Multiple rivers flow into Mobile Bay, and as they do so, they slow down, spread out and cross paths with each other, forming a braided river system. David Nelson latched onto that analogy between the rivers and the brewing community, and Braided River Brewing Company in Mobile, Alabama, was born. Combining this philosophy with the outdoor activities popular in Mobile Bay, such as kayaking and canoeing, David leaned fully into that braiding ideal.

Welcome to the second in our series of podcasts where we have partnered up with Malteurop Malting Company (MMC) to highlight some amazing craft breweries for the upcoming American Craft Beer Week, May 10-16.

Transitioning from being a chemist in North Carolina to a brewer and brewery owner in Alabama, David Nelson has grasped the concept of living life on his terms. This is Braided River's story of inception to conception (during a pandemic, no less), but because breweries require a lot of love, patience and grunt work, this is David's story just as much.

We talk brewing, canning, and styles of beer - this is a craft beer podcast - but we also talk life. The hardships of opening a new business. The joy of being on the water. The importance of sustainability. The community that keeps us all together during good and bad times. 2020 has been an interesting year, and David has made it a successful one, a braided journey of community, of living in the moment. A journey of realizing that even in bad times, dreams can happen.

Malteurop Celebrates Craft Breweries During American Craft Beer Week

American Craft Beer Week takes place May 10–16, 2021. This annual nationwide event celebrates small and independent craft breweries throughout the U.S. Malteurop (MMC)has joined forces with us at Living a Stout Life and a few of these phenomenal breweries, highlighting their stories of strength and camaraderie during a time when struggles are common, but support and community continuously shine through. 

Click here for the full show notes.

Connect With Us:

The Craft Beer Travel & Adventure Podcast is hosted by Living a Stout Life, where we share stories, community, and resources for all your craft beer travel and adventure lifestyle needs.

We would absolutely love it if you subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. As my nephew once said, "We say please and thank you!"

Subscribe to Living a Stout Life:

• Newsletter
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram

Buy Us a Beer:

Like our podcast? Help keep it going with a donation for a beer. We'll even zoom ya for a happy hour, if you'd like. Click here.

Shout Outs:

To David Nelson for taking time out of his busy day to chat and talk beer, business and everything in between. The braids you have created in the industry are holding steady, and we appreciate the community. We can't wait to get back to Mobile for a pint or two with you and your team!

To Galen Smith and Gretchen Jones from Malteurop Malting Company for putting this together. It may have been meant to highlight Schoolhouse for American Craft Beer Week, and that it did, but it also shined the spotlight on you two and the community within MMC.

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/craft-beer-travel-and-adventure/donations

When you meet someone who is very similar to you, you must have a podcast episode with them. And that is exactly what we did when we met Jeff Bradford from the Beer, Wine & Spirits Channel on YouTube. Jeff has made a living doing exactly what he loves, traveling the world in search of the stories behind the drinks he loves. Meet our new friend, the global beer, wine and spirits storyteller and traveler extraordinaire. Meet Jeff Bradford.

In this episode we talk about beer, wine and spirits, of course, but more importantly we talk of focusing on sense of place within these industries and the communities that surround them. We also touch on travel style, how to choose the places you want to visit and how everyone has their own unique personal relationship with alcohol.

And we talk about living the dream, which Jeff is doing brilliantly. While each of us has our own idea of what a dream life is, it's always helpful to here how others have made theirs possible. Jeff is an open book when it comes to talking about funding his storytelling travel adventures. And he's the same when talking of his current and upcoming projects on the environmental aspect of the alcohol industry. Actually, he's just open and willing to talk about everything.

Grab your favorite beer, wine or spirit and settle in for this intriguing conversation with one of our newest favorite people, Jeff Bradford. Believe me, you'll feel the same just from listening. Welcome to our world...a world with wonderful people, inspiring tales of world travel and always good beer!

Click here for the full show notes and all the beer we drank.

Connect With Jeff:

• YouTube - Beer, Wine & Spirits Channel
• Website - jeffbeerwinespirits.com
• Instagram - beer_wine_spirits
• Facebook - Beer, Wine and Spirits Channel

Connect With Us:

The Craft Beer Travel & Adventure Podcast is hosted by Living a Stout Life, where we share stories, community, and resources for all your craft beer travel and adventure lifestyle needs.

We would absolutely love it if you subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. As my nephew once said, "We say please and thank you!"

Subscribe to Living a Stout Life:

• Newsletter
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram

Buy Us a Beer:

Like our podcast? Help keep it going with a donation for a beer. We'll even zoom ya for a happy hour, if you'd like. Click here.

Shout Outs:

Jeff, we are thrilled you reached out to us. I do believe we have made a new friend and fellow beer, wine and spirits lover, and maybe even a new travel buddy. Can't wait to see what we come up with for future collaborations together. You're too much fun to let it start and end with just a podcast interview! Cheers to many more hangouts!

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/craft-beer-travel-and-adventure/donations

Sketchbook Brewing Company was born out of a love for art, community and craft beer. With their first location in Evanston, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, they had big plans of opening a second location in 2020. We all know what happened in 2020. Did they give up? Not a chance! The sketches of a dream still became a reality. And during a pandemic, Sketchbook Brewing grew from one location to two.

Welcome to the second in our series of podcasts where we have partnered up with Malteurop Malting Company (MMC) to highlight some amazing craft breweries for the upcoming American Craft Beer Week, May 10-16.

Meet Cesar Marron, Managing Partner and Head Brewer at Sketchbook. An avid homebrewer, while working full-time, Cesar is not one to sit still. So, why not open up a brewery? And that he did. Growing up in Brazil and harnessing a work ethic and responsibility from helping at his parents' business when he was a teen, influenced him immensely. He had to figure things out then, and later when he moved to America on his own.

That independence has served him well. If he didn't know what to do, he'd learn what to do. Maybe that's why he loves hardware stores and sketchbooks so much.

From day one of planning for their 2014 opening to today, Cesar and his team are voracious DIY’ers, artisans and crafters. It's what kept them going during the pandemic and what will keep them going strong afterwards, as well. We've said it again and again, "Beer is about so much more than just beer." We hope this conversation puts a smile on your face like the one on Cesar's above.

Malteurop Celebrates Craft Breweries During American Craft Beer Week

American Craft Beer Week takes place May 10–16, 2021. This annual nationwide event celebrates small and independent craft breweries throughout the U.S. Malteurop (MMC) has joined forces with us at Living a Stout Life and a few of these phenomenal breweries, highlighting their stories of strength and camaraderie during a time when struggles are common, but support and community continuously shine through. 

Click here for the full show notes.

Connect With Us:

The Craft Beer Travel & Adventure Podcast is hosted by Living a Stout Life, where we share stories, community, and resources for all your craft beer travel and adventure lifestyle needs.

We would absolutely love it if you subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. As my nephew once said, "We say please and thank you!"

Subscribe to Living a Stout Life:

• Newsletter
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram

Buy Us a Beer:

Like our podcast? Help keep it going with a donation for a beer. We'll even zoom ya for a happy hour, if you'd like. Click here.

Shout Outs:

To Cesar for taking time out of your day even after fixing a leaky roof. Your hardware statement rings true. And we are glad it does. We've got to get there before the roof caves in! Just a joke, y'all! Cesar and his team won't let the roof fall in on this wonderful place. The art is too important. Plus, they walk around with sketchbooks all the time, creating new and exciting things and beer for us! Thank you for doing that! Until we meet in person, friends across the way will have to work.

To Nicole Henzel and Gretchen Jones from Malteurop Malting Company for putting this together. It may have been meant to highlight Schoolhouse for American Craft Beer Week, and that it did, but it also shined the spotlight on you two and the community within MMC.

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/craft-beer-travel-and-adventure/donations

Wanna go back to school? How about a school with beer? We've got you covered with Schoolhouse Brewing in Marietta, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. And with a tagline - Where Education Meets Recess - how can you go wrong going back to school here?

Welcome to the first in our series of podcasts where we have partnered up with Malteurop Malting Company (MMC) to highlight some amazing craft breweries for the upcoming American Craft Beer Week, May 10-16.

We're excited for you to join us in the first MMC American Craft Beer Week Conversation with Thomas Monti and Justin Waller, owners and brewers at Schoolhouse Brewing. Yes, we will talk beer, but these two are all about community and education, so the conversations run deep.

Both teachers in their previous lives, they now own a brewery and a homebrew shop. They just can't stay away from teaching or brewing. That serves all beer lovers quite nicely. Never brewing the same thing twice, these two are passionate about everything they do. And they do everything.

Their website is phenomenal. They're active on social media, and they even have their very own podcast, The Mötley Brewers. I warned them about not burning out because we need their beer and their wisdom. Their response? "We're too bright to burn out."

Join us for this fun conversation about the joys and trials and tribulations of life while running a brewery. These two will inspire and crack you up. But more importantly, they will remind you that community is everything.

Malteurop Celebrates Craft Breweries During American Craft Beer Week

American Craft Beer Week takes place May 10–16, 2021. This annual nationwide event celebrates small and independent craft breweries throughout the U.S. Malteurop (MMC) has joined forces with us at Living a Stout Life and a few of these phenomenal breweries, highlighting their stories of strength and camaraderie during a time when struggles are common, but support and community continuously shine through. 

Click here for the full show notes and all the beer we drank.

Connect With Us:

The Craft Beer Travel & Adventure Podcast is hosted by Living a Stout Life, where we share stories, community, and resources for all your craft beer travel and adventure lifestyle needs.

We would absolutely love it if you subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. As my nephew once said, "We say please and thank you!"

Subscribe to Living a Stout Life:

• Newsletter
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram

Buy Us a Beer:

Like our podcast? Help keep it going with a donation for a beer. We'll even zoom ya for a happy hour, if you'd like. Click here.

Shout Outs:

To Thomas and Justin for their brilliant insight into finding the positive amidst a world of chaos. You two made the conversation engaging and fun. It felt like we've known you for years and we haven't even officially met face to face.

To Rick Barney and Gretchen Jones from Malteurop Malting Company for putting this together. It may have been meant to highlight Schoolhouse for American Craft Beer Week, and that it did, but it also shined the spotlight on you two and the community within MMC.

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/craft-beer-travel-and-adventure/donations

Welcome to Bikin' Bits - a bit about bikin' - so you don't have to look forever to find the trails you want to ride. Where we tell you the loops to ride, the loopdy-loops to ride, the uphills, the downhills.

Where we summarize the trails, so you know exactly where you want to go, how long you want to spend, how much elevation you want to gain and how much descent you want to fly down. And of course there'll be a brewery recommendation at the end.

Sedona is known for its stunning red rock vistas and spiritual vortexes. Combine those with MTB trails, and you'll definitely feel something spiritual. The Dry Creek Trails on Boynton Canyon Road just outside of Sedona proper are about a 15-minute drive from free camping on Forest Road 525, the Main Drag. Do it! Camp, bike, drink! See, spiritual!

Here's the loop!

The loops here are quite easy to determine and the trails are very well marked.

Doe Mountain Loop:

Start at Aerie Trailhead by heading south on Cockscomb to Aerie back to the trailhead.

Fay Canyon Trailhead:

Start at Cockscomb to Dawa to Arizona Cypress to Girdner to Rupp back into Cockscomb back to the trailhead.

Each loop will take about 60 - 90 minutes and is around 6-7 miles with around 400-500 feet of elevation gain.

Here's the beer!

You gotta have beer! Sedona Beer Company is the go-to brewery in Sedona.

Check out all of Bikin' Bit podcasts episodes here.

Trail Connections on YouTube:

Check out our YouTube channel where you get to see many of the trails we talk about on the podcast.

Connect With Us:

The Craft Beer Travel & Adventure Podcast is hosted by Living a Stout Life, where we share stories, community, and resources for all your craft beer travel and adventure lifestyle needs.

We would absolutely love it if you subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. As my nephew once said, "We say please and thank you!"

Subscribe to Living a Stout Life:

• Newsletter
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram

Buy Us a Beer:

Like our podcast? Help keep it going with a donation for a beer. We'll even zoom ya for a happy hour, if you'd like. Click here.

Shout Outs:

All the people who maintain the Sedona Trails! They are phenomenal!

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/craft-beer-travel-and-adventure/donations

Catalina Brewing Company in Tucson is a brewery, but more than that, they are a community. Hank Rowe and Brian Vance have created an environment that brings beer and bikes together perfectly with their mantra of We Bike, We Brew.

Their story of camaraderie and common love for biking and beer was a natural fit for opening up Catalina Brewing Company. We were thrilled to chat with Brian about the brewery and the beer, but as we always say, beer is about the people, so we talked more than just beer.

Join us for this fun conversation about the joys and trials and tribulations of a brewery, while working a day job, raising a family and trying to find time for those epic bike rides. And in Tucson, there are plenty of those.

Click here for the full show notes and all the beer we drank.

Connect With Us:

The Craft Beer Travel & Adventure Podcast is hosted by Living a Stout Life, where we share stories, community, and resources for all your craft beer travel and adventure lifestyle needs.

We would absolutely love it if you subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. As my nephew once said, "We say please and thank you!"

Subscribe to Living a Stout Life:

• Newsletter
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram

Buy Us a Beer:

Like our podcast? Help keep it going with a donation for a beer. We'll even zoom ya for a happy hour, if you'd like. Click here.

Shout Outs:

To Brian and Marie Vance for taking the time to put up with us. Brian, it was great talking beer and biking with you and we can't wait to visit again and maybe do a ride together in the future. Andy, your brewing knowledge is phenomenal and your friendliness even better. And all the beertenders, you guys rock!

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/craft-beer-travel-and-adventure/donations

Traveling in 2010 to South Africa with trucks and rooftop tents and talking about beer and overlanding around campfires, two brothers, Jeremy and Jeff, crafted the idea for a brewery. A mere ten years later, MotoSonora Brewing Company was born.

We sat down with Jeremy DeConcini, one of the owners, and Joel Hatlin, brewer, for a lively and inspirational conversation about travel around the world and the beer and vehicles that intertwine within that culture of travel. 

If you don't have the proper vehicles to get you where you need to go in life, both figuratively and literally, will you ever get anywhere?

This is the story behind MotoSonora. The story of how beer shapes a life of travel and adventure. It’s about the beer, of course, but it's also about adventurous tales of travel, surfing, and exploring who you are within those vehicles that get you where you want to be.

Click here for the full show notes and all the beer we drank.

Connect With Us:

The Craft Beer Travel & Adventure Podcast is hosted by Living a Stout Life, where we share stories, community, and resources for all your craft beer travel and adventure lifestyle needs.

We would absolutely love it if you subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. As my nephew once said, "We say please and thank you!"

Subscribe to Living a Stout Life:

• Newsletter
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram

Buy Us a Beer:

Like our podcast? Help keep it going with a donation for a beer. We'll even zoom ya for a happy hour, if you'd like. Click here.

Shout Outs:

To Jeremy, Joel, David, and the wonderful beertender who graciously served us the beer (forgive us, we cannot remember your name, but you were brilliant and so kind) and everyone at MotoSonora Brewing Company. Your hospitality and inspiration kept us there long past our podcast time. We love the beer, the ambiance, and most definitely, the oasis of people. We can't wait to come back.

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/craft-beer-travel-and-adventure/donations

Welcome to Bikin' Bits - a bit about bikin' - so you don't have to look forever to find the trails you want to ride. Where we tell you the loops to ride, the loopdy-loops to ride, the uphills, the downhills.

Where we summarize the trails, so you know exactly where you want to go, how long you want to spend, how much elevation you want to gain and how much descent you want to fly down. And of course there'll be a brewery recommendation at the end.

Whether you like mountain biking or not, you need to listen to this episode. We think we’re quite funny. And it’s only 12 minutes long - about as long as our attention spans. Plus, we had a special guest who thinks he's funny, too. Meet Brian Ott, fellow biker, fellow RVer and fellow entrepreneur, but more importantly, a great friend!

We rode Tucson Mountain Park just outside of Tucson and started at the Ironwood Picnic Area for a 12 mile loop and 500 feet of elevation gain. This ride did start a little slow, as in green trails with not much excitement, but the beauty here is...well, beautiful! But it became a fun MTB ride well worth the loop we completed. Surrounded by cacti everywhere, be wary, but have fun!

Here's the loop!

Start on Ironwood Loop

Right on Well Road (or ride Gilbert Ray instead) 

Left on Coatimundi

Right on Brown Mtn Trail

Cross Kinney Rd to Right on Orcut

Right on Cougar

Right on Gilbert Ray

Left on Mariposa

Left on Ironwood Loop

Right on Prickly Poppy

Left on Caliche Flats to bring you back 

Here's the beer!

You gotta have beer, especially after trying to figure out the directions from this loop. There are so many great breweries in Tucson, but let's start with these great ones: Borderlands, Crooked Tooth, MotoSonora! Just go to all of them!

Check out all of Bikin' Bit podcasts episodes here.

Trail Connections on YouTube:

Check out our YouTube channel where you get to see many of the trails we talk about on the podcast.

Connect With Us:

The Craft Beer Travel & Adventure Podcast is hosted by Living a Stout Life, where we share stories, community, and resources for all your craft beer travel and adventure lifestyle needs.

We would absolutely love it if you subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. As my nephew once said, "We say please and thank you!"

Subscribe to Living a Stout Life:

• Newsletter
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram

Buy Us a Beer:

Like our podcast? Help keep it going with a donation for a beer. We'll even zoom ya for a happy hour, if you'd like. Click here.

Shout Outs:

Thanks to Brian for keeping us funny! He is half of the team at A Fearless Venture. If you need a website, check 'em out. They build websites and offer SEO assistance. Plus, they're just good people.

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/craft-beer-travel-and-adventure/donations

Archaeologist, Andrew Moore, opened up Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project in Denver in 2017 and transitioned that brewery into Next Stop Brew Co. Sadly, his brewery became a casualty of COVID. But this adventurous wanderer - AKA The Intrepid Sojourner, a traveler, brewer and mountain biker, doesn't look at closure as an end. 

Thankfully he looks at it as a beginning. When Intrepid Sojourner closed recently, Andrew decided to go on a bike ride, and not just any bike ride. Joining a colleague and friend, Jon Strother, Head Brewer at Guanella Pass Brewery, they took off on a 250 mile bike ride. Riding four days and tackling 22,000 feet of elevation gain, Andrew doesn't do easy; he tackles challenges head on.

Join us as we chat with Andrew about the closing of his brewery, his mountain biking adventures, brewing in Bermuda and his goals for the future. Being the traveler, brewer and biker that he is, we selfishly hope that he opens up another brewery so that we can continue to share in his adventures.

Keep an eye out for Andrew Moore. His former brewery may be a casualty of COVID, but I imagine you’ll see his name floating around Denver in the future.

Click here for the full show notes and all the beer we drank.

Connect With Us:

The Craft Beer Travel & Adventure Podcast is hosted by Living a Stout Life, where we share stories, community, and resources for all your craft beer travel and adventure lifestyle needs.

We would absolutely love it if you subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. As my nephew once said, "We say please and thank you!"

Subscribe to Living a Stout Life:

• Newsletter
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram

Buy Us a Beer:

Like our podcast? Help keep it going with a donation for a beer. We'll even zoom ya for a happy hour, if you'd like. Click here.

Shout Outs:

To Andrew Moore for always being so accommodating when we want to chat about beer, travel and biking. Good luck in everything you do. But selfishly, we do hope to see your unique brews back in the business sometime in the near future.

To Green Mountain Beer Company for doing your best through all of the crap the world can throw at you. We thoroughly enjoyed sitting on your patio on a warm winter day, podcasting and drinking the day away with some tasty brews.

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/craft-beer-travel-and-adventure/donations

I first met Danielle in Colorado. We were both volunteering on an advisory board for a nonprofit that worked with educating girls in Tanzania. This was in 2014. Danielle had already been a world traveler, and it's no wonder that she; her husband, Conor and their dog, Pivo are now embarking upon a full-time sailing life.

Danielle, Conor and Pivo have been living in Auckland on the North Island in New Zealand since 2016. Since then, they've created a life there, working regular jobs, buying a house, making friends...building a foundation.

And as so many foundations do over time, they crack. Within that crack, they found this idea of living on a sailboat. One problem. Neither of them knew how to sail.

This is their story. A story of two travelers coming together in far away lands, building a life while constantly seeking new adventures. Lessons in downsizing, sailing and becoming entrepreneurs. It has a bit of a fairytale sound. But as in life on land, the sailing life definitely has its trials and tribulations.

And they're documenting it along the way. And as Danielle puts it, "Lots of beer learning curve." That's a learning curve I can handle. 

How do I connect with Sailing Pivo?

• YouTube
• Pinterest
• Facebook 
• Instagram
• Reddit 

Click here for the full show notes and all the beer we drank.

Connect With Us:

The Craft Beer Travel & Adventure Podcast is hosted by Living a Stout Life, where we share stories, community, and resources for all your craft beer travel and adventure lifestyle needs.

We would absolutely love it if you subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. As my nephew once said, "We say please and thank you!"

Subscribe to Living a Stout Life:

• Newsletter
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram

Buy Us a Beer:

Like our podcast? Help keep it going with a donation for a beer. We'll even zoom ya for a happy hour, if you'd like. Click here.

Shout Outs:

To Danielle and Conor - you guys were so much fun to chat and drink beer with. You're definitely going places! We can't wait to hang out with you in person, on your boat, while drinking beer!  

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/craft-beer-travel-and-adventure/donations