Cheers with Nat

In a Beer with Nat first, this week includes a bonus episode!

Lotte Peplow, who you heard from in Episode #008, is so passionate about beer and food pairing, she invited me to her home and prepared three different pairings for us to share... so we could eventually share them with you, as well.

Lotte talks us through each dish – a starter, main, and dessert – and explains why each recipe works well with the recommended beer.

She also references a whole host of resources, recipes, and further reading, which you'll find on beerwithnat.com.

A quick caution – don't listen to this episode while hungry. You've been warned!

Time for Lotte to take it away…

Today's guest is Lotte Peplow, UK representative for the United States Brewers Association, the trade body for small and independent craft brewers in the States.

After graduating from uni, Lotte got her start in PR, working at several different agencies and representing various breweries and beer brands over the years, before deciding to set up her own PR business, Peplow PR.

Back in 2006, one of Lotte's early beer clients passed her contact details on to the Brewers Association as they were looking for some help to start planning events in the UK. Lotte got involved, and reminisces fondly about the incredible beer and food pairing dinner she helped to arrange at the White Horse in Parsons' Green all those years ago.

Since then, her role with the BA has only grown, and she now represents the BA on a full-time basis. Lotte writes, speaks, plans events, liaises with importers, represents the BA at meetings across the UK and Europe, and more.

She's incredibly grateful for the opportunities the role has given her, from trips to the States for the Great American Beer Festival and Craft Brewers Conference, to a recent visit to The Hague.

We talk about what her day-to-day role looks like, what her most memorable experiences in the role have been, and what learnings from the US beer scene she'd like to see here in the UK.

Lotte is also a beer judge, Beer Sommelier, and recently qualified Certified Cicerone®. She tells me why she decided to pursue her certifications and about the credibility they've given her.

We also talk about what she gets up to outside of beer and what she enjoys most about being a part of the beer industry. Here she is…

Today's guest is Jane Peyton, an award-winning drinks educator, author, speaker, broadcaster, and tour guide who runs her own business – the School of Booze – which she founded back in 2008 to offer training, consultancy, and corporate events.

Jane tells us what she was doing before she started the School of Booze and how a Venn diagram helped her to discover her perfect career path after she left behind her previous role as a documentary film producer.

Jane's regarded as a bit of a legend here in the UK beer industry – and our conversation gives you a pretty good idea why.

You'll hear from Jane on what it took to set a Guinness World Record, how she's championed beer as Britain's national beverage as the founder of Beer Day Britain, and how she's been recognized for her many contributions to the British beer industry.

We discuss some of Jane's many achievements during our conversation, but I'm also going to mention a few upfront, mainly so you know just how accomplished Jane truly is:

• She's a Beer Sommelier and the UK's first Pommelier, a sommelier specialising in cider
• Imbibe Magazine named her Drinks Educator of the Year in 2016
• She was acknowledged for her Outstanding Individual Achievement in Beer from the Beer & Cider Marketing Awards in 2017, and
• Just last year, she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group.

Pretty impressive, huh?

Jane tells us what her day-to-day looks like, what accomplishment she's most proud of, and what she enjoys most about being a part of the beer industry. Here she is…

Today's guest is Ree Scales, People and Development Manager for Mother Kelly's, an independent group of pubs, bars, and bottle shops based here in London.

Back in 2015, Ree and I used to work together behind the bar at Mother Kelly's in Bethnal Green, an East London beer institution. She started there in April that year, just a year after Mother Kelly's opened, and has since worked her way up to the head office role she's in now.

Ree got her professional start in her hometown of Bury St Edmunds, and when she felt there were no new challenges for her there, she left town to make it in London.

But it wasn't an easy transition. She speaks openly and honestly about the struggles she faced when looking for work and how it's impacted the way she acts in her role today.

Ree's story is one of grit - she's used to starting at the bottom and working her way up. She says it's the only way she knows how. And I'm sure it's made her a better manager because she truly understands the roles she's recruiting for. Why? She's held them herself.

You'll hear what work Ree was looking for when she moved to London and how she ended up at Mother Kelly's instead. Then how she transitioned to her full-time head office role and what she's learned along the way.

I'm grateful for Ree and others in roles like hers because - for me - it's the people in this industry that make it so wonderful.

Ree lets us in on the one trait that every person she's hired has had in common. We also talk about how people act differently online versus in real life, as not only is Ree involved in hiring, she also helps to manage some of the Mother Kelly's social media, too.

She tells us what her day-to-day looks like now, what the best bit of her job is, and what she enjoys most about being a part of the beer industry. Here she is...

Today's guest is Julie O'Grady, Head of Sales, Marketing, and Events for Liverpool's Neptune Brewery.

Although Julie is relatively new to her current full-time role at Neptune, she's been part of the brewery since it opened in 2015, as she and her husband, Les, founded the brewery together.

For the first few years, Julie was working full time for the NHS, then Liverpool City Council, and would help out with brewery on nights and weekends. (She'd squeeze in a few tweets during her lunch break is well!)

Julie's involvement in the beer community goes beyond Neptune though. Just before the brewery opened, Julie founded Ladies That Beer, a meet-up group for beer loving ladies based in Liverpool, because she noticed a lack of women at the beer festivals she was attending.

From its beginnings is a social group, Ladies That Beer has taken on new aims to engage, educate, and empower women who love beer.

Hence why Julie was one of the co-organizers of the event I recorded at today, the Ladies' Big Beery Meet-up. Julie from Ladies That Beer and Alix Shaw from the Crafty Beer Girls (who you heard from in Episode 002 of Beer with Nat) planned this event in Manchester to bring beer loving ladies from across the country together for an afternoon.

And that's where I recorded my first ever live episode of Beer with Nat! (It's pretty similar to a regular episode, but with a few more woos and claps from my ever-so-engaged audience! Thanks all!)

In this episode, Julie talks us through her and Les's decision to open Neptune Brewery (and the fun story of where the name came from!), along with what it was like to balance the brewery work and her full-time job, to when she knew she was ready to make the transition to beer full-time.

She tells us what aspects of her work she's most passionate about, what she likes to get up to outside of beer, and what she enjoys best about being a part of the beer industry.

Here she is...

Today's guest is Jan Rogers, owner and director of Marble Brewery in Manchester.

In 1990, Jan turned up for a drink at the Marble Arch pub and – in her words – didn't go home. She began working at the pub and, when it was facing uncertainty in the late '90s, Jan was adamant that karaoke wasn't the fix. Instead, the decision was made to install a small brew kit in the pub and that's how Marble Brewery began back in 1997.

From Marble's early days, I ask Jan to reflect on how both the business and the beer industry have changed over the last twenty years. (Yes, it was a big ask, but Jan's got some great stories and incredible insight to share.)

We talk about why she sees the brewery's small size as an asset and how it's allowed her to create a sense of community not only within the business, but across the Manchester and broader UK beer scene, too.

Jan tells me what aspects of her job she enjoys best, what she's most proud of, and what her vision is for Marble's future.

Before I turn it over to our conversation, I just wanted to add in a mention of how Jan and I met: Back in November, I headed up to Manchester to record my first ever live episode of Beer with Nat at the Ladies' Big Beery Meet-up – a meet up of beer-loving ladies from across the country hosted by Ladies that Beer and Crafty Beer Girls – which you'll hear on my next episode.

Jan not only hosted us at one of Marble Brewery's venues, 57 Thomas Street, she also agreed to get there early to meet me for a beer and a chat before the event kicked off so I could squeeze in another recording while in town. Thanks again, Jan!

Although we'd not met before, I heard Jan's Northern Irish accent and instantly felt right at home. Yes, I sound very American by now, but both of my parents are Northern Irish and I actually lived there for a few years as a child. It felt like Jan and I had an immediate connection and I couldn't wait to sit down, chat and get to know her better.

Here she is…

Today's guest is Gaia Freytag, Quality Assurance Manager at Birrificio del Ducato in Parma, Italy.

While pursing her Master's in Food Science and Technology, Gaia discovered her passion for beer and sought to learn everything she could through self-study, in addition to her coursework.

After graduating, she had a short stint interning at a brewery in north Italy, then landed her current role at del Ducato.

In addition to her work in the lab, Gaia also serves as a brand ambassador for the small team, traveling to represent the brewery at events and festivals across Europe.

And that's actually how Gaia and I met. She was over in London to pour at a festival and – as del Ducato is now part of the Duvel family – she reached out and asked if we could get together for a beer and a chat. And I'm so, so glad she did. We chatted for two hours about our shared passion and I knew then I needed to get Gaia on the podcast.

Beer quality is something we all hear mentioned, but very few of us actually know what it entails or may feel intimidated by all the technical terms. Gaia loves what she does and does her best to make quality a topic we can all engage in.

That said though, if there are any topics we discuss that we didn't go into enough detail on or that you'd like to learn more about, Gaia has very kindly offered to take your questions to help make sense of it all. Head on over to beerwithnat.com to find out how to reach her. (Thanks, Gaia!)

In this episode, you'll learn all about the day to day role of a quality manager, why Gaia feels her job never truly ends, and what she thinks are the most overlooked aspects of quality – by both breweries and consumers.

You'll also hear where beer has let Gaia travel to, what she gets up to outside of the beer world, and how beer has helped to bring her out of her shell.

Here she is…

Today's guest is Alix Shaw, Assistant Packaging Manager at The Five Points Brewing Company in Hackney, East London.

Alix is also a co-founder of the Crafty Beer Girls, a community of beer loving ladies who work in the beer industry or just enjoy a good pint. In addition to monthly meet ups at pubs and bars in London, Crafty Beer Girls has an online community that's grown to nearly 800 women worldwide, since its founding in 2015.

I met Alix through Crafty Beer Girls and was so excited to get her on the podcast because her energy and enthusiasm for all things beer is infectious. Plus, her story of how she got to where she is in the beer world has lessons for us all.

Alix and I talk about how she made her transition from wine to beer, and what she's learned by saying yes to every opportunity that came her way… namely, discovering her passion for packaging.

Alix tells what she loves most about her role as Assistant Packaging Manager, educates us on what can go wrong when beers aren't properly packaged, and emphasizes the importance of building a tight-knit team.

We reflect on her personal journey in beer, along with the growth of the Crafty Beer Girls and its impact on the London beer community over the years.

We also talk about what Alix gets up to outside of the beer world, what picks her up after a down day or long shift, and what changes she's hoping to bring to the beer industry to help create safer and fairer working environments for all.

If you've never really paid attention to beer packaging before, prepare for that to change. If anyone can make you passionate about packaging, it's Alix.

Here she is…

Today's guest is the incredible Jaega Wise.

Jagea is head brewer at Wild Card Brewery in Walthamstow, East London, the brewery she's been a part of since it opened in 2012.

When she's not in the brewhouse, you can catch Jaega on the telly, as she's a presenter on Channel 5's The Wine Show.

She's also been widely recognized for her work as an equality campaigner for the industry, which has seen her so eloquently address the issue of sexism in the beer industry at conferences and festivals up and down the country.

She's a recently qualified Beer Sommelier and beer judge, too.

As if all of this doesn't sound impressive enough, Jaega was recently short-listed for Brewer of the Year by the British Guild of Beer Writers for their Annual Awards and was included in the Evening Standard's Progress 1,000 – a list of London's most influential people in 2018.

Jaega and I talk about how her background in engineering led her to her current role as head brewer and how her passion for home brewing still fuels her creativity in the brewhouse today.

We discuss the changes that she's called for to help bring equality to the beer industry and how Jaega is helping in her own way - by organizing the London chapter of her friend, Sophie de Ronde's, International Women's Collaboration Brew Day, each March.

Jaega tells me where she finds her inspiration and what she gets up to in her free time. We also talk about what drives her, when she's at her happiest, what she loves most about being a part of the beer industry, and a whole lot more.

Here she is...

Welcome to Beer with Nat. I'm your host, Natalya Watson, but you can call me Nat – everyone else does!

On every episode, I'll share a beer and a chat with people who do what they love for a living... they work in the beer industry.

From head brewers, to packaging managers, to beer writers, and PRs, they've sat down with me to share their stories about what got them into beer, what they do for a living, what they love about the industry, and so much more.

As we've all ended up in this industry by pursuing a passion or chasing a dream, you can bet each guest has some pretty incredible stories to tell.

Check back soon for the first episode of Beer with Nat.