Joining us for our first podcast in the New Year, is Todd Reinhardt, Brewer at Brü Daddy’s Brewing Company . We chat about the history of Brü Daddy’s, some medal-winning beer, their new entry into canning, and more. Todd also talks about his brewing history, from working his way into Two Rivers Brewing, then onto Free Will, before landing at Brü Daddy’s. In Happy Fun Time Games, we play a round of There’s Weird in My Beer, a game all about beers with bizarre ingredients. (Which is also available...
Jan 08, 2021•1 hr 35 min
It’s the most wonderful time of the worst year ever! What better way to celebrate the holiday season and the merciful end of 2020 than to drink and chat with some old friends. Joining us, in succession, for our Christmas episode this year are: Kevin Keller, who we first met through Hop Hedz Gear and has gone on to work for Evil Genius and found Prototype Brewing and Meadery . Next up is Mark Graves, currently at Cape May Brewing , we’ve followed Mark from Manayunk Brewing , to Flying Fish , and ...
Dec 25, 2020•2 hr 12 min
One of our favorite pandemic activities is getting goofy with our good friend Ethan Buckman, Co-Owner and Brewer at Stickman Brews . In this episode we chat about Stickman’s new experimental series, selling beer to go, supporting small businesses, and (mostly) random conversations that straddle the line between poignant and absurd. In Happy Fun Time, Wayne hosted a round of Bad Beer Reviews, the game all about the crazy things people write on BeerAdvocate.com. Also, we tried something new…look f...
Dec 11, 2020•2 hr 6 min
The last on-location podcast episode we recorded before the Coronavirus pandemic shutdown was at Stolen Sun Brewing in Exton, PA. Several months and wildly off-the-mark predictions later, Stolen Sun founder, Jonathan Zangwill returns to the podcast under very different, socially distanced circumstances. We discuss the expansion of the brewery, recent projects, dealing with COVID and more. In Happy Fun Time, Wayne hosted a round of There’s Weird in My Beer, all about brews featured in this year’s...
Nov 27, 2020•2 hr 18 min
Joining us this episode is Mike LaRosa, Director of Brewing Operations at New Trail Brewing in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Opened in April of 2018, New Trail has become one of the most talked about breweries in the state in its relatively short lifespan. Part of that success can be attributed to our guest, LaRosa’s long and impressive resume in the beer industry. We chat about this and what led him to New Trail, as well as distribution updates, collaborations, and – of course – how the brewery h...
Nov 13, 2020•1 hr 54 min
This episode we are joined by Ashleigh Carter, Head Brewer and Co-Owner at Bierstadt Lagerhaus , a traditional, lager-focused brewery in Denver, Colorado. Right up front, we discuss the “slow-pour pils” and why it’s worth waiting for your beer (a conversation we also had – with samples – back in Episode 173 at Victory Brewing ). We also talk about the appeal of lagers and the traditions of European and, specifically, German brewing. Other topics include glassware, distribution and control over p...
Oct 30, 2020•1 hr 42 min
We’re joined this episode by Jason Ufema, owner of Shy Bear Brewing in Lewistown, PA. With a focus on hospitality and creating a destination experience, Shy Bear features a full service kitchen, live music and events, and – of course – a long list of diverse and tasty brews. The brewery launched on St. Patty’s Day in 2018 and quickly became a favorite spot in the community. Our conversation ranged from Jason’s experience in hospitality, his family’s coffee business, staying afloat during COVID, ...
Oct 16, 2020•2 hr 12 min
This year, Sly Fox Brewing will be celebrating their 25th anniversary, and it’s been too long since we checked in with this staple of Pennsylvania beer. Returning after his appearance way back in episode 114 is Sales Director and member of the founding family, Peter Giannopoulos. Joining him are newcomers to the podcast Keith Maynard, Philadelphia Area Market Manager, and Sarah Jagiela, Marketing Manager. We talked about the upcoming anniversary, dealing with COVID, the revival of Reading Premiu...
Oct 02, 2020•1 hr 45 min
February 2020 was a time when Corona was just a beer, social distance meant cancelling your Friday plans to watch Netflix, masks were for surgeons, and Human Robot opened their doors in the former Saint Benjamin location in Philadelphia. Despite the subsequent slow-motion train-wreck apocalypse, the new brewery has managed to thrive with a solid offering of top class beers. We are joined this episode by two of the team behind Human Robot, Ken Correll and Chris Roller. Throughout a night of often...
Sep 18, 2020•1 hr 40 min
It’s hard to believe we’ve done 200 episodes of Beer Busters. One fateful day way back in the Spring of 2013, Dan and Steph sat down with a slapped together recording set up in Steph’s basement and nervously tried to talk about beer in an insightful and entertaining way. Soon Wayne joined and, before we knew it, we were travelling to breweries far and wide (relatively), recording on site at festivals and other events, and constantly being shocked that people not only listened to us, but took our...
Sep 04, 2020•2 hr 31 min
What had been scheduled long in advance as an on-site podcast recording for Pour Man’s second anniversary became, in the age of Corona, another socially distant podcast. That didn’t stop the fun, though. Sam and Ryan first appeared on Beer Busters when we were at Pour Man’s in Ephrata, PA for episode 164 , in which we had a pretty raucous evening. They return along with long-time partner, Mike King, to chat about the latest at the brewery, adding canning, expanding their offerings and distributi...
Aug 21, 2020•1 hr 42 min
No quarantine would be complete without getting a little Naked. For this socially distant episode we caught up with our old friend, but somehow first-time podcast guest, Hannah Gohde. Hannah recently joined Naked Brewing Company as their head brewer after years of brewing at Free Will . We talked about what brought Hannah to beer and - ultimately - to Naked Brewing, got some details of exciting new beverages on the way, and had a spirited discussion about inclusion and diversity in the craft bee...
Aug 07, 2020•2 hr 2 min
We kick off this episode by catching up with Ryan Ludwig, owner of Rebel Hive Meadery in Reading, PA. As we sip some of the fine honey wine, we chat about Rebel Hive’s new bottle shop in West Reading, mead slushies, taster packs, new varieties, and much more. Then we head into the meat of the episode with Dan Hershberg, owner of Workhorse Brewing in King of Prussia, PA with a tap room in Philadelphia. Workhorse brews have been a main stay for us keeping our sanity during quarantine with their ci...
Jul 24, 2020•2 hr 24 min
This episode we present a series of interviews around the Black is Beautiful Beer Collaboration Project. Over 900 breweries representing every state in the US and over 17 countries around the world have joined the effort to raise awareness for the injustices people of color face daily and raise funds for police brutality reform and legal defenses for those who have been wronged. We start off the episode with the man who started the project, Marcus Baskerville, Founder and Head Brewer at Weathere...
Jul 10, 2020•2 hr 9 min
We start this episode with a conversation with our old friend Dain Shirey from St. Boniface Craft Brewing about their latest venture, a new restaurant and bar in downtown Lititz, PA, Tied House . Then, it’s on to another socially distant episode with the founders of Pilger Ruh Brewing , brothers Tyler and Conlan Budwash. Still under construction, the new brewery is set to open in Pottsville, PA later this year or early next. The pair are also the brains behind the Schuylkill County Brew Fest , w...
Jun 26, 2020•1 hr 50 min
At the top of the show, we interview Nate Kresge from GK Visual , the Harrisburg production company behind Brewed in the Burg, Poured in PA , and now a new ongoing docu-series, Poured in PA: The Series . With a more in-depth focus on the stories of craft beer throughout Pennsylvania, the series is available on YouTube, and coming soon to Amazon Prime. It’s worth a watch, particularly episode 5, which features a few of your favorite podcasters. Then we dive into the main episode…While many small ...
Jun 12, 2020•2 hr 5 min
Given the recent protests that have arisen in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement, we have decided to make an effort to use our platform to support the black community by stepping away from the microphones and sharing our space with the voices of that community. This episode, we present audio from a livestream by Dennis Guy, Co-Founder and CEO of First Sip Brew Box. As a black business owner and veteran, Dennis shares his thoughts on the current movement with a ...
Jun 05, 2020•1 hr 16 min
Quarantine continues, we’re all stuck at home, but the podcast must go on! Since we’ve started this series of socially distant episodes, we’ve made a point to have guests on that we know well, really get along with, and that we can count on to keep us laughing. Few people fit those requirements quite as well as Ethan Buckman, co-founder of Stickman Brews . Unfortunately, our field-promoted, honorary fourth Beer Busters, Kevin Keller, couldn’t join us for this one. But, we soldier on and engage i...
May 22, 2020•2 hr 14 min
Our socially distant series continues and we catch up with some old friends, John from Free Will Brewing and Brandalynn, who we first met at Zeroday Brewing and is now at Haymaker Meadery . Anyone who knows beer in Pennsylvania has heard of these two. John is a widely respected brewer who helped make Free Will one of the most popular breweries locally and beyond. Brandalynn has contributed to the alcohol industry in our home state in so many ways, wearing more hats than the Queen of England. In ...
May 08, 2020•2 hr 1 min
Because we still can't go anywhere, we've returned for another socially distant podcast! We were joined once again by our friend and beer industry guru, Kevin Keller. This time Wayne was unfortunately unable to join - he was away in the distant, magical land of West Philadelphia (where he was neither born nor raised). We moved things around a little bit...Steph delivered some uplifting beer news, and Dan led his own version of Happy Fun Time Games. We all drank various beers, and Kevin told us a...
Apr 24, 2020•1 hr 44 min
Welcome to our first podcast from the end of days! We couldn't think of anyone better to help us try to be silly in the current environment than our old pal, Kevin Keller. He's worn many hats in the local beer industry, but is venturing deeper with his new project, Prototype Brewery & Meadery . There was supposed to be a pretty rad event with several local breweries in attendance, but it's been postponed to make sure everyone involved can be as safe as possible. There was no news or Know You...
Apr 10, 2020•2 hr
This episode was recorded just before the pandemic roared into full swing, businesses like Stolen Sun were still operating mostly normally – but there was already unease. We brought sanitizer and disinfectant wipes to the recording, but we weren’t yet living in full-on quarantine mode. Obviously, the subject of Corona came up, though not immediately, and we tried not to talk about it at length. We did address the uncertainty small businesses were facing – an uncertainty that has, unfortunately, ...
Mar 28, 2020•2 hr 5 min
We return again for a night of rabble-rousing and spirited conversation to Naked Brewing in Huntingdon Valley, PA. Joining us are podcast alums Jim and Dave, as well as Beer Busters virgins Kevin and Shawn. With the sweet sounds of live music by Mojo & The Helper Monkeys wafting in the taproom, we discuss Naked’s upcoming second location in Bristol, their involvement with Pink Boots Society and the Bold Women & Beer Festival (spoiler: we’ll be podcasting there), tap room etiquette and mo...
Mar 13, 2020•2 hr 1 min
This was quite an epic night. It began with crowlers of helles and pilsner (nice) and ended with drunkenly driving farm equipment around the property (not that we condone such activity – we are professionals on a closed course). Warwick Farm Brewing is a “family owned and operated Brew Farm that produces high quality independent beer on a historic farm in Bucks County Pennsylvania.” It’s also a pretty cool place with some pretty awesome people, two of which – Ryan and Tim – sat down and shared s...
Feb 28, 2020•1 hr 43 min
Honestly, we could podcast here every episode. In fact, our guest and one of our favorite people in the beer industry, Ethan from Stickman Brews , has his own podcast. It’s called Bad Beer and High Prices and features Ethan and partners Jim and Kate. You should check it out. You should also listen to this episode of Beer Busters. Unfortunately, the rest of the crew were ailing and couldn’t join us. But, Ethan is more than enough for an episode chock full of honesty, ranting, and laughter. We dis...
Feb 14, 2020•2 hr 2 min
Our old friend Greg Orth, Master of Flavor, returns for the 7th year in a row for our annual Valentine’s Day-ish tradition. Over the years, Greg – founder of Craft Tastings – has lead us through a wide variety of beer and food pairings. We started with chocolate, then moved on to a much wider array of snacks from bacon to popcorn and beyond. This time around, we come back to chocolate but swap out the beer for whiskey! Greg has been experimenting with using whiskey for his specialty pairing even...
Jan 24, 2020•1 hr 35 min
After joining us for several years at Harrisburg Beer Week’s Little Big Beer Fests to promote his upcoming brewery, Brooks Hemauer finally gets his own dedicated podcast episode. Since Hemauer Brewing is not quite yet open, however, he was kind enough to make the trek to the Beer Busters Basement. We talk about how Brooks got into brewing, why he decided to open a brewery, what that brewery will look like, and a lot about digging holes. In Happy Fun Time, Wayne hosts another round of Libation or...
Jan 10, 2020•2 hr 1 min
With Nick Cox and Tim Kreider at Cox Brewing Company In this episode we take a trip to Rheems, PA to hit up the veteran owned and operated Cox Brewing to chat with owners Nick and Tim. We discuss their shiny new brewing system, expansion plans, connections to Rheems, and much more. Dan reports on the sale of New Belgium Brewing (which was fresh news when we recorded this). In Happy Fun Time, Wayne hosts a round of Bad Beer Reviews: Hazy Edition. And Steph talks about the process of backsweetenin...
Dec 27, 2019•1 hr 59 min
Another pod in our back yard in the City of Brotherly Love, we set up shop at Philadelphia’s Love City Brewing with owners Kevin and Melissa. We talk about the journey to opening the brewery, the history of the amazing building that houses it, the Philly brewing community, and more. Dan lead with the (now somewhat old) news about more craft brewery acquisitions. In Happy Fun Time, Wayne hosted a round of Libation or Fabrication: GABF Edition. (The punishment this time around was provided by one ...
Dec 13, 2019•1 hr 46 min
We return once again to our favorite hometown beerfest, Brewphoria 17 at Canal Street Pub and Restaurant in Reading, PA. This is our sixth year running as podcasters-in-residence for this amazing night of beer, music and food. It is the first time, however, that Steph was not with us. (She seems to be skipping all the fest episodes, her loss.) We welcome back some old friends, and meet some new ones, nestled in our corner booth at this historic and cozy establishment. As usual, the night was a b...
Nov 29, 2019•2 hr 3 min
