April 16th was an exciting day for San Diego craft beer drinkers because opening up in the space previously occupied by Alesmith Brewing was non other than Mikkeller Brewing. Mikkel Borg Bjergsø is perhaps the most famous gypsy brewer, known for exploring a huge range of beer styles and fermentation innovations. For the last ten years, he has been the darling of the craft beer industry, making friends and beers with a wide range of brewers and breweries all over the world. With craft breweries opening up all the time in San Diego, why was this opening so special? We think it’s because the partnership and the path that this Danish brewer took to get here is the epitome of why San Diego’s craft beer scene is the best in the world.
Mikkel started out in 2004, brewing beer in his Copenhagen kitchen. By day he was teaching kids math and physics and all his other time was spent experimenting with hops, malts and yeasts. He paired up with his childhood friend, Kristian Keller, and they began a series of beer experiments that focused on the extremely hoppy styles of beer that they were tasting from the U.S. Their big breakthrough came, however, with a stout, a coffee stout to be exact. In 2006, their stout, Beer Geek Breakfast was voted the number one stout in the world on Ratebeer.com and at the Danish Beer Festival, two American distributers travelled across the pond to court the two Danish brewers. Although Keller left in 2007 to pursue a different career, Mikkel continued brewing in Danish microbreweries to try and keep up with the demand created by partnering together with the American owned Shelton Brothers.
Here is where the story gets adorbs…while trying to perfect the recipe for his coffee stout in his kitchen all those years ago, Mikkel reached out to a brewer who he deemed having “The best stout I’ve tasted in my life.” The beer was Speedway Stout and the brewer was Peter Zien, owner and brewmaster of Alesmith Brewing. Their friendship continued over the next 10 years as Mikkel travelled around the world brewing his award winning beers at different breweries who he developed relationships with.
So when Alesmith decided to move to a newer, bigger facility, just down the street from their old digs, they began shopping around for buyers. Zien reached out to his long-time friend about buying the brewery and finally settling down. After much discussion, they decided a creative partnership would work out perfectly and Mikkeller began the process of moving into the 20,000-square-foot facility.
This sort of friendship to partnership story is what the craft beer community was built on. Sharing information, ideas, recipes and helping out fellow brewers has always been a fundamental reason why this community is so close-knit and supportive. San Diego in particular has a wonderful craft beer community, which we are truly lucky to be a part of.
I had the pleasure of drinking some delicious Mikkeller beers last year in San Francisco when I stopped by Mikkeller Bar. I was not only impressed with the Mikkeller beers on tap, but the rest of the beer list was world-class. Upon hearing that Mikkeller was coming to San Diego and opening their first brewery, I was ecstatic.
Now that they have a dedicated space to work their magic stateside, Mikkeller plans on doubling their production while keeping with Mikkel’s signature mindset of “attacking a wide-range of beer styles including experimental beers and one-offs, taking chances and brewing as the mood strikes him.”
Look for Mikkeller beers to begin popping up on craft beer bar tap lists across San Diego and definitely make a trip to the new Mikkeller Brewery off of Miramar road and taste the new brews and recent collabs they have to offer.
Anna Brigham
4/22/16