At last year’s Festival of Barrel-Aged Beers in Chicago, a relative newcomer grabbed both the silver and bronze medals in the Wild Beer Mixed Culture with Fruit category, immediately sending the crowd to flood the pouring table with requests for tastes. The brewery brand—Idyll Forest Artisan Ales—is the wild, mixed-culture passion project of Pryes Brewing (https://www.pryesbrewing.com) cofounder Jeremy Pryes. The small production facility he’s built about 20 minutes from the main brewery is his ...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 363
Tim Johnson of Barrel Theory (https://barreltheory.com) in St. Paul, Minnesota, started brewing progressive styles of beer—hazy IPA, fruit beers, barrel-aged stouts, and more—out of necessity. As a beer lover and beer trader, it made sense to try his hand at these things he would trade for, both for the creative thrill of pursuing excellence in these styles, but also for more pragmatic reasons—to have things to trade. Today, Johnson still loves tasting the wide breadth of beer out there, and he ...
May 31, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 362
The world may know Austin’s Meanwhile (https://www.meanwhilebeer.com) for the GABF and World Beer Cup medals they’ve won, including golds for Helles and Pilsner, and silver for Secret Beach IPA. But the locals know it as a great beer garden with a playground for kids, an outdoor concert stage, a wide array of food trucks, and tasty beer that can be either dissected or just digested. It’s a beautiful place to spend time with friends over beer, with beer that’s worth talking about (if that’s your ...
May 24, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 361
For Joe Lemnah, going to work at a brewery was no reason to stop homebrewing. The same need to explore and understand that drove him to brew at home every week still informs his process of testing and learning, even a decade after opening Burlington Beer (https://www.burlingtonbeercompany.com) in Burlington, Vermont. In this episode, Lemnah focuses on the evolution and processes behind the style for which they’re best-known—hazy IPA—but their approach differs from other New England stalwarts. Fr...
May 17, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 360
Ryan Miller and Lillian MacNamara—both experienced brewers and cofounders of Freak Folk Bier (https://www.freakfolkbier.com)—are partners in business and life, making the brewery, as Miller says, “a love story interwoven with brewing.” Both share a love of saison, and Freak Folk began with a focus on special-release saisons that has since expanded into a broad selection of styles to fill the tap lines of their Waterbury, Vermont taproom. But even the other styles they brew exhibit the same kind ...
May 10, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 359
Innovation in beer has been accelerating for the past decade as breweries—excited by new styles and techniques, and feeding a culture of newness incentivized by social apps—churn out a relentless quantity of new beers in new formats with new labels. However, to hear Bill Cherry tell it, the choices he’s made at Switchback (https://www.switchbackvt.com) over the past two decades have been driven more by slowness than speed. Packaging in 22-ounce bombers so they could dial in packaging before movi...
May 03, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 358
While popular movies tell finite stories, the real lives of the people they feature don’t stop when the final credits roll. So, it was up to the von Trapp family—whose story was told with huge dramatic license in The Sound of Music—to write their own next chapters. They did so by establishing a popular, Austrian-inspired family lodge in northern Vermont—then, about 15 years ago, they opened a brewery just down the hill. They launched with the goal of producing finely crafted European-style lager...
Apr 26, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 357
Welcome to Las Vegas, craft brewers! In this final of three CBC preview episodes, Crafthaus (https://www.crafthausbrewery.com) head brewer Cameron Fisher joins to discuss their approach to making cold IPA (and more) in the desert of Southern Nevada. Whether it’s Czech-style lager served on a Lukr faucet in their Arts District taproom or a throwback hoppy red ale poured with love from their Henderson taproom at the brewery, the beers Crafthaus makes have earned a reputation for quality, breadth, ...
Apr 19, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 356
This special fresh hop–focused episode of the podcast is brought to you interruption-free by the the freshness experts at RipeLocker. (https://ripelocker.com) RipeLocker has patented a radically innovative storage solution to revolutionize the post-harvest industry with technology to extend the shelf-life of perishables such as fresh hops while preserving quality and taste. The company’s low-pressure chambers prolong freshness after harvest by weeks, often months, and for brewers, this opens up ...
Apr 16, 2024•45 min•Ep. 355
Dave Pascual, head brewer for longtime Las Vegas brewery Big Dog’s (https://www.bigdogsbrews.com), takes a methodical approach to running the brewhouse, even if it doesn’t feel out-of-the-ordinary to this longtime brewer. Running a clean and organized brewery is just how it’s done. Despite how obvious some of these little things may appear, it’s the sum of all those professional details that’s helped cement Big Dog’s legacy as a consistent award winner in categories as diverse as English-Style B...
Apr 12, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 354
In this first of a three-episode miniseries on Las Vegas brewers, timed to give you more local knowledge as you head to the desert for this year’s Craft Brewer’s Conference, Able Baker (https://ablebakerbrewing.com) Director of Brewing Matt Marino discusses his evolving approach to modern West coast IPA and hazy session IPA. Through the conversation, he touches on: brewing oversized batches at high gravity to maximize output from their 15bbl brewhouse pushing extreme attenuation to hit a 1.4-1.6...
Apr 05, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 353
Notch (https://www.notchbrewing.com) founder Chris Lohring loves the fact that more craft brewers are embracing lagers—but he has some strong opinions about the best way to brew them. “‘Crispy boys’ don’t exist,” he says. “Lagers aren’t dry. Clean lager yeast is boring to me.” Refinement and distinction are his goals, not minimalism, and he and his team use all the tools in the brewer’s toolbox to achieve them—such as adjusting mash schedules and malt bills to build body in low-ABV beers; moving...
Mar 29, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 352
Will and Joe Quinlan, brothers and cofounders of The Big Friendly, just make beer. Will loves saison so they make a few saisons every year. Joe loves barrel-aged stout so they make a few of those every year. Their distribution is minuscule so their production is very small, but they do take a meticulous approach to beer making despite their small size. In this episode, the brothers each recount their approach to the beers they make, and in the process they discuss: building mixed fermentation cu...
Mar 22, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 351
Kelly McKnight could have done a lot of other things—she was a sponsored pro skateboarder and snowboarder in her younger years, and she studied pre-med at Harvard—but she found such solace and relief in brewing that she changed paths to brew professionally. Now, she’s lead R&D brewer in one of the beer world’s most successful innovation programs, using all of tools at the their disposal to understand flavor and expression in beer. In this episode, the New Belgium (https://www.newbelgium.com)...
Mar 15, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 350
There is the East Coast and there is the West Coast, but aficionados of hazy IPA know not to sleep on the Gulf Coast, thanks largely to Parish Brewing (https://parishbeer.com) in Broussard, Louisiana. Parish’s Ghost in the Machine has become a juggernaut in the world of hazy IPA, earning accolades such as a 2019 Beer of the Year (https://beerandbrewing.com/the-best-19-beers-of-2019/) from Craft Beer & Brewing and a mention on critic Alex Kidd’s top ten list in 2020 (https://beerandbrewing.co...
Mar 08, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 349
This special fermentation-focused episode of the podcast is brought to you interruption-free by the yeast and fermentation specialists at White Labs (https://www.whitelabs.com). If you brew beer, you’re familiar with White Labs, as they’ve been supplying brewers with the highest quality yeast and fermentation aids for many years, and they now serve brewers around the world from outposts in San Diego and Asheville in the United States, as well as Copenhagen and Hong Kong. Throughout this episode,...
Mar 05, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 348
Black Caddis began as one of Preston Theony’s homebrew recipes, but rather than create a take on an existing style, he started with the flavor he wanted to achieve and built a recipe to realize that. Now, after brewing the beer commercially at Wren House (https://www.wrenhousebrewing.com) for the better part of the past decade, he’s still not done experimenting with changes to not just the recipe, but the core of fermentation itself. More recently, the beer has moved from ale fermentation with a...
Mar 01, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 347
With taprooms in Mesa and Gilbert, Arizona, 12 West (https://12westbrewing.com/) may boast one of the coolest “home breweries” in the United States. Its production space is in the 6,000-square-foot luxury garage behind one of the founders’ homes, with roll-up doors that open to a patio with a swimming pool, skate ramps, and a moto track in the distance. Meanwhile, the beer that head brewer and co-owner Justin “Gully” Gullickson and assistant brewer Andrew Cooper are making to feed the two taproo...
Feb 23, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 346
Last year, Arizona Wilderness’ (https://www.azwbeer.com) beet-centered saison Jitterbug Perfume scored a perfect 100 with our blind judges, and went on to nab a spot in our Best 20 Beers in 2023. In this episode, head brewer Brad Miles and wood cellar manager Nick Pauley dissect that particular beer, from the blend of wood-aged saisons that form the base, to the way they roasted and processed the beets, and the particular fruit juice and spice additions that rounded it out. They also discuss the...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 345
Josh Trujillo didn’t set out to become a brewer, but after 16 years at Marble (https://marblebrewery.com)—the last eight of which he’s served in the top brewing role—he’s found it to be a perfect vocation given his mix of technical and tasting aptitude. Over the years, Marble has pursued ways other integrating hops into both traditional and modern lagers, and their judiciously dry-hopped Pilsner even won 2014 World Beer Cup gold employing a quarter-pound-per-barrel dry hop at the time. Now, Marb...
Feb 09, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 344
Over the past number of years, Portland, Oregon’s Wayfinder (https://www.wayfinder.beer) has built a reputation for assertive Pacific Northwest Coast IPAs, balanced and bitter Cold IPAs, and classic renditions of European lagers. Last year, Natalie Rose Baldwin stepped into the Brewmaster position and quickly found herself getting up to speed on their hop-centric beers, but her years of experience at Breakside more than prepared her for the technical and creative challenge. In this episode, Bald...
Feb 02, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 343
Ten years into the rise of hazy IPA, the brewing world knows far more about how to make this challenging yet enduringly popular style—yet the deeper we push, the more we realize how much more we have to learn. For this extended episode of the podcast, we got the gang from last year’s West Coast IPA Now! episodes back together to discuss hazy IPA, along with a respected East Coast voice in the hazy IPA conversation. Steve Parker of Fidens (https://www.fidensbrewing.com) joins Evan Price of Green ...
Jan 26, 2024•2 hr 25 min•Ep. 342
This special ingredient-focused edition of the podcast is brought to you interruption-free by the brewing-ingredient experts at BSG (https://bsgcraftbrewing.com/craft-coast-top-secret-gambrinus-ipa-malt/?utm_source=cbbpodcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=gambrinus+ipa+cbbpodcast&utm_content=malt). Today’s beer drinker loves pale beer more than ever, and over the course of the past decade, brewers have been feeding this shift by releasing lighter and lighter colored IPAs that pack a ...
Jan 23, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 341
Sarasota, Florida’s Calusa (https://www.calusabrewing.com/) has become a fan favorite in the Sunshine State, focusing on compelling hazy IPAs that capture vivid flavors, consistent drinkability, and a bright, sunny color that cofounder and head brewer Jason Thompson describes as “glow.” In this episode, Thompson discusses: managing variable minerality brewing hazy IPA with flavorful malts such as Weyermann Bohemian Pils increasing the wheat component of his recipes to aid haze stability mashing ...
Jan 19, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 340
This week’s episode is a panel discussion on lager brewing, recorded in front of a live audience late one night on the patio of Cerveza Fauna (https://cervezafauna.com) after a full day of judging for the Copa Baja beer festival in Mexicali, Mexico, in late 2023. Joining the discussion are three prominent lager brewers—Ashleigh Carter of Denver’s Bierstadt Lagerhaus (https://www.bierstadtlager.com), Ryan Brooks of San Diego’s SouthNorte (https://southnorte.com), and Jeff Bagby (who, earlier this...
Jan 12, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 339
Lean is all the rage in hop-forward West Coast–style beers, from pilsner to IPA, and paring beers back to their bare necessities has been a significant focus for Burgeon’s (https://burgeonbeer.com) Anthony Tallman. Yet the quest for crisp-and-drinkable doesn’t mean sacrificing flavor, and recent experimentation has given Tallman a fresh perspective on the ultra-minimal approach. In this episode—which is focused especially on Carlsbad Crush, winner of multuple GABF medials in the International-St...
Jan 07, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 338
The final episode of the year is our chance to look back on the year of brewing conversations and highlight those episodes that struck the biggest chords with you, our listeners. Joining Jamie in the co-host chair is Khris Johnson of Green Bench (https://www.greenbenchbrewing.com) in St. Petersburg, Florida, and together they count down the ten most-listened-to episodes while sharing excerpts from each. The top ten include: Averie Swanson of Keeping Together (https://www.keepingtogether.com/) on...
Dec 30, 2023•1 hr 51 min•Ep. 337
The Kernel (https://www.thekernelbrewery.com) founder Evan O’Riordain embodies a few interesting contrasts—he’s an Irishman in London committed to shining a light on the city’s own dark beer past, and he’s a brewer in Britain who caught the craft bug after experiencing hop-forward beers in the United States—but it’s this dynamic range that drives and defines Kernel today. History is important, yet no modern techniques or ingredients are off the table, as the beers they make respect and reference...
Dec 22, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 336
Past isn’t necessarily prologue for today’s lager brewers, but it certainly is at Goldfinger Brewing (https://goldfingerbrewing.com) in Downers Grove, Illinois. A family history of brewing lager and manufacturing equipment for brewers in Poland and Czechia was just the kick that Tom Beckmann needed to pursue his dream of building a small, contemporary, lager-focused brewery. Now, as the brewery undertakes its next expansion, Beckmann is committed to widening the lager discourse, to showcasing th...
Dec 15, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 335
Five years into cold IPA, the arguments still aren’t settled, but one thing is certain—strategic brewers have embraced the style for the unique counterpoint it can provide to more ester-driven IPAs, and the focus on light body has struck a chord with beer drinkers who increasingly want strong hop notes in ever-paler beers. We thought it was time to revisit the subject with three brewers who are no stranger to the podcast, and who each have contributed to the evolution of the style in their own w...
Dec 08, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 334
