Good Beer Hunting

Before I started working at Good Beer Hunting, I was a pretty avid reader, and the stories that resonated with me most were the stories that were more about people than they were about the beer themselves. Just a few weeks ago, we published one of the most ambitious and important one of these stories to date. The article is called, "A Story of Resilience—Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, Calif.," and it follows the creation of a beer by Sierra Nevada. The beer, which is called Resilience as the name of the article implies, was created in response to the Camp Fires in Northern California last year. Sierra Nevada, whose headquarters were not far from the towns affected by the fire, jumped into action almost immediately, and started giving out food and brewing Resilience to raise money for victims of the fire. We sent members of the GBH team to learn more about Resilience, and the story they told, which came out in April, was so much more than I could have ever imagined a story about a beer to be. But hey, that's why I started reading stories on GBH's website, right? We learn more from GBH contributor Alyssa Pereira and photographer Clara Rice on what it took to take tell this story.

Our resident composer for the podcast and our commercial video work, Andrew Thiboldeaux, is writing original scores devoted to beers he finds fascinating. These are interpretations of the experience of drinking them. But they're also just great tunes.

Every year, hundreds of baristas come together for the United States Coffee Championships. The competitions are heavily anticipated, with folks preparing for months to present their routines to judges and figure out who is the best coffee brewer, roaster, or taster in the nation. The heart of the entire competition is the barista championships. You might be thinking, what could a barista competition even be? Is it who can make the best coffee? Is it who has the best beans? Is it who can make the prettiest latte art? All these things make up a portion of the competition, but it's fundamentally a test of skill, expertise, and perhaps a little bit of luck and circumstance. Competitors have 15 minutes to present four espressos, four milk drinks, and four signature drinks to a panel of sensory judges, all the while having two technical judges hovering around you, scoring your technique and technical abilities. The winner goes on to represent the United States at the World Barista Championships, which happens to be in Boston this year. The competitions are the breeding ground for new ideas in coffee. You might see competitors freeze their coffee beans or talk about new processing methods. Techniques and concepts that we accept as commonplace in the coffee industry usually come from coffee competitions, and their influence on the future of specialty coffee can't be measured. Every year, my colleague, Colin Whitcomb, and I sit on the sidelines and provide live commentary for folks watching at home. The competitions are livestreamed by the Specialty Coffee Association, who hires a professional AV team to run sound and shoot live video, and Colin and I meticulously re-read the rulebook and watch past competitions to see what's new, what trends have carried on from years past, and provide context for the decisions that competitors make. This is a task that Colin loves. He's a long time barista competitor, Executive Council member for the Barista Guild, and is currently building out his new café, Canary Coffee Bar, in Milwalkee, Wisconsin. Colin has been part of the specialty coffee community for over a decade, and competed in his first barista competition in 2008. In this interview, which we recorded on the eve of the United States Barista Championships, Colin talks about the history and ever-changing format of the competition, what trends and ideas came out of the competition sphere, and we make some spur of the moment bets on who we think will win (spoiler alert—we're 100% wrong). This is Colin Whitcomb of Canary Coffee Bar. Listen in.

It started when i went to the website. "FLOODLAND BREWING" it read in all caps at the top. "Floodland is a brewery in Seattle" below. A spot to enter your email. You want to know more? There's a text file FAQ with some basic points of info. That's it. When I first came across the homepage—if you'd dare call it that—I had no idea what to expect. The business was started by Adam Paysse, one of the original partners of the city's beloved Holy Mountain Brewing. He had decided to go on his own with this venture, taking over a modestly-sized storage space in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood and filling it with barrels, focusing on a collection of barrel-fermented and mixed-culture beers. He released his first beers in 2018 to wild fanfare, and it really hasn't stopped. What interested me in seeking out and chatting with Adam pretty much went right back to that website. He has a deep appreciation for his craft, and like the barebones appearance of his digital presence, is straight-forward in what motivates and excites him. He talks up his friends and partners, local farmers, and fellow brewers who inspire him. He worries about social media and line culture. He is wonderfully committed to the people he cares about and what he does for a living. He's a fascinating guy, and one who doesn't really talk publicly too much. It made for an incredible, wide-ranging conversation when we met in Seattle this spring. Spending an afternoon with Adam quickly introduced me to a personality I'm thankful to know, and happy to follow. In the Pacific Northwest, he's got lots of fans, and if you haven't heard of him yet, I hope this introduction puts him on your radar, too. This is Adam Paysse of Floodland Brewing. Listen in.

Welcome to the Good Beer Hunting Collective Podcast, the show where members of our team interview each other to get the behind the scenes look at some of our favorite articles. I'm Ashley Rodriguez, and I'm GBH's podcast producer. One of my jobs at Good Beer Hunting is to post all the articles that come through our website. Usually that means lots of cutting and pasting, checking links, setting up their website page, and figuring out where photos go. It also means I get real intimate with some of these articles—I'm working with them for hours at a time. One article that recently caught my attention was about Tilted Barn Brewery in Exeter, Rhode Island. And the reason it caught my attention wasn't because of the beer, but because of the way the author wrote about Tilted Barn. Kristen, whose day job involves working in people development (what we might traditionally know as human resources), illuminates the people she talks about. You don't just want to visit Tilted Barn, you want to engage with the owners, Kara and Matt Richardson—and their family. They live just 100 yards away from the brewery with their four kids, and Kristen's story captures the ups and downs of integrating your everyday life with your work. In this episode, we talk to Kristen about what it was like to visit and share the story of Tilted Barn, and what attracts her to the folks she depicts in her stories.

This week, we're bringing you a special episode from our Into the Wild tour with New Belgium Brewing. This is a tour focused on wild, sour, and otherwise aged and blended beers in the vein of what New Belgium Brewing has been making for longer and more continuously than any brewer in America. This tour is visiting at least a half a dozen cities this year and we kicked it off in Seattle with a series of sensory-driven events. We did a sour beer and cheese pairing at The Pine Box with chef Angelica Garza, featuring some funky and surprising cheeses alongside New Belgium's Wood Cellar beers. We held a smoked and fermented event at Central Smoke where they made a cocktail with a Transatlantique Kriek float. (It was delicious.) And we finished at The Masonry with chef Matt Storm, where we explored the relationship between acid and fat. It was a wild week. These two conversations you're about to hear came out of my experiences there. First up, we'll talk to Ian Roberts, one of the owners of The Pine Box, about the bar's role in the city's beer scene, and how customers have changed over time when it comes to sour beer. Then we'll catch up with Chef Matt to talk about The Masonry, pizza, and other things. And if you want more, we have a great little article on the website from chef Angelica Garza about how she constructed the cheese pairings and how you can think about that the next time you want to host some of your friends around cheese and sour beer. As specific as these flavors and aromas can be, there's some pretty good principles at play that will help you do it yourself.

The life of an American brewery feels like it exists on a scale like one of our pets. In the same way cat and dog years move at a factor faster than humans, the quick pace of the U.S. industry can make these businesses age rapidly in a variety of ways. If you're not new, or at least keeping up with the latest styles and trends, life can come at you fast. So when a brewery starts hitting milestones — not just its first few anniversaries, but long-tenured ones — it's kind of a big deal. That's what brought me to Asheville, North Carolina recently, where one of the state's largest and most important breweries hit its silver anniversary, marking 25 years in business. There's a bunch of special history for Highland Brewing Company. It was the first brewery to open in Asheville's city limits since Prohibition and third in the state. And if you want to get a good idea of how Highland came to be, check out my 2017 story on Good Beer Hunting. You'll hear several references to it in this interview with founder Oscar Wong and family owner and president Leah Wong Ashburn. It's not required reading to enjoy this conversation by any means, but you will get some fun, additional context. But let's get back to this talk. When I sat down with Oscar and Leah, the goal was to look across Highland's history. Past, present and future. There may be almost 7,500 breweries scattered across the country, but there aren't a lot with the kind of longevity and point of view of business like this one. After building its success in Old World styles like an English-inspired Pale Ale and Porter, the last few years have been about rapid evolution. This is an old company in beer years, but that doesn't mean the Highland team hasn't learned some new tricks. So let's hear it: how does a brewery last and change over a quarter-century? This is Oscar Wong and Leah Wong Ashburn of Highland Brewing. Listen in.

As of right now—May 2019—there are about 7,500 breweries in the United States. From 2016-2018, the Brewers Association counted about two new breweries opening every day, and in that time, the size, scope, and potential of what those businesses could become has quickly changed. Year-to-year volume growth for Brewers Association-defined craft beer dropped to 4% last year, a decline of 1% from 2017 and the lowest growth rate in a decade. Industry conversations now focus on going a "mile deep," not a "mile wide." In other words, staying small and local—while embracing close-to-home and taproom sales—is becoming a safer and more secure way to grow, albeit slower and with greater intent. As the beer category slows and more companies focus on staying small and local, the idea of "growth" as a business concept is changing. To better get a sense of what this change means, GBH connected with Bart Watson, the economist from the Brewers Association, and Tom Madden, co-founder of Lone Pine Brewing Company in Portland, Maine. With a mix of industry stats and real-life case study, we hope to get to the bottom of what growth looks like in a slowing beer industry. Listen in.

Our resident composer for the podcast and our commercial video work, Andrew Thiboldeaux, is writing original scores devoted to beers he finds fascinating. These are interpretations of the experience of drinking them. But they're also just great tunes.

There's a big problem in coffee—we're not paying enough for it. With every clickbait article talking about how much you can save by cutting out your daily latte habit, you might be wondering how that's possible. But coffee, much like other agricultural products like sugar or bananas, has relied on colonialist structures to survive—meaning that while we can buy and sell coffee in consuming countries for $3.00 a cup, most of the folks who actually farm and grow coffee see less than a dollar per pound for the coffee they produce. Coffee is in a crisis—because coffee is traded as a commodity, its price depends on the market, which means that, right now, many farmers are forced to sell their coffee for less than what it cost to produce. Farmers are actively losing money when they produce coffee, and many have been forced to lay off workers, sell their farms, and encourage their children to abandon the farm and look for more lucrative work elsewhere. So what are we doing about this? Ric Rhinehart is the head of the Coffee Price Crisis Response Initiative, and the former head of the Specialty Coffee Association. In this episode, we talk about how the crisis began, and what his group is looking to do to change the trajectory of coffee farming and selling. The price crisis isn't simply a dip in the marketplace or a momentary blip, but is reflective of the colonialist way we have traded coffee for centuries—depending on the labor of folks from one country to serve the tastes and trends of another. It is inherently exploitative, and you might question if it is ethical to buy coffee at all. Obviously, these are big questions—and that's why I turned to the person in charge for answers. Along with speaking tangibly about the price crisis, Ric also explores how meaning is created, who are the value adders of any supply stream, and how we can shift an entire industry model to provide equity to all actors. This is a hugely important topic, so we're airing this on both the Good Beer Hunting podcast and on my show, Boss Barista! If you're familiar with one, you should check out the other—both cover big ideas surrounding the things we like to eat and drink. This is Ric Rhinehart of the Coffee Price Crisis Response Initiative. Listen in.

In food and drink we often talk about the supply chain—the line we draw between the farm and the glass. The truth is, it's far more complicated, and far more protracted than that. The beer world is a web containing thousands of people who work to get beer in your hands, and only a few of them brew it, still they influence which beers are brewed, how they are packaged, how they get to the bar and how they are served. Even a small scale beer scene like Britain's is full of people you have never heard of, but who influence what you drink on a daily basis. Few of them have had as much influence as Colin Gilhespy, managing director of speciality beer importer Cave Direct. [Disclosure: I worked at Cave Direct from 2013 to 2018.] He has been in the distribution business since the early 80s, when he and his dad were among the first to bring Belgian beers across the Channel. Not just any beers either, but niche, expensive beers Trappists, Lambics and Flemish reds. At the same time that some Californian homebrewers were just waking America up to adventurous beer, Gilhespy and his family were doing the same in the U.K. I'll leave the stories to him, but over the last 40 years he has had a huge hand in the growth of the British craft beer industry as it grew from the ashes of 1970s consolidation to one of the world's most diverse and exciting scenes. From growing the Belgian beer category to helping new British brewers on the way up, he has laid a path for huge change and over the last decade has seen phenomenal growth. Cave Direct is now the U.K.'s only national direct-delivery beer wholesaler, and Colin's services to the Belgian beer industry has even won him awards from the country's brewing guilds. Even so, it's difficult times to be an importer with Brexit on the horizon, huge competition from macro-breweries buying taps and pushing prices down, and several buyouts of breweries that Cave had built their business on. There's still a long way to go. I joined him and sales director Neil Kitching at the Beer Merchants Tap, Cave Direct's bar in East London where they have just taken delivery of their first batch of spontaneous wort for a blendery project, and where in June they will host their 40th birthday party with the breweries and friends that helped them come this far. This is Colin Gilhespy and Neil Kitching of Cave direct. Listen in.

On this GBH Sightlines episode, we're visiting with several people to get their perspectives and experiences following what some are calling beer's own Fyre Festival. That event, a luxury-music-festival-turned-disaster that spawned two separate documentaries showcasing its incredible collapse, may be on another level than the inaugural Untappd Beer Festival, but it didn't stop some angry beer fans from making that connection on May 4. We're talking with two festival-goers, a vendor pouring for a brewery, and one of the event's organizers. The goal? To better understand what it was like on the ground and whether or not those dire comparisons are actually warranted. Listen in.

Welcome to another Fervent Few episode of the Good Beer Hunting podcast where myself, Jim Plachy, and GBH's strategic director, Michael Kiser, catch up. We'll talk about the topics and discussions that took place in our membership community in the last couple weeks. Our 500 or so subscribers are scattered all over the world. Sometimes we meet up with them when we're on the road, or they hang out with each other, but it all comes together in our community forum on Slack. If you value the content and experiences that GBH produces, you should join. Your monthly subscription gets you access to the community, special events, and exclusive gear deigned just for members. I joined, and now I manage it all. Plus, it's my favorite place on the Beer Internet. Visit goodbeerhunting.com/ferventfew to strike up a conversation in beer.

The world of beer is going through an identity crisis—it's changing the self-defined language of what's craft and what not seemingly every few years now, it's doing battle with wine and spirits, except when it's embracing them in the form of natural wine and barrel-aging, it's national, regional, local, and hyperlocal, it's taprooms and bars going to battle over the same customers, it's exploding cans and day-fresh distribution, and festivals are dying except when they're growing, and it's focused on diversity even as it undermines it's own goals by competing for the same 21-34-year-old white males in every market, it's IPAs except when it's Lagers, and increasingly it's juice bombs and hard seltzers and FMBs, and coffee roasting, distilling, and wine/beer hybrids. It's wild out there right now. For today's guest—I have a feeling all that seems a bit…charming. Predictable, maybe. And certainly ripe for exploitation from a manufacturing and marketing perspective. Because as much as we want to think people define themselves by what category of beverage they prefer (beer people, wine people, bourbon people), people like Jaisen Freeman of Phusion Projects has long understood drinkers as category agnostic—pursuing flavor, and brand, and functional benefits above all else. And generally preferring to have a little—sometimes too much—fun along the way. Phusion Projects is the maker of Four Loko, a notorious, exciting brand that has an unbelievable distribution footprint in the U.S. despite having its product formulation written out of the realm of legality by the federal government after they'd already built their empire. Despite massive lawsuits related to its potential for harm and or misuse. And despite taking a massing hit in the realm of $40 million during that traumatic period for the business. Within four years, it had climbed back to its former peak. And now, with that chasm behind them, Phusion Projects is expanding a portfolio of products geared towards finding the next big thing for drinkers. In the recent past, that's included another infamous product, at least in the small bubble of the craft beer world, with Not Your Father's Root Beer, a fermented malt beverage that got tried and true beer geeks worked up over its root beer flavor and, in some cases, its high ABV. But it attracted a massive mainstream audience as well as it expanded from a small garage into a national footprint. And now they're exploring the world of vodka, hard seltzer, a flavored FMB that looks like a fancy blended wine or sake, and Earthquake, which they pitch as the highest ABV Lager on the market. None of them come anywhere close to Four Loko's success. Like, by multiple orders of magnitude. But this is all pretty recent still as they climbed out of that crater that those four years of Four Loko left them in. And they got out of it, seemingly, all by themselves. It's a wild story, and for anyone struggling to understand what their next few years are going to look like in the what might be the beer businesses' most insane time period ever in this country, it's a story with a lot of lessons, both encouraging, and exceptionally hard. This is Jaisen Freeman of Phusion Projects. Listen in.

At this year's Foeder for Thought, the festival of wild and sour beers hosted by Green Bench Brewing Co. in St. Petersburg, Florida, the GBH team co-hosted panels and discussions that help us all dig in to the future of this loosely-defined, but highly-sought-after category of beers. Watch the video series here This podcast series includes: FFT-007: Thinking Inside of the Package, featuring: Andrew Emerton, New Belgium Brewing Patrick Woodson, Brewery Bhavana FFT-008: Interview/Audience Q&A Mitch Ermatinger, Speciation Artisan Ales FFT-009: The Wild Side of the Apple, featuring: Ryan Burk, Angry Orchard Brian Wing, Green Bench Mead & Cider FFT-010: Interview/Audience Q&A Tim Clifford, Sainte Adairius FFT-011: Climate Spontaneity, featuring: Harrison McCabe, Beachwood Blendery Jeffery Stuffings, Jester King Brewery Levi Funk, Funk Factory Geuzeria FFT-012: Interview/Audience Q&A Walt Dickinson, Wicked Weed Brewing

At this year's Foeder for Thought, the festival of wild and sour beers hosted by Green Bench Brewing Co. in St. Petersburg, Florida, the GBH team co-hosted panels and discussions that help us all dig in to the future of this loosely-defined, but highly-sought-after category of beers. Watch the video series here This podcast series includes: FFT-007: Thinking Inside of the Package, featuring: Andrew Emerton, New Belgium Brewing Patrick Woodson, Brewery Bhavana FFT-008: Interview/Audience Q&A Mitch Ermatinger, Speciation Artisan Ales FFT-009: The Wild Side of the Apple, featuring: Ryan Burk, Angry Orchard Brian Wing, Green Bench Mead & Cider FFT-010: Interview/Audience Q&A Tim Clifford, Sainte Adairius FFT-011: Climate Spontaneity, featuring: Harrison McCabe, Beachwood Blendery Jeffery Stuffings, Jester King Brewery Levi Funk, Funk Factory Geuzeria FFT-012: Interview/Audience Q&A Walt Dickinson, Wicked Weed Brewing

At this year's Foeder for Thought, the festival of wild and sour beers hosted by Green Bench Brewing Co. in St. Petersburg, Florida, the GBH team co-hosted panels and discussions that help us all dig in to the future of this loosely-defined, but highly-sought-after category of beers. Watch the video series here This podcast series includes: FFT-007: Thinking Inside of the Package, featuring: Andrew Emerton, New Belgium Brewing Patrick Woodson, Brewery Bhavana FFT-008: Interview/Audience Q&A Mitch Ermatinger, Speciation Artisan Ales FFT-009: The Wild Side of the Apple, featuring: Ryan Burk, Angry Orchard Brian Wing, Green Bench Mead & Cider FFT-010: Interview/Audience Q&A Tim Clifford, Sainte Adairius FFT-011: Climate Spontaneity, featuring: Harrison McCabe, Beachwood Blendery Jeffery Stuffings, Jester King Brewery Levi Funk, Funk Factory Geuzeria FFT-012: Interview/Audience Q&A Walt Dickinson, Wicked Weed Brewing

At this year's Foeder for Thought, the festival of wild and sour beers hosted by Green Bench Brewing Co. in St. Petersburg, Florida, the GBH team co-hosted panels and discussions that help us all dig in to the future of this loosely-defined, but highly-sought-after category of beers. Watch the video series here This podcast series includes: FFT-007: Thinking Inside of the Package, featuring: Andrew Emerton, New Belgium Brewing Patrick Woodson, Brewery Bhavana FFT-008: Interview/Audience Q&A Mitch Ermatinger, Speciation Artisan Ales FFT-009: The Wild Side of the Apple, featuring: Ryan Burk, Angry Orchard Brian Wing, Green Bench Mead & Cider FFT-010: Interview/Audience Q&A Tim Clifford, Sainte Adairius FFT-011: Climate Spontaneity, featuring: Harrison McCabe, Beachwood Blendery Jeffery Stuffings, Jester King Brewery Levi Funk, Funk Factory Geuzeria FFT-012: Interview/Audience Q&A Walt Dickinson, Wicked Weed Brewing

At this year's Foeder for Thought, the festival of wild and sour beers hosted by Green Bench Brewing Co. in St. Petersburg, Florida, the GBH team co-hosted panels and discussions that help us all dig in to the future of this loosely-defined, but highly-sought-after category of beers. Watch the video series here This podcast series includes: FFT-007: Thinking Inside of the Package, featuring: Andrew Emerton, New Belgium Brewing Patrick Woodson, Brewery Bhavana FFT-008: Interview/Audience Q&A Mitch Ermatinger, Speciation Artisan Ales FFT-009: The Wild Side of the Apple, featuring: Ryan Burk, Angry Orchard Brian Wing, Green Bench Mead & Cider FFT-010: Interview/Audience Q&A Tim Clifford, Sainte Adairius FFT-011: Climate Spontaneity, featuring: Harrison McCabe, Beachwood Blendery Jeffery Stuffings, Jester King Brewery Levi Funk, Funk Factory Geuzeria FFT-012: Interview/Audience Q&A Walt Dickinson, Wicked Weed Brewing

At this year's Foeder for Thought, the festival of wild and sour beers hosted by Green Bench Brewing Co. in St. Petersburg, Florida, the GBH team co-hosted panels and discussions that help us all dig in to the future of this loosely-defined, but highly-sought-after category of beers. Watch the video series here This podcast series includes: FFT-007: Thinking Inside of the Package, featuring: Andrew Emerton, New Belgium Brewing Patrick Woodson, Brewery Bhavana FFT-008: Interview/Audience Q&A Mitch Ermatinger, Speciation Artisan Ales FFT-009: The Wild Side of the Apple, featuring: Ryan Burk, Angry Orchard Brian Wing, Green Bench Mead & Cider FFT-010: Interview/Audience Q&A Tim Clifford, Sainte Adairius FFT-011: Climate Spontaneity, featuring: Harrison McCabe, Beachwood Blendery Jeffery Stuffings, Jester King Brewery Levi Funk, Funk Factory Geuzeria FFT-012: Interview/Audience Q&A Walt Dickinson, Wicked Weed Brewing

Today I'm going to introduce you to a brewery that basically just getting off the ground—it's still in its infancy. But the folks behind it, with experience across a variety of well-known breweries, and a killer bar, and the bones of the building having seen a couple breweries itself, well, it's more of a collection of old-but-still-passionate souls. This is Future Primitive Brewing in Seattle. When I visited they were just a couple weeks old and hadn't really dug in yet. But they were close. And over the course of our conversation, talking about Ian Roberts' experience owning and running one of Seattle's best beer bars, Pine Box, and Kevin Watson's experiences at breweries like Elysian and Allagash, it was clear to me that both of these guys had been focused, for a long time, on learning everything they could before they took the leap themselves. And not to distract from the great personal stories here and the exciting things coming up for Future Primitive, but this episode includes themes candid and thoughtful. Not to mention some of the most insightful discussion I've ever had with a brewer who's worked at a brewery before and after an AB InBev acquisition. While it may not surprise you to hear some of these things, the clarity and balance with which he presents his experience is entirely uncommon—at least in the public discussion of such things. I was thoroughly impressed and I think you will be also. This is Ian Roberts and Kevin Watson of Future Primitive. Listen in.

There are lots of ways the business of beer extends far beyond what we find in bottles or cans. The social and cultural side of beer offers a glimpse into who we are, what we value, and in some ways, what drives us. Among one of the more curious trends in the American industry in recent years has been the continued use of trademarked or registered intellectual property. All over the country, there are near-daily examples of small and independent craft breweries using the likeness of people or IP from music, TV, movies, and a host of other pop culture venues as a way to market their product. As previously covered on GBH, these actions are done with knowledge of the potential legal ramifications. Some breweries are careful to toe the line, using similar color schemes or fonts from companies or products, but others may cross it. A recent example also covered on GBH was when Pennsylvania brewery Broken Goblet released a label for The Bryce is Right, a beer celebrating the arrival of baseball superstar Bryce Harper in Philadelphia. With a profile of Harper's face, as well as a label imitating the beloved gameshow, The Price is Right, the proposed branding could have put the brewery in hot water. It even received a shoutout from Bob Pease, Brewers Association president and CEO, on Twitter. When that story ran in March, Pease never explained why he specifically called out a member brewery that could so easily be in violation of state and federal law, declining to comment to GBH. Ahead of this podcast, through the Brewers Association's PR agency, GBH was told, "No foul play here (pun intended). As a fan of independent beer and baseball, Bob was simply trying to connect the two." One person, however, is still hoping for a more thorough answer. For about a month, Tim Sullivan has been tweeting at Pease, creating an ever-growing thread on Twitter with hope he can learn more about the social media shoutout. Sullivan, a brewer at Portland, Oregon's Ecliptic Brewing, has been hopeful, but not holding his breath. In this Sightlines podcast episode, we're checking in with Sullivan. He's a supporter of the Brewers Association—his employer is a member as well—though he continues to be perplexed why nobody from the trade organization has spoken up to ask peer businesses to stop using the intellectual property of others. After a series of tweets went unanswered, Sullivan explains why this is important to him. This is Tim Sullivan, brewer and searcher of answers. Listen in.

For just over a year, Good Beer Hunting has focused on a variety of stories to highlight the evolution of wild and sour ale in America as part of our Into the Wild series, brought to readers in collaboration with New Belgium Brewing. Through these stories, however, it's been impossible to ignore what's also going on outside the U.S., where interest in this unique category has also been increasing. In this episode of the GBH Collective, we're checking in with Jonny Garrett, one of Good Beer Hunting's London-based team members, who's most recently explored various ideas of wild, sour, and mixed-fermentation beer for an Into the Wild story about Lambic, and a podcast with the founders of Yonder Brewing & Blending. Jonny and I are going behind the scenes of his stories as part of this special series of interviews to dive deeper with Good Beer Hunting contributors and friends on topics of writing, beer and all the ways they intersect. The question that lingers throughout this conversation, as it has for Good Beer Hunting's ongoing Into the Wild series, is about exploring just what exactly is happening—and as best we can determine, why—with traditional beer styles in a modern context. This includes discussion of foraging for ingredients, how a seaweed and yuzu beer changes flavor over the course of two years, and what's next for "wild" in the UK scene. This is Jonny Garrett, GBH writer and podcaster. Listen in.

For NYC Beer Week, in collaboration with The Well, Good Beer Hunting's Michael Kiser hosts a pair of panel discussions aimed at understanding the current state of the beer industry and the culture that supports it, from the perspective of both hometown and visiting brewers.

For NYC Beer Week, in collaboration with The Well, Good Beer Hunting's Michael Kiser hosts a pair of panel discussions aimed at understanding the current state of the beer industry and the culture that supports it, from the perspective of both hometown and visiting brewers.

There's a case to be made that some of the most essential members of our craft beer communities aren't brewers, or writers, or distributors. They're publicans who influence the industry by connecting people. Chris Cohen is one such person, though he wears many more hats than that of just beer bar founder. He does indeed run a popular bar in Old Devil Moon, which opened in 2016 in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood, but he didn't always know he'd wind up there. He was a former IP lawyer in New York, who by chance got into beer by way of a curiosity about homebrewing. A hobby gave way to a passion, and before long, Cohen moved to the Bay Area, founded the San Francisco Homebrewers Guild, and earned the Advanced Cicerone certification. And then, realizing his meticulous Cicerone test note-taking might be of help to others, he launched Beer Scholar, a site and study guide aimed at helping prospective BJCP and Cicerone students pass their exams. But his most recent effort is a novel one, even for him: He's an outspoken proponent for the commercial use of Nordic kveik yeast, an ingredient he says will change American craft beer due to its ability to drastically cut down fermentation time. It's a bold argument, but he's ready to make the case. This is Chris Cohen of San Francisco's Old Devil Moon. Listen in.

For generations, a lot about the story of beer has been filtered through advertising or experiences geared toward men. This is rapidly changing, and for the better. In today's GBH Collective, we're talking with Gray Chapman about some of the ways beer lovers are finding new connections in settings that can enhance the camaraderie of something as simple as sharing a collection of beer. Gray recently published a piece for GBH in which she tells the story of a female-only bottle share and why its members find that setting to be welcoming, exciting, and comforting in different ways than similar, mixed-gender events. This conversation is part of our special series of interviews to dive deeper with Good Beer Hunting contributors and friends on topics of writing, beer and the stories you read and hear from GBH. With Gray, it's a great reason to get some background on how she experienced this event—her first time participating in a bottle-share—and what she learned from the women surrounding her. Her story and this conversation make it clear that one way to approach such an event isn't bad and another good, but rather they can complement each other in ways that build a love and appreciation for beer differently. This is Good Beer Hunting contributor Gray Chapman. Listen in.

Our resident composer for the podcast and our commercial video work, Andrew Thiboldeaux, is writing original scores devoted to beers he finds fascinating. These are interpretations of the experience of drinking them. But they're also just great tunes.

It's fair to say that mixed fermentation is having a moment in the U.K. Natural wine is buzzing like craft beer once did, and its beer equivalent is starting to do the same. I mean, no one knows what to call it—mixed ferm, farmhouse, wild ale, sour beer, barrel-fermented beer, low intervention beer. They all mean subtlety different things that never quite cover all the bases. Each brewery seems to pick its own word as they launch their side projects, using the volume and margins of clean beer to let their brewers off the leash and appeal once again to the ever-demanding beer geek bubble. But for me, Yonder have come to define what it means. With a focus on foraged ingredients, mixed culture yeasts, and hands-on brewing, it's not an afterthought or a playground like it is for some brewers. It's their lifestyle—their very reason for being. Stuart Winstone and Jasper Tupman met working at Wild Beer Co, the OG mixed-ferm brewery in the UK. They had both been there since the start and bonded over a love of using unusual ingredients and yeast strains, often local to them in Somerset. As Wild Beer Co grew though, the production side became increasingly commercial and the proportion of clean beer being made grew. Stu and Jasper felt that to continue producing the beers they loved, they had to go it alone. With no outside investment, putting the pieces together took a long time. There is starting a brewery from scratch, and then there is literally buying secondhand parts as they came on the market, plumbing them in yourself, gathering your own ingredients, designing your own brand and sticking the labels on the bottle you just filled. Stu and Jasper did all that themselves. While it sounds like a lot of work, it seems that when you do everything yourself, finding a cohesive identity is a very natural process. I joined them on an expedition in the Mendip hills with the brewery terrier Taco, gathering nettles and dandelions for a new Pilsner they were brewing the next day. This is Stu and Jasper of Yonder Brewing & Blending. Listen in.

Welcome to another Fervent Few episode of the Good Beer Hunting podcast where myself, Jim Plachy, and GBH's strategic director, Michael Kiser, catch up. We'll talk about the topics and discussions that took place in our membership community in the last couple weeks. Our 500 or so subscribers are scattered all over the world. Sometimes we meet up with them when we're on the road, or they hang out with each other, but it all comes together in our community forum on Slack. If you value the content and experiences that GBH produces, you should join. Your monthly subscription gets you access to the community, special events, and exclusive gear deigned just for members. I joined, and now I manage it all. Plus, it's my favorite place on the Beer Internet. Visit goodbeerhunting.com/ferventfew to strike up a conversation in beer.

Today's episode is our annual Hangover Party podcast, and event we host in the wake of Upper & Downers, our coffee, beer, culinary, and cocktail festival. People come from all over the country to attend this insane mashup of cultures we put together with our friend and Uppers & Downers co-founder Stephen Morrissey, who's a world barista champion and works at the Specialty Coffee Association. And this hangover party, which we stupidly throw the morning after the big event, has become a bit like a brunch after a wedding, where we get to sit down with the out-of-towners and drink even more coffee and beer over breakfast. We set up the mics and ask our bleary-eyed collaborators to join us and talk about all the best parts of their week. This time we hosted the party at Cruz Blanca, our case study partner alongside Sparrow Coffee, which was one of the best things we've ever had at the festival. And if you didn't attend, well, I'm sorry about how amazing everything you're about to hear sounds. This is the Uppers & Downers Hangover Party episode. Listen in.

Let's take a trip. Let's get away from our warehouse districts and downtowns where so many of our favorite bars and breweries are found. We're going to the farm. As discussions of place have become more common in beer and brewers and drinkers alike have taken up the effort of using "terroir" as a descriptive term, the place of agriculture has never been more front of mind in the U.S. beer industry. Best of all, you can find those conversations happening all over, including in North Carolina, where if you look hard enough, you'll find that direct connection between people, place, and a pint. Dan Gridley is owner of Farm Boy Farms, a 90-acre farm in Pittsboro, North Carolina. His contribution to the local beer scene doesn't come from boiling wort or pulling tap handles, but the hops he grows on a small plot of land about 30 miles west of the state's capital in Raleigh. He started this business a decade ago with dreams of creating a self-sustaining farm brewery, and while that's yet to come true, he's slowly upped his annual yield of Cascade, Chinook, and other hops to go into beers made a short drive away. For as much as beer lovers enjoy talking about dry-hop rates and whatever amount of dankness or juiciness can be found in their glass, Dan is the guy who's making those conversations possible. He's the first link in this chain that starts on a quiet, rural farm, and ends up at a bustling taproom. Education and story are big for the way Dan interacts with locals, whether they love beer or not, and I hope that over the course of this conversation you'll gain an added appreciation for some of the important behind-the-scenes work that goes on in beer. So many of us love talking about hops, but rarely get the chance to hear about bringing them to life. This is Dan Gridley of Farm Boy Farms. Listen in.

Look around the beer industry, and you'll see lots of things going on that are decidedly...not beer. With the success of flavored malt beverages, hard seltzer, and even a resurgence of regional cider brands, brewers all over are finding new ways to attract drinkers and boost their bottom line with products outside of their wheelhouse. Not that there's anything wrong with that. These are businesses, after all, and as the market is changing, so many are adapting by creating new kinds of beverages that more people can enjoy. This is a hot topic to start 2019, and something covered here on Good Beer Hunting for some time. Among the leaders in this space of transition and innovation is Craft Brew Alliance, which went all in last year with the pH Experiment, a new standalone branch of the company that will focus on incubating ideas and all kinds of trial and error, ultimately with hope of finding the Next Big Thing. On this Sightlines podcast, we're talking with Karmen Olson, who's spent just over seven years with CBA, recently taking over as general manager for the pH Experiment, where she's looking to anticipate and identify where things are going. You'll get a little background on this new initiative and what created this need, which, in some ways, stems from the beer industry's slow willingness to adapt. For a long time, Olson says, beer focused on industry challenges, not customer ones, which has led to this point, and these new ideas. If you want to grow in today's competitive alcohol industry, it's adapt or die. This is Karmen Olson, general manager of Craft Brew Alliance's pH Experiment. Listen in.

Like so many other areas of publishing, things have changed in recent years for beer-focused media. While the stories told from all corners of the world have gotten more in-depth and introduced new people and ideas, the number of platforms where enthusiasts can find this information has been shifting. It wasn't long ago that All About Beer, one of the most prominent beer publications in the country, folded, along with DRAFT magazine. More recently, some newspaper-style "brewsletters" have disappeared, either under the weight of failing advertising or other pressures. Throughout it all, BeerAdvocate has remained—but things are about to change there, too. On today's GBH Collective, we're talking with Ben Keene, editorial director for BeerAdvocate, and moving forward, perhaps a little more. Ben has long overseen the evolution of BeerAdvocate magazine, but with the print edition going away, he's now shifting his attention to other daily responsibilities related to storytelling and the business. The rating website is still a big part of what BeerAdvocate offers fans, and even a new app that recently launched, but it can't stop the same challenges of publishing that have impacted others. We'll talk all this, and reflect on the state of beer-focused media, in this Collective conversation, part of our special series of interviews to dive deeper with Good Beer Hunting contributors and friends on topics of writing, beer, and all the ways they intersect. This is Ben Keene, BeerAdvocate editorial director. Listen in.

There's no getting around the fact that making beer is a science. But it can truly become special when it mixes with creativity and art. In today's episode, we're in Raleigh, North Carolina, where GBH was part of a discussion to determine where those things can overlap. In February, I hosted a panel discussion at Brewery Bhavana's production facility organized by Triangle Wine Company, a local wine and beer retail chain. Along with two brewers from Bhavana, I was also joined by Walt and Sean of Bond Brothers Beer Company, and, if you're a regular listener, Ancillary Fermentation, a side project recently featured here on the podcast. [Disclosure: Brewery Bhavana is a client of GBH's studio team.] Our goal was to talk about the marriage of this science and art when it comes to working with wood. In front of an audience of local beer fans, we touched on processes, themes, and inspirations for creating the kind of wild, funky, delicate, and often beautiful beers so many of us revere. This conversation isn't just about what it takes to create and maintain a barrel program, but to try and explore what that day-to-day can be for brewers. What does it mean to be patient with these beers? How do you know what and when to blend? Why do it in the first place? We'll do our best to tackle these and other questions around this niche, but growing, section of the beer industry. This is Our Neck of the Woods, a panel discussion on all things barrel. Listen in.

[Photo by Matthew Curtis] Few breweries can represent the past, present, and future of American craft beer the way Stone Brewing can. And it's co-founder, today's guest, Greg Koch, has been known to speak authoritatively about the entire timeline of craft beer at times. And with good reason—he's seen and participated in most of it himself. For some, though, his voice can sometimes seem anachronistic. It hearkens back to old, perhaps out-of-date realities of the business that can be jarring against new challenges and priorities for small, independent American brewers—and increasingly those inspired by American brewers overseas. How Stone has navigated the shifting priorities of craft beer has been varied over the years. Sometimes they seem to double down on their initial ethos. Other times, they seem to abandon it altogether. But looks can be deceiving. So this conversation—my first interview with Koch—was an opportunity to hear what some of those decisions have meant to him and Stone over the years. And why they may or may not be in conflict as he and the brand trek back and forth across the ocean in what might hopefully turn out to be a straight line toward some long-term goal. But as can so often happen in this business, it might eventually reveal itself to be a lost-at sea scenario just as easily. It's almost impossible to tell when the waves are constantly crashing and the winds are constantly shifting and so many people want a hand on that wheel. In this interview, we talk about Stone's place in the world then and now—growth and layoffs and private equity, breaking off brands like Arrogant Bastard, social media, sabbaticals, and finding the yin and yang with a co-founder. There's a lot to cover. And I greatly appreciate Greg's willingness to riff on so many different topics that are important to him, or me, and often both. This is Greg Koch of Stone Brewing. Listen in.

As many of you know, we're in the midst of Uppers & Downers week here in Chicago, celebrating more than five years of our coffee and beer culture collaboration between myself, Michael Kiser, and world barista champion Stephen Morrissey. This year's festival promises to be our best yet, with about 25 different coffee beer collaborations, a dozen different roasters pulling their best espresso shots from all over the country, some delicious things to eat from Green City Market, cocktails from Powers Whiskey and others, a pairing bar with Guinness—it's really a room to explore with your palate. And this year, we're posting some explosive content to Vero, a new ad-free social network that protects your data and your privacy. To access all areas of the festival, discover exclusive recipes, tips, and recommendations, and to connect with fellow Uppers & Downers enthusiasts, visit Vero here. To give you an idea of what's in store this weekend, I got together with Jacob Sembrano of Cruz Blanca, a brewery in Chicago, and Robert Bersano of Sparrow Coffee to chat about the incredible case study of beers and coffee drinks they're going to be collaborating on for our biggest sensory experience ever.

I'm not sure how to introduce CAMRA. On the one hand, it's the biggest single-issue consumer interest group in the UK, the savior of British brewing that's as responsible for our amazing beer scene as any American influence. On the other hand, it's portrayed as an irrelevant lumbering beast that seems to stagger from controversy to controversy. The Campaign for Real Ale was founded in 1971 in response to a surge in pasteurized, force-carbonated keg beer that was pushing traditional British cask ale of the bars around the country. Alarmed by the lack of diversity, four men in a pub decided that someone needed to champion the traditional method of delivering unconditioned beer to pubs and serving them at the exact moment they peaked, without any extra gas. Since then, the organization has grown to nearly 200,000 members, lobbying the government, running festivals, producing magazines, and promoting their self-defined "real ale" above all other formats. Its success in protecting an inefficient product against capitalist pressures is unprecedented. But since the UK craft beer revolution, CAMRA has struggled to find its place in a fast moving and often image-led scene. Suddenly, most of the brewing and talking was being done by young, American-inspired breweries who loved keg beer, big hops, and high ABVs. The keg lines that had been loaded with crap Euro Lagers were suddenly pouring exciting, experimental beers that appealed more to young drinkers than the more historic real ale did. Caught looking the other way and trying to catch up, CAMRA has come under pressure to realign its objectives in support good keg beer, to update older breweries' outdated marketing, and pick a side on issues that simply wasn't there when its charter was drawn up—all the while coping with the fact that after decades of growth, cask beer had gone into decline again. I sat down with the new chief executive, Tom Stainer, who might be seen as a reformer but has had to keep a level head in his vital new role. We talk through the challenges of running an organization controlled by some 200,000 members, propped up by volunteers and considered out of touch—when they were the people who made it all possible. This is Tom Stainer, chief executive of the Campaign for Real Ale. Listen in.

Whether you read the words or hear the voices of the Good Beer Hunting editorial staff, there's one guy working behind the scenes who doesn't often get the byline, but offers plenty of insight and guidance to get those things from draft to publish-ready. In today's episode of the GBH Collective, we're chatting with the man behind the curtain, Austin L. Ray, editorial director for Good Beer Hunting. We're welcoming him to this special series of interviews where we can dive deeper with GBH contributors and friends on topics of writing, beer, and the stories we share. If you follow Austin on Twitter, you may know about his eclectic sense of humor and insight into all things agricultural. So while we talk a little about how chard might save the world, you'll also hear his unique insight on a couple recent stories he pulled together for GBH that benefit greatly from explaining his behind-the-scenes reporting. Curious about what it's like to chat with a brutally honest owner from Wicked Weed? Or why one Atlanta brewery has created trouble and difficult decisions for local bar owners? Austin's your guy. If you've enjoyed listening to these Collective episodes to better learn what goes into telling a story, these two from Austin were among the more odd ones we've been able to share on Good Beer Hunting. You'll likely get a kick out of how they came to be. This is Austin L. Ray: editor, writer, and leafy green enthusiast. Listen in.

When it comes to running a business, partnerships are key. In the beer industry, that often shows up in leadership where one person may handle the books or operational responsibilities, and another focuses on the liquid itself. In all cases, finding the balance between people and personalities is importance of yin and yang that can make breweries succeed. Lucky for me, I recently had the chance to sit down with some perfect examples of left and right brain come to life. In this pairing, Whit Baker is the former and Sean McKinney the latter. Whit's scientific "left" focuses on recipes, while Sean's creative "right" brings aspects of artistry to the act of drinking beer. Together, they're part of a set of owners and brewers behind Ancillary Fermentation, a sort of brewery/event company in the Triangle region of North Carolina. With thousands of breweries scattered across the country, including nearly 300 in the Tar Heel State, it's not uncommon to hear conversations that mention how quality beer alone isn't enough to exist in a competitive industry. This is where Ancillary flips the script. Both Whit and Sean have "day jobs" at Cary, North Carolina's Bond Brothers Beer Company, and once a month, create pop-up events for this side project. These are situations you do not find in beer, with one-off releases held at what are essentially theme parties. There was the holiday office party in an actual office. And a motivation-themed gathering at a CrossFit gym, complete with Hazy IPA served in clear, plastic water bottles. Their latest was held in a church. Each example an opportunity to push drinkers into new and weird spaces to share this incredibly common experience of drinking beer with friends in a new way. We'll delve into all of this in our conversation, including how Whit thinks about recipes and setting Ancillary's beer apart, but it's clear this effort is about way more than what goes into a glass. If anything, this chat feels like an important glimpse into the way today's breweries need to think when a taproom experience—no matter how wonderful—can sometimes get a little repetitive. This is Whit Baker and Sean McKinney of Ancillary Fermentation. Listen in.

What the hell is going in Maryland and Texas? You may have caught a bunch of coverage of these two states on GBH over the past year. Their state politicians are creating—depending on who you ask—all sorts of good, bad, and ugly situations for their respective craft beer industries. In Maryland, infighting about how beer is sold and regulated has led to the legislature's attempts to strip oversight from comptroller Peter Franchot, who has led efforts to boost the state's craft-beer economy and earned enemies along the way. In Texas, it's a similar story, where wholesalers and lobbyists have long thumbed their noses at small beer producers. Despite a recent breakthrough that could finally allow breweries to sell beer to-go from their taprooms, there are still shenanigans to work through as some wholesalers clap back. For this episode of the Good Beer Hunting Sightlines podcast, we're checking in on the latest from these two states. First, with Liz Murphy, a reporter and columnist who writes about Maryland beer for the Annapolis Capital Gazette, then with Josh Hare, founder and president of Austin's Hops & Grain Brewing, as well as board chairman of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild. Both will offer some insight into the quirky bitterness and political games at play. What the hell is going on? Listen in. [Editor's note: the Maryland portion of this podcast begins at 1:28, and the Texas portion begins at 30:50.]

In the past year, there's been plenty of talk in the industry about how cannabis is going to impact drinking trends. There's been close attention paid to states in the U.S. where marijuana has become legalized and its potential connection to declining alcohol consumption, which was on the downward slide anyway. But that's not why we're here today. In this episode of the GBH Collective, we are talking THC and CBD, but plenty of beer and food, too. As part of our special series of interviews to dive deeper with Good Beer Hunting contributors and friends on topics of writing, beer and the stories you read and hear from GBH, we're chatting with Jesse Friedman. As something of a serial entrepreneur, he's started a number of personal and professional enterprises, although you may know him best as a co-founder of Almanac Beer Company, and more recently Fava, a Los Angeles-based creative consulting and events company that focuses on the food and beverage space. If you're an avid Good Beer Hunting reader, you may also know him for an award-winning piece he wrote about food and beer in 2017, and his newest story, in which he explores food, beer, and cannabis in Alaska. All these interests and areas of expertise come together in this interview, where we talk about how he approaches his writing, especially when covering a nascent and somewhat taboo topic in marijuana. This is Jesse Friedman, entrepreneur, brewer, and foodie. Listen in.

Pressure Drop may have been founded during the early days of London's brewing renaissance, but its trajectory has been very different to many of its compatriots. While other UK breweries of the same age—the likes of Beavertown, Five Points, and Fourpure—expanded rapidly, putting together sales teams, attending trade shows and contract brewing overseas to hit demand, Pressure Drop's founders have chosen to grow slowly and organically even when the opportunity to explode seemed in reach. Back in 2013 their flagship beer, Pale Fire, was probably the most sought-after Pale Ale in London and way ahead of its time. Even though the recipe changed frequently, its reliably soft wheat body, haze, and juicy aroma was unlike anything else on the bar, a precursor of what would become the New England craze. It was so talked about that some people thought Pale Fire was the the name of a brewery, not a beer. It still amazes me that some of the seminal Pale Fire I drank back then was made on a 50L homebrew kit in a shed in Hackney. Even in 2016 they were still brewing on a five-barrel brewhouse down a dingy side road in East London. At this site they were only able to dedicate around 30% of their volume to the more idiosyncratic beers that had got them excited about brewing in the first place—beers like their Wugang Chops the Tree, their foraged-herb Hefeweiss and Nanban Kampai, a yuzu wheat IPA. I met Ben Freeman and Graham O'Brien at the Experiment, a taproom they opened in that archway after moving the brewery out. A much bigger expansion in 2016 has given them more tank space to play around, leading to a belated move into true New England brewing and canning, as well as putting them next door to Beavertown, where the brewery stands proud as a symbol of their different way of doing things.

What moves you? What is it that motivates your actions, beliefs, hopes, and dreams? There are all sorts of personal and professional ways to answer these questions, and sometimes we're lucky enough to have them intertwined. More than two decades ago, Eric Salazar helped to establish one of the most influential barrel programs in the world at New Belgium in Colorado. Its impact continues to resonate today, but with hope to push himself in new and exciting ways, Eric is starting all over again. This time, in Upstate New York. Since the start of the New Year, Eric moved from Colorado to Rochester, where he's in early stages of planning to create and curate a barrel program for Other Half Brewing. Going from one renowned brewery to another makes sense for a person of his tenure and expertise, but like other industry peers, he's taking this opportunity to start anew to refocus on the details that build something special from the start, this time around with a world of knowledge and experience. What that will be isn't entirely clear, but Eric's interest in local agriculture and new relationships promises to offer something exciting. And probably tasty, too. If you're a beer enthusiast, you've likely heard—and maybe even enjoyed—the hazy IPAs that have made Other Half so beloved around the world. Now it's time to meet the guy who's going to change your perception of what that business is capable of. This is Eric Salazar of Other Half Brewing. Listen in.

What's the right way to have sex with a dolphin? I'm sure you didn't expect that question to be posted on a beer-focused interview show, but here we are. It's a fun benefit—if you dare call it that—of chatting with this episode's guest. Matt Saincome doesn't write about beer. He doesn't actually drink it, either. But as founder and editor-in-chief of the satirical website The Hard Times, he does offer a unique perspective on writing and storytelling. And that's why he's a guest on the GBH Collective, which gives us the opportunity to dig a little deeper with fellow media members, even if their topic of choice is comedy and not IPAs. Matt has a background in traditional journalism, but it was a serendipitous assignment to write about a man who wrote a book about intercourse with an aquatic mammal that reset his career expectations. You'll hear all about it in this conversation, as well as our attempts to dissect the idea of truth in reporting and comedy, and what makes for creating a successful website when there are print, digital, and TV outlets all competing in satirical space. We live in a time when moments of levity can sometimes feel hard to find, and the way Matt and his team use humor to force internal reflection and laughs is something we can all appreciate. To be up front, this conversation isn't about beer, but it is about one person's journey to create something unique and special, which we all endeavor to do in one way or another. This is Matt Saincome, founder, editor-in-chief, and straight edge punk rocker of The Hard Times. Listen in...

Today's guest are an unlikely due of a documentary film maker and a master cicerone. Doug Tivola is the director of Brewmaster - a documentary that tries to weave together the varied and often dissociated threads in the beer world - like big and small, amateur and pro, nostalgic and new wave —and the results are at times flattering to the beer industry and at time a bit embarrassing to have reflected back. At times both overly simple and complex, naive and incisive. If a documentary serves as a mirror, then this one is perhaps a funhouse mirror that makes us all a little uncomfortable for different reasons. Alongside him in this interview is one of the documentaries primary characters - Brian Reid - a master cicerone who works for MillerCoors as an educator. The film tracks his journey into failure as he attempts to be one of the dozen or so folks in the wold to achieve master status - which after the shooting of the film he actually does go on to accomplish. MillerCoors was a sponsor of the film - which began as a sort of ode to Pilsner - specifically Pilsner Urquell. But as the shooting and storytelling commenced, Tivola kept chasing down other storylines - so the results get pretty far from the original intent and capture a collage of sorts - featuring moments with Urquell's Vaclav Berka, Brooklyn Brewery's Garret Oliver, Chicago's Randy Mosher and Cicerone's Ray Daniels, Dogfish Head's Sam Calagione, among other sort of founding fathers of the craft beer narrative we've heard form so often. And that is maybe my biggest critique of the film - and full disclosure, I appear in the documentary for a few moments myself - but the talking heads in this story are perhaps a bit predictable and lack the diversity of opinions and experiences from the wider set of folks that work in and help shape the craft brewing world today. So the documentary is perhaps already a bit of a time capsule that way. But Brian's story in the film is the one I enjoyed the most, largely because it was real struggle, playing out in front of the audience in real-time. It wasn't someone reminiscing about the glory days with a marketing narrative - in fact, most of what Brian goes through in this film objectively sucks. It's brutal. And the film doesn't capture much int he way of success - as I mentioned, obtaining the level of master happens after the film concludes - so it's a great portrait of how difficult and unrewarding working on beer can often be despite all the hard work that goes in to it. And for that reason - I think having these two together for the interview is the best way to chat about the film.

This episode is a two-parter devoted to the intersection of taprooms and retailers as they increasingly find themselves in competition with each other for the limited number of customers and dollars available in their markets for craft beer. There are a number of factors that have made taprooms a newly competitive aspect of the three-tier system—or what's left of it in some cases. Laws have been changing, the consumer experience is shifting, OG beer bars are feeling the squeeze from every bar and restaurant seemingly carrying craft beer now, and larger trends like at-home consumption, bottle shares, trading circuits, and beer tourism. It's hard out there for a retailer right now, and it's kind of becoming taprooms versus everybody. The purpose of this two-part series was to dig into that tension and determine if there's a concrete principle at play, or if, like most things in craft beer, it's more of a loose relationship-based thing where some competition is welcome, and some isn't. Most of all: how are we going to be thinking about all this in the future? Because I think we can all agree that competition that works in the drinker's favor is generally a good thing, but if we start losing great bars in the process, then maybe we're not all getting what we want in the end. Solemn Oath Brewery in Naperville, Illinois is the catalyst behind these episodes. As a small production brewery making right about 8,000 barrels, with an expanded taproom and a new one opening in the city of Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, they were starting to feel the pushback from some key retail accounts who see them as competition. So they took the bold step of reaching out, inviting those accounts to brew a beer called Taproom Exclusive, and serving it anywhere but. They asked us to come along and lead a discussion around how we can maybe sort all this out productively and gain some perspective. Bavarian Lodge and Hopleaf joined in—both accounts that have carried Solemn Oath over the years, but who have been vocal about how they don't like where things are heading. Kudos to everyone for being willing to come the the table—both figuratively and quite literally—over a beer and dig into the issue. This episode is recorded at the Bavarian Lodge in Naperville, Illinois, and I'm joined by: Alan Taylor, owner of the Bavarian Lodge John Barley, co-founder of Solemn Oath Brewery Dave Hawley, owner of the Beer Cellar, a bottle shop and taproom Dakota Defever, Minor Threat Restaurant Group in nearby Plainfield, Illinois This is Taprooms Vs. Everybody, Pt. 2. Listen in.

This episode is a two-parter devoted to the intersection of taprooms and retailers as they increasingly find themselves in competition with each other for the limited number of customers and dollars available in their markets for craft beer. There are a number of factors that have made taprooms a newly competitive aspect of the three-tier system—or what's left of it in some cases. Laws have been changing, the consumer experience is shifting, OG beer bars are feeling the squeeze from every bar and restaurant seemingly carrying craft beer now, and larger trends like at-home consumption, bottle shares, trading circuits, and beer tourism. It's hard out there for a retailer right now, and it's kind of becoming taprooms versus everybody. The purpose of this two-part series was to dig into that tension and determine if there's a concrete principle at play, or if, like most things in craft beer, it's more of a loose relationship-based thing where some competition is welcome, and some isn't. Most of all: how are we going to be thinking about all this in the future? Because I think we can all agree that competition that works in the drinker's favor is generally a good thing, but if we start losing great bars in the process, then maybe we're not all getting what we want in the end. Solemn Oath Brewery in Naperville, Illinois is the catalyst behind these episodes. As a small production brewery making right about 8,000 barrels, with an expanded taproom and a new one opening in the city of Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, they were starting to feel the pushback from some key retail accounts who see them as competition. So they took the bold step of reaching out, inviting those accounts to brew a beer called Taproom Exclusive, and serving it anywhere but. They asked us to come along and lead a discussion around how we can maybe sort all this out productively and gain some perspective. Bavarian Lodge and Hopleaf joined in—both accounts that have carried Solemn Oath over the years, but who have been vocal about how they don't like where things are heading. Kudos to everyone for being willing to come the the table—both figuratively and quite literally—over a beer and dig into the issue. This episode is recorded at the Hopleaf, and I'm joined by: Michael Roper, proprietor of Hopleaf Peter Rock-Tiernes of Middlebrow, who just owned a taproom in Logan Square Jay Jankowski of Maproom, just down the street from Middlebrow and Solmenn Oath's future second taproom Eric Hobbs, sales director at Solemn Oath This is Taprooms Vs. Everybody, Pt. 1. Listen in.

Welcome to another Fervent Few episode of the Good Beer Hunting podcast where myself, Jim Plachy, and GBH's strategic director, Michael Kiser, catch up. We'll talk about the topics and discussions that took place in our membership community in the last couple weeks. Our 500 or so subscribers are scattered all over the world. Sometimes we meet up with them when we're on the road, or they hang out with each other, but it all comes together in our community forum on Slack. If you value the content and experiences that GBH produces, you should join. Your monthly subscription gets you access to the community, special events, and exclusive gear deigned just for members. I joined, and now I manage it all. Plus, it's my favorite place on the Beer Internet. Visit goodbeerhunting.com/ferventfew to strike up a conversation in beer.

Moksa Brewing Company in Rocklin, California sold out the slots for their brewery club program in 2017. What's particularly notable about that? They hadn't yet served a single drop of beer. When drinkers discuss breweries like Moksa, there's a label to which fans often turn that fits snugly within the cultural zeitgeist of American craft beer: hype. That dubious h-word is not a term head brewer Derek Gallanosa likes, though Moksa's proliferating fans have nevertheless helped to establish the new brewery as one of California's most exciting. Just recently, Moksa was named by RateBeer as the best new brewery in the state. What makes a hype brewery? Price point? Scarce supply? Novelty? Or is it just plain skill? For Moksa, it's all those things, plus a bit of networking and guerilla marketing. Sacramento is a rapidly evolving region, with young Bay Area expats fleeing high costs and others seeking new opportunities in the West. New crowds can represent a growing consumer base, but they can also hint at a forthcoming increase in competition. There are more breweries opening every day in Northern California's Gold Country. Gallanosa and brewer Cory Meyer sprinted ahead of the pack early. Many come to their business park taproom from far abroad, seeking pours of their cult-loved high-ABV pastry stouts and hazy IPAs. But most are hometown fans stopping in after work. Moksa's ethos is about catering to the locals above everyone. So what happens when their name too widely precedes them? This is Derek Gallanosa and Cory Meyer from Moksa Brewing Company in Rocklin, California. Listen in.