Good Beer Hunting

I’m Claire Bullen, and you’re listening to the Good Beer Hunting podcast. When I first met up with Helena Fitzgerald to record this podcast episode, the world was a different place. It was the third week of February, and Helena—a freelance writer based in New York, who has contributed to publications like The Atlantic, Hazlitt, Catapult, and Electric Literature—was visiting London on a long-term, self-imposed writing sabbatical. Helena and I met to discuss her first article for Good Beer Hunting, "Lived in Bars," which was published on January 8, 2020. If you haven't read it, it's a luminous personal essay about Helena's decision to step back from drinking. But more than that, it's a love letter to bars: from dive bars to high-end cocktail bars and everything in between. It touches on the whirlwind of the New York social world, the special accord that exists between patrons and bartenders, and the different ways of existing in these essential public spaces. Now, four months later, Helena's essay has taken on a stark new relevance as bars all over the world have been forced to shutter, and as so many of us have been locked down in our homes for weeks at a time. As we struggle to parse the etiquette of Zoom socializing and wonder how early is too early to crack that beer, we're also desperately missing bars and pubs and taprooms. It turns out—as Helena presciently wrote—that those spaces are about more than just the drinking that happens in them. They're our living rooms, our common spaces, the places where so much of our living gets done. And without them, so many of us feel at sea. Back when we recorded this, bars and pubs were still open. Helena and I opted to meet at the Southampton Arms, an atmospheric old pub near my apartment in North London that comes complete with piano, fireplace, and resident cat, and is one of my favorite in the city. We met on a quiet weekday afternoon, though you might hear some clinking and chatter in the background (hopefully the ambient pub sounds won't be too painfully nostalgic). This is Helena Fitzgerald. Listen in.

This is GBH Out Loud, and I’m Ashley Rodriguez. Today, you’ll hear Mark Spence read the sixth entry of his blog, Beer is Offal, called “Stage Three Anger,” published on Good Beer Hunting on February 21, 2020. There’s a shift in this entry of Beer is Offal. It’s an abrupt reminder that there is a person behind this blog, living this life in real-time. In this piece, Mark reflects on the death of his cousin, and the factors that contributed to his early death. This isn’t a collection of lessons learned, or a neat summary of an experience with a nicely-tied bow to punctuate it. It’s a journey in motion, a particular moment in Mark’s life where grief and fury mix. This is Mark Spence reading an entry of his blog, Beer is Offal, called “Stage Three Anger.” Listen in.

This is part two of a two-part feature from New York City Beer Week. This was recorded at The Well in Brooklyn, just a week or so before the city announced a state of emergency because of COVID-19. We’re now releasing these episodes in an entirely new context—keep that in mind as you listen. Many of the topics are timeless and will continue to be valuable long after this pandemic has passed and New York City comes back to life. This is our second year hosting these talks at The Well—and it’s a great opportunity to take stock of things as local NYC brewers, brewers from upstate, and some from far away all come together for an increasingly exciting series of events, special releases, and festivals for the week. This year, NYC Beer Week fell at the exact same time as GBH’s annual Uppers & Downers festival in February, so I wasn’t personally able to make the trip and host the panels. But I’m glad to say we got a couple of local hosts we greatly admire in my stead. The first session, which I hope you’ve already listened to, was hosted by Joshua Bernstein. This second session is hosted by Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery and author of the Oxford Companion to Beer—among many other accomplishments. Garrett is as iconic as any one figure in the beer world. I was lucky enough to interview him waaaaay back on Episode 53 of our podcast five years ago. He’s a great ambassador for the craft, but more than that, he’s a great inquisitor. He’s as easily enamored with a new trend as he is skeptical. And this makes him a wonderful person to have to host a panel discussion with a variety of opinions and perspectives. We were honored that he was willing to step into my role for the night. In this episode, he hosts a panel with friends from Threes Brewing in Brooklyn, Fox Farm in Connecticut, Hudson Valley from upstate, Transmitter from Brooklyn, and Sand City from Northport, New York. This our second recording from New York City Beer Week, hosted by Garrett Oliver. Listen in.

This is part one of a two-part feature from New York City Beer Week. This was recorded at The Well in Brooklyn, just a week or so before the city announced a state of emergency because of COVID-19. We’re now releasing these episodes in an entirely new context—keep that in mind as you listen. But many of the topics are timeless and will continue to be valuable long after this pandemic has passed and New York City comes back to life. This is our second year hosting these talks at The Well—and it’s a great opportunity to take stock of things as local NYC brewers, brewers from upstate, and some from far away all come together for an increasingly exciting series of events, special releases, and festivals for the week. This year, NYC Beer Week fell at the exact same time as GBH’s annual Uppers & Downers festival in February, so I wasn’t personally able to make the trip and host the panels. But I’m glad to say we got a couple of local hosts we greatly admire in my stead. The first session is hosted by the prolific and chatty Joshua Bernstein, an author that’s been published on Good Beer Hunting. He’s one of my personal favorite voices in beer—Josh is a phenomenal conversationalist and endlessly curious. He hosts a panel with friends from Civil Society in Florida, Interboro in Brooklyn, Dancing Gnomeout of Pittsburgh, Modist from Minneapolis, and Rockwell out of St. Louis. This our first recording from New York City Beer Week, hosted by Joshua Bernstein. Listen in.

Welcome to the Good Beer Hunting Collective podcast, the show where members of our team interview each other to get a behind-the-scenes look at some of our favorite articles. I’m Jonny Garrett, and I’m a staff writer for GBH. Today, I’m catching up with Anthony Gladman, a new writer at GBH. With the U.K. on lockdown, I thought this would be a great opportunity to transcend the physical distances and get some much-needed social interaction. The episode starts with a chat about how both are coping with the isolation—particularly now that Anthony is homeschooling his kids—before moving on to Anthony’s first full feature for GBH: a dive into the world of British cider called “Rebirth in England’s Orchards — Find & Foster Fine Cider in Devon, U.K.” Until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the British cider scene was gathering some momentum and press as both an off-shoot of the craft beer movement and a traditional part of Britain’s beverage heritage. Anthony and I discuss the unique conservational approach of Find & Foster, and whether the world of cider is better or worse placed to weather the current storm than beer. This is Anthony Gladman on the Good Beer Hunting Collective podcast. Listen in.

Living overseas can give you an interesting perspective on American beer culture. Although I’m originally from California, I’ve lived in the Czech Republic for almost 20 years now. While I miss many of the beers and breweries from back home, I really fell in love with Czech beer, dedicating a lot of my time to researching, writing about, and drinking it. In recent years I’ve been glad to see North American beer lovers develop much more interest in Czech beer. Since then, many U.S. and Canadian brewers have reached out to me with questions about recipes, equipment, and processes. I can tell that for a lot of people back home, Czech brewing is still rather weird and unknown, whether it’s the “black magic” of a triple-decoction mash, or the strange pours like the šnyt and mlíko, or our rarely spotted “yeast beer,” Kvasnicové Pivo. One of the standout U.S. brewers who actually gets Czech beer is Chris Lohring of Notch Brewing in Salem, Massachusetts. Chris came through Prague himself, in 2012, doing research on how Czech beers are brewed, served, and drunk. I met up with Chris during that trip, and so did my friend and colleague Max Bahnson, who writes under the name Pivní Filosof. Chris got to visit Czech breweries; drink Czech beers; and observe the Czech process, approach, and culture. Since then, Notch Brewing has emerged as one of the leading proponents of Czech-style beers in North America. Not only does Notch make a Czech-inspired Světlý Ležák, or Pale Lager (aka Pilsner), but it also makes Tmavé Pivo, or Dark Lager, and Polotmavé Pivo, which means “half-dark beer,” or Amber Lager. At the Notch taproom in Salem, those beers are served from a Czech side-pour (or side-pull) faucet, into a Czech dimpled, half-liter mug. My Czech friends who have visited the Notch taproom said it’s the closest thing to a Czech beer experience you can get in the U.S. In this episode, I catch up with Chris Lohring when on his return to Prague, along with Notch Brewing’s production manager, Brienne Allan. They were both on a trip that included several hands-on brew days at different Czech breweries. I wanted to ask Chris and Brienne about the differences between Czech beer culture and American beer culture, as well as the differences in Prague since Chris’ last visit seven-plus years ago. I wanted to find out what beer drinkers in the States understood about Czech beer, brewing, and how we drink, and I wanted to know if there were any common misconceptions. Our meeting takes place over a few beers in a busy Prague café around the corner from my apartment, so there’s a fair amount of background noise—sorry about that. It was recorded in mid-February, 2020, about three weeks before the coronavirus closed off the Czech Republic and made travel here impossible, at least for now. The observations about Czech brewing and beer drinking made by Chris and Brienne, however, feel pretty timeless. Here’s Chris Lohring and Brienne Allan of Notch Brewing in Salem. Listen in.

This is GBH Out Loud, and I’m Ashley Rodriguez. Today, you’ll hear Mark Spence read an entry of his blog, Beer is Offal, called “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner” published on Good Beer Hunting on January 16, 2020. What do love and chicken have to do with one another? You might not think a lot, but as Mark illustrates, what we love most about food—making new things, tweaking a recipe, making a small change and seeing new results—doesn’t always apply to the way we interact with others. The analogies and ties we find to our personal lives and the world around us—the way we cook, or the way we talk about food—are especially prescient in this piece, and at the end, you’ll probably be asking the same question Mark poses: “Jesus man, who hurt you?” This is Mark Spence reading an entry of his blog, Beer is Offal, called “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner.” Listen in.

Today’s guest comes to us from far northern Vermont. Eleanor is a cider maker, first known for her ice ciders, made using a process of distillation that profits from natural swings in seasonal temperatures to produce a concentrated, sweet, and acid-balanced cider. Ice cider is often thought of as a dessert wine in the U.S., but so easily replaces a bourbon or whiskey. In her region, just south of the Canadian border (and Quebec’s concentration of ice cider makers), Eleanor’s operation is a rare and special thing. But as climate change continues to alter seasonal norms, she’s becoming increasingly known for the wide range of specialty ciders she makes, some of which count among the best in the country. She’s an active proponent of the specialty cider category, working with others in the industry to help educate makers, drinkers, and people like me. As you’ll hear in this conversation, there is no shortage of challenges in the cider industry at the moment. But with people like Eleanor leading the way, it’s encouraging to see the progress being made. This is Eleanor Léger of Eden Specialty Ciders. Listen in.

Welcome to this special series of the GBH Collective podcast, where we’ll be checking in with members of our global team to keep you updated on unfolding events surrounding COVID-19. I’m Michael Kiser. Today's guests are special to me—both of them are media peers who I’ve often measured myself against. They’re also just delightful humans who are always accessible and open to inquiry. Over the years, they’ve helped me think about Good Beer Hunting’s business model, our audiences, and the ways in which we all develop our voices. As the world started turning upside down this past month, I wanted to check in with them to see how they were handling things—both personally and as part of a larger organization. How did they process the world-changing news? How did they work with their teams to adapt? And how do they expect to evolve going forward? These conversations go far beyond beer and media. First up in Eno Sarris of The Athletic. The Athletic is a phenomenon in the sports-writing world. It has a subscription-based readership, much like our own Fervent Few member community. And it serves as a platform for people who want both exceptional narratives and deep dives into data. In that way, it covers a spread much like GBH does. I first got to know Eno when he put his role at the FanGraphs and BeerGraphs sites on hiatus to join the October project we started with Conde Nast. After that, he went on to join The Athletic, and I’ve been glued to his progress ever since. Next, we’re going to talk to Peter Frost of Molson Coors. I knew Peter back when he was a reporter at Crain’s Chicago, one of our city's business magazines. Peter developed a keen interest in the beer industry while he was there, but his investigative reporting made him a key voice in Chicago business before he left to join what was then MillerCoors to launch their blog devoted to beer industry analysis and insights. This conversation immediately gets a reframe as he reminds us that, not only are they dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, but this is coming on the heels of a devastating mass shooting that happened on their campus just a few weeks prior. Honesty, I was stunned when he brought that up because as shocking as that was—this pandemic has made anything that happened before it feel like a lifetime ago. But for Peter and the Molson Coors team, it’s been a long, blurry timeline of tragedy. Both of these guys are holed up in their homes and were generous enough to share some time with me while still doing their jobs and taking care of their families. This is Eno Sarris of The Athletic and Peter Frost of Molson Coors. Listen in.

Producer’s Note: we're going to continue bringing you timeless stories and important interviews, some of which have newfound relevance because of COVID-19, and some that are explicitly unrelated. This episode you’re about to hear was recorded during San Francisco's Beer Week in February 2020, so the context is removed a bit from what’s happening in the world right now, but the information is still valuable, and we want to share it with you. Listen for an update at the end of the episode. How many times have you sat down at a nice restaurant and perused the drinks menu, only to find yourself thoroughly disappointed by the beer list? Ben Henning, a beer buyer for two Michelin-starred sister restaurants in San Francisco, makes it his life’s work to ensure that that never happens to his patrons. Henning works with State Bird Provisions and The Progress, two widely lauded neighboring restaurants in the city’s Fillmore District. You’ll often catch him on the floor working alongside waiters, discussing the restaurants’ robust beer offerings with guests, and espousing the merits of pairing beer with their many exceptional dishes. But Henning isn’t always successful at converting the wine drinkers. In the high-end restaurant game, convincing guests to consider beer over wine or spirits is always an uphill battle, even though Henning, a certified Cicerone with years of buying experience, is bringing in the best of the best. On any given day, State Bird and The Progress carry carefully selected, rare Lambics and farmhouse ales. On the day I arrive to speak with Henning, in the middle of San Francisco Beer Week, the restaurant is bustling ahead of its 4 p.m. opening. A line is forming outside of locals hoping to snag one of the few tables kept open for walk-ins. Management is readying for the opening of two new restaurants elsewhere in the city. Upstairs, staff is setting up for a private event, and just after Henning and I begin our conversation, we’re asked to relocate to another room—you’ll hear that break in the interview. Even within the chaos, Henning is cool-headed. Staying level in ever-changing circumstances is what his work is all about. This is Ben Henning of State Bird Provisions and The Progress. Listen in.