Beervana Podcast

Jeff and Patrick discuss the recent spate of brewery, brew pub and craft beer bar closings in Portland Oregon and ruminate on what it portends for the rest of the country. Special attention is paid to the failure of BridgePort, a beloved Portland institution that was fundamental in Portland becoming Beervana.

Jeff and Patrick visit the Benedictine Brewery at Mt. Angel Abbey and sit down with Father Martin, the Procurator of the Abbey and the Head Brewer of the Brewery. They learn about the origins of the brewery, how the brewery fits in with the monks' vision for the Abbey and how the brewery thinks about its beer in the tradition of monastic brewing worldwide.

Jeff and Patrick discuss the ancient practice of monastic brewing and all its modern forms. They talk about the Belgian Trappists as well as brewing monasteries around the world.

Jeff and Patrick discuss Jeff's industry compensation survey and discuss the findings in the context of industry trends.

Jeff and Patrick interview Bill Shufelt, Co-Founder, and John Walker, Co-Founder and Head Brewer of Athletic Brewing in Stratford, CT. Athletic is an entirely non-alcoholic craft beer company and in the interview we discuss the origins of the company, how their beer is made, the market for non-alcoholic beer and the regulatory environment.

Jeff sits down with Michael Kiser, founder of Good Beer Hunting, the leading resource fo beer news on of off the internet. The discuss Michael's background, how he got into beer and how he has built GBH into the success that it is.

Jeff and Patrick discuss the curious case of Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY. Now owned entirely by Duvel, its association with Belgian beer and sterling reputation for high quality make it unique in the American beer scene. Jeff sits down with Master Brewer Phil Leinhart to discuss their beer, their association with other Duvel breweries and their incorporation of local ingredients.

Jeff and Patrick discuss and preview the 2018 Oregon Brewers Festival, the annual mega-beer festival held in Portland, Oregon. They highlight beers to try, single out some more adventurous offerings and mention a couple of beers to avoid. They also discuss beer trends, changes in the festival and make some suggestions about how to approach the festival and things the fest could do differently.

Jeff and Patrick discuss the complicated world of beer laws and how they are evolving from post-prohibition era laws that dealt with few large breweries to modern laws to regulate the craft beer industry. Jeff interviews Liz Murphy, beer columnist for the Capital Gazette in Maryland, about recent changes and proposed legislation in that state.

Jeff and Patrick delve deeply into weissbier, the German wheat beer that is distinctly non-German: it is an ale, cloudy, feature yeast flavors, use wheat and are distinctly rustic. The origins and history, the methods and the variants of the style are discussed and a number of examples are sampled.