This is our second annual show dedicated to homebrewing. Drew Beechum and Denny Conn are here to talk about what’s happening with the hobby, to answer a listener question, and to spread some holiday cheer. Conn and Beechum are longtime homebrewers and noted personalities in the space. They are the co-authors of Simple Home Brewing and Experimental Homebrewing, which is also the name of the podcast they co-host. This Episode is Sponsored By:ShopifyShopify’s already taken the cash register online, helping millions sell billions around the world. But did you know that Shopify can do the same thing at your retail store? Give your point-of-sale system a serious upgrade, with Shopify. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/drinkbeer and take your retail business to the next level today.For more Drink Beer, Think Beer check out All About Beer.Host: John HollGuests: Drew Beechum and Denny ConnSponsors: Shopify, All About BeerTags: Homebrewing, Cans, Hops, History, Festivals, Conventions 

Last week, Westbound & Down Brewing announced that it had acquired two breweries, Aspen Brewing and Capitol Creek Brewery’s brewpub, both in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley.  The deal, says Jake Gardner the Director of Brewing Operations at Westbound & Down Brewing Company, is part of a plan the brewery has been eyeing for a while. There was a desire to expand in a meaningful way, while still staying true to the brewing ethos that has guided Westbound and Down since it opened in 2015.  We’ll talk business and the growth projections, and how Aspen’s 7,000 barrel capacity, and Capitol Creek Brewery’s brewpub will blend with the existing infrastructure.  But we’re also going to talk about IPA, barrel-aged beer, and how the brewery wants to be great at all that it does.  That goal squares with Gardner’s background. He started professionally brewing at Breckenridge Brewery in 2011 before transitioning to Hogshead Brewery where he worked his way up to head brewer in 2013. While working at Hogshead he connected with three mug club members who ended up becoming partners in opening Westbound & Down Brewing. This Episode is Sponsored By:ShopifyShopify’s already taken the cash register online, helping millions sell billions around the world. But did you know that Shopify can do the same thing at your retail store? Give your point-of-sale system a serious upgrade, with Shopify. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/drinkbeer and take your retail business to the next level today.For more Drink Beer, Think Beer check out All About Beer.Host: John HollGuest: Jake GardnerSponsors: Shopify, All About BeerTags: Colorado, Craft, Restaurant, Growth, IPA, Barrels

From consumer preferences, to growing a company, I’m excited to have David Moore and Andy Joynt of Big Grove Brewing on the show this week. As the brewery expands through Iowa and is eyeing other states, we will talk about flavors and creativity, and finding ways to stay nimble in a challenging industry.Joynt has been the director of beer for Big Grove Brewery for 7 years and became an owner in 2020. He is responsible for all beer that is made at Big Groves five different operations that includes two production facilities as well as three smaller taproom breweries. Under his leadership Big Grove has become the number one top selling craft beer in Iowa surpassing Blue Moon and Leinenkugels. Big Grove has also captured multiple awards including World Beer Cup, GABF, and US Open Beer.    Moore spent the first six years at Big Grove as the chief operations officer and became an owner in 2020. He recently moved to chief growth officer where he will oversee the company’s advancement in new markets for taprooms, distribution, as well as all new business divisions. He is also the CEO and owner of Climbing Kites, Iowa first and top selling THC infused beverage company.  This Episode is Sponsored By:ShopifyShopify’s already taken the cash register online, helping millions sell billions around the world. But did you know that Shopify can do the same thing at your retail store? Give your point-of-sale system a serious upgrade, with Shopify. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/drinkbeer and take your retail business to the next level today.For more Drink Beer, Think Beer check out All About Beer.Host: John HollGuests: Andy Joynt and David MooreSponsors: Shopify, All About BeerTags: Iowa, Craft, Restaurant, Growth, Flavor, Hospitality

Sam Masotto of Bonn Place Brewing in Pennsylvania is here for a conversation about hospitality, food, and fun. It’s a special episode, recorded at the brewery in front of an enthusiastic crowd.  This Episode is Sponsored By:ShopifyShopify’s already taken the cash register online, helping millions sell billions around the world. But did you know that Shopify can do the same thing at your retail store? Give your point-of-sale system a serious upgrade, with Shopify. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/drinkbeer and take your retail business to the next level today.For more Drink Beer, Think Beer check out All About Beer.Host: John HollGuest: Sam MasottoSponsors: Shopify, All About BeerTags: Pennsylvania, Craft, Mild, Sandwiches, Saison, Flavor, Hospitality

From creating a thoughtful space that puts beer and food front and center, to one of the newest frontiers in adult beverages: THC and CBD, Scott Selix of Lua Brewing is here to talk about his growing brewery and the evolution of hospitality.  He is Co-Founder of Lua Brewing in Des Moines as well as Lua’s sister company, Climbing Kites, a THC Sparkling Water brand. He also runs HYFR Hospitality, a hospitality company based in Des Moines, which just opened a new restaurant. Either/Or, where this episode was recorded. Scott was the President of the Iowa Brewers Guild from 2019-2023. This Episode is Sponsored By:ShopifyShopify’s already taken the cash register online, helping millions sell billions around the world. But did you know that Shopify can do the same thing at your retail store? Give your point-of-sale system a serious upgrade, with Shopify. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/drinkbeer and take your retail business to the next level today.For more Drink Beer, Think Beer check out All About Beer.Host: John HollGuest: Scott SelixSponsors: Shopify, All About BeerTags: Iowa, Craft, Lager, IPA, THC, Flavor, Hospitality

Today it’s a visit to Des Moines, Iowa for a lively conversation with two of the state’s leading brewers, the guild director, and historian Maureen Ogle.Last week I was in Iowa to speak and spend time at the state’s guild annual conference. It had been several years since I was there and I wanted to get a better handle on what is happening in the state – and it’s a lot.  What is happening there is important to the industry as a whole, and worth a listen.  My guests are: Dave Morgan is a small town Iowa native, that attended and graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a degree in Business Administration in 1998. After graduation, he jumped into the hospitality industry, opening and operating multiple food and beverage locations before transitioning into the craft brewery scene in 2012. He leads the team at SingleSpeed Brewing Co, operating 3 locations (Brewery+TapRoom), all located within the state of Iowa and has been a member of Iowa Brewers Guild Board since 2020, currently holding down the incredibly important / do the least position of Vice President.  Noreen Otto is a Wisconsin native who relocated to Iowa to attend college and law school. After graduation, she worked in a number of political roles. She then spent 7 years focused on state and federal policy for Hy-Vee, Inc. as Vice President Government Relations. Her work focused on retail business issues. Noreen also served at the Chief Administrative Officer for specialty cheese maker, Maytag Dairy Farms before joining the Iowa Brewers Guild as the Executive Director in fall of 2021. She lives with her husband and two sons in Newton, where she sits on the Jasper Community Foundation and library board. Noreen can be found making cheeseboards when she isn’t trying to understand Minecraft.  After graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a Finance degree in 2009, R.J. Tursi spent time with relatives in southern Italy, working at their winery and learning what it means to be passionate about your work and craft.  In 2012, R.J. and his parents, Bob & Amy Tursiopened Exile Brewing.  Over the past 11 years R.J. has guided Exile through the relatively easy growth of the 2010s, earned his Advanced Cicerone Certification, and is currently helping Exile navigate the more tumultuous waters of the 2020s.  and  Maureen Ogle is an historian and the author of Ambitious Brew: A History of American Beer. This Episode is Sponsored By:ShopifyShopify’s already taken the cash register online, helping millions sell billions around the world. But did you know that Shopify can do the same thing at your retail store? Give your point-of-sale system a serious upgrade, with Shopify. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/drinkbeer and take your retail business to the next level today.For more Drink Beer, Think Beer check out All About Beer.Host: John HollGuests: Dave Morgan, RJ Tursi, Noreen Otto, Maureen OgleSponsors: Shopify, All About BeerTags: Iowa, Craft, History, IPA, Lager, Flavor

This week, I’m delighted to be joined by Diane Flynt, the author of the recently published Wild, Tamed, Lost, Revived: The Surprising Story of Apples in the South. This is a story of history, diversity, and the future.For those who say social media is a bad thing, I get it. But occasionally it can provide gems. For example, last week I was scrolling through Facebook when I saw Sean Lilly Wilson, the founder of North Carolina’s Fullsteam Brewery post about a new book he was reading: Wild, Tamed, Lost, Revived: The Surprising Story of Apples in the South.  I was immediately intrigued and reached out to the author, Diane Flynt, to come on the show.  She and her husband Chuck live in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, where she is an apple grower and cidermaker. She says above all else she is an insatiable learner, which led to the concept and writing of this book. Flynt is a multiple-time James Beard Award finalist for Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Professional and founded Foggy Ridge Cider in 1997 after leaving her corporate career and produced cider until 2018. There aren’t nearly enough books on apples in the world, especially engaging and well thought out ones, but this book stands among the top, in my mind and based on what I’ve read, for not only the rich history and passion it provides, but also the personal narrative weaved throughout, and the easy to understand approach, which helps put the subject in our hands. Press materials provided in advance give this description: Flynt "shows how southern apples, ranging from northern varieties that found fame on southern soil to hyper-local apples grown by a single family, have a history beyond the region, from Queen Victoria's court to the Oregon Trail. Flynt also tells us the darker side of the story, detailing how apples were entwined with slavery and the theft of Indigenous land. She relates the ways southerners lost their rich apple culture in less than the lifetime of a tree and offers a tentatively hopeful future." This Episode is Sponsored By:ShopifyShopify’s already taken the cash register online, helping millions sell billions around the world. But did you know that Shopify can do the same thing at your retail store? Give your point-of-sale system a serious upgrade, with Shopify. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/drinkbeer and take your retail business to the next level today.For more Drink Beer, Think Beer check out All About Beer.Host: John HollGuest: Diane FlyntSponsors: Shopify, All About BeerTags: Cider, Apples, History, South, Agriculture, Flavor

There is a lot of uncertainty in the American beer industry these days, especially among the smaller breweries. In what is both a cautionary tale and one of optimism, Sean O’Keefe of Pontoon Brewing in Georgia is here today to talk about how his brewery was forced to close and to furlough employees.Earlier this month the brewery put up a social media post announcing that it needed to close. This was necessary, owners said because one of it’s main distributors had not paid them for beer delivered. O'Keefe has not publicly identified the distributor, citing on-going litigation as the reason.  The brewery has been a vibrant part of the Georgia Beer scene for years now, focusing on big boozy imperial stouts and messing around with adjuncts. It’s also making more mainstream beers that can appeal to a wider audience.  It hasn’t always been easy, but the brewery has grown, and O’Keefe is candid about what has been happening behind the scenes to get to this point, and how fragile it can all be.  Right now the brewery is looking for investors and looking for a path forward. There seems to be a lot of announcements these days about breweries closing and it puts a spotlight on all of the facets that go into running a successful business, and how even one piece out of sync can hurt the whole brewery.  This Episode is Sponsored By:ShopifyShopify’s already taken the cash register online, helping millions sell billions around the world. But did you know that Shopify can do the same thing at your retail store? Give your point-of-sale system a serious upgrade, with Shopify. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/drinkbeer and take your retail business to the next level today.For more Drink Beer, Think Beer check out All About Beer.Host: John HollGuest: Sean O'KeefeSponsors: Shopify, All About BeerTags: Beer, Business, Bills, Stouts, Georgia,

“I’ve known Nate Schweber going on 20 years now, we’ve been colleagues, friends, and even co-authors. I can say without a doubt that he is one of the hardest working reporters I’ve ever met, he has a keen eye for detail, enjoys a good drink, and knows how to rock with the best of them.  He’s a raconteur, with endless curiosity and compassion, and great passion. My life is better because I know him.  His chords are familiar to listeners of this show as it has opened up every episode since we started, and was even part of the old After Two Beers show I did for All About Beer. We’ve been to breweries and crime scenes together, we’ve had adventures and even wrote a book together – Indiana Breweries – which was released in 2011 and has since gone on to sell tens of copies.  He lives in Brooklyn these days, but he grew up in Missoula, Montana and has always had a passion for outdoor reporting. A previous book, Fly Fishing Yellowstone is a must for any angler looking for the story of trout in the historic park, not just the fish but tales of the streams and its history.  His latest book tells a remarkable story about conservation, activism, and journalism, with belts of sold drinking thrown in here and again. It’s called This America of Ours: Bernard and Avis DeVoto and the Forgotten Fight to Save the Wild. It was published on July 5, 2022 and the paperback is out now. It has also the book won the High Plains Book Award, and received the first place book award from the Outdoor Writers Association of America. The book tells the story of a husband and wife team that took on special interests and politicians like Joe McCarthy and worked to protect land that should have been protected, and along the way, they strike up a friendship with a woman who would alter the course of cooking in America.  It’s suspenseful, meticulously researched, frightening with bits of levity, and historically important with mirrors to today. It is one of the most engaging books I’ve read in a long time, and I’m not just saying all of this because he showed up at my house with a bottle of gin.  But, of course, that’s where we start.” -John HollThis Episode is Sponsored By:ShopifyShopify’s already taken the cash register online, helping millions sell billions around the world. But did you know that Shopify can do the same thing at your retail store? Give your point-of-sale system a serious upgrade, with Shopify. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/drinkbeer and take your retail business to the next level today.For more Drink Beer, Think Beer check out All About Beer.Host: John HollGuest: Nate SchweberSponsors: Shopify, All About BeerTags: Beer, Nature, Travel, Parks, History, Gin

If you’ve been paying attention to the beer social medias lately, you might have noticed a photo of a Colorado-brewed amber ale making the rounds. It’s called Re-Tired and it’s a clear homage to the original recipe of New Belgium’s Fat Tire. This beer, however, is made by Crooked Stave. Chad Yakobson, the brewery’s founder and brewmaster is here for a conversation.He founded Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project 13 years ago and originally it focused around Brettanomyces.  As his official bio points out that his brewing master’s thesis was on Brettanomyces and its use in the brewing industry.  “Wanting to spread the wealth of knowledge, Chad published his research as an open-source website to provide a greater understanding of Brettanomyces yeasts for brewers. Focused on strain-specific fermentations and the major compounds produced during pure culture anaerobic fermentation in wort, the application of these yeasts has proliferated throughout the brewing industry.” Wild Wild Brett, where I’ll begin the conversation, was a research and development series that really helped drinkers of the time better understand the yeast. But, a changing beer world has it backburnered today.  Still, everything old can be new again, including amber ales. When New Belgium announced it was fundimentally changing its famed fat tire from an amber ale to more of a golden one, many folks were heartbroken, even if they hadn’t purchased the beer for some time. Chad walks me through how this homage came to be, and how he never thought Crooked Stave would ever make an Amber ale.  A lot has happened in thirteen years and Chad weaves the story of Crooked Stave and the larger beer industry through the lens of Colorado.  This Episode is Sponsored By:ShopifyShopify’s already taken the cash register online, helping millions sell billions around the world. But did you know that Shopify can do the same thing at your retail store? Give your point-of-sale system a serious upgrade, with Shopify. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/drinkbeer and take your retail business to the next level today.For more Drink Beer, Think Beer check out All About Beer.Host: John HollGuest: Chad YakobsonSponsors: Shopify, All About BeerTags: Beer, IPA, Wild, Sour Ales, Colorado, Brettanomyces, Fat Tire