One of my favorite things about hosting this podcast is the chance to meet people and discuss who they are, not just what they do in the world of beer or beverage alcohol. It’s really important for me to showcase the humans who make up these industries, what makes them think, and what makes them special. In this conversation, our two guests do the heavy lifting to introduce themselves. Their voices and experiences will help guide you to consider what it means to be a black man in beer, an entrepreneur and visionary, and each a better half of a dynamic duo. There’s Joe Mettle, an author and educator, and Roger Apollon Jr., a musician, educator, and co-founder of Four City Brewing Company. Located in New Jersey, both are also the minds behind an educational startup that is helping to launch new ideas and careers. Together, Joe and Roger started Entrepreneurship and Equity in Brewing, a training program that offers Black, Indigenous, people of color, and other underrepresented people an opportunity to learn the business of beer. Their program was launched with the hope of helping others find greater appreciation for beer, the potential for a new career, and most important, advancement in the beer industry. In recent years, many organizations, events, and efforts across beer have worked to lift up people long underserved and less seen, and Entrepreneurship and Equity in Brewing—which you’ll also hear referred to as “EEB” in our chat—is another example of grassroots work creating change. I’ll let Joe and Roger take it from here so you can learn what makes them tick and why their work deserves our attention and admiration.

You can’t fully understand the awe-inspiring nature of an African safari until you’ve experienced it for yourself, or at least so says freelance writer and journalist Megan Eaves. In her first piece for Good Beer Hunting, she inches readers closer than ever to the majesty, fragility, and sometimes violent necessities of life in the bush in her longform feature titled “Life Stays Close to the River — Solar Beer and Wildebeest in the Serengeti,” which was published on October 5, 2022. Through her words and photos, Megan brings readers on a special journey, and shares how beer brewed in this  remote place is more than just a drink. It’s a lifeline to clean water in a parched land, and an economic addition to an area that’s heavily dependent on tourism for the survival of most, if not all, of its inhabitants. She paints a vivid portrait of life, death, and rebirth in this fragile region, one that doesn’t just deserve our attention and awe, but requires it for its preservation.  We’ll take her experience even further in today’s conversation. Megan shares additional memories from the 14-day sojourn into the heart of the Serengeti, including a bloody encounter with a pride of lions and one unlucky elephant. From the dizzying spectacle of the night sky to the haunting sound of 100,000 migrating wildebeests, Megan’s experience becomes our experience, and one we’re lucky to peer into.

In July 2022, Miller Lite hosted an event in Philadelphia where the brand released a special-edition can. It used beer history to convey a simple message: "There's no beer without women." The can celebrated Mary Lisle, a woman who owned and operated a brewery in the early 1700s. According to Miller Lite–and many of the books and articles you might find on American women's beer history–Lisle was the first documented woman brewery owner in colonial American history. Celebrating Lisle was a way to spotlight the countless ways women have sustained, elevated, and even saved the American brewing industry. That was true in colonial times, and it’s true now. The acknowledgement is overdue: women's contributions are regularly diminished or overlooked entirely among beer’s commonly-accepted narratives. This history isn't just dusty trivia that's nice to know. It helps us understand why statistically few women, especially single women and women of color, own breweries today. It helps reveal the social and economic barriers behind those statistics as the injustices they truly are. Putting Mary Lisle's story on a beer can, especially one as high profile as Miller Lite, helps do that. And we're fans. …but… Mary Lisle wasn't the earliest known woman to own a brewhouse in colonial North America. That's a misconception that just happens to get repeated a lot. The messy history of the early colonial beer trade actually contains lots of evidence that women brewed and sold beer professionally before Lisle–so many that we don't personally know who was first! But rather than worry about firsts or historical nitpicks, we're going to focus on another woman brewery owner: Sarah Frankes. Frankes brewed beer for her own tavern in 1670s Boston, some 50 years before Mary Lisle took the reins in her own brewhouse. Again, Frankes wasn't the first any more than Lisle was, but we chose her because her life and career reveal not just her own contributions to American beer, but those of her entire generation. They also reveal the omnipresent, shapeshifting barriers that women brewers have faced since America's earliest days. This episode is a conversation about what we've found, and what it means today. We spoke to several women across the U.S. who own, or hope to own, their own breweries. Even though there are plenty of differences between Sarah Frankes' 17th century world and our own, their stories overlap in places. The past and present barriers hindering women in the beer trade have more in common than they should.

If you’ve spent a significant time in the beer community, then you probably have heard the name Ale Sharpton. Back when I was a fledgling beer writer and looking for a mentor, I stumbled across Ale’s work and immediately knew I needed to meet him. One unanswered email later, which I still tease him about, and we finally met at the inaugural Dames & Dregs Beer Festival.  Since bombarding him with questions on how to break into the industry, Ale has been in my corner supporting me as I find my own way in beer. And he continues to serve as a model of what you can accomplish in the beer industry, through his partnership with New Belgium Brewing on the ongoing Piano Keys collaboration, as well as his involvement in the newly founded Leaders of the Brew School (a collective of BIPOC brewers, beer industry pros, and enthusiasts).  Despite being a transplant, one thing’s clear: Ale Sharpton loves Atlanta and its growing beer scene as much as this local. You can see it in the way he’s repped this city for more than a decade. In how he makes it a point to support the people and breweries that make up its beer community, or in how he uses every chance to give back to the city through his charitable contributions. You’ll hear him talk about how the beer city he dreamed of is blossoming now, where his journey into the industry has taken him so far, and how he turned a beer collab with New Belgium into an opportunity to donate to Black-owned nonprofits.

The concept of “beer-flavored beer” doesn’t actually exist—at least not universally. One person’s disgusting is another person’s delicious, and a lot of it has to do with your upbringing, culture, and culinary traditions. With this in mind, writer Lana Svitankova calls beer an opportunity to experience “liquid nostalgia,” a concept that she explores in-depth in her latest piece titled “Sour, Salty, Umami — The Ukrainian Brewers Transforming Pickling Traditions Into Beer,” which was published on October 12, 2022 as part of Good Beer Hunting’s Critical Drinking series.  In the piece, Lana delves into the relatively young beer industry in Ukraine, which has experimented with pickle beers and other culinary-inspired styles in ways places like the United States have only begun to explore. From tomato beers to those inspired by gazpacho or borscht, these beverages have the ability to connect drinkers with the past as well as the very land around them, a land that remains under threat to this day. We’ll talk about that ongoing conflict, as well as Lana’s ability to find joy not just in beer itself, but in the strength, courage, and resilience of the beer community as it grapples with survival as well as the human need to experience comfort and cheer. She describes her favorite anecdote she’s told thus far, which involves oysters and a personal redefinition of what beer is, as well as the very specific food-inspired beer she’s holding out for an intrepid brewer to make. Finally, Lana breaks down individual preferences not just in what we eat or drink, but the music we listen to, the art we love, and the way we experience the world around us. Chaos can be as gorgeous as a symphony, and with an open mind, the possibilities for new sensations are endless.

In recent years, there’s a good chance you’ve read, heard, or watched news about the incredible rise of non-alcoholic brands. A company like Athletic Brewing—one of the fastest-growing breweries in the country—or non-alc wine appearing in the latest TV revival of Sex and the City. There are examples galore, but the truth is that even as these sub-segments of non-alcoholic options grow rapidly, they remain a literal fraction of today’s alcohol market. And the opposite, high-end ABV side of things is also showing lots of strength. In this episode, we talk with Colleen Quinn, CEO at America's first brewery to exclusively focus on beer and seltzer at 8% ABV and up, Greater Good Imperial Brewing Company. Based on a recent analysis for Good Beer Hunting’s Sightlines+ subscriber news section, we found that somewhere between 8-10% of craft beer sold in retail carries an ABV around 8% and up, a share that has basically tripled from five years ago and continues to grow. If we have products offering something for non-alcoholic occasions, Greater Good is working to position itself at the other end of the spectrum as the brewery people turn to for big, bold flavors in beer. Colleen's beer industry experience that led her to the Massachusetts-based company started with Craft Brew Alliance—a consortium of beer companies from across the country—before a short stint with Anheuser-Busch after the company bought Craft brew Alliance in 2020. After running her own consulting firm, Colleen is now at the reins of Greater Good, which grew its production by +66% between 2019-2021. Simply put, this brewery is positioned to capitalize on an established trend in a unique way and has lots of room to run. What does that mean for how the company accomplishes a goal of being the leading producer of big beer in the U.S.? That’s for Colleen to explore and us to learn.

The Earth is burning—so why don’t more people care? It turns out, one way to get people’s attention is to let them know that if things don’t change (a lot, and soon), we might not have beer for much longer.  In her piece titled “Seeds of Change — The Promise (and Challenges) of New Brewing Grains,” which was published on September 28, 2022, freelance writer Hollie Stephens explores the world of experimental and sustainably oriented grains like Kernza and Salish Blue, which agricultural scientists hope will change the face of craft beer and the ingredients that it’s made from. As a writer who often covers topics like sustainability and climate change, Hollie describes a sense of growing fear she feels as she learns more about the agricultural side of things. But in today’s conversation, she also shares a sense of optimism due to the ingenuity and passion of people working to make the world not just a better place, but one that simply continues to exist. Today, you’ll hear about her initial discovery of experimental grain growing programs and why she decided to dive into their origins, scientific importance, and their effects on craft beer. We also discuss the ways that we as consumers can help incentivize brewers to invest in this developing technology. As it turns out, things are changing whether we like it or not, so time is of the essence if we hope to keep up. Hollie says it’s a wonderful time to be a beer drinker, but only if we collectively commit to understanding and engaging with where that beverage we all hold dear comes from, and where it might be going next.

How many of us have dreamed of opening a “third space”—as in, a social space that isn’t our home and isn’t our workplace—whether it be a collective art studio, a bookstore-slash-gallery, a coffee shop with live music—or perhaps a beer bar with shelves upon shelves of vinyl records? Well, the Maestro family did just that, and they did it well.  In Courtney Iseman’s piece titled “Better on Vinyl — BierWax in Brooklyn and Queens, New York,” which was published on Good Beer Hunting on September 21, 2022, she dives deep into BierWax’s history, origins, pandemic struggles, and unique place in New York City beer history. She encourages visitors to head to BierWax to discover something new, whether it be beer or music, and leave with a sense of welcoming community that serves to engage and inspire.  In today’s conversation about her piece, we’ll talk about how Chris and Yahaira Maestro created an extension of their home, how they became living proof of a dream realized, and why there simply aren’t more places like their bar out there. We’ll also discuss how it is possible to like your job, how Courtney found a new family at BierWax, and the ways in which authenticity and intention can help nurture a warm, inviting space that remains an all-too-rare outlier in the beverage scene. If you’ve ever nurtured a still-unrealized dream, this is the conversation that may encourage you to finally go for it. This is Courtney Iseman on BierWax.

When people think of South Dakota, beer doesn’t likely come to mind. Maybe Mount Rushmore. Probably agriculture. But in this episode, we’re exploring what it means to be a part of building a culture and knowledge for beer in a state where that’s still sort of new. We’re chatting with Nicki Werner, director of brewing at Jefferson Beer Supply in Jefferson, South Dakota, a city with a small population and until just recently, a lack of exposure to homegrown beer. Nicki opened the business with her partner and Jefferson native, Anthony Roark, and together the pair are showing how a commitment to education and community can grow something unique in places where the idea of “craft beer” is still new. Light Lager may dominate the minds and taste buds of local residents, but Nicki’s skill in the brewhouse is working to introduce customers to pastry Sours, Imperial Stouts, and Hazy IPAs. As you’ll hear from Nicki, it takes a holistic effort to pull it off, and it helps to also find inspiration from peers that show how connecting to the place where you live and work can be translated to the way you make and sell beer.

So … what did you do over your summer vacation? It’s a classic question so many of us would answer whenever returning to school each fall, and if Reggie Duvalsaint was sitting in a circle with peers to recap, he’d have a hell of a story. This summer, Reggie crisscrossed the country to work at baseball stadiums in every corner of the U.S. As a ballpark vendor, he sold beer and food to fans. And as an astute social being and with a good business mindset, he also took note of what people became excited about and why ideas of “local” can drive sales. So, in this conversation you’ll meet Reggie, hear about his one-of-kind journey to visit 30 ballparks, and pick up some inside tips of what people were eating and drinking while out to a ballgame. It’s a fun snapshot to a moment in time with a tour guide who spent months compiling experiences and knowledge. With that, he hopes to inspire others to find excitement with whatever they may want to accomplish, whether that’s with travel, meeting new people, or just finding an excuse to do something new and different.