Good Beer Hunting

Welcome to another Fervent Few episode of the Good Beer Hunting podcast where myself, Jim Plachy, and GBH's strategic director, Michael Kiser, catch up. We'll talk about the topics and discussions that took place in our membership community in the last couple weeks. Our 500 or so subscribers are scattered all over the world. Sometimes we meet up with them when we're on the road, or they hang out with each other, but it all comes together in our community forum on Slack. If you value the content and experiences that GBH produces, you should join. Your monthly subscription gets you access to the community, special events, and exclusive gear deigned just for members. I joined, and now I manage it all. Plus, it's my favorite place on the Beer Internet. Visit goodbeerhunting.com/ferventfew to strike up a conversation in beer.

The more of the beer world I've seen during my travels, the more dots I've been able to connect between certain kinds of breweries. Not just with the kinds of beers they make, like a Hazy IPA brewery, or a sour brewery, but broader than that—something that sort of gets to that phrase you hear so often amongst brewers" "like mindedness." Sometimes this phrase makes me queasy, as it sounds a bit familiar in the larger context of the monoculture that plagues craft beer. But when it's used with intent to describe a deeper set of ideas and principles, it can do a good job of describing why some brewers find a near-instant connection with each other. Sometimes it's the branding, or the tone. Sometimes is the design of the taproom or the part of town they're in, even in separate cities. Every small business makes thousands of different decisions on their way to becoming a brewery, and some of those decisions are more self-aware than others. But in the end, you get a sort of gestalt—a combination of factors that add up to a vibe, or a presence. Brewers can recognize each other in a second. It's a sort of love at first sight. More often than not, this is at the root of brewing collaborations. A consummation of sorts that helps prove that initial inkling. So it is with Solemn Oath Brewery in Naperville, Illinois—longtime friends of GBH—and Holy Mountain Brewing in Seattle. There's plenty of commonality between these two beer makers on the surface. Anyone who's been to both taprooms will see the connection. If you've seen the branding, you can get that attraction, too. And so it is that these two became fast friends. The team from Holy Mountain was in Chicago, making a collaboration beer with Solemn Oath, so we got them all together, along with Solemn Oath co-founder John Barley, and dug into what these two see in each other.

At GABF in Denver this year, we teamed up with the folks at New Belgium to host a conversation called Within Reach to talk about exploring new markets and winning new fans for craft beer. Hosted at the Source Hotel, where New Belgium has a new, small brewery, a diverse panel of industry professionals gathered to talk about diversity and inclusion, which are central to this effort. With an industry that's largely still white and male, it's become increasingly clear there's a need to invite more people to participate. We wanted to look at this effort, which is both old and new, from a variety of perspectives. We sat down with Kim Jordan, co-founder of New Belgium Brewing, which was founded in 1991 when most marketing in beer was from macro brewers, and most of it was marketed to men using women as props. Over more than 25 years, Kim has been a seminal voice in an industry that's starving for women in leadership positions. Her experience in the beer industry sets the foundation for how far we've come, and how far we still have to go. Alongside her is Kimberly Clements, whose career led her into a leadership position with her family-owned Budweiser distributor in Arizona. She now runs a consulting firm called Pints that works with distributors and brewers of all sizes as they look to grow audiences and reach. Her perspective on how these companies are thinking about the diversity of markets, or not, is a compelling peek behind the scenes on the narrow way craft beer is still defining a customer base with implicit and sometimes explicit bias. Vansana Nolintha is the co-founder of Brewery Bhavana in Raleigh, North Carolina, an immigrant restauranteur alongside his sister Vanvisa and his friend Patrick Woodson, who uses hospitably to create a dialog about inclusion and belonging. How this plays out in the craft beer niche in North Carolina is fascinating: it involves hiring, training, and vision-setting for a staff that's doing more than serving pints in a taproom, but using exceptional beer as a catalyst for change. And Dominic Cook, founder of Beer Kulture, which looks at the world of beer through the lens of a community that's been neglected - and in some ways explicitly alienated - from the promise of craft beer. He has worked as a wholesaler rep, but also as a social influencer to bring beers to occasions and communities that either believe they don't like beer, or for whom access to craft beer is limited. In doing so, he's instigated a stark dialog around exclusion in craft beer, and how ignoring the problem will be at the industry's peril. He also has some advice for craft brewers that cuts through the noise and posturing that's so common on the topic, and which usually results in brewers explaining why they can't really do anything about the issue. Together, this group did a phenomenal job of covering a lot of ground. And the way in which they built on each other's experiences made this one of the most rewarding conversations we've been lucky enough to lead. Thanks to New Belgium for helping shape the conversation, and bringing us all together. Thanks to the Source hotel for hosting. And thanks to the audience, which engaged in a genuine, thoughtful exchange of ideas on a topic that's in everyone's best interest. A more inclusive craft beer industry is a better industry across the board.

Photo by Clara Rice When Dave McLean moved to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood after college, he was chasing one particular thing: the Grateful Dead. McLean was a small part of a wave of hippies, idealists, and rock mega fans who came to the city at the same time for a similar reason, but unlike many of the others, Dave actually stuck around. And then he built a business here: the Magnolia Brewing Company. With the nearly 20 years Dave was at the helm of Magnolia, he became part of the fabric of the modern Haight District. For a neighborhood that is synonymous with counterculture and the "summer of love," turned out Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin, that's something. Magnolia was, and is, a stalwart brewpub in a historic neighborhood of a rapidly changing city. But no one is immune from the effects of a changing economy. An investment in a difficult property in another evolving neighborhood proved too far ahead of its time, and Magnolia faltered financially. As a last resort, Dave called Kim Jordan and sold the business to New Belgium, Dick Cantwell, formerly of Elysian, and Oud Beersel of Belgium. It was a deal that was deeply personal for Dave. Ultimately, on as good as terms as possible, he left Magnolia, but not before setting out on a new venture: Admiral Maltings. The founder of another longtime brewery in San Francisco, Ron Silberstein of ThirstyBear Organic, knew Dave's affinity for quality malts, and tapped him to help him establish a new craft malt house in Alameda —- the first of its kind in California. Brewers flocked to it because the offer was notable: local farm grown barley, sent to a local malting facility, sold to local brewery to be purchased by a local drinker. I'm not sure Dave would regard it as a renaissance for himself, but all things considered, it's an incredible next step. And don't count him out for any new breweries down the line. The Bay is, after all, the home to progress and reinvention.

Welcome back to another episode of the GBH Collective, a special series of interviews where we have the chance to dive a little deeper with Good Beer Hunting contributors and friends on topics of writing, beer and the stories you read and hear from GBH. This week's conversation is with a fan favorite: Kyle Kastranec. As one of the longest-tenured writers for Good Beer Hunting, you may have become familiar with his work through a variety of feature stories he's written over the years. But more recently, Kyle has become a star for GBH through his Banquet and Chill blog, which includes some of the most fun, original, and thoughtful personal essays on beer I find strewn across the internet. In recent months, you may have shared fond memories of open containers, airline drinks, dive bars, or your personal Mount Crushmore—all topics that went from Kyle's brain to his blog, and quickly became a fun game for lots of people to play through social media. In a way, Kyle is GBH's leader when it comes to viral content—however you want to classify it—and he continues to delight and surprise with peeks into mind and the way he views beer. And as you'll find, it's all very deliberate and thought out, too. This is Kyle Kastranec, contributor, Renaissance Man, and King of Viral Media for Good Beer Hunting. Listen in...

Everyone wants to talk about innovation in beer these days, which could mean anything from playing with a new ingredient, or piece of equipment, or working to create a whole new style of beer. With a new record number for breweries in the U.S. being achieved daily, there are conscious and constant decisions breweries make as a way to differentiate themselves. And while all brewers certainly have a hand in innovating for their respective companies, there aren't a ton who have a job to specifically do just that. Nick Crandall is the head brewer and innovation brewer at Redhook Brewery's Brewlab, a brewpub located in downtown Seattle where the once-national company has wildly condensed its focus with Nick amongst its epicenter. From a small brewhouse in the brewpub, he's working to consider and concoct new recipes that are tested feet from where it's made, providing instant feedback and hopeful gratification for a Redhook team tasked with arguably the best part of the brewing process: playing. Through trial and error, Crandall is working to see what might just come next. When I sat down with him in September, he had recently tapped a Brut IPA and the business had also been working through trials with New England IPAs. Through altering batches and finding new ways to use and approach ingredients, Crandall is hopeful that maybe, just maybe, he'll find a hit that can go from his bar to a production brewery and into the hands of many. For a brewery like Redhook that has had a storied history in the Pacific Northwest, it's a repurposing of talent and resources that offers a new kind of excitement for what might happen next.

Welcome to another Fervent Few episode of the Good Beer Hunting podcast where myself, Jim Plachy, and GBH's strategic director Michael Kiser catch up and talk about the topics ad discussions that took place in our membership community in the last couple weeks. Our 500 or so subscribers are scattered all over the world, sometimes we meet up with them when we're on the road, or they hang out with each other, but it all comes together in our community forum. If you value the content and experiences that Good Beer Hunting produces, you should join. Your's monthly subscriptions gets you access to the community, special events, and exclusive gear deigned just for members. I joined, and now I manage it all. And it's my favorite place on the beer internet. Visit goodbeerhunting.com/ferventfew - and strike a conversation in beer.

Something that's been on my mind a great deal of late, is where beer intersects with other cultures, particularly those also within food and beverage. You may commonly hear me bring up topics like natural wine, low-intervention cider, speciality coffee and more when talking about craft beer. And this is with good reason. For me, the most exciting things happening within beer are often happening at the points where these industries converge. Take our Uppers & Downers festival, for example. When I see a coffee enthusiast's eyes light up because they've just tried a 3% Kvass that expresses flavours in beer they previously thought mightn't have been possible, that gets me excited about the potential that lies within beer's future. At the moment I am particularly interested in the point at which beer meets food and restaurant culture. This is partly due to my own increased interest in food and wine of late, and finding myself in a good restaurant more often than previously. Naturally, being a beer writer, while in these spaces my mind turns to beer when I occupy them. Why isn't beer treated the same way on a wine list as the wine itself? How do we help this industry gain a greater understanding of how beer has evolved over the past decade and in turn, implement this evolution into this space? When it comes to talking about beer in restaurants, let's just say there's plenty to munch on. And this all brings me to today's guest—Chef Tim Anderson—proprietor of a Japanese-inspired restaurant in Brixton, South London called Nanban. Anderson originally hails from Wisconsin and lived in both California and Japan before eventually settling down here in the U.K. He was a originally a home cook, but in 2011 he won that years Masterchef—a prime time cookery competition and TV show—which propelled him into the limelight. What's particularly interesting about Anderson however, is that before he was a chef, he was and still is a passionate beer fan. Even while filming Masterchef he was making ends meet pulling pints in London craft beer spot, The Euston Tap. After winning he went on to brew collabs with Pressure Drop, The Wild Beer Co and BrewDog—he even designed a menu at one of the latters bars for a time, as we'll learn in this episode. This all came to a head when Anderson eventually opened a restaurant of his own, called Nanban, here in London. At Nanban, Anderson specializes in what he calls "Japanese Soul Food." You can expect steaming bowls of ramen, crunchy karaage fried chicken and even a burger which, somehow, fuses the Japanese-influenced house style with his Wisconsinite roots. What's not so normal for a British restaurant though, is the beer selection. Here, along with an impressive list of Sake and Shochu, beer takes center stage—and in doing so, successfully demonstrates how beer can comfortably take its place at the dinner table—where other establishments have either not made a similar effort, or are simply unaware of how food-friendly beer has grown to become. A quick note about this episode. We recorded in between lunch and dinner service at Nanban itself, so you can expect a little background noise. I'm also joined by GBH's Claire Bullen—who in addition to being one of the authors of our NAGBW award-winning food column, Provisions, is also a prolific cook herself, and has her first cookbook launching next spring. Keep a look out for that.

We're going to do something a little different today. Over the past year or so, you've heard a small sub-series of interviews we've dubbed the GBH Collective episodes. These conversations with GBH colleagues have been meant to dive into their writing, background and interests and have been a bit free-flowing. They've been a great addition to the award-winning audio content we produce at Good Beer Hunting, and I'm excited to take the lead to bring you more of it. This episode is going to be something of a GBH Collective 2.0 as we work to make these talks a more common part of the podcast. These may be shorter than our weekly longform interviews, and will include voices of GBH contributors as well as other journalists and members of the media who think about beer. In this episode, I'm joined by Claire Bullen. She's been on a GBH Collective episode before, but not under the circumstances of which we spoke recently. Claire has recently been recognized multiple times by the North American Guild of Beer Writers for her work at this year's Guild awards. Full disclosure: I lead that group, but didn't have any role in judging her work, so I do feel comfortable saying that her writing, and her unique voice, is something that excites me most about coverage of today's beer industry. In this chat, we'll talk a little about what it means to be a big deal — those are my words, not her modesty — and how writing about food impacts writing. I'm really excited to start bringing you more of these conversations so you can better know the great people behind the byline. Claire is a perfect place to start.

When the brut IPA, taglined as San Francisco's newest beer style, began to hit internet headlines last spring, the reaction was polarizing. This new type of IPA, defined by its fruity hop aroma, effervescence, and dryness — provided by the addition of a type of amylase enzyme — was a respite from the yeasty hazebombs proliferating on beer lists around town. Immediately, some leery brewers publicly challenged its authenticity as a substyle. Others, interest piqued, sought to attempt their own versions after reaching out to its creator, Social Kitchen and Brewery's Kim Sturdavant, for his methodology. And Kim was there to field those calls, emails and sometimes, Facebook messages, as they poured in. First, inquiries came from brewers just around the greater Bay Area. Then, brewers were contacting him from Southern California, and then the East Coast, and eventually Europe and South America. But Kim was known around the Bay Area long before the brut. A GABF winner drawn to easy-to-drink German- and English-style beers, he helped make Social Brewing not just a great neighborhood hangout, but a beer destination in the competitive Bay Area market. Social's brewery arm is run by just a couple people. Kim, who heads it up, handles the paperwork and planning and oversees the brewing on the second story of the brewpub-restaurant in the Inner Sunset District of San Francisco, by Golden Gate Park. It's here at Social where I meet Kim one afternoon in the late summer. It's before the restaurant opens, so it's much quieter than it usually is, as the restaurant staff prepare for their shifts.