The American Homebrewers Association is excited to welcome Tomme Arthur as keynote speaker for the 2015 AHA National Homebrewers Conference, which takes place June 11-13, 2015, at the Town & Country Resort in San Diego.
Co-founder and chief operating owner of Port Brewing Company and The Lost Abbey in San Marcos, Calif., Tomme has a particularly impressive craft beer resume—and a Michael Phelps-like ability to accumulate gold medals.
A native San Diegan, Tomme began his professional brewing career at Cervecerias La Cruda in downtown San Diego, where he developed his passion for brewing flavor-driven beers. In 1996, Cervecerias La Cruda earned a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival® (GABF), at that point only the second gold medal earned by a San Diego brewery.
After La Cruda closed its doors in 1997, Tomme was hired by Pizza Port in Solana Beach, where he remained the head brewer until June of 2005, when he was named director of brewery operations for Pizza Port.
In addition to promoting San Diego as a destination for craft beer, Tomme has worked to create many unique beers and his ongoing experiments included oak aging of beers, using fruits, herbs and spices along with numerous wild yeasts and micro-organisms.
During the eight-plus years that Tomme was head brewer at Pizza Port, the brewery racked up 13 Great American Beer Festival medals, numerous medals at the Chicago Real Ale Festival, as well as awards at other regional and national competitions. In 2003 and 2004, Pizza Port Solana Beach was named Small Brewpub of the Year at GABF, and Tomme was also named Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year for both years.
After joining Port Brewing in 2006, Tomme kept adding to his trophy case. In 2007 Port Brewing was named Great American Beer Festival Small Brewery of the Year, and Tomme Small Brewer of the Year. In 2008 he and Port Brewing were named World Champion Small Brewer and Brewery at the international World Beer Cup. Since then he’s taken home even more hardware and has been consistently noted as one of the world’s top brewers.
As longtime admirers of his brewing achievements and innovations, the American Homebrewers Association is excited to welcome Tomme as keynote speaker for the 2015 AHA National Homebrewers Conference, which takes place June 11-13, 2015, at the Town & Country Resort in San Diego.