I usually like to work in some Slightly Stoopid for some OB vibe. Here and there, I prefer to listen to some classical music or some Irish Rovers…both of which pleasantly make me think of my dad. And to cap it off, if you ever hear Van Halen pumping from the brewhouse, it usually means I’m cleaning up after finishing a brew.  

What motto rules the way you brew and approach brewing in a professional brewhouse?
Pay attention to detail. Pay attention to the task at hand. Don’t rush. Take notes and use them. Utilize a consistent process. Clean up after yourself and keep your brewery tidy and organized. Take advantage of opportunities to ask questions and learn from your mentors and peers, and keep the circle going…be willing to share what you have learned. Why wouldn’t you? Help make us all better.  

What do you consider your greatest professional accomplishments?
Winning a gold medal and the Small Brewpub of the Year Award at the 2018 GABF takes the top honors. To date, it’s the best day of my brewing life. Going up on stage and celebrating with friends and colleagues afterwards at the festival and on the way home was amazing and surreal. Outside of that, it makes me proud to be at the point in my career where I am able to share my experience and knowledge with others from time to time. I will hopefully never stop trying to learn and improve my brewing abilities, and much of that comes by spending time with other brewers. It is great to continue to have mentors while being a mentor myself to some extent.

What are you proud of having achieved in your personal life?
Balance, freedom, and being able to live in a place I love and work in a field I enjoy to pay the bills.  

When you’re not at work, what do you like to do for fun?
Just about anything that allows me to enjoy the outdoors, both solo and with friends. I love surfing, snowboarding, hiking, camping, mountain-biking, road trips, disc-golf, kayaking, paddle-boarding and one-wheeling. I play a bit of guitar and piano, and enjoy playing my own version of music I like. I also like cooking and eating meals made from scratch. Living in San Diego at the beach is so amazing because I can combine several fun activities right from my house. One of my favorite days near home includes a beach cruise to the end of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard with my longboard, going for a surf, and hiking up and down the stairs to get to the water. It’s an easy-going personal version of a triathlon. To take it up a notch, I can follow that with playing some backyard guitar, sipping on a beer and firing up the grill. Life is good!  

Where do you like to drink off-the-clock?
I generally stick around in my OB “bubble” and frequently hit Pizza Port OB and California Wild Ales. The beverages are tasty and I am guaranteed to run into friends every time. When I manage to get outside my bubble, I like to hit up San Diego Brewing Co. If I go to Miramar, I love to pop into Duck Foot. I would like to spend a little more time at Bock in South Park. Otherwise, I always enjoy just picking a place where my friends work and stop by when I’m in their area.  

What is your favorite beer-and-food pairing of all time?
Geez, I’d probably keep it incredibly simple and go for a super fresh West Coast IPA with a slice of pepperoni pizza. Ha! Does that pair the best? I’m not sure, but it doesn’t get much better for me.  

If you could somehow plan your last beer dinner before dying, what would you drink and eat, and who would you invite to join you?
I’d probably focus on my favorite foods and beers, and serve them together. I’d start with a pint of pale ale as you walk in the door, socialize and sit at the table. As I’m about to die, I’m gonna go ahead and skip the salad and go straight to the main course. We’ll bring out a flight of tasters of some other beers I’m most proud of making: Mexican lager, Belgian-style saison, jalapeño saison and dunkelweizen. IPAs can wait for later, but can also be ordered at any time. I’d also like to get one more beer in there I have yet to make that I really want in the lineup: smoked Märzen. The main course will be surf and turf: prime rib and boiled Maine lobster with garlic mashed potatoes. My hope is that the smoked Märzen will pair well with the meat, and both saisons will go with the lobster. Crème brûlée for dessert, perhaps paired with the dunkel. Truly, however, I won’t care too much about the pairings because I’m eating my favorite foods and drinking my favorite beers. I will also be surrounded by Laura, my partner in life, my parents, family and friends…all those I care about. In this world of “somehow”, Led Zeppelin will be joined by a drummer and they will play an acoustic set. They will also partake in the feast. That’s a party! 

Who do you think you are (a purposely broad question)?
I’m a simple guy searching for balance in my life among many pursuits of fun, along with the freedom to enjoy it all. I like staying active while also being able to chill out and relax. I enjoy traveling to new places, while also returning to my favorite spots and simply enjoying the great place where I already live. I value time by myself, but also value sharing good times with the people I care about. I hope to continue to grow as a person while working to accept what I already am.

If you’re a brewer at a San Diego brewing company and would like to be featured in our Portrait of a Brewer series, drop us a line at [email protected].