HBCUs—or Historically Black Colleges and Universities—have long been important institutions in the Black community. The first HBCUs were established before the Civil War to provide higher education opportunities to Black high school graduates, and since then have continued to grow. Today, there are 101 HBCUs in the nation.  Over the years, HBCUs have graduated many prominent leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr; US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; Oprah Winfrey; Toni Morrison; and the first female, first Black, and first Asian-American vice president, Kamala Harris. HBCUs have given birth to many leaders across society, including the beer industry.  This is the landscape in which Atinuke Akintola Diver’s recent piece is set. “‘A Black Woman Made This Beer’ — How Historically Black Colleges and Universities Shaped a Generation of Black Women Brewers” was published on May 11, 2022 as part of our Next Germination series (made in partnership with Guinness). Tinu’s story draws a connection between the many Black women brewers working today and the HBCUs they attended, and explores the role of these institutions as essential incubators of Black brewing talent. She noticed this connection after researching her feature-length documentary “This Belongs to Us.” (If you want to learn more about her documentary, I recommend listening to the podcast she recorded with her main subject, Briana Brake, and host Bryan Roth.)  In this episode, we talk about the importance of giving Black women their flowers, our love of storytelling, why a complete beer history includes the contributions of Black people, and where Tinu’s beer journey has taken her so far.

As a writer, photographer, translator, and the first Certified Cicerone in Ukraine now living in Switzerland, Lana Svitankova wears a lot of hats. One of them is to capture moments through her photography and to share them with the world. Another is to collect memories and enshrine them through her storytelling. But one particular hat is that of an ambassador, on a mission to immortalize a beer from her homeland of Ukraine. Ukrainian Golden Ale isn’t an official beer style—yet. But Lana believes that it’s unique enough to warrant inclusion in style guides across the world, despite some skeptics. No, it’s not the most exciting beer ever brewed, she admits. But with more eyes than ever fixed on Ukraine, people are beginning to take an interest in her quest. That being said, Lana remains adamant that this beer style shouldn’t be considered for anything other than its own merits, explaining that the campaign for recognition has been going on for years. Still, it’s heartening to know the world supports these efforts. Today, we’ll hear about those efforts, as well as Lana’s work as a photographer. COVID robbed her of her ability to capture pictures of people—her preferred subject—but slowly and surely, that pendulum from isolation to socialization is swinging back once more. Beer is meant to be temporary, but photographs last forever.

I first learned about Montclair Brewery during Black History Month. Since opening in 2018, the brewery has honored prominent Black figures—from Harriet Tubman with its Tubman Railroad Strawberry Pale Ale to Chadwick Boseman with its Boseman Wild Ale. I had the chance to talk with Denise Ford Sawadogo, the co-owner and founder of Montclair Brewery, for an article I was working on for the New Brewer. While speaking to her, I was amazed at how much the couple’s backgrounds showed up in their work at Montclair Brewery—Denise’s family is from Jamaica and her husband, Leo, is from West Africa. Their culture appears in the music, programming, and of course, the beers they brew. It’s a great reminder of the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and how exposure to other cultures can increase our knowledge of the world around us while also teaching us something about ourselves. In our conversation, we talk about how the brewery’s story began in Montclair, New Jersey, and the beautiful neighborhood which it’s named after. Denise also shares how the couples bring their culture into the brewery, including the inspiration behind their Black History Series. We also talk about our moms, their entrepreneurial spirit, and how we learned never to give up on our dreams.

The first time I connected with Emma Janzen off social media happened last year when she, very graciously, offered to help guide me in the early stages of my book proposal. Since then, she’s continued to mentor me through the harrowing process of actually writing a book. She’s also made big career moves; recently published her latest book, “The Bartender’s Manifesto” with Toby Maloney and the bartenders at noted Chicago bar The Violet Hour; and even picked up a James Beard Award for her previous book, “The Way of the Cocktail,” co-authored with Chicago bartender Julia Momose.   Throughout that time, she’s also continued her work as a journalist, editor, photographer, and storyteller. Emma published an almost painfully beautiful personal essay for Good Beer Hunting titled “Slow, Reflective, Quiet — Meditations on Mezcal in San Baltazar Guelavila,” on May 18, 2022. The story, which was born out of a straightforward press trip, evolved into something that resonated deeply within her soul, which in turn created an opportunity to tap into her voice as more than just a witness to creation.   In today’s conversation about her piece, Emma shares what it was like to break out of a more journalistic mindset in order to experience what was happening to and around her, the importance of balancing a generational legacy of artistry with increasing global awareness and demand, and what’s at stake as mezcal marches towards a fork in the road, where one way leads to commodification and the other honors time and tradition. That story culminates with a feeling of optimism—or at least, I hope it does. Bonus: In the latter part of the conversation, Emma mentions a Spotify playlist that helped center her thoughts at the end of her trip to the heart of Oaxaca. If you’re curious about the vibes, here’s a link to said playlist.

Today’s episode is a preview of a festival coming up in Pittsburgh on July 30th called Mixed Culture. GBH is intimately involved as partners on the branding and content side of the festival—and that’s in large part because the people behind it are both clients and long-time friends of ours at Cinderlands Beer Co. This festival is a sort of “coming of age” moment for their whole crew. On the back of so many big wins—launching their second and third locations, reinventing the Foederhouse to make exquisite wood aged and mixed culture beers, and taking a medal this year for Gregg, their saison, I couldn’t be more proud of what these folks have accomplished. And their brewer Paul Schneider is a personal friend of mine and we both fell into beer around the same time in Chicago going to bottle shares and tagging along at breweries until we could get our foot in the door. Of all the brewers who we worked with for our Uppers & Downers festival, no one took the assignment more seriously than Paul did when he was brewing at Solemn Oath in Naperville, Illinois. He’s probably made more coffee beers than any other brewer on the planet.

Expertise is an easy thing to pin down … or is it? There’s the oft-cited 10,000 hours that it takes to become an expert. Or there’s a dictionary we could pull from a book shelf or mobile device to look up a definition. Or maybe we just know it when we see it in action. There are all sorts of experts who share all sorts of expertise with the world, and whether they know it, like it, or claim it, it’s inspiring. We could turn to Google any time we want, but there’s something special—and perhaps necessarily human—about not relying on a manual or book and finding expertise from another person. In this conversation, we hear from Sarah Flora, a homebrewer with a large following across social media and YouTube, an award-winning podcast, and by all means, an expert. She connects people across the globe with tips and insights on the homebrewing process, beer reviews, and light-hearted reflections on what it means to exist in the beer and homebrewing worlds. Throughout this chat, we connect these things to how Sarah approaches educating herself and others, the value of taking risks, and why it’s valuable to have loved ones giving you a little push when you need it. Sarah was part of Good Beer Hunting’s 2021 Signifiers—an annual collection of people GBH celebrates who shape the future of the beer industry. It’s Sarah’s expertise that puts her in that position, and a drive to learn and improve that will help you understand the “how” and “why” she inspires others. The thousands of interactions Sarah gets on Instagram posts or YouTube videos every week are basic measurements of her impact, but as you learn more about her as a person as we talk, you’ll likely find an even greater appreciation for how she uses her skills to make being an expert delightfully human.

Sometimes, we can make the mistake of thinking history only applies to things that happened long ago. But as Wisconsin-based beer historian and writer John Harry reminds us, events that happened in our lifetime can still resonate and help inform our collective understanding of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. In his piece titled “Racism in a Can’ — How One Beer Epitomized the Native American Struggle for Treaty Rights,” which was published on April 14, 2022, John describes how one beer, which was inspired as a fundraiser for a white supremacist initiative against Native American rights, changed Wisconsin forever. That beer, known as Treaty Beer, ultimately lost money and steam, but the stain of its racist agenda is still felt in the area today. In fact, in our conversation, John reveals how hard it was to get anyone to speak with him for this story, how he came across Treaty Beer, and why he decided to research its place in regional history. We also talk about how in reality, cancel culture is actually just consequences and accountability, and why education is key to understanding fundamental human issues. John explains that despite a history of repeated oathbreaking by the United States government, especially towards its Indigenous population, any treaty made in good faith between two sovereign nations is just as legitimate as any other. Beer history is never just about the beer, and there’s plenty of work to be done to continue questioning, fighting, and improving.

Welcome to the first episode in our Next Germination series, produced in partnership with Guinness. For those of you that have been reading and listening to Good Beer Hunting for years, you know how important the underwriting we receive is. Alongside hundreds of paying subscribers, whom we call the Fervent Few, our underwriters enable us to pursue big, ambitious projects. And no one has been more supportive and continuously so than Guinness. Years of support has helped us build an unprecedented editorial team in beer. This team has claimed dozens of awards over the years, including the North American Guild of Beer Writers awards, which we won roughly half of all those awards last year. The Society of Professional Journalists award. And this past weekend, a James Beard award. All this momentum and continuity would not be possible—not even close—without the support of the folks at Guinness. And today marks yet another step in that collaborative journey with the Next Germination series. When we were scoping out the themes and ambitions for this two-year stretch of underwriting, nothing was more important to Guinness and our team than extending that long table of beer to include more people who have traditionally been marginalized from the industry and its culture, which is often prone to a monoculture. For a brand that’s known and loved around the world, in countries like Ireland the UK of course, but also Nigeria, the Caribbean, and the U.S. where they built their latest production facility and taproom in Baltimore, Guinness’ future is directly dependent on the growth of beer drinking audiences, and the increasingly diverse and equitable spaces and cultures that surround it. This series—called Next Germination—reflects our editorial team’s desire to continue our own mission of helping beer drinking audiences get smarter, more impassioned, and inspired about the world’s most popular drink. It’s a perfect alignment in both mission and ambition. So what exactly is the Next Germination? Well, we believe the beer world is so much more than its homogenous stereotypes. Today, a new and diverse generation of drinkers, change-makers, and doers is continuing to push for progress in every direction. Their aims are varied, but their shared emphasis on equity, community-building, and access has deep reverberations that go beyond the liquid in your glass. So together with Guinness, The Next Germination is a series of stories and podcasts that celebrates the people making beer brighter and broader—and transforming its future for the better. In this first episode, I’m talking to Beth Demmon, one of our best writers and hosts about her first piece that kicks off the series - called “Keeping Neurodiversity in Mind — How Two Groundbreaking Breweries are Making Beer Spaces More Accessible” We both rely on our limited experience as parents of neurodiverse children as a way in to appreciating and articulating the experience of neurodiverse beer drinkers, and how the industry has an emerging opportunity - especially in its hospitably sector - to broaden its approach to a wide array of audiences with specific needs that could help center them in the future of beer.  

Does the world really need another craft brewery? Honestly, no—but Daniel Muñoz and Jeremy Grinkey think the world just might need their brewery, which is coming very soon to the city of Orange in Orange County, California. It’s called Everywhere Beer, but they’re not just stopping at beer. The two co-founders, along with their partners Stefan Weber and Keith Pumilia, hope to create a space that’s comfortable, welcoming, and approachable for everyone in their community, something that unfortunately still remains a relative rarity across the craft beer industry. In today’s conversation, Jeremy, Daniel, and I discuss the future of Everywhere, but also their pasts. Listeners might know of Jeremy as the long-haired and long-bearded director of production at The Bruery, or as @Sour_Jesus on Instagram. Both of them are veterans of the wine industry as well as The Bruery, where their partners also worked before banding together to form Everywhere. What led four guys to leave The Bruery to start their own? As it turns out, lots of things, including a shared need to write their own legacies instead of perpetuating someone else’s; the search to find their own voices as artisans; a pandemic-inspired realization that our time on Earth is finite (so get busy living); and finally, a desire to expand representation in a mostly white culture. How do four dudes in Orange County plan to accomplish that? You’ll just have to keep listening. You’ll also hear about the ups and downs of finding their space, which beer styles and breweries inspire them, what consumers they hope to attract, which types of beers to expect (as well as beverages outside of beer, like wine, hard seltzer, and maybe even craft soda), and why they feel philanthropy is a crucial element to supporting their local community. The sky’s the limit: Or at least, their 20-tap system is. Everywhere Beer is tentatively slated to open in August 2022. Let’s hear about how they’re going to make that happen and where it will go from there.

Some people call it boring brown beer, but others think of it as liquid from heaven. In a love letter to what’s arguably the most British of beer styles, writer Anthony Gladman covers the history, meaning, and future of Best Bitter in his piece titled “Don’t Call It a Comeback — Taking Stock of Best Bitter’s Moment in the Spotlight,” which was published on April 6, 2022. In today’s conversation, Anthony and I talk about the early, uncertain days of the COVID-19 pandemic, which spurred a collective return to familiar flavors, with beer being no exception. He found that comfort in a can of Best Bitter, brewed collaboratively between Boxcar Brewery and Mills Brewing. Unbeknownst to him at the time, that beer ultimately led him down this path of exploration into what the Best Bitter actually is, where it comes from, and how it shapes the identities of brewers over generations, even in the face of inevitable evolution. The style is currently at a crossroads, one where allegiance to history and tradition is butting up against changing demographics and contemporary craft beer culture. But despite those changes, it’s still a beer style that means something to many, if not most, British drinkers. Today, you’ll hear about that shared experience, what makes a Best Bitter a Best Bitter, what Anthony loves about the easy-drinking style, and his musing on where tradition may be headed. Don’t let the name fool you—there’s a loving sweetness in the soul of every cask pour of Bitter.