CL-070 Beth Demmon is riding a party wave
Lately, the world has felt joyless. Even the weekends, which once offered a reprieve from the obligation of work, feel bland and gray when you\u2019re stuck at home all the time. Saturday gives way to Sunday, and time melts into hours of couch-sitting, Instagram-scrolling, beer-drinking, and the occasional debate on what to eat for lunch. I long for a trip away from the mundane cycle my life has become.
Against this backdrop, reading Beth Demmon\u2019s latest piece on Good Beer Hunting, \u201cRiding the Party Wave \u2014 Pizza Port Brewing Company\u2019s Swami\u2019s IPA,\u201d felt like the rare vacation from day-to-day life. It invites the reader to the sunny shores of San Diego, where Beth poses\u2014and then answers\u2014the question: What is the most San Diego beer? In the article, she makes a compelling case for Swami\u2019s, a West Coast IPA created by Pizza Port Brewing Company in 1992.
Through interviews with legends in the California craft beer scene, Beth shows us how the legacy of Swami\u2019s IPA still influences the beers we drink today\u2014even if we\u2019ve never personally traveled to San Diego. The article feels light and refreshing, offering a break from the heaviness of this moment in time.
In our conversation, Beth and I talk about why she posed this question in the first place, how she settled on Swami\u2019s as the beer that best encompasses San Diego, and why it\u2019s not Stone IPA. Throughout this interview, you\u2019ll hear Beth express her love for San Diego\u2014her adopted home\u2014and her joy as she looks back on the many memories she\u2019s had at Pizza Port Brewing Company over the years.