I unfortunately wasn’t able to attend this past weekend’s Stong Ale Festival at Pizza Port Carlsbad (the beer list looked fantastic).

I did hear that Jeff Bagby, head brewer at Pizza Port Carlsbad has announced that he’s leaving Pizza Port with plans to open his own brewery. From what I hear he’ll be staying on in a consulting role for a while as he looks for a location for his future brewery.

Bagby has been the Head Brewer at Pizza Port Carlsbad since 2005 and I believe he has been Director of Brewing Operations for all four Pizza Port brewpubs. Under Bagby Pizza Port Carlsbad has brought home the “Large Brewpub of the Year” award at the Great American Beer Festival for the last three years as well as numerous medals.

I have an email into both Pizza Port and Jeff Bagby and will update this post if I get more info about who will become the new head brewer at Pizza Port Carlsbad or Bagby’s future plans.

UPDATE: Gina Marsaglia, co-founder/co-owner of Pizza Port had this to say: “Yes, Jeff is leaving and we are sorry to see him go, but luckily Ignacio Cervantes (Nacho) who has been the assistant to Jeff is going to continue to brew and some of our other guys are stepping up to fill most of Jeff’s duties until we find someone who will be a perfect fit. Hard to fill those shoes for sure!”

Photo from Jeff Bagby’s Facebook page.