Good Beer Hunting

What the hell is going in Maryland and Texas? You may have caught a bunch of coverage of these two states on GBH over the past year. Their state politicians are creating—depending on who you ask—all sorts of good, bad, and ugly situations for their respective craft beer industries. In Maryland, infighting about how beer is sold and regulated has led to the legislature’s attempts to strip oversight from comptroller Peter Franchot, who has led efforts to boost the state's craft-beer economy and earned enemies along the way. In Texas, it's a similar story, where wholesalers and lobbyists have long thumbed their noses at small beer producers. Despite a recent breakthrough that could finally allow breweries to sell beer to-go from their taprooms, there are still shenanigans to work through as some wholesalers clap back. For this episode of the Good Beer Hunting Sightlines podcast, we're checking in on the latest from these two states. First, with Liz Murphy, a reporter and columnist who writes about Maryland beer for the Annapolis Capital Gazette, then with Josh Hare, founder and president of Austin's Hops & Grain Brewing, as well as board chairman of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild. Both will offer some insight into the quirky bitterness and political games at play. What the hell is going on? Listen in. [Editor’s note: the Maryland portion of this podcast begins at 1:28, and the Texas portion begins at 30:50.]

In the past year, there’s been plenty of talk in the industry about how cannabis is going to impact drinking trends. There’s been close attention paid to states in the U.S. where marijuana has become legalized and its potential connection to declining alcohol consumption, which was on the downward slide anyway. But that’s not why we’re here today. In this episode of the GBH Collective, we are talking THC and CBD, but plenty of beer and food, too. As part of our special series of interviews to dive deeper with Good Beer Hunting contributors and friends on topics of writing, beer and the stories you read and hear from GBH, we’re chatting with Jesse Friedman. As something of a serial entrepreneur, he’s started a number of personal and professional enterprises, although you may know him best as a co-founder of Almanac Beer Company, and more recently Fava, a Los Angeles-based creative consulting and events company that focuses on the food and beverage space. If you’re an avid Good Beer Hunting reader, you may also know him for an award-winning piece he wrote about food and beer in 2017, and his newest story, in which he explores food, beer, and cannabis in Alaska. All these interests and areas of expertise come together in this interview, where we talk about how he approaches his writing, especially when covering a nascent and somewhat taboo topic in marijuana. This is Jesse Friedman, entrepreneur, brewer, and foodie. Listen in.

Pressure Drop may have been founded during the early days of London’s brewing renaissance, but its trajectory has been very different to many of its compatriots.  While other UK breweries of the same age—the likes of Beavertown, Five Points, and Fourpure—expanded rapidly, putting together sales teams, attending trade shows and contract brewing overseas to hit demand, Pressure Drop’s founders have chosen to grow slowly and organically even when the opportunity to explode seemed in reach. Back in 2013 their flagship beer, Pale Fire, was probably the most sought-after Pale Ale in London and way ahead of its time. Even though the recipe changed frequently, its reliably soft wheat body, haze, and juicy aroma was unlike anything else on the bar, a precursor of what would become the New England craze. It was so talked about that some people thought Pale Fire was the the name of a brewery, not a beer. It still amazes me that some of the seminal Pale Fire I drank back then was made on a 50L homebrew kit in a shed in Hackney. Even in 2016 they were still brewing on a five-barrel brewhouse down a dingy side road in East London. At this site they were only able to dedicate around 30% of their volume to the more idiosyncratic beers that had got them excited about brewing in the first place—beers like their Wugang Chops the Tree, their foraged-herb Hefeweiss and Nanban Kampai, a yuzu wheat IPA.  I met Ben Freeman and Graham O’Brien at the Experiment, a taproom they opened in that archway after moving the brewery out. A much bigger expansion in 2016 has given them more tank space to play around, leading to a belated move into true New England brewing and canning, as well as putting them next door to Beavertown, where the brewery stands proud as a symbol of their different way of doing things.

What moves you? What is it that motivates your actions, beliefs, hopes, and dreams? There are all sorts of personal and professional ways to answer these questions, and sometimes we’re lucky enough to have them intertwined. More than two decades ago, Eric Salazar helped to establish one of the most influential barrel programs in the world at New Belgium in Colorado. Its impact continues to resonate today, but with hope to push himself in new and exciting ways, Eric is starting all over again. This time, in Upstate New York. Since the start of the New Year, Eric moved from Colorado to Rochester, where he’s in early stages of planning to create and curate a barrel program for Other Half Brewing. Going from one renowned brewery to another makes sense for a person of his tenure and expertise, but like other industry peers, he’s taking this opportunity to start anew to refocus on the details that build something special from the start, this time around with a world of knowledge and experience.  What that will be isn’t entirely clear, but Eric’s interest in local agriculture and new relationships promises to offer something exciting. And probably tasty, too. If you’re a beer enthusiast, you’ve likely heard—and maybe even enjoyed—the hazy IPAs that have made Other Half so beloved around the world. Now it’s time to meet the guy who’s going to change your perception of what that business is capable of. This is Eric Salazar of Other Half Brewing. Listen in.

What’s the right way to have sex with a dolphin? I’m sure you didn’t expect that question to be posted on a beer-focused interview show, but here we are. It’s a fun benefit—if you dare call it that—of chatting with this episode’s guest. Matt Saincome doesn’t write about beer. He doesn’t actually drink it, either. But as founder and editor-in-chief of the satirical website The Hard Times, he does offer a unique perspective on writing and storytelling. And that’s why he’s a guest on the GBH Collective, which gives us the opportunity to dig a little deeper with fellow media members, even if their topic of choice is comedy and not IPAs. Matt has a background in traditional journalism, but it was a serendipitous assignment to write about a man who wrote a book about intercourse with an aquatic mammal that reset his career expectations. You’ll hear all about it in this conversation, as well as our attempts to dissect the idea of truth in reporting and comedy, and what makes for creating a successful website when there are print, digital, and TV outlets all competing in satirical space. We live in a time when moments of levity can sometimes feel hard to find, and the way Matt and his team use humor to force internal reflection and laughs is something we can all appreciate. To be up front, this conversation isn’t about beer, but it is about one person’s journey to create something unique and special, which we all endeavor to do in one way or another.  This is Matt Saincome, founder, editor-in-chief, and straight edge punk rocker of The Hard Times. Listen in...

Today’s guest are an unlikely due of a documentary film maker and a master cicerone. Doug Tivola is the director of Brewmaster - a documentary that tries to weave together the varied and often dissociated threads in the beer world - like big and small, amateur and pro, nostalgic and new wave —and the results are at times flattering to the beer industry and at time a bit embarrassing to have reflected back. At times both overly simple and complex, naive and incisive. If a documentary serves as a mirror, then this one is perhaps a funhouse mirror that makes us all a little uncomfortable for different reasons. Alongside him in this interview is one of the documentaries primary characters - Brian Reid - a master cicerone who works for MillerCoors as an educator. The film tracks his journey into failure as he attempts to be one of the dozen or so folks in the wold to achieve master status - which after the shooting of the film he actually does go on to accomplish. MillerCoors was a sponsor of the film - which began as a sort of ode to Pilsner - specifically Pilsner Urquell. But as the shooting and storytelling commenced, Tivola kept chasing down other storylines - so the results get pretty far from the original intent and capture a collage of sorts - featuring moments with Urquell’s Vaclav Berka, Brooklyn Brewery’s Garret Oliver, Chicago’s Randy Mosher and Cicerone’s Ray Daniels, Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione, among other sort of founding fathers of the craft beer narrative we’ve heard form so often. And that is maybe my biggest critique of the film - and full disclosure, I appear in the documentary for a few moments myself - but the talking heads in this story are perhaps a bit predictable and lack the diversity of opinions and experiences from the wider set of folks that work in and help shape the craft brewing world today. So the documentary is perhaps already a bit of a time capsule that way. But Brian’s story in the film is the one I enjoyed the most, largely because it was real struggle, playing out in front of the audience in real-time. It wasn’t someone reminiscing about the glory days with a marketing narrative - in fact, most of what Brian goes through in this film objectively sucks. It’s brutal. And the film doesn’t capture much int he way of success - as I mentioned, obtaining the level of master happens after the film concludes - so it’s a great portrait of how difficult and unrewarding working on beer can often be despite all the hard work that goes in to it. And for that reason - I think having these two together for the interview is the best way to chat about the film.

This episode is a two-parter devoted to the intersection of taprooms and retailers as they increasingly find themselves in competition with each other for the limited number of customers and dollars available in their markets for craft beer. There are a number of factors that have made taprooms a newly competitive aspect of the three-tier system—or what’s left of it in some cases. Laws have been changing, the consumer experience is shifting, OG beer bars are feeling the squeeze from every bar and restaurant seemingly carrying craft beer now, and larger trends like at-home consumption, bottle shares, trading circuits, and beer tourism. It’s hard out there for a retailer right now, and it’s kind of becoming taprooms versus everybody. The purpose of this two-part series was to dig into that tension and determine if there’s a concrete principle at play, or if, like most things in craft beer, it’s more of a loose relationship-based thing where some competition is welcome, and some isn’t. Most of all: how are we going to be thinking about all this in the future? Because I think we can all agree that competition that works in the drinker’s favor is generally a good thing, but if we start losing great bars in the process, then maybe we’re not all getting what we want in the end. Solemn Oath Brewery in Naperville, Illinois is the catalyst behind these episodes. As a small production brewery making right about 8,000 barrels, with an expanded taproom and a new one opening in the city of Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, they were starting to feel the pushback from some key retail accounts who see them as competition. So they took the bold step of reaching out, inviting those accounts to brew a beer called Taproom Exclusive, and serving it anywhere but. They asked us to come along and lead a discussion around how we can maybe sort all this out productively and gain some perspective. Bavarian Lodge and Hopleaf joined in—both accounts that have carried Solemn Oath over the years, but who have been vocal about how they don’t like where things are heading. Kudos to everyone for being willing to come the the table—both figuratively and quite literally—over a beer and dig into the issue. This episode is recorded at the Bavarian Lodge in Naperville, Illinois, and I’m joined by: Alan Taylor, owner of the Bavarian Lodge John Barley, co-founder of Solemn Oath Brewery Dave Hawley, owner of the Beer Cellar, a bottle shop and taproom Dakota Defever, Minor Threat Restaurant Group in nearby Plainfield, Illinois This is Taprooms Vs. Everybody, Pt. 2. Listen in.

This episode is a two-parter devoted to the intersection of taprooms and retailers as they increasingly find themselves in competition with each other for the limited number of customers and dollars available in their markets for craft beer. There are a number of factors that have made taprooms a newly competitive aspect of the three-tier system—or what’s left of it in some cases. Laws have been changing, the consumer experience is shifting, OG beer bars are feeling the squeeze from every bar and restaurant seemingly carrying craft beer now, and larger trends like at-home consumption, bottle shares, trading circuits, and beer tourism. It’s hard out there for a retailer right now, and it’s kind of becoming taprooms versus everybody. The purpose of this two-part series was to dig into that tension and determine if there’s a concrete principle at play, or if, like most things in craft beer, it’s more of a loose relationship-based thing where some competition is welcome, and some isn’t. Most of all: how are we going to be thinking about all this in the future? Because I think we can all agree that competition that works in the drinker’s favor is generally a good thing, but if we start losing great bars in the process, then maybe we’re not all getting what we want in the end. Solemn Oath Brewery in Naperville, Illinois is the catalyst behind these episodes. As a small production brewery making right about 8,000 barrels, with an expanded taproom and a new one opening in the city of Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, they were starting to feel the pushback from some key retail accounts who see them as competition. So they took the bold step of reaching out, inviting those accounts to brew a beer called Taproom Exclusive, and serving it anywhere but. They asked us to come along and lead a discussion around how we can maybe sort all this out productively and gain some perspective. Bavarian Lodge and Hopleaf joined in—both accounts that have carried Solemn Oath over the years, but who have been vocal about how they don’t like where things are heading. Kudos to everyone for being willing to come the the table—both figuratively and quite literally—over a beer and dig into the issue. This episode is recorded at the Hopleaf, and I’m joined by: Michael Roper, proprietor of Hopleaf Peter Rock-Tiernes of Middlebrow, who just owned a taproom in Logan Square Jay Jankowski of Maproom, just down the street from Middlebrow and Solmenn Oath’s future second taproom Eric Hobbs, sales director at Solemn Oath This is Taprooms Vs. Everybody, Pt. 1. Listen in.

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.

Moksa Brewing Company in Rocklin, California sold out the slots for their brewery club program in 2017. What’s particularly notable about that? They hadn’t yet served a single drop of beer. When drinkers discuss breweries like Moksa, there’s a label to which fans often turn that fits snugly within the cultural zeitgeist of American craft beer: hype. That dubious h-word is not a term head brewer Derek Gallanosa likes, though Moksa’s proliferating fans have nevertheless helped to establish the new brewery as one of California’s most exciting. Just recently, Moksa was named by RateBeer as the best new brewery in the state. What makes a hype brewery? Price point? Scarce supply? Novelty? Or is it just plain skill? For Moksa, it’s all those things, plus a bit of networking and guerilla marketing. Sacramento is a rapidly evolving region, with young Bay Area expats fleeing high costs and others seeking new opportunities in the West. New crowds can represent a growing consumer base, but they can also hint at a forthcoming increase in competition. There are more breweries opening every day in Northern California’s Gold Country. Gallanosa and brewer Cory Meyer sprinted ahead of the pack early. Many come to their business park taproom from far abroad, seeking pours of their cult-loved high-ABV pastry stouts and hazy IPAs. But most are hometown fans stopping in after work. Moksa’s ethos is about catering to the locals above everyone. So what happens when their name too widely precedes them? This is Derek Gallanosa and Cory Meyer from Moksa Brewing Company in Rocklin, California. Listen in.