Meet Brandon Hernández: Founder & Executive Editor, San Diego Beer News®
A native San Diegan, Brandon Hernández is an award-winning journalist who has covered his hometown’s brewing industry for 13 years and authored two editions of the San Diego Beer News® Complete Guide to San Diego Breweries.
Last week marked the launch of his most recent adventure in the beer world, the SAN DIEGO BEER NEWS® website (www.sandiegobeer.news), a one-stop resource for all things #SDBeer. Packed with news on San Diego’s 150-plus breweries, openings, closings, work-in-progress projects, and what’s happening and tapping around the county, it’s the most extensive resource that’s ever existed for information on the region’s renowned beer scene.
We are very fortunate to know Brandon from our time spent in San Diego and personally know how incredibly talented he is. Get to know more about Brandon Hernández and his new endeavors below!
Tell us a little about yourself and how you help support the San Diego beer scene.
I’m a native San Diegan who, in the late nineties, had the good fortune of having some craft-beer-loving friends take me under their wing and introduce me to IPAs, strong ales, Belgian beers and the like at O’Brien’s Pub, Pizza Port and some of the county’s other hophead hot-spots. When I started my writing career back in 2007, I was writing about food, restaurants, and wine, but noticed almost nobody was writing about the local beer I was so enamored with. So, I asked an editor if I could write a round-up, spotlighting all of San Diego’s breweries. They wondered if there were enough and I informed them we had around twenty! The response to the round-up was great and helped me get more beer-article pitches approved with the dozen or so local and national publications I was writing for. Before I knew it, I was San Diego’s most prolific journalist covering beer and the brewing industry. Thanks to incredible growth—San Diego County is now home to well over 150 brewhouses and more than 200 brewery-owned venues—I’ve maintained that status, and it’s been a pleasure doing so. I have come to know hundreds of business owners, brewers, and brewery employees throughout the county. Their passion is infectious, their beers are delicious and their stories are the kinds I love telling. Beer-writing is a true passion for me, as is my hometown, and it’s a privilege and honor to get to do this for a living, especially now that I’m doing it on my own website during a pandemic where most outlets are struggling and, as a result, barely covering or completely ignoring San Diego’s brewing community. It means so much to be able to hopefully make some positive difference for these businesses and their employees, and I vow to do my best to come through on that ambition.
How did you get started / what interested you about the brewing industry initially?
Like most beer fans, it was the beer that first drew me to the industry. Craft beer is such a cut above the industrialized version that, for so long, was the only type of beer largely available in this country. And San Diego craft beer—as proven through decades of competition wins, fanfare and a stellar reputation earned a beer at a time—is truly exceptional. When I set out to meet the people who devoted their lives to crafting it, I was impressed with the genuineness, ingenuity, and passion of those in the local brewing industry. I could relate, in that it reminded me of how I felt about writing and other pursuits. As much as I will always love beer, it’s almost supplementary to the incredible people I’ve met along the way and maintain relationships with today. Their dedication to what they do, devotion to beer and its history, and acceptance of people into their community inspired me to narrow my writing focus from all things food to exclusively beer and inspired me to go a step further, becoming a part of the brewing industry, where I spent seven years working for San Diego County brewing companies Stone, AleSmith and Societe.
What types of things can people expect to see on San Diego Beer News®?
We are a comprehensive, one-stop resource for all things “#SDBEER.” Of course, I’ll continue to bring as many news stories (and scoops) to the site, along with guest articles from members of the brewing community focusing on issues and causes that are important to them, plus news on what’s tapping around town, events (when the pandemic allows for them), culinary articles and recipes, a constantly updated brewery map, job listings (coming soon) and info on operations at each brewery in light of COVID-19. We’ve also brought together some great organizations and other advocates for the local beer industry to give them a presence on the site where they can share information with the public. That includes the California Craft Brewers Association, Pink Boots Society, Mujeres Brew Club, and QUAFF homebrew club. We’ve also partnered with and feature the latest episodes of 91X’s Beer for Breakfast show, ALT 949 FM’s Rock and Roll Happy Hour broadcast, and The Indie Beer Show podcast. We’re just getting started and also open to ideas and suggestions from our users, so if you have any, feel free to email us.
Anything exciting coming up with San Diego Beer News® that you can share with us?
This Thursday, August 13, we’ll send out our first (free) This Week in #SDBeer email newsletter to our subscribers, and it will include a list of new beers coming out at dozens of breweries around the county. It’s a service we provide the breweries free of charge to help them get their info out and keep beer fans in the know. That newsletter will also include recommendations on cool new beers from the staff at the local bottle shop chain, Bottlecraft, plus other fun features. I’m proud to announce we have local beer-and-food legend Tyson Blake of O’Brien’s Pub and West Coast Smoke & Tap House heading up our culinary content, and Advanced Cicerone Chris Leguizamon of Pure Project Brewing providing some educational content. We are also in talks to get a 23-year veteran of the brewing industry to serve as a correspondent of sorts, so keep an eye out for info on that!
What type of activities do you indulge in when you are not writing about great beer?
Drinking great beer. Ha! But seriously, folks, I love to write fiction and have been at that since I was in ninth grade. I also love to play drums, guitar, and bass and cook up all sorts of fun things in the kitchen. That’s actually how I got started in food writing, by getting on Food Network for some of my recipes and knowledge of Mexican food. The pandemic has allowed me to throw myself back into cooking (and take up cocktail-making on a larger scale than ever). Unfortunately, COVID-19 has kept me from the thing I love the most, being around my friends and family. Craft beer has afforded me so many great relationships, and I miss engaging in them and just having fun with the people I care about. I’ll be glad to get back to that post-pandemic. Fortunately, San Diego Beer News provides me opportunities to keep in touch with a good number of those people, so that’s been a nice fringe benefit of going into business for myself.
What style of beer do you enjoying drinking the most?
Brett Saisons. I love the fact that Belgian and French Saisons are the most unpredictable, rangy style of beer in the world, and so often exhibit characteristics of the regions in which they are produced. It’s one of the closest things to terroir you can find in the beer industry. Then, throw in the unpredictability of Brettanomyces and each beer is its own unique experience. In fact, each batch of each beer is a unique experience. I’m a lot like the average craft-beer drinker, constantly looking for the next a-ha moment. I think Brett Saisons (AKA: farmhouse ales) provide that sensation more often than any other beer style.
What advice would you give someone who wants to break into the craft beer industry?
Go in with realistic expectations. If you’re an owner, far be it from me to tell you how to do things (seriously, I couldn’t do what you’re doing), but consider putting yourself second. Many owners get into brewing because they want to do things “their way.” I respect that, and it’s every entrepreneur’s prerogative to do that, but I’ve seen many businesses underperform, outright fail, or be forced to pivot (even before the pandemic) because they put the customer second to their own whims. Of course, breweries should produce beer their owners and staff enjoy, but it can’t be all about them. That’s what homebrewing is for, fulfilling your needs. Professional brewing is about meeting others’ needs while also creating a business formula that ownership feels good about. It’s not easy, but business and being successful in it is inherently difficult. And when I say professional brewing is about meeting others’ needs, I don’t just mean customers. I mean your employees. There’s nothing worse than watching the spirits and livelihoods of brewery employees crushed by an owner’s prioritization of their personal wants above the public to the detriment of their staffers. Again, this is only my opinion, but the most successful businesses focus on good business first, no matter what the company produces. It’s something I would recommend keeping in mind from day one.
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