Portrait of a Brewer: Jim Johnson, Home Brew Mart

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 Johnson
of Home Brew Mart

What is your current title?  
Owner/Managing Member

Where did you grow up?  
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin during the school year and Poway for vacations

What brought you to San Diego?  
After finishing college in Wisconsin, I moved to Crested Butte, Colorado, then I just kept heading west until I couldn’t anymore. Actually, I was slated to be at a friend’s wedding at the end of summer of 2000. I thought I’d just come out for the summer to work at Lahaina Beach House with a friend. Within two weeks I met the woman who would become my wife…no going back.

What was the first beer and/or alcoholic beverage you ever had?  
Growing up, I remember asking for a sip of this, a sip of that. Nothing tasted good. Eventually, like all good Wisconsin high-schoolers, I settled into the cheapest thing that could be swallowed ice-cold. Meister Brau was an early favorite. I had a friend who had a ping-pong table supported entirely by Old Milwaukee longneck cases. Every so often, we’d show up at his house and the table was flush with the floor because he’d returned the empties for the deposit and bought himself more beer.

What was your a-ha moment that turned you on to craft beer?  
I don’t know what the first beer I had was, but I remember the first time I had a beer that stopped me in my tracks. When I was 21, I was on Catalina Island at El Galleon and ordered a Bass Ale because it looked fancy. I took one sip and did a double-take, thinking: What is this? What else is possible?!

What led you to consider a career in brewing?  
I backed into a career in beer through my previous work in the service industry, coupled with my passion for well-made beer. A colleague at Rocky’s Crown Pub recommended that I check out Home Brew Mart because he knew I ignored our draft list in favor of a couple of specialty 22-ouncers from Crest at shift’s end. I was a customer for years until a doorman at Rocky’s got a job washing kegs at Ballast Point’s Scripps Ranch facility. When they were opening their Little Italy brewpub, I had just been laid off from a 10-year teaching position (ripples of the recession), so I jumped aboard the opening team. I spent a year-and-a-half there before I was made General Manager of Home Brew Mart. Not long after that, the company chose to move the production system from Home Brew Mart, and I was tasked with creating our next brew program. That’s when I chose the system that is still in place for our current brew program.

What was your first brewing/brewery position?  
I had learned to use our system in 2018, but definitely did not consider myself a useful member of the brew team. However, coming out of COVID restrictions, I found myself with a much-reduced staff and no brewer. It was [Home Brew Mart staffer] Matt Davis who encouraged me to engage as a brewer. I quickly became a reasonably skilled technician of our system but refrained from recipe creation. It was at this juncture that we instituted what we would later call our “brew by committee” process. We all brew and we all critique each other’s processes and ideas. There’s no ego involved as we all have the same goal:  to make great beer!

What breweries have you worked for over your career and in what roles?  
I spent 10 years with Ballast Point before rescuing Home Brew Mart from their inattention. I was Doorman/Barback/Bartender/Bar Lead/Assistant Manager at Little Italy from September 2013 to January 2015, General Manager at Home Brew Mart from January 2015 to June 2021, and General Manager of Ballast Point Kitchen in Miramar from June 2021 to September 2023. And I’ve been the owner of Home Brew Mart since June 2024

Who have been the individuals that have helped you the most to learn and advance in your career, and how?  
Jeremy Kirby, former Vice President of Retail Operations for Ballast Point, taught me the ropes of running a business by the numbers. Nate Stephens and Colby Chandler have both given indispensable advice regarding brewing processes, but it’s the people that I work with every day – Matt, George and Derek – that keep me moving forward, always learning and always seeking improvements. Homebrewing is the result of 10,000 years of crowdsourcing biochemistry and that is the endeavor in which we are continuously engaged.

What singular piece of advice would you give to someone interested in becoming a professional brewer?  
Take the job and work harder than the person next to you.

What ultimate career goal would you like to achieve?  
My ultimate career goal is to love what I’m doing. I spent a decade in bars, a decade in the classroom and most of a decade in management. Somewhere in there, I created a home at Home Brew Mart. It’s where I’m challenged. It’s where I’m happy.

What is your favorite beer you’ve ever brewed, be it on a professional or amateur level?  
I consider myself more of a technician than a recipe creator. From the technician standpoint, the Dream Vacation in the Dells cream ale may be my favorite. It’s simple, clean and endlessly repeatable. One of my most recent recipes is our All I See Turns to Brown ale. I’m pretty proud of it.

What is your least-favorite beer you’ve ever brewed on any level?  
The first time I brewed solo at Home Brew Mart, I hosted a brew to be poured at a vendor partner’s wedding. They requested a peach milkshake hazy IPA. To each their own, but this is not the sort of style that I connect with. They were thrilled with the result and said that it was a hit at the wedding, but I had a hard time evaluating it without focusing on the fact that I would never choose to brew it on my own.

What are your favorite and least-favorite hop varietals at present?  
Talus and Southern Cross are pretty electric on the palate and super fun. Still, it’s hard to improve on Centennial, Citra, Simcoe, Amarillo and Nelson Sauvin. I think we’ve gotten at least as much from ingenuity around use (whirlpool temp, biotransformation at high krausen, etc.) as we have from novel strains. That said, who doesn’t love playing with new toys!

What are some of your favorite brewing ingredients that aren’t hops?  
I’m a big fan of water. I swear, I couldn’t live without it.

If you weren’t a brewer, what do you think you would do for a living?  
Whatever it would be, I’d be spending my free time at Home Brew Mart. When I was teaching for a career, I’d spend my Saturday mornings being educated by Larry Monasakanian, Doug Pominville, Daren Rudy, and my current team of Derek Lauridsen, Matt Davis and George Cataulin, among others. One thing I’ve learned from reading Cormac McCarthy over the years: while we may imagine other possible outcomes, there is only one path and we are all on it. Whether I make a living at it or not remains to be seen…at least I’ve made a life.

What is your favorite beer style?  
The one in my glass! In all seriousness, the beer in my glass is the one that I chose for my taste right now. Customers often look at the draft list and ask: “What’s your favorite?” I might reply, “Which of your kids do you love the most?” No beer is right for all occasions, but there is a beer that is right for each occasion. No beer is right for all people, but there is a beer that is right for each person. The ultimate job of the tasting room server is to find the right beer for the right person at the right time. I love the bitter excitement of a fresh IPA and the subtle roast within a chocolatey brown, the carbonic bite of a Pilsner and the way a cream ale tastes a little like the milk after cereal. I revel in a well-made beer, irrespective of style.

If you could wipe one style of beer off the face of the earth, what would it be?  
Whatever flash-in-the-pan, here-today-gone-tomorrow nonsense someone is cooking up to shock someone into buying a beer: Activated charcoal glitter milkshake hazy pastry nonsense.

What single brewing company’s beers and/or ethos/style has been most influential on your style?  
I spent maybe eight years as a regular customer of Home Brew Mart before my 10 years as an employee with Ballast Point. I remember the “we brew beers we want to drink” era (contrasted with the “we brew beers we think you want to drink” era). There’s a wealth of inspiration even before Nate Stephens and Colby Chandler were running the R&D program when I was at Little Italy. Still, the technical and culinary skills they brought to the table were astounding. As for outside influence, I revere those who consistently kill it, like Russian River Brewing and Pizza Port, and I’m always open to the next discovery. Green Cheek Beer Co. and Everywhere Beer out of Orange County are great. I love visiting Denver for TRVE Brewing and Bierstadt Lagerhaus, and I miss the Crooked Stave location at The Source. I was delighted to run into Danny Priddy at Riip Beer Co. recently. We worked together at Ballast Point’s Long Beach location. He’s running the program for the best mid-sized brewery in America based on the recent Great American Beer Festival results. I’m so pumped for him!

What is your favorite San Diego County brewing company?  
I like Pizza Port and Societe Brewing for their consistent quality. I love East Village Brewing for serving technically masterful beer off the conditioning tanks. I’m a fan of The Lost Abbey’s taprooms, The Confessional in Cardiff-by-the-Sea and The Church in the East Village. Mcilhenney Brewing in Alpine is worth the drive, and if you’ve been sleeping on Julian Beer Co, you’re missing out. I’m also excited for what Chris Hotz brings to San Diego Brewing Co.

What is your favorite brewing company outside of San Diego?  
I’m from Wisconsin, and it’s hard to speak against New Glarus Brewing. They’ve got the whole state on their side, and everyone in adjacent states making runs to state-line liquor and convenience stores to stock up due to their distribution restrictions. There may be a tribute to their flagship beer on tap at Home Brew Mart when you visit…

What breweries that you haven’t yet visited—local or elsewhere—are on your current must-see bucket list?  
I’d love to go see what Doug Pominville is doing in New Hampshire, with his spot, 603 Brewery, having recently been named the best in the state. He’s such a talented guy. His American Pale Ale homebrew recipe that was later released by Ballast Point as Grunion forever altered the category. I’d also like to check out Hill Farmstead Brewery in Vermont.

What are your favorite local beer events?  
I’ve never worked a beer fest I didn’t like.

If you were to leave San Diego, where would be the next-best place you’d want to brew?  
I don’t expect to leave San Diego. It might be cool to have some agritourismo/nanobrew setup in Valle de Guadalupe or Tuscany or something, but I have absolutely no plans in this direction. More important would be sharing the Home Brew Mart experience more widely.

Which musical genre or artists are on your brew-day soundtrack/playlist?  
I was in the top three percentile for most categories listened to on Spotify last year. Music is very important to the flavor of a day, let alone the flavor of a beer. I used to mash-in to the instrumental stomp in Phish’s “Thread” from the Sigma Oasis album, but Ween, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock, Grateful Dead, Talking Heads, Traffic, Beck or Air are equally likely these days.

What motto rules the way you brew and approach brewing in a professional brewhouse?  
Nothing has been done so well that it can’t be done better.

What do you consider your greatest professional accomplishments?  
When I was General Manager of Ballast Point’s Miramar location, I threw a beer dinner with Tommy Gomes of Tunaville Market and Grocery (at the protest of our marketing department) that drew roughly eight times more ticket sales than the dinner I’d recently been forced to host for the Marketing Department. Tommy and I go way back. He put on a hell of a show, carving a 119-pound bluefin tuna in front of guests, and our chef-at-the-time, Tommy Dimella put out a great menu sourced from that single fish!

What are you proud of having achieved in your personal life?  
Friends are the family you choose for yourself. My family – and my family of friends – are so dear to me. I know it’s not a contest, but my people are the very best people. I’d like to believe that I have something to do with that.

When you’re not at work, what do you like to do for fun?  
I like sunsets and long walks on the beach. No…really…I like those things like everyone else, but I like concerts, mountains, food, drinks and views.

Where do you like to drink off-the-clock?  
I’m always on the clock.

What is your favorite beer-and-food pairing of all time?  
Old Rasputin Imperial Stout from North Coast Brewing, paired with house-made coconut gelato from Luce on Morena Boulevard.

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?  
There is no such thing as a last beer dinner. Certainly, heaven has beer!

Who do you think you are (a purposely broad question)?  
One of my closest friends once told me (perhaps in frustration), “It doesn’t matter what’s happening….you are always you.” I don’t know if he meant it as a compliment, but I always took it as one.

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].