Voices of San Diego Beer: Dan Enjem

From reduced hours to furloughs to layoffs and other ill fates, COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on workers far and wide. It’s something that’s relatively easy to relate to, as being let go, whether permanently or temporarily, is something most people deal with at one time or another. But put yourself in the shoes of a professional brewer at a small brewing operation, and having to face the reality of walking away from your brewery for an undetermined length of time. Leaving all that beer and stainless is like leaving a piece of yourself behind. This happened to Dan Enjem, the Head Brewer at Pacific Beach AleHouse. Here, he shares the story of all it took before and after his pandemic-dictated furlough, as well as his optimism for the future as California prepares to reopen and shake off the doldrums of the COVID era.

My passion for brewing began in 2005 with my first home brews, which is what ultimately led me to my long career in brewing. I kicked off my pro experience at Thorn Brewing, where I was able to cut my teeth on new methods and brew styles. This was followed by a stint at Ballast Point Brewing in Scripps Ranch. It was there that I brewed more than 40 styles of beer and learned a lot about technique and the importance of ingredients. I am proud to have belonged to a team that won 15 medals at the World Beer Cup, Great American Beer Festival and European Beer Star competitions from 2015 through 2018. It’s through these years of brewing that I established my own philosophy: to brew beer that exemplifies each respective style, while still holding true to my own creativity.

When I moved on from Ballast Point, I carried this philosophy to my current role as Head Brewer at PB AleHouse, which I think has made a huge difference in the quality of our brews. My top priority was implementing a filtration system to treat our water after the softening process. I then made the switch to a new yeast supplier, White Labs, which yields healthier, fresher yeast, and, in turn, creates better-tasting and higher-quality beer. I incorporated what I consider to be “advanced beer-drinking” styles of beer such as dry-hopped lagers and double IPAs. These aren’t your average beers, as they showcase more complex, yeast-driven flavors. I wanted to show what I can do in my revival of PB AleHouse’s house brews.

Through even just these tweaks I was better able to streamline our brewing process and ensure consistency in every batch. I’m super into recipe development and formulation, so I was excited to have a chance to play around with that, as well. I brewed a Japanese-style lager, Beer of the Rising Sun, in addition to our 858 Blonde, which is richer than your average blonde and incorporates notes of caramel and honey. I continued brewing innovative and more elevated styles at the brewery until COVID-19 hit in 2020. Then, after two years of refining our lineup and tuning up our methods, putting every bit of myself that I could into our brewpub, COVID 19 reared its ugly head…and everything changed.

We quickly realized that we would need to make rapid adjustments and do our best to stay one step ahead. If there is anything businesses have learned from this pandemic, it’s that you can’t get bogged down by the unprecedented. All you can do is stay informed and adapt to the situation. The pandemic has been tough on many industries and individuals, so when I was told I was being furloughed after three months of doing our best to hang in, I wasn’t surprised and I knew I wasn’t alone.

Before I left, we canned as much beer as possible, and I did my best to prep the brewhouse from a technical standpoint, although I was aware that the equipment would undoubtedly need some tune-ups when I returned. After that, I came in on my own time to do yeast dumps and make sure the tanks were at proper pressure and temperature, but other than that, the equipment itself remained relatively untouched during my time away, so there was no way of knowing what we’d come back to. We just had to resign ourselves to crossing that bridge when we came to it, much like every other obstacle posed by the pandemic.

Fast-forward to the reopening of our brewery operations. I returned to several mechanical failures, including issues with the glycol chiller’s temperature controller, the recirculation pump and malfunctions with our brewhouse water filter…which was a major bummer for a water fanatic like myself. Getting it back up and running took time, energy and money, but we got it done in two weeks. The cost to fix everything amounted to around $8,000. 

After much line cleaning and tank scrubbing, it came time to assess how much brewing would need to take place in order for us to restock. We have spent a significant amount of time focusing on that production and are in a good place, but while the brewing is back in action, labor has become one of our greatest hurdles. Much like other restaurants and breweries around San Diego, staffing has proven to be difficult of late. However, we have added many new faces to our team and are excited to be back in action! 

We have a lot to look forward to in the coming year from a brewing standpoint, as I plan to bring back some past favorites, such as PBDB Double IPA, Local’s Only Pilsner, which is brewed with ingredients that are all sourced within California, and our Sunsetter Berliner Weisse with blackberries. I’ll also introduce what I hope will become new favorites, including more IPAs, AleHouse lagers and a kettle sour I’m currently working on for the lineup.

From weathering the initial storm, to pivoting, to being furloughed with no idea of when I’d be able to come back, to doing what I could to keep the brewery from being too much of a wreck when I did return, to dealing with that wreck, ramping back up then struggling in the search to find teammates to help sail our newly righted ship, it’s been a really, really tough year…for all of us. But hope is just around the corner and the light at the end of the tunnel is finally upon us. I look forward to basking in that and intend to brew on, comforted in the knowledge that my San Diego brewing industry colleagues will be doing the same!