Big Chicken

Colin MacDonald from HenHouse Brewing is our guest with Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha today, talking about Big Chicken. He has been on the show before, most recently this episode in 2024 about the Freshtival that year.

Recently HenHouse and Fort Point breweries joined forces. They still produce different beers under the two brands. Colin describes them as having complimentary strengths. HenHouse is rooted in the North Bay and Fort Point has grown to be San Francisco’s biggest craft beer.

Justin Catalana from Fort Point Beer Co. joins the show today along with his friend and colleague Colin. There is a separate podcast page over here for Fort Point’s portion of today’s show. This way, both guests and both companies can have their own online destination and their own web traffic, for their episodes.

Big Chicken is a double IPA they make once a year. It is also a statement about freshness. They want it to be the freshest beer it can be. You can buy beer that was packaged the same day.

Fresh beer is so much better and makes enough of a difference that they founded the brewery on that principle. They used to do a promotion called the Freshtival, where they brought beers in that were no more than a week old.

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 Pliny the Younger 2026 information.

On Sunday they have an event to promote the end of Big Chicken this year. Colin compares its flavor to a tropical fruit bowl. That then begs the question, what do you pair it with? Something big and intense, so fried chicken. The Big Chicken fest this year closes with the Fried Chicken competition at Palace of Barrels in Petaluma, from noon to 4 PM. They will have 5 food trucks there serving to the people and a distinguished panel of judges. There will also be a separate hot sauce award. There will be a parade of dignitaries rubbing elbows with the hoi polloi, all in the name of community and of great tasting fresh beer.