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KPBS Midday Edition

'Brewchive' Tells The History Of San Diego Beer

By Alison St John / Reporter,  Brooke Ruth / Senior Producer of Audio News
Published June 13, 2018 at 8:20 AM PDT
This story was published more than 6 years ago.
This glassware from the "Brewchive" is a sample of the different shapes of glassware used at local breweries.
Courtesy of "Brewchive"
This glassware from the "Brewchive" is a sample of the different shapes of glassware used at local breweries.
'Brewchive' Tells The History Of San Diego Beer
'Brewchive' Tells The History Of San Diego Beer GUEST: Judith Downie, curator, Brewchive at Cal State San Marcos

>>> Beer is -- making it, selling it, drinking it is an important part of San Diego's lifestyle and economy. San Marcus has a beer centric collection. One of the only ones like it in the country. It is called the Brew Christ. We have the creator with us. Judas, thank you for being with us. The you are essentially a beer historian which is a job that many people come in what is it like. >> A lot of people how -- asked me how I got my job. Was at the right place at the right time. There was no one actively collecting the history of what was going on right now in San Diego. With the engineering program going on at Cal State San Marcos, we said let's do it. I was in the right place at the right time and said yes. >>> Why is it important to preserve the history of our local Brew Resean . >> it is a large segment of our economy. It is local. There are lessons to be learned. Everything is history as far as I am concerned. I am also saying that our business students and the students in the engineering program can learn from the successes and failures of the local Bures. -- Breweries. Some have grown very large and some got bought out like Dallas point and green flash, and then we have had breweries that failed. How did they fail. What went wrong. What did they do. If we did not record that information, we would never know. >>> What kinds of things good people see there? >> We launched the 21st anniversary with an announcement saying we want to collect your stuff. [no audio]

Beer — making it, selling it, drinking it — is an important part of San Diego’s lifestyle and economy.

Cal State San Marcos has begun to archive the history of San Diego's local breweries in a beer-centric special collection, one of only a few like it in the country. It’s called the "Brewchive."

The effort to archive the history of San Diego's breweries was first announced in August 2017 at Stone Brewing's 21st anniversary. The "Brewchive" covers what curator Judith Downie calls the third wave of San Diego brewing, which began in 1987 to the present day.

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"We had pre-Prohibition, then a period after Prohibition until 1953 where we had local brewing, and then we didn't have anything in the way of local brewing until 1987," said Downie, the special collections and history librarian at Cal State San Marcos.

The "Brewchive" includes coasters, growlers, beer bottles and beer recipes. Downie said she is looking for lists of beers that local breweries have made.

"Our business students and the students that are going to be in the 'EngiBeering' program can learn from both the successes and failures the local breweries have gone through," Downie said.

Women in the brewing industry are a focus of the collection.

Downie joins Midday Edition on Wednesday to discuss the beer-centric archive.

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Pictured is a sample of some of the documents and flyers from Karl Strauss Brewing Company.
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Pictured is a sample of some of the documents and flyers from Karl Strauss Brewing Company.
Courtesy of "Brewchive"
Pictured is the recipe sheet that Greg Lorton, local certified beer judge and homebrewer, used for his first brew 30 years ago. Lorton was a president of QUAFF, Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity, and their newsletter editor.
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Pictured is the recipe sheet that Greg Lorton, local certified beer judge and homebrewer, used for his first brew 30 years ago. Lorton was a president of QUAFF, Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity, and their newsletter editor.
Courtesy of "Brewchive"
This glassware from the "Brewchive" is a sample of the different shapes of glassware used at local breweries.
3 of 8
This glassware from the "Brewchive" is a sample of the different shapes of glassware used at local breweries.
Courtesy of "Brewchive"
A tote bag and t-shirt from The Pink Boots Society's 10th anniversary celebration held at Liberty Station in the summer of 2017. The Pink Boots Society was started by Teri Fahrendorf, the first woman craft brewmaster in California, and Laura Ulrich, the small batch brewer at Stone Brewing and current president of the society. The society says it "was created to assist, inspire and encourage women beer industry professionals to advance their careers through education."
4 of 8
A tote bag and t-shirt from The Pink Boots Society's 10th anniversary celebration held at Liberty Station in the summer of 2017. The Pink Boots Society was started by Teri Fahrendorf, the first woman craft brewmaster in California, and Laura Ulrich, the small batch brewer at Stone Brewing and current president of the society. The society says it "was created to assist, inspire and encourage women beer industry professionals to advance their careers through education."
Courtesy of "Brewchive"
These coasters in the "Brewchive" are a sampling of the art and design found on what is considered "throw away advertising."
5 of 8
These coasters in the "Brewchive" are a sampling of the art and design found on what is considered "throw away advertising."
Courtesy of "Brewchive"
The "Brewchive's" tap-handle collection, includes one from Alpine Brewing’s first years, one from Manzanita Beer (became Twisted Manzanita and then closed) and the second iteration of Stone’s handles. Stone’s first tap handles were sand-blasted beach rocks.
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The "Brewchive's" tap-handle collection, includes one from Alpine Brewing’s first years, one from Manzanita Beer (became Twisted Manzanita and then closed) and the second iteration of Stone’s handles. Stone’s first tap handles were sand-blasted beach rocks.
Courtesy of "Brewchive"
A Karl Strauss growler from the brewery's earlier years is pictured in this undated photo.
7 of 8
A Karl Strauss growler from the brewery's earlier years is pictured in this undated photo.
Courtesy of "Brewchive"
A Karl Strauss growler from the brewery's more recent years is pictured in this undated photo.
8 of 8
A Karl Strauss growler from the brewery's more recent years is pictured in this undated photo.
Courtesy of "Brewchive"

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Alison St John
Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.
Brooke Ruth
Brooke Ruth is the senior producer of Audio News. She previously served as a producer for "KPBS Midday Edition" and a web producer. Before joining KPBS, Brooke was a web editor for four newspapers and a local television station. She began her career in news at the Imperial Valley Press. She has also been part of the web teams at the Napa Valley Register, North County Times, and U-T San Diego. While pursuing her undergraduate degree at UCLA in psychology, she worked on the student newspaper, the Daily Bruin.
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