{"id":91707,"date":"2025-12-12T10:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/91707\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T10:35:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:35:13","slug":"a-changing-of-the-guard-for-taproom-beer-co","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/91707\/","title":{"rendered":"A changing of the guard for Taproom Beer Co."},"content":{"rendered":"

When TapRoom Beer Co. (TRBC) opened its doors in 2020, the North Park brewpub did so with the name of its head brewer brandished on glassware and members of the local beer intelligentsia excited to see what they would bring to the table. That individual was Bill Batten, an AleSmith Brewing<\/a> alum who helped open Mikkeller Brewing San Diego (MBSD) prior to getting in on the ground floor at TRBC.\u00a0When Batten moved on to join Fall Brewing\u2019s team in January of 2022, that left a gaping hole which was immediately filled by another brewer with solid pedigree in the San Diego suds scene, Daniel Cady (pictured below, at right). An alum of several small breweries who had most recently headed beermaking at, coincidentally enough, MBSD, Cady quickly made his new environs his own. That included inviting one of his MBSD coworkers to come on board as his right-hand man. Now, that trusted comrade, Justin Pribbenow (pictured above), is taking up the mantle as TRBC\u2019s new head brewer following Cady\u2019s recent resignation to pursue a job at Holy Mountain Brewery in Seattle, Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited and looking forward to the challenge,\u201d says Pribbenow, who has been brewing at TRBC for three years. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard to replace Dan, and I will definitely miss his input, but the best part of brewing is always learning new things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TapRoom<\/p>\n

When Pribbenow moved to San Diego from Wisconsin in 2015, he was an IT professional, but wanted to pursue a new career path. An avid homebrewer, he decided to see if he could get his foot in the door at one of the county\u2019s numerous breweries. In 2016, he was hired to work on the bottling line at Mission Brewery<\/a> in the East Village, where he climbed the ladder, earning a pro brewer position before moving back to Wisconsin for a short stint, where he worked for Karben4 Brewing in Madison. Missing San Diego and the friendships he\u2019d made in the brewing community, he returned, landing a job at MBSD, where he worked until the business closed in 2022. His next stop was Miramar-based Duck Foot Brewing<\/a>, which is where he was employed when Cady called to see if he\u2019d be interested in reuniting.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring our time working together, we\u2019ve operated a little differently than at some places,\u201d says Pribbenow. \u201cDan has always respected my ideas and we collaborate on most things like recipes and processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past three years, Pribbenow has played a key role in TRBC\u2019s brewing program, helping produce beers that have garnered accolades at high-profile competitions, including the Great American Beer Festival, World Beer Cup, Best of Craft Beer Awards and Festival of Wood and Barrel-aged Beers. In 2023, TRBC took gold at the latter competition for a barleywine-wheatwine blend called \u201cMoments of Silent Banter\u201d. That same year house hazy IPA \u201cPB Haze\u201d took gold at GABF, and this year they nabbed a bronze at that same contest for a fresh-hop IPA called \u201cDAMP.\u201d Medals aside, a beer of Pribbenow\u2019s conception which he is especially proud of is an American Pilsner brewed with Linc malt called \u201cBelow the Asteroids\u201d.<\/p>\n

When asked what may change under his leadership, Pribbenow says, \u201cThere will be no more beer flights and all of the beer will be far more bitter. I\u2019m just kidding, but I will definitely be bringing back some of my favorite beers I\u2019ve brewed over the years while also focusing on our flagship beers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJustin has maintained a functionally impressive foundation in my career. The years have repeatedly been highlighted by amazing triumph and fun. If I champion anyone, that\u2019s my guy,\u201d says Cady when asked about his longtime peer ascending to the head brewer position. \u201cWe have been through the ringer. We have brought the product, together, always. TapRoom is in good hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

TapRoom Beer Co. is located at 2000 El Cajon Boulevard in North Park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When TapRoom Beer Co. (TRBC) opened its doors in 2020, the North Park brewpub did so with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[11659,45213,1115,2251,2136,22477,50646,5314,50647,50648,4786,1282,74,76,75,24192,50649],"class_list":["post-91707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-alesmith","tag-award-winning","tag-beer","tag-brandon-hernandez","tag-brewer","tag-brewpub","tag-duck-foot-brewing","tag-east-village","tag-gabf","tag-mikkeller","tag-mission-brewing","tag-new","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-taproom-beer","tag-world-beer-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}