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Leading the charge: Beer Week is driving Jill Davidson to drink

By Peter Rowe
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Jill Davidson is western regional sales representative for Pizza Port; president of the San Diego Brewers Guild; and head honcho for San Diego Beer Week, Nov. 3-12.

It’s enough to drive her to drink. For which she’s so, so grateful.

PACIFIC: Are you swamped with SDBW duties? Or is being Guild president like being the prince of Monaco - you have a sweet title without having to do much heavy lifting?
JILL DAVIDSON: I’m on the San Diego Beer Week committee, so SDBW is on the brain year-round. We work with several organizations to ensure the success of the week and we consistently dialogue, make presentations and attend planning meetings. Thankfully, we also have a Guild Fest (Nov. 3-4) committee that focuses on producing the event.

OK, so there is some heavy lifting. What’s the heaviest?
Juggling meetings and consistently developing ways to keep the week new, fresh and exciting!

What’s your favorite SDBW memory?
It’s a toss-up between my first VIP brewers reception at Guild Fest and my first Battle of the Guilds. The former is such a magical, intimate experience with all of our amazing breweries. The latter is a chance to mingle with our friends from guilds around the state in a friendly competition. In both situations, there’s lots of great beer and camaraderie.

What are you looking forward this year?
This is the 20th anniversary of the San Diego Brewers Guild, so we are brewing our first SDBG collaboration beer for Beer Week. I can’t wait to drink it! We have also partnered with Karl Strauss on their inaugural Collabapalooza Festival, which will celebrate San Diego’s collaborative spirit among independent breweries.

Beer Week always starts on a Friday morning. Beer breakfasts: great idea or recipe for workplace disaster?
I think beer is a great idea any time of day as long as you plan accordingly and responsibly. I personally love beer at brunch, specifically if it includes delicious and inventive food pairings. I also see the first Friday of November as an official San Diego holiday, so this seems like as great a day as any to use vacation time!

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San Diego Beer Week 2017: A choose your own adventure

Magazine
Peter Rowe

Peter joined The San Diego Union-Tribune in 1984. A native Californian who grew up in Encinitas, Rowe is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Northwestern University. He is past president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and a former Fulbright scholar. He has won a few journalism awards, but would trade them all for a chance to avenge his 1994 “Jeopardy!” loss. Married to a terrific woman who has saved him from errors in writing and in life, he has three sons. At the U-T, Rowe writes profiles and features and is even paid to review beers, which hardly seems fair.

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