Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

Tony Bellis, cofounder of KCBC, and Bobby Rolandi, head brewer, dive into the bustling NYC craft beer scene. They share the challenges and triumphs of brewing in a competitive market and how KCBC embraces innovation through creative branding and unique beer styles. Listeners will learn about their experimental approach to crafting hazy IPAs with innovative yeast, the blend of East and West Coast IPA techniques, and their commitment to community-driven brewing in the vibrant Bushwick neighborhood.

Ben Clayton of Brooklyn’s Test honed his approach to brewing while working in the context of a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City. Today, building a deep, meaningful supply chain for interesting ingredients animates him more than lighting up the beer-trading boards. Accolades have followed, and today he’s finding stories to tell in thoughtfully sourced grain and the novel ways he uses it in everything from Mexican-style lager to hazy IPA. In this episode, Clayton discusses: brewing Mexican-style lager with nixtamalized heirloom Oaxacan corn blending floral corn notes with complementary Noble hop notes using oats in multiple forms in hazy IPA why hazy IPA might be the “perfect” beer style tweaking pH to preserve texture, flavor, and aroma promoting biodiversity in beer And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across North America and beyond. With our 24/7 service and support, your brewery will never stop. Remote monitor your chiller for simple and fast access to all the information you need, and gain peace of mind your operation is running smoothly. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Berkeley Yeast bioengineers ordinary strains and make them extraordinary—enhancing the flavors you want and eliminating the ones you don’t. Visit berkeleyyeast.com to learn more and start brewing with science on your side. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Custom blend development is available through our innovative R&D lab. Our bulk division supplies a wide range of beverage segments, making it the one-stop shop for flavoring beer and beyond. More information and free samples are waiting at oldorchard.com/brewer. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com) Celebrating 16 years of delivering compelling new hop varieties along with classics that thrive in Oregon’s terroir, Indie is the original source for Strata, Luminosa, Lórien, Meridian, and their newest variety Audacia. Release your creativity with the magic of pure, uncut Oregon hops from Indie. Indie Hops — Life is short. Let’s make it flavorful. XTRATUF (https://xtratuf.com) XTRATUF has been making rugged and reliable boots for 75 years. Built for the harshest conditions, the Legacy Collection styles are oil, acid, and chemical resistant with a non-slip rated outsole. Be prepared for whatever comes your way and shop the latest XTRATUF boots on xtratuf.com. Brewery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com) If you’re launching a brewery or acquiring an existing one, consider our brewery workshop and new brewery accelerator, September 14 through 17th in Fort Collins, Colorado. Over four days, we engage in panel discussions, technical brewery tours, networking, and small working group sessions that help you better understand and prepare for the challenges of brewery operation. Tickets are on sale now. Support Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

The best beer isn’t brewed in a vacuum—it’s brewed with your guests in mind. Every pour, every seasonal release, every new recipe starts with one question: What do people actually want to drink? In this episode, we dive into how breweries are using real taproom data to answer that question—and brew what sells. From tracking style velocity to spotting daypart trends, our guests break down how they translate point-of-sale insights into production plans that make sense for their business and their fans. Guests on this episode include: Juan Torres, cofounder and chief operating officer, Tripping Animals (Doral, Florida) Brandon Stirewalt, director of operations, Town Brewing (Charlotte, North Carolina) Ben Wolff, customer success manager, Arryved (Denver) This episode is brought to you interruption-free by Arryved, the all‑in‑one brewery platform trusted by hundreds of craft breweries nationwide. Built specifically for the craft-beverage industry, Arryved combines powerful, customizable tools that simplify service and operations, keep sales data in one place, and help breweries turn insights into action. Arryved works side‑by‑side with taprooms to meet their needs in real time—because no two service models, beer lists, or guest expectations are exactly alike. By elevating the guest experience and streamlining the back of house, Arryved lets makers focus on what really matters: their product, their people, and their community. Learn more at arryved.com. Support Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

Hemp-derived THC products, including beverages, have exploded on the market in recent years as producers take advantage of a federal legal loophole that leaves the products legal—or at least not-illegal—in many states. Much of this nascent beverage market is focused on seltzer-style minimalism or sweet, fruit-forward drinks, but Connecticut’s Float House is making the case for beer aroma and flavor as the category develops. In this episode, cofounders Gordon Whelpley and Jared Emerling—alumni of Connecticut and New York breweries that include Two Roads, Sixpoint, Twelve Percent Beer Project, and Stony Creek—discuss their approach to making hop-driven THC beverages that drink like nonalcoholic beers. Along the way, they touch on: launching a THC beverage brand in an uncertain environment the current regulatory framework for producing and selling hemp-derived beverages creatively designing beer-focused beverages in a space with infinite possibility building balanced flavor and mouthfeel in hopp-forward NA brews creating body using novel hop products the difference between nonconverted and converted hemp-derived THC how CBD modulates the body’s uptake of THC the benefits of beverage-sipping as a slow ingestion mode for THC And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across North America and beyond. With our 24/7 service and support, your brewery will never stop. Remote monitor your chiller for simple and fast access to all the information you need, and gain peace of mind your operation is running smoothly. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Berkeley Yeast bioengineers ordinary strains and make them extraordinary—enhancing the flavors you want and eliminating the ones you don’t. Visit berkeleyyeast.com to learn more and start brewing with science on your side. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Custom blend development is available through our innovative R&D lab. Our bulk division supplies a wide range of beverage segments, making it the one-stop shop for flavoring beer and beyond. More information and free samples are waiting at oldorchard.com/brewer. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com) Celebrating 16 years of delivering compelling new hop varieties along with classics that thrive in Oregon’s terroir, Indie is the original source for Strata, Luminosa, Lórien, Meridian, and their newest variety Audacia. Release your creativity with the magic of pure, uncut Oregon hops from Indie. Indie Hops — Life is short. Let’s make it flavorful. XTRATUF (https://xtratuf.com) XTRATUF has been making rugged and reliable boots for 75 years. Built for the harshest conditions, the Legacy Collection styles are oil, acid, and chemical resistant with a non-slip rated outsole. Be prepared for whatever comes your way and shop the latest XTRATUF boots on xtratuf.com. Brewery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com) If you’re launching a brewery or acquiring an existing one, consider our brewery workshop and new brewery accelerator, September 14 through 17th in Fort Collins, Colorado. Over four days, we engage in panel discussions, technical brewery tours, networking, and small working group sessions that help you better understand and prepare for the challenges of brewery operation. Tickets are on sale now. Support Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

In Whitestown, Indiana, just outside Indianapolis, this small-town lager brewery has made big waves with multiple World Beer Cup golds for its märzen, Follow the Lederhosen—not to mention a WBC silver for its pale Skool House Bock, knockout scores from Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® judges, and five GABF medals for various lagers. However, Moontown’s success is a story of working within the confines of their two-vessel system to find processes that produce the flavors they want. Step-mashing is a must, and their mashout decoction—while not a traditional one, by any means—gives them an extra nudge of flavor and attenuation. In this episode, director of brewing operations Cody Peczkowski talks about the deep influence of his experience brewing for the Gordon Biersch chain, and the how his approach to recipe design has developed in the ensuing years. Along the way, he touches on: focusing on premium ingredients for better beer step-mashing a hazy IPA adjusting the step-mash regimen for body or better attenuation using a mashout decoction process on their two-vessel brewhouse brewing two different märzens with different origin malts, including both German and American craft malts bunging rather than spunding tanks managing competition beers that are “too hoppy” bringing alcohol levels down in malt-forward lager taking a hop-forward approach to West Coast–style pils asking the question, “What would Gordon Biersch do?” And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across North America and beyond. With our 24/7 service and support, your brewery will never stop. Remote monitor your chiller for simple and fast access to all the information you need, and gain peace of mind your operation is running smoothly. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Berkeley Yeast bioengineers ordinary strains and make them extraordinary—enhancing the flavors you want and eliminating the ones you don’t. Visit berkeleyyeast.com to learn more and start brewing with science on your side. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): As breweries expand beyond beer into other segments like mocktails and CBD beverages, Old Orchard is here to help. We can formulate custom blends featuring specialty ingredients. More information and free samples are waiting at oldorchard.com/brewer. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com) Celebrating 16 years of delivering compelling new hop varieties along with classics that thrive in Oregon’s terroir, Indie is the original source for Strata, Luminosa, Lórien, Meridian, and their newest variety Audacia. Release your creativity with the magic of pure, uncut Oregon hops from Indie. Indie Hops — Life is short. Let’s make it flavorful. XTRATUF (https://xtratuf.com) XTRATUF has been making rugged and reliable boots for 75 years. Built for the harshest conditions, the Legacy Collection styles are oil, acid, and chemical resistant with a non-slip rated outsole. Be prepared for whatever comes your way and shop the latest XTRATUF boots on xtratuf.com. Hyperboost from Yakima Chief Hops (https://www.yakimachief.com) HyperBoost is a smarter dry hop solution that delivers bold, variety specific aroma and flavor you trust while cutting down on shipping, storage and waste. Try Yakima Chief Hops’ Efficiency Calculator tool at yakimachief.com. Brewery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com) If you’re launching a brewery or acquiring an existing one, consider our brewery workshop and new brewery accelerator, September 14 through 17th in Fort Collins, Colorado. Over four days, we engage in panel discussions, technical brewery tours, networking, and small working group sessions that help you better understand and prepare for the challenges of brewery operation. Tickets are on sale now. Support Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

Shaun Kalis, cofounder and brewer at Ruse Brewing, dives deep into the art of IPA brewing with a focus on innovative techniques. He shares insights on using flaked wheat and rice to enhance flavor, along with his secrets for layering different hop expressions to boost aroma and dankness. Kalis discusses the balance of early-pick hops for bitterness and the impact of recent brewing innovations. He emphasizes community support in Portland's craft beer scene and the importance of experimentation in creating unforgettable IPAs.

This special low-carbohydrate and low-calorie focused episode of the podcast is brought to you interruption-free by the yeast and fermentation specialists at White Labs. White labs has been on the forefront of innovation in the fermentation space for many, many years and brewers around the world depend on their yeast and related brewing products to brew so many beloved beers. Today’s episode focuses on a subject very close to founder Chris White’s heart, low-carbohydrate and low-calorie brewing. Joining for the conversation are: Sam Thompson: Director of Quality and Innovation, Lagunitas (Petaluma, California) Teddy Gowan: VP of Brewing, Societe Brewing Company (San Diego) Chris White: Founder of White Labs (San Diego) Through the episode, they discuss everything from how yeast and enzymes produce higher attenuation, building body in beers with fewer carbs, using hops in complementary ways, market position for low-carbohydrate and low-calorie beers, stylistic applications, and much more. White Labs never settles for “good enough,” and their innovative spirit continues to advance the craft of fermentation, guaranteeing products that defy the status quo. They fuel the brewing community by offering new product innovations, educational resources, and a collaborative atmosphere—empowering brewers to make the best beer possible. To learn more about the range of top-quality yeast, nutrients, and other fermentation solutions that White Labs offers to brewers, visit WhiteLabs.com. Support Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

Whitney Burnside built her résumé at some of the best breweries in the Pacific Northwest, so when she and her husband Doug—a celebrated chef—embarked on their post-COVID project of working together on a brewpub they dubbed Grand Fir, the Portland beer world grew excited (we did too—for more, see Kate Bernot’s case study on Grand Fir from our Spring 2024 issue of the Brewing Industry Guide). Now, not yet three years old but with three World Beer Cup medals and three Great American Beer Festival medals under their belt, Grand Fir continues to garner attention for remarkable beer. Burnside loves hoppy beers with personality, and the brewpub and beers themselves ooze character, with defining forest flavor and aroma notes anchoring wider exploration. This conversation centers on West Coast and contemporary American IPA, with a focus on how Burnside often uses large blends of hops to build layers of character. Along the way, she discusses: building ultra-lean, 1.5°P FG West Coast IPA with intense hop character blending base malts for color and body in smaller hoppy beers differentiating between “traditional American” and “West Coast” IPA using classic hops in modern formats selecting malt to support the strong flavors of New Zealand hops constructing nuanced hop blends with five or more varieties And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across North America and beyond. With our 24/7 service and support, your brewery will never stop. Remote monitor your chiller for simple and fast access to all the information you need, and gain peace of mind your operation is running smoothly. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Berkeley Yeast bioengineers ordinary strains and make them extraordinary—enhancing the flavors you want and eliminating the ones you don’t. Visit berkeleyyeast.com to learn more and start brewing with science on your side. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): As breweries expand beyond beer into other segments like mocktails and CBD beverages, Old Orchard is here to help. We can formulate custom blends featuring specialty ingredients. More information and free samples are waiting at oldorchard.com/brewer. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com) Lórien seamlessly combines traditional elements of European noble hops with an elegant twang of American modernity. Learn more about Lórien and the rest of Indie’s varieties at www.indiehops.com. Indie Hops — Life is short. Let’s make it flavorful. XTRATUF (https://xtratuf.com) XTRATUF has been making rugged and reliable boots for 75 years. Built for the harshest conditions, the Legacy Collection styles are oil, acid, and chemical resistant with a non-slip rated outsole. Be prepared for whatever comes your way and shop the latest XTRATUF boots on xtratuf.com. Veterans Blend from Yakima Chief Hops (https://www.yakimachief.com) The 8th Annual Veterans Blend from Yakima Chief Hop is available through pre-order! $1 from every pound sold of Veterans Blend will be donated to this year’s non-profit Soldier’s Angels. Plan ahead and place your Veterans Blend pre-order with Yakima Chief Hops at yakimachief.com. Brewery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com) If you’re launching a brewery or acquiring an existing one, consider our brewery workshop and new brewery accelerator, September 14 through 17th in Fort Collins, Colorado. Over four days, we engage in panel discussions, technical brewery tours, networking, and small working group sessions that help you better understand and prepare for the challenges of brewery operation. Tickets are on sale now. Support Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

This week’s interview wasn’t initially intended for the podcast and wasn’t recorded that way (Brewing Industry Guide subscribers read it last month), but the topics are salient and the audio listenable, so we thought it would be an interesting change of pace. Lester Jones is the VP of Analytics and Chief Economist for the National Beer Wholesalers Association, and has some pretty deep data-driven insight into what is reality and what is just vibes in today’s world of beer sales which he shares in this conversation. Throughout, we try to unpack what’s actually going on, comparing anecdotal experience to real sales data, for a more accurate picture of the opportunities and challenges in today's beer world. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across North America and beyond. With our 24/7 service and support, your brewery will never stop. Remote monitor your chiller for simple and fast access to all the information you need, and gain peace of mind your operation is running smoothly. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Berkeley Yeast bioengineers ordinary strains and make them extraordinary—enhancing the flavors you want and eliminating the ones you don’t. Visit berkeleyyeast.com to learn more and start brewing with science on your side. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): As breweries expand beyond beer into other segments like mocktails and CBD beverages, Old Orchard is here to help. We can formulate custom blends featuring specialty ingredients. More information and free samples are waiting at oldorchard.com/brewer. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com) Lórien seamlessly combines traditional elements of European noble hops with an elegant twang of American modernity. Learn more about Lórien and the rest of Indie’s varieties at www.indiehops.com. Indie Hops — Life is short. Let’s make it flavorful. XTRATUF (https://xtratuf.com) XTRATUF has been making rugged and reliable boots for 75 years. Built for the harshest conditions, the Legacy Collection styles are oil, acid, and chemical resistant with a non-slip rated outsole. Be prepared for whatever comes your way and shop the latest XTRATUF boots on xtratuf.com. Veterans Blend from Yakima Chief Hops (https://www.yakimachief.com) The 8th Annual Veterans Blend from Yakima Chief Hop is available through pre-order! $1 from every pound sold of Veterans Blend will be donated to this year’s non-profit Soldier’s Angels. Plan ahead and place your Veterans Blend pre-order with Yakima Chief Hops at yakimachief.com. Brewery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com) If you’re launching a brewery or acquiring an existing one, consider our brewery workshop and new brewery accelerator, September 14 through 17th in Fort Collins, Colorado. Over four days, we engage in panel discussions, technical brewery tours, networking, and small working group sessions that help you better understand and prepare for the challenges of brewery operation. Tickets are on sale now. Support Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

For Jordan Childs, cofounder and head brewer of the U.K.-based brand Mash Gang, you don’t hit the right balance in nonalcoholic beer by nudging a traditional beer recipe one way or another. “The best beers feel like a cohesive collection of a bunch of spiky parts pulling apart from each other,” he says. “The outlier flavors are what make craft beer interesting.” If there’s a method for making nonalcoholic beer, he’s tried it, and in this episode he shares the ingredients and processes that don’t make great beer—as well as those that do. Along the way, Childs discusses: their iterative creative process of testing, learning, trashing, and brewing again filling the gaps left by the absence of ethanol deliberately choosing poorly attenuating ingredients how ethanol removal is responsible for “a lot of bad beer” taking a low-intervention approach to nonalcoholic beer controlling sugar at a finite level and doing everything wrong, on purpose using modern hop products and modern food products for greater control hops that do and don’t work in nonalcoholic beer avoiding the unfermented wort character food safety in the nonalcoholic context And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across North America and beyond. With our 24/7 service and support, your brewery will never stop. Remote monitor your chiller for simple and fast access to all the information you need, and gain peace of mind your operation is running smoothly. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Berkeley Yeast bioengineers ordinary strains and make them extraordinary—enhancing the flavors you want and eliminating the ones you don’t. Visit berkeleyyeast.com to learn more and start brewing with science on your side. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): As breweries expand beyond beer into other segments like mocktails and CBD beverages, Old Orchard is here to help. We can formulate custom blends featuring specialty ingredients. More information and free samples are waiting at oldorchard.com/brewer. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com) Lórien seamlessly combines traditional elements of European noble hops with an elegant twang of American modernity. Learn more about Lórien and the rest of Indie’s varieties at www.indiehops.com. Indie Hops — Life is short. Let’s make it flavorful. XTRATUF (https://xtratuf.com) XTRATUF has been making rugged and reliable boots for 75 years. Built for the harshest conditions, the Legacy Collection styles are oil, acid, and chemical resistant with a non-slip rated outsole. Be prepared for whatever comes your way and shop the latest XTRATUF boots on xtratuf.com. Cryo Fresh from Yakima Chief Hops (https://www.yakimachief.com) Cryo Fresh from Yakima Chief Hops combines the innovation of Cryo Hops with the Frozen Fresh Hop concept of YCH Trials 301 and 302, capturing the aromatic vibrancy of fresh hop harvest in an easy-to-use pellet form. Visit yakimachief.com for more information. Brewery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com) If you’re launching a brewery or acquiring an existing one, consider our brewery workshop and new brewery accelerator, September 14 through 17th in Fort Collins, Colorado. Over four days, we engage in panel discussions, technical brewery tours, networking, and small working group sessions that help you better understand and prepare for the challenges of brewery operation. Tickets are on sale now. Support Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast