Beers with Nigel

Brewer, dad and traveler are just a few of the words Act 48 guest Damon Arredondo uses to describe himself. Damon fell in love with brewing as a home brewer & has traveled the country trying to find his place in the industry. The former head brewer at Strange Days Brewing is now working to bridge the gap between the LatinX community & craft beer. Does Damon have a brewery in the works? He didn’t say yes. But he didn’t say no, either. 

Drinker: Stockyards Brewing — Fox Trotter

Nigel and Nick are headed to the Barrel & Flow Fest Sept. 10 - 12, so they just had to have festival creators Day Bracey and Ed Bailey back on the pod. (Side note: if you're looking for someone to blame for the absurdity that is the Beers with Nigel podcast, you're welcome. The hosts of the Drinking Partners podcast and their festival are the sole reason Nigel grabbed Nick and uttered those fateful words: "I've got shit I want to say.") The duo even sent their guests some home grown KC craft beers, but apparently they broke some sacred Drinking Partners rules when they didn't send prior notice the beer was over 9% ABV. Oops. 13.5% is close, right? Act 47 discusses the upcoming festival and how it's not just about beer, but giving opportunities to minority brewers, artists and other underrepresented groups. There also may have been a discussion about getting Nick some security while in Pittsburgh. Sheesh, you can't take that other guy anywhere.

Drinkers: Sap & Juice — Iowa Beer Project; Friendship Necklace # 1 — Diametric Brewing/Double Shift Brewing cola; & Coconut Porter — Windshift Brewing.

Myster Beers: Stratoshphere — City Barrel Brewing & Graham Cracker Porter — Denver Beer Co.

"The practice of brewing beer is as old as human civilization. It is a craft that was originally practiced by women in parts of the world we now refer to as Africa and the East, but looking at the modern, craft brewing industry in the United States, you would never know..." Documentarian, attorney and activist Atinuke "Tinu" Diver joins the show to talk about beer and her current documentary project, "This Belongs To Us."

Drinker: El Segundo Brewing — Steve Austin's Broken Skull IPA.

Mystery Beers: Lively Beerworks — Mr. Beefcakes Strawberry Cream Ale; Weathered Souls — Black is Beautiful; and Pithy & Wry — Black Ice Imperial Barrel Aged Stout.

When counting female owned breweries, we haven’t been doing due our diligence. We’ve been forgetting co-owners. We learned that when we visited Rockcreek Brewing co-owned by Sara Charlson & several others in Mission,  KS. Our apologies, Sara! Nigel and Nick chat with Sara & head brewer, Trent Wiegers, and learned Trent is really into Belgian styles and Sara tells us about the beer with her avatar on it. It was born from having to can a shit-ton (that’s 50-11) beers during the to-go days of the pandemic.

Drinkers:

• Rockcreek Brewing - Vegas Daze - NEIPA

Mystery: 

• Crane Brewing - Pineapple Weiss

Nick & Nigel died and went to heaven for Act 44. Not really, ‘cause that would be a violation of Rule # 1. But, where can you find beer, bbq sauce and rubs, food AND whiskey and bourbon all in the same place? BeerSauce! That’s where. Don’t know about BeersSauce? Well, check out this episode and hear Rick “The Sauce Guy” Duree tell us about this amazing concept and drop knowledge on everything beer and bbq.

Drinkers:

Mystery Beers:

We actually found someone, like Nigel, who has 50-11 (that’s a shit ton) things going. Act 43 brings beer influencer, assistant brewer, podcaster, beertender and brewery bus tour guide (just to name a few), James Higgs aka Pass the Hops to the show. We talk the Rocherster, MN beer scene, how he became big time on the Insta and how he wants to help the craft beer evolve.

Drinking beers: Finback Brewing; New Image Brewing — Blood Orange Witbier; & Vision Quest Brewing — There's a cake in my boot. Mystery Beers: BKS Brewing — Clouds; & Hailstorm Brewing — Nilla Fluffer Nanner Nutter.

Nigel and Nick are back on the road, and for Act 42 they're in "mid-town" Lenexa Kansas talking with Pat Davis of Lost Evenings Brewing. Lost evenings is yet another brewery opening its doors during the heart of the pandemic. But that's Ok. COVIDworld was hard on everyone, but craft beer makes everything better and Pat's serving up his solid brews in a perfect neighborhood taproom. Apologies to Junior, Nick forgot to take notes on beers consumed.

Woodie Bonds is back on the show for Act 41. Woodie’s a part of the biggest KC beer news in a long time. Vine Street Brewing, opening in 2022, will be the first black-owned brewery in Missouri. Yes, the first! Woodie along with Kemit Coleman join us to talk about their vision for the brewery and their plan to bring new faces into the craft brew scene. We had a first on the podcast as we chugged a beer. Even Nick chugged a tiny glass!

Drinkers: Jam Jam — Stone Cloud Brewing; Eye’s on the Street — Kemet Coleman/Crane Brewing Collab; and Kaleidoscope Sky — BKS Artisan Ales. Mystery Beers: Alternative Tracks — Mikerphone Brewing; Mr. Beefcakes — Lively Beerworks; and Perfect Drift — 4 Noses Brewing Chuggers: Perfect Drift — 4 Noses Brewing; Morning Latte — Toppling Goliath Brewing; and Hell or High Watermelon — 21st Amendment Brewing.

It’s Act 40 of Beers with Nigel and we realized we’ve talked about Windshift Brewing and drank lots of Windshift beer over the last 39 episodes, so we thought it was high time to have them on the pod. Head Brewer Tony DiPlacito joins us and talks about his journey in brewing and opening a brewery. It’s actually all his wife Lynn’s fault. Nick flipped the script and brought his own mystery beers, so that means we had 6 to drink. You can guess how that went! Drinker: Alma Mader Brewing — Soft Commodity. Mystery Beers: Sudwerk Brewing — Best Friends; Wasatch Brewing — Nitro Polygamy; Servaes Brewing — Like Butterflies Cotton Candy; Weldworks Brewing — Never Rust; Cosmic Eye Brewing — Facial Recognition Blindness.

At first glance, the now 1-year-old Pathlight Brewing's logo catches your eye for its simplistic and clean design. But take a second to talk with head brewer Tanner Vaughn and you'll soon find, that like their beer, there's really a lot going on. And by a lot, we're talking some serious and beautiful nerd-dom here — mathematics, science and Star Wars. Tanner joins Nigel and Nick for the second stop on their KC brewery tour to talk about his love of European brews, the brewery's first anniversary and the fact Pathlight is now the unofficial taproom for local Formula 1 fans.