Our core writing team spends an inordinate amount of time every year talking to brewers, hop growers, maltsters, suppliers, distributors, publicans, and other leaders in the brewing industry. Our goal is to make sure we’re bringing you the very best in actionable insight in every story we write. In our critic’s lists every year, we share what gets us excited—brewers, beers, and anything that exemplifies the very best in creative and technical prowess. This episode captures that energy and though...
Nov 11, 2022•1 hr 54 min•Ep. 273
It’s that time again: Our blind review panelists and editors at Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® have tasted through thousands of beers, winnowing them down to what we believe are the very best. That yearlong process culminates in our annual Best in Beer issue (available now (https://beerandbrewing.com/profile/subscription/)), featuring your Readers’ Choice picks and our Best 20 Beers in 2022. In this special episode of the Craft Beer & Brewing Podcast, we share the results of our reader s...
Nov 08, 2022•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 272
Joe Grimm of Grimm Artisanal Ales (https://grimmales.com) would like to dispel some myths about hazy IPA. “No matter what some brewers say, hazy IPA is one of the hardest styles to make, because it’s never good enough. I’m never happy with the beer.” That never-satisfied attitude has driven the husband-and-wife brewing duo to explore different methods of making compelling hazy beer, from top-cropping yeast to employing a Brasserie de la Senne–inspired approach to tank geometry, and pushing their...
Nov 05, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 271
What do you get when Michael Tonsmiere, aka The Mad Fermentationist, and author of the book American Sour Beers joins forces with Scott Janish, author of The New IPA, to start a brewery in a Maryland suburb somewhere between Baltimore and Washington DC? Pretty much what you’d expect—a brewery that tends to focus on creative expressions in the pale ale and IPA space, as well as progressive approaches to wood-aged wild, funky, and sour beers. But Sapwood Cellars (https://sapwoodcellars.com) has do...
Oct 28, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 270
In this special GABF Gold edition of the podcast, Greg Winget of Wye Hill Brewing (https://wyehill.com) in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Alex Sarames of Deadwords Brewing (https://www.deadwords.com) in Orlando discuss their specific (and often unconventional) approaches to their respective gold medal–winning beers. Winget and Wye Hill won gold with Luminous Beings, a hazy pale ale that uses a variety of current techniques to maximize flavor expression. He discusses: brewing with 100 percent craft...
Oct 25, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 269
Garrett Ward of Sideward Brewing in Orlando, Florida loves to tinker and experiment with new hop formats, and whether it’s hazy and juicy IPAs or their fruit-forward-but-structured American iterations (often now fermented with lager yeast), he’s constantly searching for ways to use these concentrated hop products to boost flavor and intensity. In this episode, he discusses: Using hazy IPA technique with American IPAs, and vice versa Adding layers of hop flavors with classic “C” hops in combinati...
Oct 22, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 268
In this special episode of the podcast, we brought together segments with two brewers who both won gold medals at the recent Great American Beer Festival—Dustin Baker of Roadmap Brewing (https://www.roadmapbrewing.com) in San Antonio, Texas, and Adrian Garrett, head brewer of Precarious Beer Project (https://www.precariousbeer.com/home) in Williamsburg, Virginia. Baker of Roadmap discusses: adjusting the malt bill to build malt flavor in despite brewhouse limitations brewing award-winning pilsne...
Oct 19, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 267
When Barry Chan and his partner started Lucky Envelope (https://www.luckyenvelopebrewing.com), they were concerned with appearing “too Chinese.” The craft beer world at the time wasn’t ready for that, they thought; they wanted to fit in and not alienate their core clientele. Today, with a GABF medal under their belts in the Munich-style helles category, they’re more comfortable knowing they make classic styles in a compelling way. They’re also exploring more deeply how to connect their Chinese-A...
Oct 15, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 266
In this “Direct Fire” episode of the podcast, listeners pepper Firestone Walker's Matt Brynildson with questions across the brewing spectrum, including: The process behind blending recipes for collaborations Brewing into the "sweet spot" of most styles Choosing and implementing a lager mashing regimen How Firestone Walker employs low-oxygen methods in the brewhouse Key takeaways from Matt's time spent brewing in Belgium Strategies for selecting and optimizing hops Managing dry hop timing in hopp...
Oct 11, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 265
Golden’s Cannonball Creek (http://www.cannonballcreekbrewing.com) has won a GABF medal every year since they opened in 2013, and they’ve done so across a wide range of styles—from German-style pils to Belgian-style blonde, stout, and cream ale. But the thing they’re most passionate about, and have won the most medals for, is lower ABV hop-forward beers. Their American pale ale, Featherweight, and session IPA, Trump Hands, have together collected five GABF medals and three World Beer Cup medals (...
Oct 07, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 264
Brewers and hop growers are closer today than they ever have been before, but Bale Breaker (https://balebreaker.com)—in the Yakima valley town of Moxee—takes that proximity to a level rarely seen in beer. The brewery literally sits on the Loftus Ranch, in the middle of a hop field, with trellises and bines surrounding the production brewery and taproom. Trellises surround the taproom patio. Trellises stretch out from the parking lot. Hops are everywhere, so it’s no surprise that Bale Breaker foc...
Oct 01, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 263
The current hot market for hops that has persisted for about a decade now is a bit of a historical blip. From the 60’s through the 00’s, the hop market experienced structural decline as reduced demand for bittering hops and increased alpha acid levels and extraction methods hit growers from both sides. But the craft brewery acceleration around 2012 ushered in a new set of demands and opportunities for hop growers. In the ten years since, growers have planted roughly 18,000 new acres of hops in W...
Sep 24, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 262
HBC, the Hop Breeding Company, is responsible for developing some of the most compelling hop varieties in contemporary beer—Mosaic, Citra, Talus, and Sabro are just a few of the aroma hops that they’ve developed. But how does a new hop variety come into being, and what drives its development? In this episode, Jason Perrault of Yakima Chief Ranches and Michael Ferguson of John I. Haas, two leading hop breeders in Yakima Valley and the driving forces behind the two-pronged HBC program, talk about ...
Sep 21, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 261
Perhaps no brewery in the world is as dedicated to fresh-hopped beers as Single Hill (https://singlehillbrewing.com) in Yakima, Washington. Led by cofounder and head brewer Zach Turner, the Single Hill team leans into vibrantly hopped IPAs all year long—and their Mind Plant double IPA was first runner-up at last year’s Alpha King Challenge—but harvest time is when their strengths and expertise really get to shine. That’s when Turner shifts focus to fresh-hopped beers, driving to farms around the...
Sep 17, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 260
Anchorage Brewing’s (https://anchoragebrewing.company) Gabe Fletcher has been turning heads with barleywine since he brewed his first one 24 years ago, but that long-standing respect hasn’t dulled his sense of exploration. Today, he’s pushing limits with barrel aging by double- and triple-casking beers over long conditioning times. It takes a hardy beer to stand up to that much age, and Fletcher builds his barleywine to last. In this episode, taken from an interview earlier this year for a story...
Sep 15, 2022•55 min•Ep. 259
Tom Shellhammer’s research work in the brewing field has been crucial for helping brewers, as well as barley and hop growers, gain deeper understanding of brewing ingredients and how they actually work. As a food science professor at Oregon State University, he’s led critical studies, including a well-known study on hop creep. His latest project is a wide-ranging, multi-year study to understand the impact of terroir on hops, and the results of the first year of the study have just been released ...
Sep 02, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 258
West Coast pilsner is the subject of this month’s roundtable, and we’ve assembled a talented cast of brewers to further the discussion. From the Firestone Walker Propagator brewhouse in Venice, California, Sam Tierney returns to the podcast. Highland Park Brewery founder Bob Kunz joins from their location in Los Angeles. And from Santa Cruz, California’s Humble Sea Brewery, cofounder Nick Pavlina rounds out the panel. The topic is West Coast pilsner, and each make excellent examples the style, f...
Aug 30, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 257
Anchor (https://anchorbrewing.com) Brewmaster Tom Riley has been working on steam beer for a long time—38 years, in fact. He started at Anchor in 1984, decades before craft beer was considered a viable career choice, and has watched the entire industry grow up alongside Anchor. He’s a company man, and in 38 years of brewing, this is the only place he’s brewed. Assistant Brewmaster Dane Volek started at Anchor 14 years ago and, like Riley, has only worked at Anchor. He leads the R&D side of t...
Aug 26, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 256
John Harris has been around. From his start at the McMenamins Hillsdale brewpub in 1986 (where they brewed with extract and fermented without temperature control in open-top fermenters), through stints launching Deschutes, the Full Sail pub in Portland, Oregon, and now the past nine years at his own brewery Ecliptic, he’s been eyewitness to a myriad of change in the craft beer world. In this episode, Harris recounts the early days and the challenges they faced in trying to create what we now kno...
Aug 19, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 255
In this first-ever “Direct Fire” episode of the podcast, listeners from around the globe heat things up with spicy brewing questions for Weldwerks (https://www.weldwerks.com) founder Neil Fisher. From IPA to hefeweizen, pastry sour, and stout, every style is fair game as you ask and Neil answers questions around: ideal pH in hoppy beers for aroma and flavor expression achieving pie-crust flavor in kettle sours using vanilla in bean and extract form building mouthfeel in stout with oats, wheat, a...
Aug 16, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 254
Science teacher turns brewer. On paper, it makes sense. But Alesong’s (https://www.alesongbrewing.com) Matt Van Wyk made the career transition long before many in the current generation of brewery owners made similar leaps. With two decades of professional brewing under his belt, Van Wyk has observed, and brewed through, many trends, but the love of barrel-aged beer led him and his partners (including Alesong production director Brian Coombs) to create Alesong with a deep focus on three threads—...
Aug 13, 2022•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 253
Tonya Cornett marks her brewing experience in decades, but the head of R&D for 10 Barrel (https://10barrel.com) in Bend, Oregon, isn't resting on any laurels. She’s earned every right to cruise, with many GABF and World Beer Cup medals under her belt—including three at the World Beer Cup earlier this year—but she continues to challenge herself and her team to find new and better ways to express flavor in beer. One of her favorite styles, and one she’s earned wide acclaim for, is quick-soured...
Aug 05, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 252
Smooj, the heavily-fruited smoothie-like hard seltzer produced by the brewing team at HOMES brewery in Ann Arbor, Michigan, may draw the ire of certain brewing purists, but its approach is captivating consumers across its growing footprint. It flies in the face of conventional logic around hard seltzer, embracing more rather than less—more calories, more flavor, more body. And the novel approach has inspired a growing subcategory of the hard seltzer market as more craft brewers try their hand at...
Jul 29, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 251
How do you as a brewer identify trends, evaluate their potential resonance with your customers, then develop and deploy your own beers in response? This panel discussion with leading Portland brewers Ben Edmunds of Breakside, James Dugan of Great Notion, and Sam Pecoraro of Von Ebert—recorded at Great Notion as part of our most recent New Brewery Accelerator workshop (https://www.breweryworkshop.com/)—explores that very question. Along the way, they discuss: separating the signal from the noise ...
Jul 26, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 250
Light lager may not be the style most brewers are passionate about, but it’s one that many people drink. Long dominated by macro brewers and beers lightened by corn and rice adjuncts, it’s a competition category that fewer craft brewers have found success in. But for Andy Hooper, former brewmaster of Seismic Brewing in Santa Rosa, California, the beer style was ripe for craft reinvention. A very technically-minded brewer, Hooper had built out the brewhouse and cellar to allow for a fine degree o...
Jul 22, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 249
Pulpit Rock (https://www.pulpitrockbrewing.net) co-head brewers Bob Slack and Justin Teff have built a reputation for creative “pastry” beers in both the stout and quick sour realms. In this episode, they discuss in depth their process for achieving great results with such adjunct-forward and barrel-aged beers, from managing increased viscosity and extended barrel-aging times, to their focus on ingredient freshness. The conversation covers: - removing roasted barley from the base recipe and repl...
Jul 15, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 248
This roundtable discussion with Allagash, Cantillon, and Russian River kicks off a new series of Tuesday episodes to be released every other week—in different formats, including roundtables and Q&As featuring your questions for the pros. Recorded in the coolship room at Russian River the morning of their Wild Friendship Blend event, the conversation among Rob Tod and Jason Perkins of Allagash, Jean and Florian Van Roy of Cantillon, and Natalie and Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River explores bot...
Jul 12, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 247
Zack Frasher loves hoppy beers about as much as he loves exploring new techniques for maximizing their expression. His past decade and a half of brewing—first as a homebrewer then as a pro—has been marked by research and testing in the hoppy genre, dialing in recipes and processes for clean and tight hop presentation. Over the past year at Slice (https://www.slicebeer.com/home)—in Lincoln, California, just north of Sacramento—that determined work has borne fruit: a bronze medal at the Great Amer...
Jul 08, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 246
Wild Card (https://www.wildcardbrewery.co.uk) head brewer Jaega Wise loves breaking down difficult problems with no-nonsense solutions. An early career in chemical engineering gave her the understanding of brewing mechanics that she uses today to hone processes and simplify the brewery’s approach to beer making, yet she remains constantly pragmatic and encouraging. In this episode, she joins the podcast on the occasion of the U.S. release of her new book, Wild Brews. Through the conversation, sh...
Jul 01, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 245
The Private Landbrauerei Schönram is one of the most lauded breweries in Germany over the past 15 years, with a tall stack of European Beer Star and World Beer Cup medals to show for its excellence across styles, and for the respect it has earned from peers. Perhaps its most celebrated beers are its Hell—a local staple that accounts for three-fourths of production—and its acclaimed, hop-forward Pils. Its brewmaster since 1998 has been Eric Toft, who has carefully and gradually fine-tuned each of...
Jun 24, 2022•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 244
