Fieldwork Brewing Company co-founder Barry Braden joins Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell on Brew Ha Ha today.

Barry Braden and Erin Callahan are here from Fieldwork Brewing Co. They are expanding into Santa Rosa and Erin will manage their restaurant in Montgomery Village. They will open soon, after one last regulatory step. There is a buzz in the neighborhood and people passing by are noticing that it looks like a restaurant already. They will have an extensive beer selection and a full menu including pizza, salad, wings, French fries, fried cauliflower and pickles and lots more.

Barry tells about how they serve a rotation of beers, so that fans of different types of beer can keep coming back for their favorites. He also says this is one way to make the brewers’ jobs interesting.

They are using a lot of new technologies with their hops, including hop distillates, extracts and experimental hops. Fieldwork Brewing also works with Berkeley Yeast. This company is engineering yeast to mimic certain flavors. This goes mostly into the hop-driven beers and their non-alcoholic or “N/A” beers.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more.

Amidst the current downturn in the beer market, Fieldworks Brewing is actually growing. They are opening their tenth location in the Bay Area. The NHL’s San José Sharks have chosen Fieldwork as their official non-alcoholic beer. Some of their N/A drinks use compounds (with complex chemical names) which confer extra flavors as well as a mood lift, according to Erin.

Visit our sponsor PizzaLeah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu, great beers and the most authentic flavors around! 🍕🍻

Daedalus notices that Fieldwork produces an excellent product all across its product line including the N/A drinks, which elevates the quality level of the entire emerging market of N/A drinks. Barry explains that it took them some time to emerge in the N/A market. They waited for the brewing technology to evolve so that their N/A cocktails tastes like real ones, and their N/A beers tastes like real beer. So, if you want to go out with friends and not drink alcohol, for whatever reason, “…we have something for you,” says Barry.

Fieldwork Brewing Co. products are available in many local retail stores as well as their locations.

Nick Gislason, co-founder and Head Brewer at Hanabi Lager Co. is our guest on Brew Ha Ha with Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell.

Herlinda Heras is just back from Belgium and brought back so much beer that she had to pay for overweight suitcases. Daedalus is also back from his own trip to Paris and London. He gets to reconnect with Herlinda for a few minutes before having to leave for an event later this evening. One of the beers that she brought back is from the Saint Sixtus Monastery in Westvleteren, that she visited, and Daedalus gets to taste it before he has to take off.

The labels feature drawings of the patterns that different Japanese fireworks make, up in the air. Nick explains that “hanabi” means fireworks, in Japanese. “Hana” means flower and “bi” means fire, so literally their word for fireworks means “fire flowers.” The fireworks manufacturers used these drawings in the 1800s to describe their products, before photography was available to show the patterns that they make.

Nick grew up on San Juan Island in Washington, and learned brewing from an uncle who was a home brewer. In college he brewed at Boundary Bay Brewing in Bellingham, where he met his wife. They both became winemakers and launched Hanabi Lager about six years ago.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more.

Nick says Hanabi makes grain-forward lagers. They are tasting the Hana Pilsner, which Herlinda says has a refined taste. Nick explains that beer is made from grain, and water, and hops are like a spice. Hops is like the barrels to wine, where the grapes are the main ingredient. So Nick focusses his energy in using the most delicious grains in the world. That fact that these plants are so important to human nutrition for thousands of years makes them sacred.

Visit our sponsor PizzaLeah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu, great beers and the most authentic flavors around! 🍕🍻

They select grains mainly for the flavor they give to the beer. These flavors mostly come from old heirloom varieties of grains. Heirloom varieties of grain can be compared to heirloom tomatoes, for their superior flavor.

To make beer, Nick explains, first you grow the grain, then sprout the seeds, then you have to arrest their growth before it goes too far. Then you dry them and lightly toast them. This process is called malting. Then you steep a barley tea, spice it with hops, and ferment it, basically. They do four different beers, one for each of the four seasons. Each one features a different heirloom grain. The Summer beer uses Eraclea, a grain from Italy.

Nick is also a part-time pyrotechnician. He works with Lopez Community Fireworks back home in Washington. They practice the Japanese art of fireworks.

We open with Herlinda Heras calling from Belgium. Leah Scurto of PizzaLeah and Fairfax Brewing Co’s Dan McGarry talk to Daedalus Howell after that. Herlinda is on a barge on a canal in Belgium, on a beer voyage sponsored by Visit Flanders, the tourist bureau.

Herlinda’s tour has taken her near the sites of some important battles of World War One. It included a visit to Flanders Fields. They visited the Saint Sixtus Abbey in Westvleteren, Belgium. The monks who live there and make beer were quite surprised when one of their beers came out Number One on RateBeer dot com. “The poor monks didn’t know what to do with themselves, but now it’s quite the destination.” They went to Rodenbach for a blending class and also to Chimay. Vinny and Natalie from Russian River Brewing Co. are also in Belgium for the Brussels Beer Challenge. However they and Herlinda are on different itineraries this time and won’t meet up over there. Herlinda has also visited some small local breweries in France and Belgium. She will have a lot to say about her trip on next week’s show. “It’s tough but somebody’s got to do it.”

Visit our sponsor PizzaLeah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu, great beers and the most authentic flavors around! 🍕🍻

After Herlinda’s call, Leah Scurto from PizzaLeah and Dan McGarry from Fairfax Brewing Company take up the conversation with Daedalus. Leah has brought a Detroit-style pizza, to go with the nice rice lager that Dan has poured, a true rice lager. Detroit style has a carmelized cheese crown, cooked in a tapered pan. The dough rises for four hours in the morning.

Fairfax Brewing Company is based in Marin County and they are now gaining distribution in Sonoma County. Dan and his partner have been in the restaurant industry for a long time. They begin by going out to the people they know. Daedalus is the editor of the Pacific Sun which did this story on Fairfax Brewing Co. Their distribution is mainly by kegs to restaurants. Later they hope to put some cans on shelves. They celebrate their one-year anniversary on September 9th.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more.

Their hazy is their number one seller, and the hazy is also the top seller at PizzaLeah. But Leah also reports people coming in asking for something that is not hazy. Trends have life cycles and while IPAs are here to stay, other styles will continue to emerge. Older drinkers have observed the evolution of craft beers. Dan says it has been “real fun to watch. … A good time for beer.”

Leah Scurto has built PizzaLeah’s success with great pizzas and also by engaging with the community. She loves teaching how to make pizza at the Artisan Baking Center in Petaluma. She also has been in many international pizza competitions. Daedalus and Leah agree that he local pizza scene has reached new heights. Leah cites Psychic Pie in Sebastopol for their original takes on traditional styles, and a couple of others. Sonoma Pizza Co. and Slow Co Pizza are both stand out. Leah notices that the pizza community is supportive and friendly, not jealous of others or envious of their success. People gladly share recipes and advice.

Kenneth Di Alba from Songbird Parlour is our guest today on Brew Ha Ha with Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell. This is his first time on the show.

Herlinda says and Daedalus agrees that Songbird Parlour should be the next Michelin starred restaurant in Sonoma County. Daedalus reads from a review he wrote for the Bohemian along with Kary Hess. It sounds delicious.

Songbird Parlour is located in the historic Jack London village in Glen Ellen. It was founded in maybe 1832, he thinks. The property has been many things, a creamery, a winery, wine storage, recording studios, even. Now, it is a restaurant for the second time. Upon entering the place, Daedalus says he feels immediately transported.

Visit our sponsor PizzaLeah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu, great beers and the most authentic flavors around! 🍕🍻

Kenneth has brought some appetizers to taste. They serve wine, beer and spritzer cocktails. Port and tonic is a Portuguese drink. They use a white Port made locally.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more.

Songbird took over their lease in 2020 which turned out to be a good time prepare the project. The pandemic moved us to broaden our horizons and invest, says Kenneth. It’s always daunting to open a restaurant. If you have to make an effort to go there, the experience had better be rewarding. Everything they serve comes from nearby. Their neighbors raise the food they serve, including cheeses, greens, mushrooms and more. “…featuring everyone in the surrounding community.” The ice cream comes from Sweet Scoops.

Aaron Gore

Aaron Gore, Vice President of the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame joins Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell on Brew Ha Ha. He is His personal website and his nickname are The Ale Chaser. In addition to his role with the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame, Aaron is VP of Sales & Marketing for The 5th Ingredient. They make customizable brewery management software.

Herlinda was at the Sonoma County Tourism annual meeting yesterday. She talked to Santa Rosa mayor Mark Stapp about coming on the Drive this Friday (tomorrow).  Herlinda is now a certified Health and Wellness coach. She will also be starting a Health and Wellness segment on the Drive, stay tuned for details.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more.

Aaron Gore joins the conversation on the phone. The American Craft Beer Hall of Fame was founded about a year and a half ago. Its purpose is to memorialize and celebrate the people who made the craft beer revolution.

Visit our sponsor PizzaLeah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu, great beers and the most authentic flavors around! 🍕🍻

From Aaron’s perspective, the people starting in the craft beer business now, are more aware of the business realities of starting a brewery, than were the original home brewers. The software company The 5th Ingredient refers to the four ingredients listed in the famous German Reinheitsgebot, of water, malted barley, hops and yeast. The further ingredient would be the technology that makes the operation run as smoothly as it can. That is where modern software comes into the picture in the brewery.

The next list of inductees to the Hall of Fame will be announced in February 2026. Herlinda Heras is an elector.

Julie

Julie Schreiber from Mycoventures is our guest today on Brew Ha Ha with Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell.

Mycoventures leads mushroom foraging adventures in wine country. They have a big event coming soon. She and her partner are doing a couple of new pop-ups. She has been cooking for a very long time and foraging for more than 30 years. So she likes to combine her interests.

Julie is also a wine judge and winemaker. Yesterday she tasted 130-150 wines as a judge in the Harvest Fair. She uses bubbly water as a palette cleanser. Herlinda and Julie have a lot of knowledge and experience with palette cleansers during judging and how to manage the flavor load.

Julie brought a truffle salami, a truffle potato chip and a truffle pate. They go well with cider or beer. Herlinda will have a dry Sincere Cider with this. Julie describes clever ways to get the mushrooms into the recipe, especially with powdered mushrooms. Julie uses a coffee grinder to grind dry mushrooms.

Visit our sponsor PizzaLeah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu, great beers and the most authentic flavors around! How about a mushroom pizza? 🍕🍻

What makes truffles so special? Well, they are different. They grow underground. They have a ripening cycle that produces the aroma that is attractive to critters. So  the truffle paté and the dry cider are already great by themseves, but take a bite of the paté and a sip of the cider together and that just makes it perfect. Daedalus favors the paté first and the cider chaser.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more.

Julie is also a musician and has a musical metaphor for flavors of wine. The high note of a chord is like the acidity and the low notes are the structures and tannins. They also like the idea of serving grape juice from different wine grapes. It can be cut with sparkling water.

Julie and Herlinda are both members of Les Dames d’Escoffier, who were featured on this Brew Ha Ha show last August. Julie gets to describe a typical menu of her Forest & Farm dinners. First there are truffled deviled eggs. Stay tuned to hear the rest after 23:00 in.

Adam Bosch, Parliament Brewing co-founder, is our guest on Brew Ha Ha with Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell. His last time on Brew Ha Ha was this episode back in June, with Herlinda and Harry Duke sitting in for Steve Jaxon that day.

Herlinda was judging the International Bread Awards at the Las Vegas Convention Center last weekend. There was also a cyber security convention on the other side of the convention center. Apparently the guys from the cybersecurity side were eager to check out the free sample in the bakery competition. The winner, a film maker, won with a sourdough from ancient grains, that he made. Daedalus observes, “a different kind of rising star.”

Adam pops the top on one of two collabs they did to celebrate their sixth anniversary, which they will do on Sept. 20-21. The first is a take on a west coast Pils. Adam explains that he wants his west coast Pils to be light and drinkable, but still with a complex and rewarding flavor profile.

The term IBU, International Bitterness Units, is measurable in a lab, but they don’t have a lab. Herlinda guesses 68, Adam estimates lower, but it’s a guess only. He remembers beer at Bear Republic that rated over 100. Adam’s brother Justin went to UC Davis to study brewing and they are partners, together with their dad.

Visit our sponsor PizzaLeah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu, great beers and the most authentic flavors around! 🍕🍻

Adam describes the band lineup for Saturday and Sunday’s 6th anniversary party. They will have different food vendors each day.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more.

Daedalus Howell sums it all up this way: “You can’t beat the vibe at Parliament. It’s really in the middle of the neighborhood and it’s the place where everyone in the neighborhood goes.”

One of the collabs, the other one, is called Common Owl, done with Common Space brewing in Los Angeles. They were both up in Washington tasting hops and they became friends and decided to do the collab. They have a 48-hour lightning hops tour to do again this year. It is a smooth west coast IPA, with lime and other citrus notes. The collab also serve to get the brands some cross promotion onto each others’ home markets.

Goat Rock Cider.

Goat Rock Cider co-founder Trevor Zebulon is our guest on Brew Ha Ha with Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell. Trevor was on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke hosting, not too long ago on this episode. Now he is back with some news, along with another guest. He is part of the Petaluma Craft Beer Festival being held on Saturday, Sept. 13. John Burns from the Petaluma Rotary Club is also in, they are organizing the PCBF.

Trevor has brought “something yummy” and he did say 15%. They open and pour, and we can hear it.

When Daedalus was a reporter and arts and entertainment editor, John Burns was the publisher of the paper for about a year. So his career started then, and here they are together again, only about 15 miles from where they were before.

Daedalus has also covered some of Trevor’s businesses, including one called Trevor’s Terrific Tours. He also had a place called Zebulon’s Lounge.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more.

John describes what Rotary does. They put on events to raise money for the community, for homeless children, seniors, and river enhancement projects. On Saturday, they have great bands, including Orquestra Batacha and Johnny Sanchez who won the award for best Elvis impersonator in 2012. He is also impersonating Garth Brooks.

Visit our sponsor PizzaLeah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu, great beers and the most authentic flavors around! 🍕🍻

The Petaluma Craft Beer Festival will feature 21 breweries from 6 different counties all around the Bay Area. They will have Goat Rock Cider, Hiveworks Mead and Hoocha Hard Kombucha in addition to all the beer. There are lots of restaurants in Petaluma too so it’s a perfect excursion.

y Jeff Duckhorn, master distiller at Redwood Empire Whiskey, joins Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell on Brew Ha Ha. This is his first time on the show, but Brew Ha Ha has covered whiskey makers before, such as here and here, in October and November of last year.

Herlinda has wanted to have Redwood Empire Distillery on Brew Ha Ha for a long time. She saw that they were going to Mare Island for a grand opening party. Herlinda has personal connections to Mare Island, since she was born there when her father was in the Navy.

Jeff Duckhorn is a master distiller, so he is in charge of the distillery and the distilling staff. He followed in indirect pathway to his present job. He was doing cost accounting for a wine company when the owner of the winery sold it and wanted to get into distilling. Jeff asked how he could be a part of that. They built the distillery in a couple of years and opened in 2015 with Jeff holding “the keys to the car.”

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more.

Jeff has brought some of their whiskey to taste and discuss, their three core products that they launched in 2019. The first is their flagship product, called Pipe Dream.

Each of their whiskeys is named after a particular old grown redwood tree. The trees are well documented and have names. Pipe Dream is the name of one, and also their leading product name. Speaking of names, Jeff’s uncle is the person who founded and gave the family name Duckhorn to the famous winery.

Visit our sponsor PizzaLeah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu, great beers and the most authentic flavors around! 🍕🍻

These are all 90 proof blends. They have been making whiskey since 2015 and these blends include their products and others that come from other distillers. This gives them the freedom to make the blends that they are making now.

They use malts from Admiral Malting, who have been on Brew Ha Ha. Even if they are making Bourbon and Rye, they add a little bit of malt to everything. “It’s like the icing on the cake,” says Jeff.

So, why is Redwood Empire moving to Mare Island? They have been looking for a larger home for the last several years. They started the facility in Graton but they have been hunting for a larger home for the last few years. Then they found a distillery on Mare Island that already has a tasting room and restaurant also built in. They were able to acquire the facility and will open on September 14. They have put away over 1700 barrels of whiskey there so far.

Mare Island has a history in shipbuilding starting in the mid 1800s through the twentieth century when it was an important west coast naval base. The brewery Mare Island Brewing Company was on this BHH episode in January 2023.

Next, they are tasting a Rye, this one is 90% rye blended with other flavors from distilleries around the country. They are aged for 4 to 8 years. They are available at Bottle Barn.

What differentiates whiskey and bourbon from rye? They have rules. You need to go into a new charred oak barrel. You have to call it something else if it doesn’t get made that way. That barrel is for one-time use. Some old barrels are then sold to Scotland and Mexico for whiskey and tequila.

To be a rye whiskey it has to have at least 51% rye.

Justin from Kohana Rum and Laura Sanfelipe from Lo & Behold are our guests on Brew Ha Ha with Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell.

Lo & Behold Bar and Kitchen in Healdsburg is open on Mondays, which Herlinda likes. She was there recently, saw a Kohana Rum bottle and asked about it. She discovered that  Kohana Rum and Lo & Behold are sponsoring the Daquiri Crush Campaign, with proceeds going to Corazón Healdsburg.

Laura describes the Daquiri Crush Campaign, which Justin brought to Lo & Behold. They have organized a Tiki Night with original and classic rum cocktails. Proceeds from the event are entirely donated to Corazón Healdsburg. The campaign will run for two months.

The Corazón Healdsburg website says, “Corazón Healdsburg works to create a more just and compassionate community for all. Corazón operates a bilingual family resource center and offers family-centered case management, as well as a cradle-to-career approach to education for all ages. We amplify the local Latin-American voice, and host community events, trainings and discussions to promote and celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more.

Justin was born and raised in Hawaii, then moved to the Bay Area, then to Sonoma County since 2017. Kohana Rum grows 34 varietals of Hawaiian heirloom sugar cane. From that, they make single varietal rums, like the varietals of grapes and wine. “The Daquiri Crush Campaign is my love letter back to Sonoma C0unty reaching out for our farm team, supporting all of the incredible farm workers up here in Sonoma County.” Through the months of harvests, they will offer some daquiris in various locations. Go out and buy a daquiri for a farmer or a farm worker!

Visit our sponsor PizzaLeah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu, great beers and the most authentic flavors around! 🍕🍻

They will also have a few events, starting with a Tiki Night. Herlinda remembers when they used to have them more often. It’s time to bring that back! “The nights you’ll never remember with the friends you’ll never forget,” says Justin