Good Beer Hunting

Uppers & Downers is almost here. If you’re in Chicago and listening to this now, chances are you’re going to be there along with almost a thousand other coffee and beer nerds at Thalia Hall. We’ve shared a lot about the origins of this festival, our partners, and the vision we have for coffee and beer cultures. But one story we haven’t shared yet is the incredible collaborations between Intelligentsia and Solemn Oath Brewery that have been a critical part of the concept since day one. Together, Jay Cunningham of Intelligentsia and Paul Schneider of Solemn Oath have created over thirty different coffee beers together, some of the best I’ve ever tasted in fact. And that says nothing about the uncountable iterations they’ve brewed, blended, and tweaked on their way to their proudest results. Today I wanted to introduce you to these two individuals, and give you a sense of what it takes to truly explore the relationship between coffee and beer. It’s going to get nerdy. But for anyone out there exploring this space right now, it’s going to get pretty inspirational too. Two of my favorite people in Uppers & Downers. It means the world to me to have these two working so hard, and so intelligently together in this shared pursuit.

These days, there are some really unique and exciting roles in craft breweries beyond brewing itself. As these small companies grow, partner up, and extend their reach, many craft breweries are working hard to find new ways of telling their stories and connecting with craft beer drinkers around the globe. And that means that social media, marketing, and storytelling are becoming an integral part of the success of some breweries. These days, there are some really unique and exciting roles in craft breweries beyond brewing itself. As these small companies grow, partner up, and extend their reach, many craft breweries are working hard to find new ways of telling their stories and connecting with craft beer drinkers around the globe. And that means that social media, marketing, and storytelling are becoming an integral part of the success of some breweries. Today’s guest is on of the best in the business. Ken Hunnemeder of Goose Island is someone I’ve been a fan of for some time now. He’s one of the drinking duo behind Hopcast, he’s a great musician, and he’s Goose Island’s resident storyteller — producing funny, smart, often romantic and beautiful stories for Goose through the medium of film. And this year, I got the chance to work alongside Ken on an ambitious project called Grit & Grain, the history of Bourbon County Stout.

Welcome to Coffee Talk. This is part 2 of my conversation with Stephen Morrissey. We got a bit carried away in part 1 a couple weeks ago. He and I tend to do that when we start talking, so it really didn’t come as a surprise that I’d have to schedule another session to get through everything we wanted to discuss. So here we are — and it’s actually a nice thing that we’re talking again now because we have so much more detail to share with you about Uppers & Downers, our big coffee beer festival in Chicago. New roasters, brewers, some Irish coffees and whiskey, our small bites and educational sessions, and even an after party. It’s going to be a helluva weekend for Uppers & Downers folks. I think next year, we’re just going to ask you to clear your calendar.

Like to many Chicago beer drinkers, a major part of my journey into beer began at the Hopleaf in the Andersonville neighborhood. By the time I moved from the east coast to the Midwest, the reputation for the Hopleaf preceded it as one of the country’s great Belgian beer bars. Walk in to the tiny front cafe area and you see old wooden tables topped with Kwak, Tripel Karmeliet, Saison Dupont. These days you see a lot more American craft, but the Belgian tradition is still alive and well. This is a place where I’ve drank more of the world’s greatest beers than anywhere else. On occasion, I’d heard Michael and Louise Roper talk about the old days, going all the way back to their beginnings in Detroit, and as I start o piece these stories together, I realized that the Hopleaf I’d come to know and love was only one of it’s many identities over the years. Its as time to sit down and set the story straight. Who is this couple that came to run one of the country’s greatest drinking experiences? How did they get a city to drink Belgian beers at such a point in history when something like Heineken was still considered a fancy import? And once they had all those people drinking exotic beers, what did they do with them? It’s an incredible tale of a reluctant barkeep who kept developing his vision even as the world around him seemed so unchanging for so long.

Few things are as important to the success of a small brewery than the loyal following of it’s biggest fans. Those drinkers that follow your every move, try every beer, and jump in line for memberships and special releases - these are the super fans that are the lifeblood of an operation in those earliest lean years. And today’s guest is largely responsible for creating one such cult following - but not for beer. Rather, for a supremely bitter and wince-inducing wormwood spirit called Jepson’s Malort. And almost any craft brewer would kill to have the kind of guaranteed following that Malort now has in Chicago, and a growing number of pockets around the country. His name is Sam Mechling and he’s not the founder of the company - not by a longshot. He’s not the distiller. But in many ways, he’s the heart and soul of the brand, and largely responsible for its resurgence as a beloved Chicago institution. But before all this, he was a comedian. So how did a Chicago comedian become the influence behind one of the most sought after, and simultaneously reviled spirits of all-time? Well, that’s what he’s here in the GBH Studio to tell us about. But we’re also going to dig in to the details of it’s production, and that exotic ingredient that we’ve all sort of heard about, but rarely understand - wormwood.

I had a chance to sit down one of Chicago’s best home brewers, a member of the CHAOS brewing club, and one of our best entries in the Uppers & Downers home brewing competition last year for coffee beers, Her name is Nancy Rockwood, and she’s a delightful conversationalist about all things craft and beer. She’s got a sharp outlook about the value of homebrewing in the larger industry, and she’s quite self-reflective on the role that brewing and creativity play in her life and in the lives of those around her.

Today I’m bringing you part one of an incredible conversation with Stephen Morrissey. To me, Stephen is this brougish guy that I met at a party who got super nerdy with me about coffee beers about three years ago. We look a lot alike, we’re both dads now, we tend to hate and love the same things, but often for different reasons, but going all the way back to that party is how you uncover the beginnings of Uppers & Downers, our ongoing event series and festival of coffee beers. Stephen is the guy that’s built the entire concept with me from day one. At the time, he was a sort of creative director at Intelligentsia, and that got them involved right away, which has been amazing. Now he’s working on his own on a few projects, and the collaboration has naturally continued as we take Uppers & Downers to the next level. I have so much to tell you about the festival this year — we’ve actually already sold 250 tickets on day one of the announcement. But I’m saving most of that for part two. For part one, I wanted everyone to get to know Stephen — his experience in the coffee world is so relatable and important for beer people to understand. So much of what craft beer is going through has parallels in coffee, and vice versa. And that’s the kind of insight that has made our Upper s& Downers series so effective and enlightening.

Today’s guest is Ceasar Garza, or as he’s known around here, Champi. Champi was an early doubter of the 5 Rabbit Cerveceria concept, but as a good friend, and someone who trusts its founder, Andres Araya, inherently, he invested financially anyways. A few years later, he got the call from Andres, asking Champi to leave Mexico, and join him at the brewery. Since then, Champi has seen his world turn upside down as he tried to understand a unique American city, the subculture of craft beer, and ultimately helping leads sales and marketing for the county’s first latin-inspired brewery. He finally seems to have his feet under him. Which is the ideal time to flip the script again. Champi is going back to Mexico. And this time, it’ll be his job to convince people that 5 Rabbit isn’t a crazy idea. And that’s because the future for 5 Rabbit involves opening an operation back home, and exploring the opportunity for craft beer in South America. Much like larger craft brands have seen the Latin market as fertile new ground (Lagunitas for example, is building a third brewery in Azusa with this in mind) 5 Rabbit sees something much more fundamental in that opportunity. They see Latin American markets as a place where curious beer drinkers might be ready for their own home-grown movement toward adventurous, inspired beers that reflect their culture. And no one I know is in a better position to do that then 5 Rabbit - and Champi will help lead that charge. So how does a guy go from being a reluctant friend investing in a brewery, to helping open up a new market, a new continent in this case? Well, that’s what were here to find out.

Now, I get a lot of emails from people who want to quit their day jobs and work in beer. And they want to know how to do it. But almost no one likes the answer I give. That It takes time, that you have to build relationships, and that you have to find a way to make yourself invaluable. Craft beer is a show up kind of culture - brewery owners pay attention to who’s there, how they engage with others, and what their perspective on things is. Because there’s just not a lot of room in a small brewery for a bad hire. There’s barely room for a good hire — and for those that are asking me for some sort of secret to getting in, I’m sorry. There’s no add-to-cart button for working in beer. You have to earn it. Today’s guest did it all right - she did it the hard way. Jess Straka was one of the earliest voices that caught my attention in Chicago beer years ago. I saw her popping up on Twitter, chatting about beer and breweries, and generally ingratiating herself into he professional side of things with an internship at Metropolitan Brewing, Chicago’s first craft brewery after Goose Island. She went on to join the sales force at Revolution Brewing, and she’s joining Off Color Brewing in retail operations role. That’s right, retail. So that’s a nice hint of things to come over there.

In 1995, Eric Salazar started at New Belgium when its wood program was still in its infancy, and almost nobody knew what they were doing. So this live interview at GBH studio in front of a small crowd was a special one for fans of sour beer. Eric, and his brewing partner Lauren Salazar, were part of the small group of people that put these beers on the map in their earliest days, and even now, they’re a benchmark to beat. At this past week’s Festival of Barrel-Aged Beers in chicago, Le Terroir took a bronze medal for wild sour beers up against 45 entries.