All About Beer

In November 1975, the Anchor Brewing Co. released what it called, simply, “Our Special Ale.” The beer quickly became known by two other things on the label: a generic Christmas tree smack-dab in the center and the words, “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”Writing in All About Beer, Tom Acitelli notes that Anchor’s seasonal in 1975 was the first from an American brewery since Prohibition, and marked the advent of the modern Christmas beer in the United States.  After 1975, Anchor would regularly tweak both its Christmas ale recipe and label. Now in its 47th year, the beer is once again on shelves and on tap. Dane Volek, the head brewer of Anchor joins Em Sauter and Don Tse to talk about the history, brewery, and marketing of the beer. Forget the egg nog. Pour a glass and listen in. For original articles or to read the vast archives check out All About Beer.  Follow us on Twitter @allaboutbeer and Instagram @allaboutbeer. Support Journalism by visiting our Patreon Page.Hosts: Em Sauter and Don TseGuest: Dane VolekSponsors: All About BeerTags: Brewing, Tasting, Christmas, Flavors, Tradition, History, AnchorThe following music was used for this media project:Music: Awesome Call by Kevin MacLeodFree download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3399-awesome-callLicense (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-licenseArtist website: https://incompetech.com ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

A brewery expansion is never easy and rarely happens on time. In this wide-ranging conversation between Lee Cleghorn of Outer Range Brewing and Preston Thoeny of Wren House Brewing the duo discuss growth and construction, rolling with delays, and how sometimes the right location will reveal itself when you least expect. This Episode is Sponsored by:Firsd TeaFirsd Tea is a proud sponsor of the Brewer to Brewer podcast. They have been working with brewers on a wide range of ingredients in delicious beers. Firsd Tea combines the flexibility of order sizes with the experience you need to create innovative and successful tea beers. They get you the most direct-from-farm tea selection so you are working with flavorful and consistent products. You can find out more about Firsd Tea’s collaborations with brewers and tea ingredients by visiting blog.firsdtea.com.For original articles or to read the vast archives or to check out All About Beer.  follow us on Twitter @allaboutbeer and Instagram @allaboutbeer. Support Journalism by visiting our Patreon Page.Host: Lee CleghornGuest: Preston ThoenySponsor: Firsd TeaTags: Brewing, Arizona, Lager, Space, Hops, ExpansionThe following music was used for this media project:Music: Hip Hop Intro 06 by TaigaSoundProdFree download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9533-hip-hop-intro-06License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-licenseArtist website: https://linktr.ee/taigasoundprod ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

On this episode of the All About Beer podcast hosts Em Sauter and Don Tse dive into the wonderful world of Kolsch. Kölsch takes its name from the Cologne (Köln in German) dialect, which is known as Kölsch. The beer is a pale yellow, soft, refreshing ale, sometimes brewed with a touch of wheat malt and usually lightly hopped. It can be quite sweet from the malt or perhaps a bit more bitter from the hops, depending on the brewer. At a glance, a glass of kölsch can easily be mistaken for a standard pilsner, and perhaps that’s done on purpose in these modern times. Much like a pilsner, a typical kölsch is about 5 percent alcohol by volume in strength.The only beer protected by the European Union, kölsch lays claim to an “appellation controllée.” At the Kölsch Convention in 1986, 24 breweries in Cologne and nearby towns agreed that a beer could only be called a “kölsch” if it met the following criteria:1) Brewed in Cologne or the immediate area2) Top fermented3) Pale in color and clear4) Filtered5) Brewed between 11 and 14 degrees Plato (a brewer’s measuring unit)6) Served in a 20-centiliter stange (a tall, narrow, straight-sided glass)For original articles or to read the vast archives check out All About Beer.  Follow us on Twitter @allaboutbeer and Instagram @allaboutbeer. Support Journalism by visiting our Patreon Page.Hosts: Em Sauter and Don TseGuests: Jenny Pfafflin and Jeremy AltierSponsors: All About BeerTags: Brewing, Tasting, Kölsch, Flavors, Tradition, Glassware, GermanyThe following music was used for this media project:Music: Awesome Call by Kevin MacLeodFree download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3399-awesome-callLicense (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-licenseArtist website: https://incompetech.com ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

It was not a typical collaboration brew day. On this episode of the Brewer to Brewer Podcast Lee Cleghorn of Outer Range Brewing shares the story of a recent trip he took to Ukraine, complete with hops and beer in hand, to brew with a local brewery amid air raid sirens. Eric Larkin of Cohesion Brewing is the episode's host and he guides Cleghorn not only through that amazing trip, but also how Outer Range is preparing to open a brewery in France, the culmination of a long dream. This Episode is Sponsored by:Firsd TeaFirsd Tea is a proud sponsor of the Brewer to Brewer podcast. They have been working with brewers on a wide range of ingredients in delicious beers. Firsd Tea combines the flexibility of order sizes with the experience you need to create innovative and successful tea beers. They get you the most direct-from-farm tea selection so you are working with flavorful and consistent products. You can find out more about Firsd Tea’s collaborations with brewers and tea ingredients by visiting blog.firsdtea.com.For original articles or to read the vast archives or to check out All About Beer.  follow us on Twitter @allaboutbeer and Instagram @allaboutbeer. Support Journalism by visiting our Patreon Page.Host: Eric LarkinGuest: Lee CleghornSponsor: Firsd TeaTags: Brewing, Colorado, Lager, Travel, Recipes, Inspiration, UkraineThe following music was used for this media project:Music: Hip Hop Intro 06 by TaigaSoundProdFree download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9533-hip-hop-intro-06License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-licenseArtist website: https://linktr.ee/taigasoundprod ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In this episode of Beer Travelers, we visit Brooklyn, New York, with its frenetic pace to its quiet neighborhood bars, and all the haze, lager, and sour beers you could ever want. Brooklyn was once one of the world’s great brewing centers. Home to nearly 50 breweries in 1900, the borough brewed a ton of beer under brands names like Schaefer, Rheingold, and many others lost to history. But that came to an end by the mid-1970s and the borough’s mashtuns went silent for the next 20 years. That was until 1987 when Steve Hindy Tom Potter decided to open up their own brewery in a warehouse district in Williamsburg. Named after the borough it inhabited, Brooklyn Brewery would go on to spread the word of craft beer around the globe and become one of the early pioneers of the resurgent modern American beer scene.It took a while for brewing to catch on again in Brooklyn but slowly others opened, including Kelso and Sixpoint. And then there was the third wave of craft brewers, with names such as Other Half, Threes, and Finback. Today, Brooklyn's beer scene is top notch and the borough's bars and breweries make for an easy and exciting night out. After falling in love with it after my first visit, I trek down to Brooklyn a couple times a year including in December for an annual holiday themed pub and brewery crawl. It remains a favorite place to visit and drink and I look forward to exploring it with two great local experts.Courtney Iseman is a freelance writer who has written engaging pieces for Vinepair, Craft Beer and Brewing, as well as her own newsletter, Hugging the Bar. She's a compelling voice in beer and has written extensively about everything from diversity and inclusion to her favorite local Brooklyn pubs, including about the bar owned by our second guest.Chris Maestro is a DJ, avid record collector, educator, and also the co-owner with his wife of Bierwax, a beer bar with outposts in both Brooklyn and Queens. The Prospect Heights based bar focuses on great beer and music, played analog style from one of Chris’s thousands of vinyl records that line the back of the bar. He was in the beer business before opening his own shop and is a Brooklyn native. It’s a big borough and there’s a lot of ground to cover in this episode. So let’s get started with our tour of Brooklyn, New York, with writer Courtney Iseman and publican Chris Maestro.This Episode is Sponsored by:Pub Culture BeercationsStop living vicariously through other people's social media posts and get out and make some memories of your own! Join Pub Culture Beercations for one of our upcoming tours and start exploring the world one pint at a time with us. Visit PubCultureBeercations.com for more information.For original articles or to read the vast archives or to check out All About Beer.  follow us on Twitter @allaboutbeer and Instagram @allaboutbeer. Support Journalism by visiting our Patreon Page.Host: Andy CrouchGuests: Courtney Iseman, Chris MaestroSponsor: Pub Culture BeercationsTags: Brooklyn beer, Bierwax, Garrett Oliver, Other Half ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

On this bonus episode of The Brewer to Brewer Podcast Tomme Arthur of The Lost Abbey interviews Steve Dressler, the former brewmaster of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. The duo discuss recipes that excelled and some that fell flat, hop selection, the creation of Celebration Ale, and the path of craft beer in America over the last 40 years. This Episode is Sponsored by:Firsd TeaFirsd Tea is a proud sponsor of the Brewer to Brewer podcast. They have been working with brewers on a wide range of ingredients in delicious beers. Firsd Tea combines the flexibility of order sizes with the experience you need to create innovative and successful tea beers. They get you the most direct-from-farm tea selection so you are working with flavorful and consistent products. You can find out more about Firsd Tea’s collaborations with brewers and tea ingredients by visiting blog.firsdtea.com.For original articles or to read the vast archives or to check out All About Beer.  follow us on Twitter @allaboutbeer and Instagram @allaboutbeer. Support Journalism by visiting our Patreon Page.Host: Tomme ArthurGuest: Steve DresslerSponsor: Firsd TeaTags: Brewing, California, Pale Ale, Hops, CelebrationThe following music was used for this media project:Music: Hip Hop Intro 06 by TaigaSoundProdFree download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9533-hip-hop-intro-06License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-licenseArtist website: https://linktr.ee/taigasoundprod ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

On this episode of the Brewer to Brewer podcast Shaun Yasaki of Noble Beast Brewing Co. interviews Eric Larkin of Cohesion Brewing. The two talk about building out a collaboration, the intricacy of Czech lagers, and finding inspiration in the beer space. This Episode is Sponsored by:Firsd TeaFirsd Tea is a proud sponsor of the Brewer to Brewer podcast. They have been working with brewers on a wide range of ingredients in delicious beers. Firsd Tea combines the flexibility of order sizes with the experience you need to create innovative and successful tea beers. They get you the most direct-from-farm tea selection so you are working with flavorful and consistent products. You can find out more about Firsd Tea’s collaborations with brewers and tea ingredients by visiting blog.firsdtea.com.For original articles or to read the vast archives or to check out All About Beer.  follow us on Twitter @allaboutbeer and Instagram @allaboutbeer. Support Journalism by visiting our Patreon Page.Host: Shaun YasakiGuest: Eric LarkinSponsor: Firsd TeaTags: Brewing, Colorado, Lager, Travel, Recipes, InspirationThe following music was used for this media project:Music: Hip Hop Intro 06 by TaigaSoundProdFree download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9533-hip-hop-intro-06License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-licenseArtist website: https://linktr.ee/taigasoundprod ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The beer world loves hops, but fermentation produces aromas and flavors drinkers cannot get from raw ingredients, so on this episode of the All About Beer podcast our hosts talk with John Rowley of Rowley Farmhouse Ales about the wonderful world of microbes. Among the questions answered: What the hell is a farmhouse ale? Why is it called that? Is it always yeast?  Is it always Saccharomyces?  Other microbes?  Bacteria?Co-pitch vs. serial pitch?With mixed fermentation, is it harder to control outcomes?  Do brewers have to blend?Listen in and learn all about this wonderfully complex style. For original articles or to read the vast archives or to check out All About Beer.  follow us on Twitter @allaboutbeer and Instagram @allaboutbeer. Support Journalism by visiting our Patreon Page.Hosts: Em Sauter and Don TseGuest: John RowleySponsors: All About BeerTags: Brewing, Tasting, Citrus Mashing, Flavors, Mixed Fermentation The following music was used for this media project:Music: Awesome Call by Kevin MacLeodFree download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3399-awesome-callLicense (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-licenseArtist website: https://incompetech.com ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

On this episode of the Brewer to Brewer podcast Ben Edmunds of Breakside Brewery interviews Shaun Yasaki of Noble Beast Brewing Co.The two talk about paths to brewing and learning from existing operations before transitioning into life before beer. Yasaki had worked as a professional photographer and Edmunds took the opportunity to ask about the intersection of art, creativity, and beer. This Episode is Sponsored by:Firsd TeaFirsd Tea is a proud sponsor of the Brewer to Brewer podcast. They have been working with brewers on a wide range of ingredients in delicious beers. Firsd Tea combines the flexibility of order sizes with the experience you need to create innovative and successful tea beers. They get you the most direct-from-farm tea selection so you are working with flavorful and consistent products. You can find out more about Firsd Tea’s collaborations with brewers and tea ingredients by visiting blog.firsdtea.com.For original articles or to read the vast archives or to check out All About Beer.  follow us on Twitter @allaboutbeer and Instagram @allaboutbeer. Support Journalism by visiting our Patreon Page.Host: Ben EdmundsGuest: Shaun YasakiSponsor: Firsd TeaTags: Brewing, Ohio, IPA, Diversity, Photography, RecipesThe following music was used for this media project:Music: Hip Hop Intro 06 by TaigaSoundProdFree download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9533-hip-hop-intro-06License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-licenseArtist website: https://linktr.ee/taigasoundprod ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Brussels is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest beer cities. But according to today’s guest, author, podcaster, and beer writer Eoghan Walsh, it’s a curious distinction for a town that until recently only had a single brewery. On this third episode of the Beer Travelers podcast, we dive deep into the history and current state of beer and brewing in Brussels, Belgium. Eoghan has a point. Beer lovers, especially those here in the US, tend to canonize Belgium and Brussels. We speak adoringly of its cafe culture, the care with which each beer is served. Much of that stems from the unique place that a brewery such as Cantillon holds in the hearts of all beer fans. But in reality, the history of beer in Brussels has been up and down for the better part of a century. Even in more recent decades, the city’s beer and brewing scenes have been in great peril. Assisted in part by that adoration of beer geeks from around the globe, and of course their tourist dollars, Brussels is making a comeback. And today Eoghan Walsh walks us through the city’s vibrant and curious brewing history and updates on the status of things today and what is to come in its future. Eoghan runs Brussels Beer City, a great website you should visit, and he’s the author of a book of the same name as well as the more recently published A History of Brussels Beer in 50 Objects. For more on those endeavors, I recommend listening to the podcast that Eoghan and I recorded together back in January on Beer Edge. But today, we’re talking about Brussels and its beer scene and culture. It’s an incredibly informative conversation and it left me excited to return to Brussels and visit some of the spots Eoghan talks about.We discuss Cantillon, Brasserie De La Senne, Le Source Brewing, and Mort Subite as well as many others during this podcast. Stay tuned at the end of the episode for one of my personal favorite suggestions for Brussels, another great place for a nightcap or to escape the crowds of the Grand Place and the tourist dens. In this episode of Beer Travelers, we discover Brussels, from its robust days of brewing to its more humble yet growing modern times, we try to capture all the city has to offer in this episode.This Episode is Sponsored by:Pub Culture BeercationsStop living vicariously through other people's social media posts and get out and make some memories of your own! Join Pub Culture Beercations for one of our upcoming tours and start exploring the world one pint at a time with us. Visit PubCultureBeercations.com for more information.For original articles or to read the vast archives or to check out All About Beer.  follow us on Twitter @allaboutbeer and Instagram @allaboutbeer. Support Journalism by visiting our Patreon Page.Host: Andy CrouchGuests: Eoghan WalshSponsor: Pub Culture BeercationsTags: Brussels beer, Cantillon, De La Senne, Mort Subite ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★