"What are your hopes and dreams for the American Craft Beer Industry as a whole?"  This impossibly hard-to-answer question was asked of three beer industry veterans during a live show, in the rain, during their first hour of the Snallygaster Beer Festival. 

Beer Me Radio returned to our "recorded live" roots for one special show during Snallygaster beer festival in Washington, DC, in a podcast tent, in the rain. It was incredibly fun. 

Our host, Sarah Jane Curran, had the opportunity to interview Josh Schlesinger (Head of Sales and distribution for Bissell Brothers Brewing Company), Matt Monahan (Founder/CEO of Other Half Brewing Co), and Blake Tyers (Senior Director of Curiosity Creature Comforts). What do these three have in common? All of their respective breweries will be celebrating ten years opened throughout 2024. And with that significant anniversary coming up, why not reflect on the future? In the middle of a beer festival. 

All of these breweries have been massive contributors to the industry, in their products, and how they engage with the industry and their communities, and they will continue to grow. 

"It's exciting to be rounding out ten years" -Blake shared. At the time of recording (10/14/23) Creature Comforts was a mere two weeks away from opening its newest location in LA 

Matt shared the news that Other Half is planning the opening of their 8th location in Chicago 

As they all reflected on the collective decade of success Josh added:  "I think everyone on this panel has had a pretty sweet ride for the past 10 years" 

The conversation ranged from what changes they wanted to see in the industry as a whole (more diversity being the main theme), to what styles would be compelling. There was also a discussion about responding to trends, specifically non-alcoholic beer. Matt explained, "Don't want to ignore growth opportunities, but also (you) need to make sure that what you're doing already is working." 

Was this topic overly ambitious for a live recording at a festival? For sure. But was it worth the ask? 100% 

MUSIC CREDIT: The following music was used for this media project:

Music: Funky Intro 31 by TaigaSoundProd
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9552-funky-intro-31
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license