Good Beer Hunting

Good Beer Hunting
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Mar 7, 2020 • 58min

EP-258 Archie Gleason of Sycamore Brewing

When we talk about the evolution of breweries into “beverage companies,” that conversation has been dominated by some of the largest corporations in the world. MillerCoors literally changed its name at the start of this year to Molson Coors Beverage Company to reflect its evolving business model and the shifting attitudes and preferences of today’s drinkers. Anheuser-Busch InBev sells across beverage categories—both alcoholic and non—and even craft conglomerates like CANarchy or Artisanal Brewing Ventures are diversifying across cider, flavored malt beverages like hard seltzer, and more. But when it comes to a truly modern beverage company, there’s plenty happening among the littler businesses, too. And that’s what guides the conversation in this episode. We’re going to talk hard seltzer, of course, but also cider and beer, and how marketing and sales work with and against the tactic of keeping all those drinks under one umbrella. To learn about all this, we’re chatting with Archie Gleason, the vice president of sales for Sycamore Brewing in Charlotte, North Carolina. This company has been growing fast in recent years, and has become a staple in many Tar Heel State grocery stores, while expanding north and south into neighboring states. You may not know Sycamore, but you’re likely familiar with the ideas and themes that drive this company’s approach: namely, that drinkers are interested in a host of experiences, and it's the responsibility of a forward-thinking company to fulfill that need. That’s what’s led Sycamore to expand into other categories while never quite taking an eye off what got the company to this point: beer. Sycamore is one of the more successful breweries to have started in North Carolina in the past decade, but a commitment to change has set it up ideally for the near future. Archie and I are going to talk about sales and data, labeling and trends, and about how his decades in the beer industry keep him feeling comfortable—even in an uncertain period for beer. I hope one of this conversation’s key takeaways also resonates with you: that Archie and the Sycamore team’s experience is going to be repeated a lot in the coming years by all sorts of breweries-turned-beverage-companies, no matter how big or small, or where they may be found around the country. This is Archie Gleason of Sycamore Brewing. Listen in.
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Mar 5, 2020 • 9min

OL-008 Mark Spence Reads, "Scarlet & Cream" from Beer is Offal

This is GBH Out Loud, and I’m Ashley Rodriguez. Today, you’ll hear Mark Spence read the third entry of his blog, Beer is Offal, called “Scarlet & Cream” published on Good Beer Hunting on November 21, 2019. Something happens to you when you leave home. You might not notice it when you’re gone, but you definitely notice it when you come back. This is a story about that moment—when you realize you’re just a hair off from the folks around you, suddenly sitting in how alien you feel compared to your friends and family. Such situations ask a fundamental question: “Have I changed for the better, or have I lost a part of me I can never get back?” Listen to Mark grapple with that question in this emotive piece. This is Mark Spence reading an entry of his blog, Beer is Offal, called “Scarlet & Cream.” Listen in.
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Feb 29, 2020 • 42min

EP-257 Morten Bruun and Tore Gynther of To Øl

This episode’s interview was conducted at BRUS, a brewpub and restaurant in Copenhagen’s trendy Nørrebro district. It’s owned by the itinerant brewing company To Øl, which is perhaps best known for its unusual recipes, pun-based beer names, and often-inscrutable labels. That approach has kept the brewery growing for 10 years. The flexibility of nomadic brewing allows them to respond quickly to trends, and has helped To Øl become one of the darlings of the “cuckoo” brewing movement. Which makes the moment they are in right now all the more interesting. Today’s chat with owners Morten Bruun and Tore Gynther veers off in all kinds of directions, but the main thrust of it is that To Øl’s business model has just taken a complete U-turn. After nearly a decade of contracting out all except their brewpub releases, the owners are bringing all their production in house at a new location, To Øl City. I’ll let them fill in the details, but suffice it to say it’s an ambitious project that aims to pull together artisans from all kinds of industries on one enormous site. We talk about that decision, and how the older nomadic brewers are now settling down. It seems the reason is exactly what you’d expect—to have a closer connection with the beer they put out into the world. But it also goes a lot deeper than that. This is Morten Bruun and Tore Gynther of To Øl. Listen in.
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Feb 28, 2020 • 30min

CL-046 Mark Spence Owns His Feelings

I probably sit with our blog, Beer is Offal, more than anything I interact with on Good Beer Hunting. Not only is it something we produce totally in house—all the artwork comes through us and it’s written by a member of the GBH team, Mark Spence—but it’s also the only series we’ve captured entirely on audio. Mark has read every single one of his blog entries on our Out Loud series, where we record our favorite stories for our audience, and there’s a reason for that—Beer is Offal is special. Beer is Offal is a food blog. That’s a simple way to put it. But that doesn’t capture all of it. It’s full of feelings, rants, brutal honesty, sometimes curveballs, and always this feeling of authenticity that I think is really interesting in the context of food writing. As Mark and I discuss in this episode, Beer is Offal is deeply personal—you get to know a lot about him pretty quickly—but it differs from most food writing in that it’s not a series of recipes, it’s not about someone trying to learn a new cuisine or venturing into traditions and styles of cooking that aren’t part of their background. It stays so close to the chest, and in that way, the lessons and ideas Mark talks about become wonderfully universal and relatable. It’s sort of remarkable how he makes that happen. I sat down with Mark and talked about what it means to write about things happening to you right now—in real time. Beer is Offal isn’t just a collection of lessons learned, but is very much about things going on in Mark’s life, and his attempts to slowly acknowledge and work through them. Mark is admittedly not a very “emotional” person—as he says himself, he’s much more likely to be the guy in the corner of the room sticking close to his friends. So what does it take for someone like him to put all his stuff out there? How does he transform into, as he calls it, “a food and feelings writer?” Let’s find out. Here’s Mark Spence. Listen in.
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Feb 23, 2020 • 1h

Uppers & Downers Preview Party 2020

As many of you know, we’re in the midst of Uppers & Downers week here in Chicago, celebrating more than five years of our coffee and beer culture collaboration between myself, Michael Kiser, and world barista champion Stephen Morrissey. This year’s festival promises to be our best yet, with about 25 different coffee beer collaborations, a dozen different roasters pulling their best espresso shots from all over the country and showcasing the breadth of their lineup beyond espresso. So yes, you’ll have incredible espresso brewed on our professional consumer machines courtesy of La Marzocco Home, but each of our dozen roasters has been invited to prepare any drink they want – brewed coffee, cold brew, nitro, cortado’s, romano’s, etc. We’re also working with the folks at Cruz Blanca, Guinness, Goose Island, and Powers Whiskey to produce Case Studies, a series of tasting experiences where brewers and roasters work together to push the boundaries of what possible. Every year, our Case Study partners come up with wild and exciting ideas, sensory explorations that bring you beyond just beer and coffee. When we think these folks can’t do anything more, they continue to raise the bar. To give you an idea of what’s in store this weekend, here’s a sneak peek episode. You can learn more here.
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Feb 20, 2020 • 39min

CL-045 Breandán Kearney Can Sniff Out a Lie

I first met Breandán Kearney in 2015, when he swept the board at the British Guild of Beer Writers Awards. I, like quite a few people in the room, had no idea who he was at the time, but I only had to read a few of his articles to see what a brilliant writer he is. And you’d have to be brilliant to tackle the article we talk about in today’s podcast.  Breandán Kearney's latest piece for Good Beer Hunting is titled, “Flying With Clipped Wings — West Kerry Brewery, County Kerry, Ireland.” It tells the heartbreaking story of a brewpub on the Irish coast. Few beer articles have two deaths in their opening paragraphs, but even fewer manage to tell such an uplifting story of personal grit, and success against the odds.  The piece also serves as a wonderful insight into the small world of Irish brewing and the people who have slowly turned the country into an exciting, modern brewing nation. I start by asking how Breandán came across the brewery, before delving into what it’s like to research such a difficult, emotional story. This is Breandán Kearney. Listen in.
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Feb 15, 2020 • 1h 9min

EP-256 Joe Vogelbacher, Sugar Creek Brewing Company

What does it mean to be a “master”? More important: what does it take to actually feel that way? In this episode, we’re talking with the 19th Master Cicerone in the world, Joe Vogelbacher. Joe is the CEO and co-founder of Charlotte, North Carolina’s Sugar Creek Brewing Company, and in 2019, he was the only person to pass what is arguably the hardest educational test in beer. His rank of Master Cicerone is the equivalent of wine’s Master Sommelier—he’s studied practically every aspect of beer and beer service, passing a test that has a fail rate of about 90%. If you listened to Good Beer Hunting’s conversation with Ray Daniels, founder of Cicerone, you already have a good primer of what the program is. In this chat with Joe, you get greater insight into what it can be on personal, professional, and even magical levels. Working toward—and passing—the Master Cicerone exam has changed Joe and his brewery, and you’ll hear him open up about the tangible ways he’s noticed these differences. You are also bound to hear some unfamiliar words and science, as Joe casually rattles off aspects of all he’s learned. Sticking with this one is fun, too, as Joe walks us through his tasting process, giving a play-by-play of what it means to study a beer. It’s a benefit and a burden in some ways, as just sitting back to enjoy a beer takes on a different meaning after years of study. This is Joe Vogelbacher of Sugar Creek Brewing Company. Listen in.
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Feb 13, 2020 • 48min

FF-027 Jim Plachy is up and down on hard seltzer, marshmallow hard seltzer, and coffee hard seltzer

Welcome to another Fervent Few episode of the Good Beer Hunting podcast where myself, Jim Plachy, and GBH’s strategic director, Michael Kiser, catch up. We’ll talk about the topics and discussions that took place in our membership community in the last couple weeks. Our 500 or so subscribers are scattered all over the world. Sometimes we meet up with them when we’re on the road, or they hang out with each other, but it all comes together in our community forum on Slack. If you value the content and experiences that GBH produces, you should join. Your monthly subscription gets you access to the community, special events, and exclusive gear deigned just for members. I joined, and now I manage it all. Plus, it’s my favorite place on the Beer Internet. Visit goodbeerhunting.com/ferventfew to strike up a conversation in beer.
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Feb 8, 2020 • 1h 15min

EP-255 Ray Daniels, Founder, Cicerone

About a month ago, an annual tradition took place: the announcement of the new Master Cicerones.  It’s an exciting and heartbreaking time for many folks who put in months and even years of studying and training to pass one of the most difficult, esoteric, and unpredictable certification exams in all of food and beverage.  Another part of that annual tradition, at least in the past couple years, is the ensuing debate on #beertwitter about the value of the certification, and the relevance of the things it tests for. There are some perfectly valid questions asked about the program—we know this because the program itself has evolved over time. But there are also some really wild ideas that get tossed around that seem to be rooted more in our iconoclastic, anti-expertise culture than anything else. Many question the value of a professional development track rooted in knowledge rather than experience, as if the two are somehow separable. In short, some people just want to see the Cicerone world burn.  So we did what we tend to do in these situations, and decided to help the world get to know the person and the intent behind the thing.  Ray Daniels is the founder of the Cicerone program, and before that he held a number of unique roles at the Brewers Association. And before that he was a marketer and public relations professional, author, and almost, almost, started a brewery in Chicago with one of the city’s other luminaries, Randy Mosher. I, for one, love imagining what a brewery started by Ray Daniels and Randy Mosher in the late ’90s or early aughts would be like in 2020. It’d probably be just as anachronistic as it was relevant. Which is kind of what we get with Cicerone.  We’re going to chart Ray’s journey, look at how Cicerone has evolved over the years, examine who it’s for and who it’s not, and discuss how it maintains relevance in an industry with about 10,000 more breweries than when it started.
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Feb 6, 2020 • 34min

SL-018 Brewery RTDs: WTF?

At a time when hard seltzers are the hottest beverage alcohol around—and spirits are slowly chipping away at servings once strongly held by beer—what’s a brewery to do? Businesses across the country have spent the past two years diversifying what used to be beer-only portfolios to best address the changing attitudes and tastes of drinkers. That’s recently led to a wave of American breweries entering an emerging space of RTDs—or “ready-to-drink” beverages. If you’re a regular at a grocery store like Whole Foods, you’ve likely seen non-alcoholic versions of these products—something like a skinny can of High Brew Coffee—which are part of one of the fastest-growing segments in food and beverage. When it comes to boozy versions of RTDs, the U.S. market is most commonly seeing new category additions in the form of canned cocktails. These RTDs are exactly what you’d imagine: 12oz, toned-down versions of popular mixed drinks like Dark 'N' Stormys, Gin & Tonics, and other simple cocktails you might order at a bar. The alcohol strength is never as intense as what you’d find during a night out, with these packaged versions typically ranging in ABV from 5% up to 9% or so—not much beyond what drinkers would expect from a favorite Pale Ale or IPA. What we’ve ended up with is an ideal combination of factors that should be helpful to breweries seeking new customers, or looking to entice current ones to stick within their portfolios. When people are drinking different kinds of alcoholic beverages in more ways than ever, the chance to combine aspects of brewing knowledge and opportunity has opened up additional streams of revenue for companies facing the fiercest competition they’ve ever had. This is the Sightlines podcast. Listen in.

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