Jessie “JABS” Birschbach, senior wine, beer, & spirits editor for The SOMM Journal magazine, is a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers with a background in fine dining (Spago, Beverly Hills; Mastro’s Steakhouse, Beverly Hills), creative marketing (Signature Creative, Protagonist), and comedy (iO West, UCB LA, National Comedy Theatre).

Also a Certified Cicerone, JABS is a mediocre homebrewer and bartends at Macleod Ale Brewing in Los Angeles: one of the few places in the United States where one can find true, fresh cask ale.

As the daughter of a former cannabis grower, Birschbach maintains a high level of cannabis knowledge, fascinated with the pairing potential of the plant’s strains (and its respective terpenes) with wine and beer.

Although she is from the island of Kauai, spending the first six years of her life on the islands, JABS grew up in San Diego, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Marketing from San Diego State University. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her wife and son, living part-time in the San Bernardino Mountains, where she serves as a paid-call firefighter.