San Diego Craft Beer Con returns August 5

The San Diego Brewers Guild, a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization, will host the 2025 Craft Beer Con on Tuesday, August 5 at Mira Costa College’s San Elijo campus in Cardiff. The annual half-day conference for The Capital of Craft industry is open to the general public.

The conference begins at 11:30 a.m. and includes three education tracks, a trade show that runs throughout the day and a happy hour from 4-5 p.m. that concludes the day. Tickets can be purchased online – $70 for the general public and $60 for Guild members. The price includes a catered lunch from Brewers Guild member Culver Beer Co.’s Locally Toasted Delicatessen, along with unlimited beer tastings during the happy hour.

“As always, we welcome anyone and everyone who has an interest in craft beer,” said San Diego Brewers Guild Executive Director Erik Fowler. “It’s one of the best professional development opportunities of the year for our industry where you can meet key players, and, of course, have a great time socializing and sipping.”

Highlighting the conference is a session titled “Founding Voices of SD Beer”, which features breweries that sparked San Diego’s craft beer movement. Panelists include Paul Segura, the brewmaster of Karl Strauss Brewing, which was founded in 1989 as San Diego’s first post-Prohibition craft brewery. Joining Segura is O’Brien’s Pub co-owner Tom Nickel, who founded Julian’s Nickel Beer Co., co-founder Tomme Arthur of San Marcos’ The Lost Abbey Brewing will participate, as well as Ballast Point Brewing former longtime brewer Colby Chandler.

The three education tracks for this year’s conference are “The People of Beer”, “Your Beer” and “Business, Sales & Marketing”. Attendees can learn from such topics as driving engagement for taproom events, submitting beers for competitions like Great American Beer Festival, and winning in distribution. One session is dedicated to education on wet hop beers, which are brewed only once a year during and shortly after the hop harvest season – and that subsequently have a shorter shelf life.

Craft Beer Con is co-produced by MiraCosta College’s BrewTech Program, a 210-hour course that trains students to become production brewers and is the only Master Brewers Association of the Americas -recognized brewing program in the State of California.