The San Diego, California-based Green Flash Brewing is a force to be reckoned with. Whether you’re drinking its award-winning West Coast IPA, downing the highly sessionable GFB Blonde Ale, or sipping on something special from the Cellar 3 series, you know a Green Flash beer when you try one.
Since opening in 2002, Green Flash has become the 45th-largest craft brewery and its beers are available coast to coast. Brewmaster Erik Jensen has been with the label since 2012 and has led brewing operations since 2016. Needless to say, he knows a thing or two about good beer.
We caught up with Jensen to talk about the beers in his fridge, what made him fall in love with beer, and the best bar in San Diego.
1. What’s your desert island beer?
Sea to Sea Zwickel Lager from Green Flash. It’s a hoppy German-style pilsner that’s unfiltered. You can drink a bunch and it’s great. I always have it on my kegerator along with a hoppy beer and something Belgian.
2. What’s the beer that made you fall in love with beer?
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Anchor Steam. I first drank them in the late ’80s, and they inspired me to start home brewing, which led to brewing school and now a 23 year career in brewing.
3. FMK three beer types: IPA, pilsner, sour
Jeeez is this really a beer question? F none, kill none and marry none……Drink all!!
4. You’re on death row. What’s your last supper beer?
’91 Liefmans Goudenband. Good luck finding that…now they can’t execute me!
5. You can only drink at one bar for the rest of your life. What is it and why?
Hamiltons Tavern in San Diego. West Coast IPA all the time. Green Flash has brewed their anniversary beer every year they have been in existence. Great beer bar…and walking distance from my house!
6. What’s the best and worst beer in your fridge right now?
Best: Lustrous Frumento with Mostra Cold Brew Coffee by Green Flash Cellar 3. It’s a double stout aged in bourbon barrels for three years with Mostra Cold Brew coffee added. Wow!
Worst: I found a year-old can of Founders All Day IPA that sat in my trunk cooking for the entire summer and then some a few weeks ago. I didn’t have the heart to throw it away so I put it in the fridge. I won’t drink it. I won’t let anyone else drink it. It just sits there looking sad. It started out as a tasty beer but now it’s just an old, sad can of unappreciated IPA that needs to get tossed.
7. If you could no longer drink beer, what would be your beverage of choice?
Carbonated water from the SodaStream. I might have an occasional rye whiskey or tequila drink every so often but I am a beer guy.
