At this year's Craft Brewers Conference, the GBH team held a panel discussion on the topic of storytelling for breweries, how it evolves as it grows, and how the story of craft and the story of a single brewery can align and diverge. Breweries have historically united to tell the story of "craft beer" as they work together to build the category and create an educated consumer. But in the past few years, the emphasis has shifted to the uniqueness of the individual journey, and how one brewery dif...
May 13, 2017•1 hr 41 min
Today's breweries come in all shapes and sizes. Different tap lineups and business models. Each has a unique ethos and purpose told through individual stories and names. Somewhere amongst all this, there is Free Range Brewing, a business based on the ideas of agriculture and locality situated in one of the largest cities in the United States. Just a couple miles from the literal downtown marker of Charlotte, North Carolina, the almost-two-year-old brewery has found its niche with a constantly ch...
May 06, 2017•56 min
The three-tier system is something that's continuously up for debate in our country, surfing on arguments about who it serves poorly and who it services well, who it protects us from and who it favors. It's a complicated value chain mandated by the federal government to exist, but also regulated by states, and increasingly getting sliced up into more unique and critical ways of bringing your favorite breweries to market. One part of that value chain that's been quietly evolving is the role of th...
Apr 28, 2017•1 hr 20 min
Despite what some politicians may rally against, there is plenty of value of what a globalized society can bring. The different perspectives and experiences that flow from one border to the next has created a connectivity that enhance ideas the world over. It may come as no surprise, that also lends itself to how people from different countries use hops and malt, too. On assignment for GBH, I traveled in February to Reykjavik, Iceland with the goal of learning more about what that country's beer...
Apr 22, 2017•53 min
Our resident composer for the podcast and our commercial video work, Andrew Thiboldeaux, is writing original scores devoted to beers he finds fascinating. These are interpretations of the experience of drinking them. But they're also just great tunes. This episode is devoted to Tired Hands Saison Hands.
Apr 19, 2017•2 min
In the age of small and local, some of the more mature craft beer brands in the US are looking to new markets to find the relevance, brand awareness and the resulting sales that they seek. For the 28 year old Brooklyn Brewery this means investing heavily in markets all over the world including The UK, Sweden, Australia and more recentlt East Asia, thanks to the recent sale of a 24% stake in the business to Japan's Kirin. But finding that relevance isn't as simple as just shipping over a few cont...
Apr 08, 2017•1 hr 11 min
Welcome back to another episode of the GBH Collective where we bring you the stories behind the stories from our writers and photographers all over the world. This is our third edition of this format - and if you're liking it, let us know. The team really enjoys sharing their perspectives, and I can say personally, I'm enjoying hearing more about their adventures. And of course, this new series of episodes is made possible by our Patreon subscribers. Patron is a way that our readers and listener...
Apr 05, 2017•54 min
Beer Writer is a term that gets tossed around a lot these days, but it's used to describe a wide variety of amateurs and professionals alike. Everyone from a personal blogger to a freelancer writing for magazines, to an author with half a dozen books under their belt, to people who cover the business of beer for established outlets like the Tribune or the New York Times. But each of these kinds of beer writers has their own audience and their own angle on the beer world, which of course is also ...
Apr 01, 2017•1 hr 11 min
A few years ago on vacation on Long Island, I stumbled across a few local beers that caught my attention—Toasted Lager and Rastafa Rye were two of them, both beers from Blue Point. After some searching, we found the brewery a road just a short walk from the center of a sleepy town. It was closed that day, so I didn't get to visit, but the image of that building—a sort of repurposed gas station with an old school dive bar for a tap room—stuck with me. Shortly after, I started seeing the growth of...
Mar 26, 2017•47 min
Welcome back to another episode of the GBH Collective where we bring you the stories behind the stories from our writers and photographers all over the world. This is our second edition of this format - and if you're liking it, let us know. The team really enjoys sharing their perspectives, and I can say personally, I'm enjoying hearing more about their adventures. And of course, this new series of episodes is made possible by our Patreon subscribers. Patron is a way that our readers and listene...
Mar 21, 2017•50 min
Like so many other breweries, the team at Aslin Beer Company is new to the industry, part of roughly 500 breweries that opened in 2015 and more than 3,000 that have appeared in the last five years. Alongside many contemporaries, the rise of Aslin can be seen through the lens of what online beer enthusiast communities can do for a small business. In less than two years, Aslin has become a hot commodity on the trading circuit and an unsurprising presence on top beer lists among some of the most po...
Mar 18, 2017•56 min
Our resident composer for the podcast and our commercial video work, Andrew Thiboldeaux, is writing original scores devoted to beers he finds fascinating. These are interpretations of the experience of drinking them. But they're also just great tunes. This first episode is devoted to Victory Brewing Company's Prima Pils.
Mar 15, 2017•2 min
Today's episode is our annual hangover party podcast, an event we host here at the studio in the wake of Upper & Downers, our coffee beer festival. People have started traveling from all over the world—in some cases, as far away as Japan!—to attend this insane mashup of coffee and beer culture we put together with our friend Stephen Morrissey (a world barista champion and works at the Specialty Coffee Association). And this hangover party, which we stupidly (brilliantly?) throw the morning a...
Mar 11, 2017•1 hr 43 min
I've got something a little new for you this time around. This is an episode devoted to the GBH Collective, thats the writers and photographers we have around the world who bring you the amazing stories and interviews you see on Good Beer Hunting. As our network has grown, it's occurred to me that like you, so much of what I experience in beer world comes through the eyes and ears of these fantastic people, and in addition to their compelling stories on the site, there's so much more to talk abo...
Mar 08, 2017•1 hr 22 min
Today's guest is one of those serendipitous run-ins I sometimes have with a fellow writer, in this case someone I've followed for some time, but never had the chance to meet in person. Pete Brown, who lives in London, has written numerous books over the years, including Three Sheets To The Wind: One Man's Quest For The Meaning Of Beer. And lately his writing has taken him into both the history and contemporary culture of cider making in the UK. And that's what brought him to Chicago, which was t...
Mar 03, 2017•1 hr 12 min
At Rate Beer Best, it became clear that this was the year the British breweries would assert themselves among the best in the world. Many of the best British breweries have followed in the footsteps of their American counterparts and are now evolving at a similar pace — but what really made this the year of the Brits was the shift in Rate Beer's own audience. According to Joe Tucker, founder of RateBeer.com, London is now the largest metropolitan market for Rate Beer's user base. Two of the more...
Feb 18, 2017•56 min
In the tradition of American Wild Ales, a name like American Solera might sound fundamental—but it's a relative newcomer for brewer/founder Chase Healey. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, far from the hotspots and critical masses of drinkers for such delicacies, Healey has carved out a life and a living that's far different than the way he entered brewing. His first venture, Prairie Artisan Ales, in which he still plays a small supporting role, is quickly growing from one state to the next. And it was his com...
Feb 10, 2017•45 min
Craft beer drinkers are finding better and better beers available in more places than ever before. And a big reason for that is large-format stores like Target, Costco, and, here in Chicago, Jewel-Osco. These big stores are looking for ways to connect with their customers on premium and locally-sourced products. The whole food and beverage industry is shifting local, not just craft beer. But for some longtime craft beer fans, that's an uncomfortable development. I've heard smaller retailers lame...
Feb 03, 2017•54 min
This week's conversation is potentially one of the most enjoyable and insightful conversations I've had since I started working in beer. I spend a lot of my time chatting to brewers and bar owners, but never have I taken the time to pose questions to someone who works in the world of beer distribution. I've known Pete Brissenden from back when he worked for London's Meantime brewery, way before SAB Miller and subsequently Asahi bought it out. Pete's worked for a range of breweries over the years...
Jan 28, 2017•1 hr 7 min
BJ Pichman is the head brewer at Forbidden Root brewpub, Chicago's "botanic beer" producer. As a homebrewer, he found a niche brewing pilot batches for recipe development consultants, and that eventually that got him a gig brewing the earliest batches of Forbidden Root's first trials for their namesake root beer-inspired concoction designed by Randy Mosher and Robert Finkel. Eventually that concept would develop into a full-fledged craft beer brand and brewpub, and while botanics are still at th...
Jan 21, 2017•1 hr 21 min
This week's guest is an artist and commercial screenprinter here in Chicago. We've worked with him numerous times through GBH making posters and hosting workshop events. He's well-known but depending on how you discovered his work, you know him for very different reasons. Myself, I knew him as the guy who did the Dark Lord Day posters, and Apocalypse Cow from Three Floyds. For others, he's an artist working with bands like the Alabama Shakes. And most recently he took his first gig with a brewer...
Jan 14, 2017•1 hr 5 min
I spent the break up in Michigan, with my wife's family in Grand Rapids like we do every year. But this year the city felt completely different. So many new things are opening, major new projects underway in beer and otherwise. We visited Sovengaard, Rick Muschiana's new nordic-inspired restaurant and beer garden. Rick used to work at Brewery Vivant, one of our favorites. And he took what he learned there in terms of sustainability and hospitably and applied it to a new concept that really brigh...
Jan 06, 2017•1 hr 46 min
We're sitting down with Paul Vander-Heide of Vandermill Cider out of Michigan. I first met Paul back when he was a tiny little cider mill in Spring Lake, personally loading a few kegs into his van and driving them to Chicago. He's always been one step ahead of the cider wave that took off like a shot—and is currently hitting a bit of a plateau—in the U.S., depending on what kind of producer you are. But the reason he's succeeding is because of his foresight, willingness to adapt, opportunistic a...
Dec 30, 2016•1 hr 3 min
Today's episode is a really interesting discussion with one of the most influential people in international beer—Robert Lobovsky of Pilsner Urquell. I say "most influential" because he's the face and ambassador for one of the world's most famous beers, which has only gone on to embolden its reputation over the years as its shifted from a European gem to an international icon for the Pilsner style. I had my first chat with Robert a few years ago in the Czech Republic walking around the campus and...
Dec 17, 2016•1 hr 3 min
Today's guest hails from Wellington, New Zealand. Stu McKinlay—along his business partner, Sam Possenniskie—founded Yeastie Boys in 2008. Stu had also been running a homebrew supply company called Liberty Brewing, but eventually sold it and put all of his energy into brewing. Instead of building their own brewery, the Yeastie Boys decided to focus on their brand. After developing their recipes, they had them brewed under contract at the Invercargill brewery on New Zealand's South Island. In 2015...
Dec 10, 2016•1 hr 6 min
Back in April of 2014, I got an email from Jake Koeneman, Josh Hambright, and Chris Bly about a concept they were starting up in Indianapolis called Central State Brewing. They had their collective mind set on being a 100% Brett brewery, they had a plan in place, they wanted help with the branding side of things, and before long GBH was working alongside them to bring the concept to life. Now it's 2016 and, like most brewery plans, things have shifted dramatically from some of that early plannin...
Dec 03, 2016•1 hr 35 min
This week's episode is devoted to an entirely different collaboration. This one is between Thomas Larsen of Ska Brewing from Durango Colorado, and Stephan Mance from Half Acre right here in Chicago. This collaboration, like most, is largely for fun and a trip to Chicago, which Ska founder Dave Thiboldeaux is fond of making. But there's a special reason that these two breweries are tied together and that's through the little-known history of some hardware. You'll often hear people talk about line...
Nov 19, 2016•47 min
Today's guest is Michael Salvatore of Heritage Bicycles in Chicago. He's an entrepreneur with a sort of gutsy, intuitive, creative approach to creating things like bike shops, cafes, and other community-oriented places in the city that I've grown to love as a customer, and admire as a small business owner. He's one of those people that you start chatting with over coffee and walk away with some new insight into your own life and work without even realizing it. At least, that's what happens to me...
Nov 12, 2016•1 hr 2 min
Today's guest has been working in Chicago beer for a long time now, but her journey is anything but typical, and it doesn't follow a straight line at all. Yes, she's a home brewer who now has her own brewery. But here's how the dots actually connect. She started as a homebrewer, and was certainly thinking about opening a brewery some day. But her next step was the role of a beer buyer for Bangers & Lace, and Trenchermen, both favorite bars of mine in the city with great lists. Then she start...
Nov 05, 2016•1 hr 9 min
We're only a couple of episodes in to exploring the UK's craft beer culture on this podcast, but already stories are beginning to emerge that I wouldn't have heard if we'd never started. Not long after speaking to Beavertown's Creative Director, Nick Dwyer, I was approached by his good friend, James Rylance of East London's Redchurch Brewery. Rylance started telling me about his new brewing project at Redchurch. Redchurch just expanded out of its home in East London to a brand new production fac...
Oct 22, 2016•1 hr 7 min
