Kentucky roads, Drop Bears, and weird drinking traditions

Fresh off a tiring vacation Brian shares his drinking adventures in Louisville, KY and educates on the proper pronunciation of it's name. A bit of beer, a lot of whiskey, and a disappointing chicken fried steak.

Two beer legends pass away

Oscar Wong, founder of Asheville's Highland Brewing Co. passed away this week. Highland was the first brewery in Asheville and Mr. Wong contribute immeasurably to the beer scene there and across the country. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.

George Wendt, know to many as Norm from the 90s sitcom Cheers, also passed away this week. For those of a certain age bracket Norm's dry humor was an important part of their weekly entertainment. RIP, Norm.

Some good news out of Asheville

Hi Wire Brewing recently re-opened in Asheville after the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. We also round up updates on a few others breweries in the area. Great to see some of them bouncing back.

Also on the show...

Weird Aussie drinking traditions, calories in popular beers, and Brian learns about the deadly Drop Bear. Spooky.

Thanks for listening to Beer Guys Radio! Your hosts are Tim Dennis and Brian Hewitt with producer Nate "Mo' Mic Nate" Ellingson and occasional appearances from Becky Smalls.

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What beer pairs with caviar and Doritos?

I should be able to answer this question as I have had caviar on Doritos. It's not bad, but I forget what beer I had with it. I'll have to revisit.

Outside of crazy caviar parties we learn there's a new world's strongest "beer." The method for making it means it doesn't technically qualify as beer some places, but that's how it's being billed.

We learn about distro laws for Thailand. I had no idea some of the limitations craft brewers had there. Guess there are struggles everywhere.

More news on Gen Z's drinking habits. That's such a hot topic these days. Gotta keep them coming to keep the industry alive.

In other news... We get falsely imprisoned, DoorDashing your booze is on the rise, and a six-way collaboration is coming.

Cheers!

Thanks for listening to Beer Guys Radio! Your hosts are Tim Dennis and Brian Hewitt with producer Nate "Mo' Mic Nate" Ellingson and occasional appearances from Becky Smalls.

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If you enjoy the show we'd appreciate your support on Patreon. Patrons get cool perks like early, commercial-free episodes, swag, access to our exclusive Discord server, and more!

This week, we’re raising a glass to American Craft Beer Week—because if there’s one thing we do best, it’s drinking local and talking about it loudly into microphones.

Tim’s off on a secret beer mission (probably), so Brian calls in reinforcements in the form of Mo Mic Nate— beverage philosopher, and man of many hats (most of them ball caps). 

The Setup

It’s been one of those weeks. Nate’s fresh off sweating through a Georgia scorcher with a frosty pint in hand, and Brian’s just survived a medieval dental visit where his dentist told him—get this—he has a small mouth. (Cue audience laughter.)

But never fear, the mics are hot and the beer is cold.

American Craft Beer Week – What's the Big Deal?

Craft Beer Week isn't just a clever excuse to drink more (though it helps). It’s a time to:

• Support local taprooms and breweries
• Try something new on the menu (yes, even the rice lager)
• Remind ourselves why independent beer still hits different

Brian and Nate break down what breweries are doing to celebrate—from limited releases and glassware drops to brewery crawls and collabs.

What Else Is on Tap?

• Brian’s post-dentist drinking logic
• Nate’s glassware superiority complex
• Craft beer trends that need to chill out
• Craft beer trends that need more love
• Shoutouts to the folks keeping local beer alive

Final Thoughts

It's a fun, slightly unhinged episode full of good laughs, better beer, and a reminder that even when the world feels like a flat IPA, craft beer still brings people together.

Thanks for listening to Beer Guys Radio! Your hosts are Tim Dennis and Brian Hewitt with producer Nate "Mo' Mic Nate" Ellingson and occasional appearances from Becky Smalls.

Subscribe to Beer Guys Radio on your favorite app: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS
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If you enjoy the show we'd appreciate your support on Patreon. Patrons get cool perks like early, commercial-free episodes, swag, access to our exclusive Discord server, and more!

"Bitter" Truths, Big Beers, and Bold Moves

This week, we crack open a triple dose of hop-fueled commentary, brewery gossip, and World Beer Cup bombshells. We even got a little salty—literally.

In Beers of the Week we pay tribute to a fallen Georgia brewer with Jekyll Brewing’s Big Creek Kölsch. Jekyll, a longtime staple with both supporters and haters, is set to shut down all locations on Mother’s Day. We dove deep into their history, rise, Kickstarter roots, and the harsh economics of brewery expansion in a post-industrial park taproom era.

Then came the ESB talk. What the heck is an ESB anyway? Brian broke down the style—medium malt, medium hop, and no, it’s not actually that bitter. We dug into the surprising World Beer Cup win: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale taking gold in the American ESB category. Wait, what? Pale Ale is an ESB now? According to the new guidelines, apparently so. The lines blur, styles evolve, and Brian drops knowledge.

Speaking of the World Beer Cup, Georgia showed up big: 6 breweries, 9 medals. New Realm, Bold Monk, Wild Heaven, and others brought home serious hardware. We raised a glass to our local heroes and called out a few surprise absences (no Creature Comforts?).

Economic chatter followed, and for once, the news wasn’t all doom and gloom. The U.S. beer industry contributed over $470 billion in 2024, thanks to jobs, taxes, and of course, your favorite six-packs. But challenges remain—Tilray teeters on delisting, and even success stories sometimes mask hard decisions behind closed taproom doors.

And finally, Tecate went weird: a salty light lager made with Gulf of Mexico water, available only on a floating bar off the Yucatan. No, really.

So whether you're crushing cream ales with bourbon chasers, debating beer style semantics, or lamenting your favorite brewery’s closure, this week’s episode has you covered.

Thanks for listening to Beer Guys Radio! Your hosts are Tim Dennis and Brian Hewitt with producer Nate "Mo' Mic Nate" Ellingson and occasional appearances from Becky Smalls.

Subscribe to Beer Guys Radio on your favorite app: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS
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If you enjoy the show we'd appreciate your support on Patreon. Patrons get cool perks like early, commercial-free episodes, swag, access to our exclusive Discord server, and more!

Drink Local!

We've discovered over the years that local beer can mean different things to different people and that can vary depending on where you are. We're a bit flexible with the term and even our opinions have changed a bit over the years. How do you define local beer?

Analyzing beer with your phone. An app has been developed that can measure the level of DMS in beer. Scientifically known as Dimethyl Sulfide, it's presence can give beer flavor of cooked corn, cabbage, tomato juice, and even seafood. There's a bit more to it then just taking a pic of your beer, but it's still pretty neat.

Why do we put limes in Mexican lagers? The short of it? We're not sure where or why it started. Maybe it just tastes good. Brian built us up to expect an answer, but didn't deliver. There are a few theories though.

1.5 liters of beer for only 67 cents. That's a bargain no matter how you look at it. Aldi in China offers up this insane deal. I can't expect it's a medal winning beer but I would like to try it.

In other news... Beer made from urine (really), some big anniversaries, and we say goodbye to Duck Rabbit Craft Brewery.

Thanks for listening to Beer Guys Radio! Your hosts are Tim Dennis and Brian Hewitt with producer Nate "Mo' Mic Nate" Ellingson and occasional appearances from Becky Smalls.

Subscribe to Beer Guys Radio on your favorite app: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS
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If you enjoy the show we'd appreciate your support on Patreon. Patrons get cool perks like early, commercial-free episodes, swag, access to our exclusive Discord server, and more!

I do love a good hotel bar

Hotel bars. Like regular bars (OK, I guess they are regular bars) they run the gamut from super divey to classy. They've got their own vibe though and in some smaller towns they may be the best thing going. What are your thoughts?

With all the news of closures lately it was nice to see that Fifty-Fifty Brewing is planning a major expansion. These folks had a lot of hype 8-10 years ago. Their big, barrel-aged bombers commanded a hefty price and were always exciting to see at bottle shares. I haven't heard as much about them lately but maybe that's on me.

We can't get away from taxes and tariffs. Honestly, we don't really have a good idea of what is and isn't tariffed and from where. We share with you what we can, but it's confusing. Plus, Washington state is trying to hike up their taxes on beer. I think now would be a good time to chill, it's tough enough as it is.

It's not just the US that's feeling the pinch on beer. The German beer industry is struggling, too. And they've got a long-standing drinking culture without as much of the stigma that it has to some people here. Come on, Germany. Get to drinking.

In other news... Brian can brew coffee but cooking stresses him out, the beer delivery strike in Manhattan is avoided, and we recap our trip to the Georgia Craft Brewers Fest.

Thanks for listening to Beer Guys Radio! Your hosts are Tim Dennis and Brian Hewitt with producer Nate "Mo' Mic Nate" Ellingson and occasional appearances from Becky Smalls.

Subscribe to Beer Guys Radio on your favorite app: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS
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If you enjoy the show we'd appreciate your support on Patreon. Patrons get cool perks like early, commercial-free episodes, swag, access to our exclusive Discord server, and more!

Everything sucks, but at least we still have beer

The Brewers Association released their 2024 brewing industry stats recently. As expected, it wasn't great, but it could be worse. There are still passionate people opening breweries and us consumers still have more options for great beer than we ever have before. Praise be.\

ChatGPT and Beer (and other things)

Do you use AI in your job? For Brian and I it's become a daily tool. It's advancing amazingly fast. There are fun beery things you can do with it, too. Get beer recommendations, have it create labels and action figures from your description, or research info on beer and breweries. One caveat - it gets things wrong, a lot, and it states them rather confidently. Question everything it tells you and verify the info. If something doesn't look right then call it out and the AI will take another look to verify its info... but it may tell you something else wrong again.

It's hard not to be political these days

Y'all, we have been doing this show for going on 10 years and we've always avoided politics. That's becoming difficult to do but we will (in most cases) try to present things as facts and information. But, it's getting crazy out there. The tariffs are hitting the industry already with one smaller local brewery saying the tariffs have already cost them an extra $60,000. Constellation Brands reports that the immigration policies are impacting their sales. I hope our countries can get their acts together, cause it's not looking good.

In other news...

More brewery closures announced of brands owned my Tilray and Monster, and Miller releases a beer-infused record of dive bar sounds. Seriously.

Thanks for listening to Beer Guys Radio! Your hosts are Tim Dennis and Brian Hewitt with producer Nate "Mo' Mic Nate" Ellingson and occasional appearances from Becky Smalls.

Subscribe to Beer Guys Radio on your favorite app: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS
Follow Beer Guys Radio: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

If you enjoy the show we'd appreciate your support on Patreon. Patrons get cool perks like early, commercial-free episodes, swag, access to our exclusive Discord server, and more!

Record setting vintage beer can sold

I enjoy breweriana but I always struggle with saying it. Serious collectors will pay big money to add to their collections. Last week, a vintage beer can in excellent condition sold for over $100,000. Now that's a serious brewerianaian.

From the "We'll take any good news we can get" files, people are still preferring to go out for beers vs. grabbing them to drink at home. A surprising percentage of the population said they'd still go to a bar or restaurant even if they were tight on money. Hey, we all have to get out every now and then.

Utah's alcohol laws have always been a bit... unique. In a big move for Utahans, they'll soon be able to get beer delivered to their car. Sounds odd but it's really just allowing them to get the beer brought out to them when they do a curbside grocery order. Small victories are still victories.

In other news, we get an update on what's going to happen with Dry Dock Brewing, talk about the states with the most expensive cases of macro beers, and chat about contract brewing. Good times.

Thanks for listening to Beer Guys Radio! Your hosts are Tim Dennis and Brian Hewitt with producer Nate "Mo' Mic Nate" Ellingson and occasional appearances from Becky Smalls.

Subscribe to Beer Guys Radio on your favorite app: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS
Follow Beer Guys Radio: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

If you enjoy the show we'd appreciate your support on Patreon. Patrons get cool perks like early, commercial-free episodes, swag, access to our exclusive Discord server, and more!

Spring has sprung and everything is covered in pollen

We attended Little Beer Fest in Duluth, GA last weekend and the Atlanta area set a record for pollen count.  The sky was a bit yellow-green hazy.  Madness.  The sneezes and itchy eyes didn't keep us from enjoying a lot of great beers, though.

You ever think about the various "eras" of craft beer?  The IBU wars, the race to be the most sour, Haze Craze.  We ponder what the various eras have been and what may be next.

The tariffs we've been talking about have finally rolled out, so we share the latest on those.  It's going to hit everything.  Buckle up.

Some big news on the buyout front this week with Anderson Valley and Great Divide being acquired.  Locally, our beloved Terrapin Brewpub at Truist Park is now a Blue Moon brewpub.  Since Terrapin was sold and Miller-Coors has rights to beer at the stadium it was kind of expected this might happen.

In other news a thirsty gentleman has invented a self-cooling beer can and we find out what each generation's favorite beers are.

Thanks for listening to Beer Guys Radio! Your hosts are Tim Dennis and Brian Hewitt with producer Nate "Mo' Mic Nate" Ellingson and occasional appearances from Becky Smalls.

Subscribe to Beer Guys Radio on your favorite app: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS
Follow Beer Guys Radio: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

If you enjoy the show we'd appreciate your support on Patreon. Patrons get cool perks like early, commercial-free episodes, swag, access to our exclusive Discord server, and more!

Craft beer is having some tiny victories.

Most of the news about craft beer these days, is not good. Breweries closing, being bought, layoffs. Blech. But there are some tiny rays of hope out there that shows this ol' drink still has life. In some locations craft beer is up. That's right. Up. And in others it's taking market share from wine and spirits. We'll take all the good news we can, now matter how small.

We also was poetic about being able to sell beer from your house, which is totally cool in some countries. I'm sure if we'd had this option when we were heavy into brewing we would have sold a few bottles. Imagine the utopia if every neigborhood had 4-5 pubs.

No new tarrif news, how about some tax news?

As far as we know there's nothing new to report on the tariffs this week. I'm sure there will be soon. But taxes, we got news on taxes. In the UK there's a proposed tax increase on their beloved, threatening to push the average price of a pint over £5, and the Brits aren't happy about it. In Oregon there's a proposed sales tax on beer which is double crazy since Oregon doesn't have sales tax at all right now. It's been proposed before and didn't go anywhere. Let's hope that trend continues.

In other news we reminisce on the old days when your beer didn't even have to be good for you to be a successful brewery, share some great news if you're over 90, and talk about the growing popularity of cans.

Thanks for listening to Beer Guys Radio! Your hosts are Tim Dennis and Brian Hewitt with producer Nate "Mo' Mic Nate" Ellingson and occasional appearances from Becky Smalls.

Subscribe to Beer Guys Radio on your favorite app: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS
Follow Beer Guys Radio: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

If you enjoy the show we'd appreciate your support on Patreon. Patrons get cool perks like early, commercial-free episodes, swag, access to our exclusive Discord server, and more!