Good Beer Hunting

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 and talk about the topics ad 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. If you value the content and experiences that Good Beer Hunting produces, you should join. Your’s monthly subscriptions gets you access to the community, special events, and exclusive gear deigned just for members. I joined, and now I manage it all. And it’s my favorite place on the beer internet. Visit goodbeerhunting.com/ferventfew - and strike a conversation in beer.

Something that’s been on my mind a great deal of late, is where beer intersects with other cultures, particularly those also within food and beverage. You may commonly hear me bring up topics like natural wine, low-intervention cider, speciality coffee and more when talking about craft beer. And this is with good reason. For me, the most exciting things happening within beer are often happening at the points where these industries converge. Take our Uppers & Downers festival, for example. When I see a coffee enthusiast’s eyes light up because they’ve just tried a 3% Kvass that expresses flavours in beer they previously thought mightn’t have been possible, that gets me excited about the potential that lies within beer’s future. At the moment I am particularly interested in the point at which beer meets food and restaurant culture. This is partly due to my own increased interest in food and wine of late, and finding myself in a good restaurant more often than previously. Naturally, being a beer writer, while in these spaces my mind turns to beer when I occupy them. Why isn’t beer treated the same way on a wine list as the wine itself? How do we help this industry gain a greater understanding of how beer has evolved over the past decade and in turn, implement this evolution into this space? When it comes to talking about beer in restaurants, let’s just say there’s plenty to munch on. And this all brings me to today’s guest—Chef Tim Anderson—proprietor of a Japanese-inspired restaurant in Brixton, South London called Nanban. Anderson originally hails from Wisconsin and lived in both California and Japan before eventually settling down here in the U.K. He was a originally a home cook, but in 2011 he won that years Masterchef—a prime time cookery competition and TV show—which propelled him into the limelight. What’s particularly interesting about Anderson however, is that before he was a chef, he was and still is a passionate beer fan. Even while filming Masterchef he was making ends meet pulling pints in London craft beer spot, The Euston Tap. After winning he went on to brew collabs with Pressure Drop, The Wild Beer Co and BrewDog—he even designed a menu at one of the latters bars for a time, as we’ll learn in this episode. This all came to a head when Anderson eventually opened a restaurant of his own, called Nanban, here in London. At Nanban, Anderson specializes in what he calls “Japanese Soul Food.” You can expect steaming bowls of ramen, crunchy karaage fried chicken and even a burger which, somehow, fuses the Japanese-influenced house style with his Wisconsinite roots. What’s not so normal for a British restaurant though, is the beer selection. Here, along with an impressive list of Sake and Shochu, beer takes center stage—and in doing so, successfully demonstrates how beer can comfortably take its place at the dinner table—where other establishments have either not made a similar effort, or are simply unaware of how food-friendly beer has grown to become. A quick note about this episode. We recorded in between lunch and dinner service at Nanban itself, so you can expect a little background noise. I’m also joined by GBH’s Claire Bullen—who in addition to being one of the authors of our NAGBW award-winning food column, Provisions, is also a prolific cook herself, and has her first cookbook launching next spring. Keep a look out for that.

We’re going to do something a little different today. Over the past year or so, you’ve heard a small sub-series of interviews we’ve dubbed the GBH Collective episodes. These conversations with GBH colleagues have been meant to dive into their writing, background and interests and have been a bit free-flowing. They’ve been a great addition to the award-winning audio content we produce at Good Beer Hunting, and I’m excited to take the lead to bring you more of it. This episode is going to be something of a GBH Collective 2.0 as we work to make these talks a more common part of the podcast. These may be shorter than our weekly longform interviews, and will include voices of GBH contributors as well as other journalists and members of the media who think about beer. In this episode, I’m joined by Claire Bullen. She’s been on a GBH Collective episode before, but not under the circumstances of which we spoke recently. Claire has recently been recognized multiple times by the North American Guild of Beer Writers for her work at this year’s Guild awards. Full disclosure: I lead that group, but didn’t have any role in judging her work, so I do feel comfortable saying that her writing, and her unique voice, is something that excites me most about coverage of today’s beer industry. In this chat, we’ll talk a little about what it means to be a big deal — those are my words, not her modesty — and how writing about food impacts writing. I’m really excited to start bringing you more of these conversations so you can better know the great people behind the byline. Claire is a perfect place to start.

When the brut IPA, taglined as San Francisco’s newest beer style, began to hit internet headlines last spring, the reaction was polarizing. This new type of IPA, defined by its fruity hop aroma, effervescence, and dryness — provided by the addition of a type of amylase enzyme — was a respite from the yeasty hazebombs proliferating on beer lists around town. Immediately, some leery brewers publicly challenged its authenticity as a substyle. Others, interest piqued, sought to attempt their own versions after reaching out to its creator, Social Kitchen and Brewery’s Kim Sturdavant, for his methodology. And Kim was there to field those calls, emails and sometimes, Facebook messages, as they poured in. First, inquiries came from brewers just around the greater Bay Area. Then, brewers were contacting him from Southern California, and then the East Coast, and eventually Europe and South America. But Kim was known around the Bay Area long before the brut. A GABF winner drawn to easy-to-drink German- and English-style beers, he helped make Social Brewing not just a great neighborhood hangout, but a beer destination in the competitive Bay Area market. Social’s brewery arm is run by just a couple people. Kim, who heads it up, handles the paperwork and planning and oversees the brewing on the second story of the brewpub-restaurant in the Inner Sunset District of San Francisco, by Golden Gate Park. It’s here at Social where I meet Kim one afternoon in the late summer. It’s before the restaurant opens, so it’s much quieter than it usually is, as the restaurant staff prepare for their shifts.

I Can See Clearly Now — Chasing Beer Trends as a Means to an End Host: Jonny Garrett Panelists: Andy Parker (Elusive), Matt Brynildson (Firestone Walker), Alexandra Nowell (Three Weavers) At last years Extravaganza brewers clashed during the discussion of where the Hazy IPA fits within modern beer culture. In the year that’s passed, the style has gradually become a popular, almost common fixture within craft beer—even one of the panelists who denounced the style last year has been turned on to its charms. In addition to this, new IPA styles—such as Brut IPA—are beginning to turn heads. Should brewers continue to chase new trends in an effort to maintain relevance in the market? Or should they be seeking balance, and stability, as competition and other market pressures continue to increase apace.

Let’s Stick Together — The Value of Collaboration and Fostering Positive Relationships in Beer’s Modern Era Host: Matthew Curtis Guest Speakers: Dave Stone (Wylam), Steve Grae (Affinity), Brian Dickson (Northern Monk) What role do collaboration beers play in the modern beer market, and how does that differ—if at all—from what they meant before? We’ve come a long way since Brooklyn first collaborated with Schneider Weisse, which was the start of one of craft brewing biggest trends. But what are breweries now trying to accomplish through collaboration, how has that changed over time, and when does competition start to disrupt the convivial world of the collab?

Food for Thought — Where Does Beer & Restaurant Culture Intersect? Host: Claire Bullen Panelists: Jonny Hamilton (Beavertown), Travis Hixon (Blackberry Farm), Dan Nathan (Beef & Brew) Why have restaurants been so slow to recognize modern beer’s place at the table, and why do their beer menus lag so far behind wine menus? Who are the folks that are doing interesting things with beer in a hospitality context and how are breweries working alongside restaurants—from house beers to education/staff training and beyond? And what will restaurants beer offerings look like in five years' time?

Go Your Own Way — The Value of Independence vs. Investment Host: Michael Kiser Panelists: Logan Plant (Beavertown), Giovanni Campari (Birrificio del Ducato), Justin Hutton (Two Tribes) It’s been a turbulent month for the UK scene, as expanding breweries look for investment so as to further not only their own growth—but that of the industry itself. There are plenty of options available for breweries too, be that borrowing from banks, crowdfunding, private equity or taking investment from within the beer industry itself. The amount of investment coming into the craft beer market will only increase. In a market that values “independence” as a selling point, how do we balance this against that rising tide of investment?

The GBH Collective — How to Advance the Narrative Within Beer Writing Michael Kiser, Matthew Curtis, Claire Bullen & Jonny Garrett (Good Beer Hunting)

Quality Fermentation — Exploring Beer’s Place in the Realm of Wine & Cider Host: Michael Kiser Panelists: Lauren Limbach (New Belgium), James Rylance (Harbour), Jos Ruffell (Garage Project) At last years Symposium we discussed both sour beer as its own genre, and where terroir fits in within the world of beer. To take that discussion to its next logical step we need to examine sour, wild, mixed, spontaneously fermented or whatever-you-want-to-call-it beer, and its place alongside wine and cider. How do beverages at the pinnacle of modern fermentation stand together—and yet find ways of differentiating themselves from one another?