Meet Trevor Walls - Head Brewer at Pizza Port San Clemente

As Head Brewer at Pizza Port San Clemente, Trevor Walls recognizes the tremendous responsibility he carries. After all, Pizza Port Brewing Company is recognized by many as one of the best brewpub chains on the planet.

Started in 1987 by Gina and Vince Marsaglia in Solana Beach, Pizza Port now spans 5 Southern California locations: 1) Solana Beach, 2) Carlsbad, 3) Ocean Beach, 4) San Clemente, and 5) Bressi Ranch. A bottle shop is also in Carlsbad. Over the years prior to 2016, these 5 brewpubs have collectively racked up a whopping ninety (90) Great American Beer Festival (GABF) beer medals and twenty-nine (29) World Beer Cup (WBC) beer medals. The Pizza Port chain has also served as the launching point for former brewers such as Tomme Arthur (The Lost Abbey), Jeff Bagby (Bagby Beer Co.), and Yiga Miyashiro (Saint Archer). Individually and prior to 2016, Pizza Port San Clemente has won an impressive nine (9) GABF medals and five (5) WBC medals.

Pizza Port San Clemente (Photograph courtesy of Pizza Port Brewing)

Hence, Trevor Walls knew expectations would be high when he started as Head Brewer for Pizza Port San Clemente. And this year, Trevor and Assistant Brewer Jonathan (Jon) Eckelberger delivered by winning a 2016 GABF Silver Medal in the Coffee Beer category with the beer “Dusk ’til Dawn” Imperial Porter. Given that most brewers can go their entire lives without a GABF or WBC medal, the accomplishment is noteworthy. So sitting down with Trevor and learning more about him was exciting for me.

Assistant Brewer Jon Eckelberger (left) and Head Brewer Trevor Walls (right and wearing the GABF Silver Medal)

Background

Born in Mission Viejo, Trevor is a native Californian. He graduated from Dana Hills High School and attended San Diego State University (SDSU).

Trevor comes from a family of homebrewers. His father and uncle started teaching Trevor to homebrew when he was just nine (9) years old. One of Trevor’s first homebrewing memories involves brewing and bottling a Bass Ale clone. Homebrewing was one of the activities that helped bring the family together regularly to socialize and bond. Home brewing also instilled the value of creative work as fun. That value still resonates with Trevor to this day.

While attending SDSU, Trevor and a business partner started a screen printing business. The business grew to 10 employees, 2 automatic printing presses, and a 5000 sq.ft. warehouse. However, large manufacturers posed a threat to his long-term business growth. In addition, Trevor became interested in the San Diego craft beer culture and the success of businesses like Ballast Point. So on a “leap of faith“, he sold his share of the business and contacted “every brewery” in San Diego seeking an entry-level job. Ballast Point Home Brew Mart, impressed with Trevor’s home brewing background, hired him.

Having a beer industry sales job was a great start, but Trevor’s goal was to transition into professional brewing. So Trevor applied to the prestigious Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago for formal training as a brewer. While waiting to start training, he also volunteered to work at Mission Brewery to gain commercial production experience. Trevor studied for three months at the Siebel Institute and six months at the Doemens Academy in Munich, Germany.

Brewing Career

Once completing his training, Trevor worked for The Bruery in Placentia. After about a year at The Bruery, Trevor heard Pizza Port Brewing was opening a new location in Carlsbad. Trevor enjoyed the “culture and vibe” at Pizza Port – his “go to place for relaxing and drinking beer”. He applied for a job and started working at Pizza Port Bressi Ranch while it was still under construction. The new job gave Trevor some valuable experience in building a brewery from the ground up. The work included finishing the flooring required for the heavy brewery equipment, as well as supporting equipment installation and testing.

In August 2014, Trevor moved from Pizza Port Bressi Ranch to start as Head Brewer for Pizza Port San Clemente. The promotion to Head Brewer offered a more creative brewing opportunity but also carried significant responsibilities. Pizza Port patrons expect and demand great beer. In addition, the Pizza Port chain carries a great reputation among its brewing industry peers. Hence, the pressure is on all the Pizza Port brewers to deliver quality beers that deserve and gain industry respect. The Head Brewer responsibilities include submitting beers for competition in the GABF and WBC.

Competing at The Great American Beer Festival

Upon starting at Pizza Port San Clemente, Trevor had about a month to create his first entries for the 2014 GABF. Although he didn’t win a medal, the feedback from the judges was “positive” but also “humbling”. In 2015, one of his GABF entries made it to the final judging table but once again did not medal. However, each year Trevor learned from the judges feedback and developed a better understanding of their evaluation criteria.

This year, Trevor Walls and Jon Eckelberger decided to focus on the categories that best represented their brewing strengths. They extensively researched past winners. They also researched the competition. This knowledge helped them fine tune their beer recipes used for competition.

In the end, all the hard work paid off. “Dusk ’til Dawn” received a Silver Medal in the coffee beer category. The competition was huge. The coffee beer category had the 4th largest number (168) of competition entries. In GABF’s own words, the award means that the international judging team considers “Dusk ’til Dawn” a world-class beer that best represents the beer style category being evaluated.

My GABF Conversation with Trevor Walls

What’s it like being a brewer competing in the GABF?

Nerve racking!

Other than winning a medal, what do you most enjoy about GABF?

Meeting and interacting with industry peers and beer enthusiasts. GABF is the Super Bowl of Beer for Brewers.

How does your entry beer get to the GABF competition site in Colorado?

We have a truck that takes all the Pizza Port entrants and delivers the beers directly to the competition site. I personally pack our beers and place them on the truck just prior to its departure.

Describe some of the key steps and components in making “Dusk ’til Dawn” Imperial Porter.

Dusk ’til Dawn is a big, bold, and extremely complex beer. This style of beer should be big and bold.

Making Dusk ’til Dawn requires the biggest grain bill of all our beers. We use fourteen to fifteen different malts and 1400 pounds of grain. The blend includes Maris Otter malt to provide a little sweeter backbone and Patagonia malt to add a slightly different chocolate character. We limit the amount of roasted barley because we want only a touch of roasted malt and smoke character.

We add 150 pounds of dextrose at the end of the boil to ramp up the wort to 25° Plato (Author’s note: Plato is a measure of sucrose density by weight) so that we can create a bold beer at about 11% ABV.

Our house yeast accentuates the malt while adding complexity.

We use chocolate cocoa nibs that are a mix from Ecuador and Ghana.

Our coffee beans come from Bird Rock Coffee Roasters in La Jolla. We use a blend of Sumatran and Ethiopian coffee, the “Pizza Port blend”. The Sumatra provides a big, bold coffee flavor. The Ethiopian is lighter and aromatic. We coarsely grind the coffee beans. A very coarse grind is required to prevent introduction of an astringent flavor element.

We place the ground coffee beans and chocolate in a bag that is added to the bright tank for an exact time period that is proprietary. Any longer overwhelms the beer with coffee and chocolate.

For the GABF competition we allowed the beer to age in the keg for about 4 months prior to bottling and shipping to the competition. The aging allowed the beer’s components to integrate harmoniously and develop a more mature, refined, and balanced flavor profile.

Describe drinking “Dusk ’til Dawn”.

“Dusk ’til Dawn” looks oily thick but does not taste thick. The color is very dark brown – almost black.

The beer creates a nice, thick tan foam head reminiscent of espresso.

A rich aroma of coffee and chocolate bursts from the glass.

The beer tastes and feels big and bold with coffee and dark chocolate prevailing.

Trevor Walls shows off the perfect pour for “Dusk ’til Dawn”.

If you haven’t been to a Pizza Port location, you are missing out on some excellent brews. If you make it to Pizza Port San Clemente, Trevor recommends asking the bartender for the freshest, in-house made beer that’s currently on tap. I suggest you always follow your local brewer’s recommendation, especially if he’s won a GABF medal like Trevor Walls.