As Matt Diamond says on this podcast, "Some people pop bottles of champagne. We pop bottles of beer." To celebrate Matt Diamond and "Houston" Matt DeBruin's recent running of the Boston Marathon and me qualifying for the 2018 Boston Marathon, the three of us decided to crack open Goose Island's 2015 BCS Rare. Over this very delicious beer, we chat a little bit about Bourbon County, the significance of the Boston Marathon and some of the best brews both Matts had while in Boston. After putting in months and months of hard work during our training, it was really nice celebrating these two. 

Cheers!

Tommy

It was great to finally chat over beer with Matt Tanaka, of the aptly named marketing and design studio for the beer industry, Matt Tanaka Marketing. Both of us could have talked about beer and marketing for hours... probably longer, and we fit as much as we could into this thirty-ish minute episode. The things I wanted to hear about most were his opinions on how craft breweries can best stand out in an increasingly crowded market, why big beer is marketed differently than craft beer and, of course, a few of the awesome projects he is working on.  

Grab a 3 Sheeps Brewing Nitraberry and a shaker pint glass, pour hard and enjoy the episode. 

Cheers!

Tommy

We're brewing a beer for our Beer in a Glass: Future Is FemALE event on May 13th and fortunate enough to have our good friends Amy and Alysha helping out with its recipe and production. Over beer, I sat down with both of them and talked about our brew, What Gose Around, and what makes a good beer brand — from their willingness to experiment to unique labels to reflective taprooms. It's always a pleasure chatting with these two and we're super excited about the beer we've been brewing. 

If you'd like to taste What Gose Around, you can purchase a ticket to our Future Is FemALE Beer in a Glass event here. We also have a donation option on the ticket page, if you can't make it to the event but still want to support Planned Parenthood of Illinois. We hope to see you there! 

Cheers,

Tommy

A few weeks ago, we sat down with Jack Muldowney and, among other things, chatted a little bit about his recent work on the 3 Sheeps Brewing rebranding. Jorge and I stopped by the brewery over the weekend for the launch of the new brand and their 5 Year Anniversary Party. It was a blast and great to see some of Jack's work up close and featured heavily throughout the taproom and production facility! 

Grant Pauly, Founder and Brewmaster of 3 Sheeps Brewing, stopped by Few Brews HQ this past Tuesday for a quick interview. Over the brewery's delicious Barrel Aged Paid Time Off beer, we we discussed the success and growth of the brewery over the past 5 years, the new brand and what it means to brew with heart and science. Grab a cold one, plug in your headphones and enjoy our latest chat over beer, with Grant Pauly. 

Cheers!

Tommy

Hopewell Brewing Co. has quickly become a favorite location for us at Few Brews and for many Logan Square locals since the brewery opened their doors last February. The combination of delicious beer and the brewery's beautiful taproom create one of the best places to grab a beer while spending time with friends.

As a big fan of the brewery, it was a great pleasure to sit down for an interview with Hopewell's Co-founder Samantha Lee. Over beer, Samantha and I had a conversation about how Hopewell got started, their love of collaborating with local businesses and organizations, and how they're using their taproom to build a community around beer, with an emphasis on community. It was a fun interview with great insight from Samantha into the brewery and the culture Hopewell is building within Chicago's craft beer industry. 

Cheers!

Jorge Lopez

This past weekend, the Few Brews team — Jorge Lopez, Matt Diamond and myself — decided to do a side-by-side tasting of Hop Butcher for the World's The World's Colombian Coffee Exposition Imperial Coffee Stout and a barrel aged version of the coffee used in the beer, which was roasted by Hero Coffee. Both were super delicious, and it was a fun opportunity to test out our palates and ramble a bit about one of our favorite ingredients being used in beer.  

Cheers! 

Tommy

We've known Jack for about a year now, after working with him and The Hop Review on our My Kind of Town Beer Tasting last May. Being a Co-founder of The Hop Review and Founder of Studio Malt, his branding and illustration practice, we wanted to chat with Jack about his perspective on design in the beer industry, some of his favorite brewery finds over the years and what it was like to work with 3 Sheeps Brewing on their re-branding. With the market getting more competitive every day, brand and what a brewery represents to its customers is becoming increasingly important. It was great to get insight into this from someone with experience in the industry as a storyteller designer and consumer. 

Cheers,

Tommy

Excited to share another sneak peek at some of the rebranding work we did for Sheboygan, Wisconsin's @3sheepsbrewing, with this 6-pack carrier packaging for their Imperial IPA with Honey, "First Kiss." More to come soon... . #threesheeps #3sheeps #3sheepsbrewing #IPA #honey #craftbeer #packaging #illustration #graphicdesign #beerdesign #chicagodesign #widesign #wisconsin #sheboyganwi [photo by @lakeshorebeverage]

A post shared by Studio Malt (@studiomalt) on Mar 14, 2017 at 11:24am PDT

New pieces from the 3 Sheeps Brewing rebrand are still rolling out, & this was definitely one of the coolest to execute. Custom embossed kegs + keg wrap. . #3sheepsbrewing #3sheeps #sheboygan #sheboyganwi #wibeer #wisconsinbeer #graphicdesign #keg #chicagodesign #studiomalt #beerdesign [photo by @kevinschmalandt]

A post shared by Studio Malt (@studiomalt) on Mar 18, 2017 at 1:14pm PDT

Photo by Jason Amen

This past weekend, a few buddies and I took a beer trip out to Indiana. I'll be posting a written story about the entire trip next Tuesday (3/21), which will feature photos and go into more detail about our entire experience in "The Crossroads of America." Stay tuned for updates.

We met Doug Dayhoff, the president of Upland Brewing Co., on the second day of our trip while visiting the brewery in Bloomington. Generously, he spent a couple hours of his day showing us around their facilities and talking about how the brewery has grown since opening in 1997 and, even more so, since he took over as President in 2006. Over beer, we had an opportunity to ask him about his thoughts on sours, why Upland decided to showcase their sours in both distribution and their brand new tasting room The Wood Shop and what people should expect when they come to Upland and Bloomington for a brewery visit. 

Truthfully, the three of us could have sat and chatted with Doug all day. He's a down-to-earth dude who has worked hard to grow Upland Brewing Co. from brewpub to production brewery to a destination for some of America's best sours. Grab a beer, take a listen and let us know when you're going to head on down to Bloomington to experience the brewery in person. There's a good chance we'll join you.

Cheers,

Tommy