Good Beer Hunting

Opening Statement & Keynote Michael Kiser, Founder and Director of Good Beer Hunting The Future of the Relationship Between the UK and US Beer Industries This year we were invited to return to the Beavertown Extravaganza to run the now annual symposium, bringing together brewers and leaders from all over the world to discuss the topics of the day — some of which inspire the industry and some that keep it up at night. Last year's fist ever symposium for the Extravaganza covered the spread from terroir in beer to hazy IPA, and this year was no less ambitious. But the context for this year's symposium naturally shifted as beaver towns own ambitions came to light in the months leading up to their minority partnership with Heineken. Some brewers took offense and pulled out, others soldiered on, and still others rallied to their side and joined the festival, sending a clear message that as the beer industry continues to evolve and grow more complex, the simple notions that once seemed to spur it on are perhaps not as simple as many thought after all. The topics for this year's extravaganza followed nationally on that signal - covering topics such as how beer and wine are sold differently, the value of independence and investment, and of course, what's going to happen to hazy IPA after all this. Congrats to Beavertown and their crew for forging ahead and throwing a spectacular event in the midst of a challenging time of change. Thanks for inviting us to come and co-host the symposium with you all. After all, the purpose of the symposium is to dig into these issues, not shy away from them, and that's exactly what we did. You'll hear from a number of GBH team members hosting these talks, and I'm quite proud of that. Our U.K. team is growing, and our bench is deep. So for some of you, it'll be the first time you've heard form folks like Chris Hall, Johnny Garret, and Claire Bullen, all lead by our U.K. Editor, Matthew Curtis. But it surely won't be the last.

This year we were invited to return to the Beavertown Extravaganza to run the now annual symposium, bringing together brewers and leaders from all over the world to discuss the topics of the day — some of which inspire the industry and some that keep it up at night.

Last year’s fist ever symposium for the Extravaganza covered the spread from terroir in beer to hazy IPA, and this year was no less ambitious. But the context for this year’s symposium naturally shifted as beaver towns own ambitions came to light in the months leading up to their minority partnership with Heineken. Some brewers took offense and pulled out, others soldiered on, and still others rallied to their side and joined the festival, sending a clear message that as the beer industry continues to evolve and grow more complex, the simple notions that once seemed to spur it on are perhaps not as simple as many thought after all.

The topics for this year’s extravaganza followed nationally on that signal - covering topics such as how beer and wine are sold differently, the value of independence and investment, and of course, what’s going to happen to hazy IPA after all this.

Congrats to Beavertown and their crew for forging ahead and throwing a spectacular event in the midst of a challenging time of change. Thanks for inviting us to come and co-host the symposium with you all. After all, the purpose of the symposium is to dig into these issues, not shy away from them, and that’s exactly what we did.

You’ll hear from a number of GBH team members hosting these talks, and I’m quite proud of that. Our U.K. team is growing, and our bench is deep. So for some of you, it’ll be the first time you’ve heard form folks like Chris Hall, Johnny Garret, and Claire Bullen, all lead by our U.K. Editor, Matthew Curtis. But it surely won’t be the last.

Opening Statement & Keynote

Michael Kiser, Founder and Director of Good Beer Hunting

The Future of the Relationship Between the UK and US Beer Industries

This week's episode rounds out our focus on the Baltimore scene where we talked to folks from Black Diamond, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot, Chris Leonard from Heavy Seas, and even made it down the shore to Chincoteague Island's Black Narrows. Its the first time we've taken such a comprehensive approach to a single area with the podcast, and it was a great experiment for us as we learned a ton from one interview to the next for the context of the stat and city's beer scene. In that way, every interview informed the next. And looking back, it's an astonishing amount of perspective to gather in a single place and time. Our final interview in this set of episodes involves a newcomer in the Baltimore scene - and a wholly unlikely one at that. Guinness. A couple years ago it would have been unthinkable that someone like Guinness would become part of a beer culture in a city like Baltimore. But as we've seen with other elements of beer, nothing stays the same very long. Guinness had a temporary U.S. presence decades ago with a brewery they overtook on Long Island, but this brewery, commissioned in an old distillery owned by Diageo on the outskirts of the city is unique in that it also serves as a pilot brewery and taproom for the Irish-born but globally produced brand for their US fans. Watching this project come together was fascinating, from the way it catalyzed debate over taproom and distributions laws in Maryland, how it transformed a brick rick house into a brewery and hospitality center, and getting our first taste of the American-inspired beers that would come from it's bite tanks, but none of that was as fascinating as the team they would assemble in the brewery itself. And that begins with a feature story the Bryan Roth wrote for GBH focused on Highland in Asheville, North Carolina over a year ago. Hollie Stephenson was the brewer at Highland at the time. She'd succeeded in transforming Highlands offering, modernizing the styles and bringing them into a new age of relevance. It was one of the most effective and well-executed turnarounds I'd seen for a brewery that was already pretty damn good. At the time, the lingering question for me was "what happens if she leaves?" I never expected that to come true so quickly - but as you'll hear in the interview, neither did she. But an opportunity to brew for a world icon like Guinness, at a new purpose-built brewery in Baltimore, was too good of an offer to pass up. And the icing on the cake, was that she'd get to brew alongside her former mentor, Peter Wiens with whom she worked when they both did a stint at Stone Brewing. a few years back. So it's a reunion of sorts. And for Guinness, it's a helluva team with which to make your U.S. debut. And I was excited to follow that story. It's worth noting of course that Guinness is an underwriting advertiser for GBH - you may have seen the series of stories they provide the funding for through their advertising partnership with us called Mother of Invention in which we explore historical and contemporary technical innovation in brewing. This interview is not part of that series, but we clearly have a relationship at the business level. In fact, one of the reasons I was in town that week at all and able to record all these Baltimore episodes is because our studio team was coming out to shoot some video as part of that underwriting, which you'll see later this fall. So while this particular episode has nothing to do with that underwriting, it also completely does. But I'm fine with that as long as you know what's up and I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

This week’s episode rounds out our focus on the Baltimore scene where we talked to folks from Black Diamond, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot, Chris Leonard from Heavy Seas, and even made it down the shore to Chincoteague Island’s Black Narrows.

Its the first time we’ve taken such a comprehensive approach to a single area with the podcast, and it was a great experiment for us as we learned a ton from one interview to the next for the context of the stat and city’s beer scene. In that way, every interview informed the next. And looking back, it’s an astonishing amount of perspective to gather in a single place and time.

Our final interview in this set of episodes involves a newcomer in the Baltimore scene - and a wholly unlikely one at that. Guinness. A couple years ago it would have been unthinkable that someone like Guinness would become part of a beer culture in a city like Baltimore. But as we’ve seen with other elements of beer, nothing stays the same very long.

Guinness had a temporary U.S. presence decades ago with a brewery they overtook on Long Island, but this brewery, commissioned in an old distillery owned by Diageo on the outskirts of the city is unique in that it also serves as a pilot brewery and taproom for the Irish-born but globally produced brand for their US fans.

Watching this project come together was fascinating, from the way it catalyzed debate over taproom and distributions laws in Maryland, how it transformed a brick rick house into a brewery and hospitality center, and getting our first taste of the American-inspired beers that would come from it’s bite tanks, but none of that was as fascinating as the team they would assemble in the brewery itself. And that begins with a feature story the Bryan Roth wrote for GBH focused on Highland in Asheville, North Carolina over a year ago.

Hollie Stephenson was the brewer at Highland at the time. She’d succeeded in transforming Highlands offering, modernizing the styles and bringing them into a new age of relevance. It was one of the most effective and well-executed turnarounds I’d seen for a brewery that was already pretty damn good.

At the time, the lingering question for me was “what happens if she leaves?”

I never expected that to come true so quickly - but as you’ll hear in the interview, neither did she. But an opportunity to brew for a world icon like Guinness, at a new purpose-built brewery in Baltimore, was too good of an offer to pass up. And the icing on the cake, was that she’d get to brew alongside her former mentor, Peter Wiens with whom she worked when they both did a stint at Stone Brewing. a few years back. So it’s a reunion of sorts. And for Guinness, it’s a helluva team with which to make your U.S. debut. And I was excited to follow that story.

It’s worth noting of course that Guinness is an underwriting advertiser for GBH - you may have seen the series of stories they provide the funding for through their advertising partnership with us called Mother of Invention in which we explore historical and contemporary technical innovation in brewing. This interview is not part of that series, but we clearly have a relationship at the business level. In fact, one of the reasons I was in town that week at all and able to record all these Baltimore episodes is because our studio team was coming out to shoot some video as part of that underwriting, which you’ll see later this fall. So while this particular episode has nothing to do with that underwriting, it also completely does. But I’m fine with that as long as you know what’s up and I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Today's guest is a first for GBH - we're speaking with a state wide, publicly elected political figure - who finds himself at the center of a political movement working to change the laws for Maryland's small craft brewers. It's no accident that he ended up in this movement - states all over the union have been reinventing their beer laws to make way for new business models necessary to support small craft brewer, especially when it comes to own-premise taproom models, self-distribution, and franchise rights with wholesalers. Most states have incrementally improved these laws over time, attempting to balance the needs of federally mandated wholesale tier, meant to prevent monopolies, and the beds of consumers and brewers, and more recently, the retail voice has been finding its way into these discussions as well. But a few states, like Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and Maryland, have been especially slow to evolve. In these states, the multi-generational wealth of wholesalers, backed by the largest brewing conglomerates in the world, have held an immense amount of influence over politicians. And progress in those states beer laws has been all but static. Peter Franchot, the state's elected comptroller, is very well known and depending on your view of things, he's either a uniquely divisive figure in Maryland politics, or he's uniquely talented at uniting folks around an issue. His role as comptroller is to structure the states financial agenda, which includes tax incentives for industry, and creating fairness is its economic systems, among many other related things. Unlike most states, Maryland doesn't appoint their comptroller through the governor's office, but instead elects the comptroller directly. And that means two important things - 1. it enables the voters to compartmentalism their financial interests from the rest of their political agendas - and 2. it protects that office from political influence to a degree, because the comptroller is beholden to the voters, not the governor. For Franchot - that can sometimes put him at odds with his own party's agenda when they're in power. And it can sometimes put him in the position of courting the factor of a republican governor when he wants to get something done, and that works against the democratic machine. And he seems to relish in it. And he keeps getting re-elected - with barely any contention. One of the ways he maintains that powerful role is through the campaigns he initiates that tend to be popular, perhaps even populist agendas. He's gone after common sense school reforms, he fought against sot machines infiltrating his state, and most recently he's saddled atop the rapid growth in craft beer as a way to rally his voters around something they want to see more of, and against the special interests it threatens. And he's riding that saddle to electoral victory over and over again, but so far, doesn't have a victory to show for it on behalf of he brewers themselves. He's had remarkable success using the uncommon leverage of his office and its popularity to ram through big changes that most states are required to piece-meal over time. He makes a lot of enemies along the way, and more than a few friends, and it remains to be seen wether that's good for craft beer legislation, or if this might be one battle he takes to the teeth of big beer money and power, and perhaps walks away wounded for the effort. It remains to be seen - and there are small brewers I spoke with on its sides of that strategy. Some are rallying behind the effort while others fear it may hinder their progress at the expense of Franchot having a self-serving campaign that keeps him popular even if he fails. Most would be happy with even a small win. But Franchot, never a meek contender, only seems interested in making his cause bigger in the meantime. In fact, as we sat and talked, I watched his handler wince more than once as Franchot, on the spot, started spontaneously adding new provisions to his bill. It's a bold strategy. Let's see if it pays off for him.

Today’s guest is a first for GBH - we’re speaking with a state wide, publicly elected political figure - who finds himself at the center of a political movement working to change the laws for Virginia’s small craft brewers.

It’s no accident that he ended up in this movement - states all over the union have been reinventing their beer laws to make way for new business models necessary to support small craft brewer, especially when it comes to own-premise taproom models, self-distribution, and franchise rights with wholesalers. Most states have incrementally improved these laws over time, attempting to balance the needs of federally mandated wholesale tier, meant to prevent monopolies, and the beds of consumers and brewers, and more recently, the retail voice has been finding its way into these discussions as well. But a few states, like Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and Maryland, have been especially slow to evolve. In these states, the multi-generational wealth of wholesalers, backed by the largest brewing conglomerates in the world, have held an immense amount of influence over politicians. And progress in those states beer laws has been all but static.

Peter Franchot, the state’s elected comptroller, is very well known and depending on your view of things, he’s either a uniquely divisive figure in Maryland politics, or he’s uniquely talented at uniting folks around an issue. His role as comptroller is to structure the states financial agenda, which includes tax incentives for industry, and creating fairness is its economic systems, among many other related things. Unlike most states, Maryland doesn’t appoint their comptroller through the governor’s office, but instead elects the comptroller directly. And that means two important things - 1. it enables the voters to compartmentalism their financial interests from the rest of their political agendas - and 2. it protects that office from political influence to a degree, because the comptroller is beholden to the voters, not the governor.

For Franchot - that can sometimes put him at odds with his own party’s agenda when they’re in power. And it can sometimes put him in the position of courting the factor of a republican governor when he wants to get something done, and that works against the democratic machine. And he seems to relish in it.

And he keeps getting re-elected - with barely any contention. One of the ways he maintains that powerful role is through the campaigns he initiates that tend to be popular, perhaps even populist agendas. He’s gone after common sense school reforms, he fought against sot machines infiltrating his state, and most recently he’s saddled atop the rapid growth in craft beer as a way to rally his voters around something they want to see more of, and against the special interests it threatens. And he’s riding that saddle to electoral victory over and over again, but so far, doesn’t have a victory to show for it on behalf of he brewers themselves.

He’s had remarkable success using the uncommon leverage of his office and its popularity to ram through big changes that most states are required to piece-meal over time. He makes a lot of enemies along the way, and more than a few friends, and it remains to be seen wether that’s good for craft beer legislation, or if this might be one battle he takes to the teeth of big beer money and power, and perhaps walks away wounded for the effort.

It remains to be seen - and there are small brewers I spoke with on its sides of that strategy. Some are rallying behind the effort while others fear it may hinder their progress at the expense of Franchot having a self-serving campaign that keeps him popular even if he fails. Most would be happy with even a small win. But Franchot, never a meek contender, only seems interested in making his cause bigger in the meantime. In fact, as we sat and talked, I watched his handler wince more than once as Franchot, on the spot, started spontaneously adding new provisions to his bill.

It’s a bold strategy. Let’s see if it pays off for him.

This year, we were lucky enough to be invited to Cooperstown, New York to take part in Brewery Ommegang's annual camping and music festival, Belgium Comes to Cooperstown. It's a famous festival in the northeast, with thousands of people setting up for a full weekend of bottle sharing, music, food, and of course, the beer festival part. And this year, as part of our Underwriting collaboration with Brewery Ommegang, we wanted to help lead a conversation around this idea of Belgian. Weather it's Belgian-inspired, as you'll hear U.S. brewers often say, or it's authentically Belgian, or Belgian style, or anyways strain, or it's some part of a brewing process, an ingredient, or even the mystery and closely guarded secrets that sometimes distinguishes Belgian brewing from other traditions. And of course, what parts of that even matter in 2018 when so much of what's happening in the most popular aspects of American craft beer seem to be moving in the opposite direction. At least for now. Even Brewery Ommegang, somewhat of a trendsetter when they opened back in 1997, is on that 2018 juicy IPA trend with an excellent entry of their own. And if you look at the history of Belgian brewing, full of pilsners and English ales, and the likes, no one can reasonably scoff at the idea. Keeping the lights on and brewing beers that people want, even if only for a time, is as much a part of the Belgian brewing tradition as anything else we associate it with. Brasserie Dupont taught me that. But that's only one part of the conversation. There are so many aspects of American craft brewing we take for granted that are basically driven by the brewing traditions Belgium then and now. And we wanted to talk about all of it as part of our underwriting series called Message in a Bottle. So we invited a bunch of brewers, a few cider makers, and people who work in the longer value chain of craft beer around the world to try and get a sense of where this long tradition of Belgian influence hots America's shores today. This episode is the keynote conversation called "Message in a Bottle" Generations of brewers have been inspired by Belgian brewing. What's so appealing? How has it been put to use? And where is it going next? The panelists are: Geoff Wenzel, New Belgium Brewing Nick Purdy, Wild Heaven Beer Phil Leinhart, Brewery Ommegang

This year, we were lucky enough to be invited to Cooperstown, New York to take part in Brewery Ommegang’s annual camping and music festival, Belgium Comes to Cooperstown.

It’s a famous festival in the northeast, with thousands of people setting up for a full weekend of bottle sharing, music, food, and of course, the beer festival part. And this year, as part of our Underwriting collaboration with Brewery Ommegang, we wanted to help lead a conversation around this idea of Belgian. Weather it’s Belgian-inspired, as you’ll hear U.S. brewers often say, or it’s authentically Belgian, or Belgian style, or anyways strain, or it’s some part of a brewing process, an ingredient, or even the mystery and closely guarded secrets that sometimes distinguishes Belgian brewing from other traditions. And of course, what parts of that even matter in 2018 when so much of what’s happening in the most popular aspects of American craft beer seem to be moving in the opposite direction. At least for now. Even Brewery Ommegang, somewhat of a trendsetter when they opened back in 1997, is on that 2018 juicy IPA trend with an excellent entry of their own. And if you look at the history of Belgian brewing, full of pilsners and English ales, and the likes, no one can reasonably scoff at the idea. Keeping the lights on and brewing beers that people want, even if only for a time, is as much a part of the Belgian brewing tradition as anything else we associate it with. Brasserie Dupont taught me that.

But that’s only one part of the conversation. There are so many aspects of American craft brewing we take for granted that are basically driven by the brewing traditions Belgium then and now. And we wanted to talk about all of it as part of our underwriting series called Message in a Bottle.

So we invited a bunch of brewers, a few cider makers, and people who work in the longer value chain of craft beer around the world to try and get a sense of where this long tradition of Belgian influence hots America’s shores today.

This episode is the keynote conversation called “Message in a Bottle”Generations of brewers have been inspired by Belgian brewing. What’s so appealing? How has it been put to use? And where is it going next?

The panelists are:Geoff Wenzel, New Belgium BrewingNick Purdy, Wild Heaven BeerPhil Leinhart, Brewery Ommegang

This year, we were lucky enough to be invited to Cooperstown, New York to take part in Brewery Ommegang's annual camping and music festival, Belgium Comes to Cooperstown. It's a famous festival in the northeast, with thousands of people setting up for a full weekend of bottle sharing, music, food, and of course, the beer festival part. And this year, as part of our Underwriting collaboration with Brewery Ommegang, we wanted to help lead a conversation around this idea of Belgian. Weather it's Belgian-inspired, as you'll hear U.S. brewers often say, or it's authentically Belgian, or Belgian style, or anyways strain, or it's some part of a brewing process, an ingredient, or even the mystery and closely guarded secrets that sometimes distinguishes Belgian brewing from other traditions. And of course, what parts of that even matter in 2018 when so much of what's happening in the most popular aspects of American craft beer seem to be moving in the opposite direction. At least for now. Even Brewery Ommegang, somewhat of a trendsetter when they opened back in 1997, is on that 2018 juicy IPA trend with an excellent entry of their own. And if you look at the history of Belgian brewing, full of pilsners and English ales, and the likes, no one can reasonably scoff at the idea. Keeping the lights on and brewing beers that people want, even if only for a time, is as much a part of the Belgian brewing tradition as anything else we associate it with. Brasserie Dupont taught me that. But that's only one part of the conversation. There are so many aspects of American craft brewing we take for granted that are basically driven by the brewing traditions Belgium then and now. And we wanted to talk about all of it as part of our underwriting series called Message in a Bottle. So we invited a bunch of brewers, a few cider makers, and people who work in the longer value chain of craft beer around the world to try and get a sense of where this long tradition of Belgian influence hots America's shores today. This episode is called "The U.S. Evolution of Belgian" The ways in which flavor, ingredients, and technique have been pushed by American brewers has a lot of commonality with Belgian brewers. The panelists are: Eric Johnson, Wild Heaven Beer Patrick Woodson, Brewery Bhavana

This year, we were lucky enough to be invited to Cooperstown, New York to take part in Brewery Ommegang’s annual camping and music festival, Belgium Comes to Cooperstown.

It’s a famous festival in the northeast, with thousands of people setting up for a full weekend of bottle sharing, music, food, and of course, the beer festival part. And this year, as part of our Underwriting collaboration with Brewery Ommegang, we wanted to help lead a conversation around this idea of Belgian. Weather it’s Belgian-inspired, as you’ll hear U.S. brewers often say, or it’s authentically Belgian, or Belgian style, or anyways strain, or it’s some part of a brewing process, an ingredient, or even the mystery and closely guarded secrets that sometimes distinguishes Belgian brewing from other traditions. And of course, what parts of that even matter in 2018 when so much of what’s happening in the most popular aspects of American craft beer seem to be moving in the opposite direction. At least for now. Even Brewery Ommegang, somewhat of a trendsetter when they opened back in 1997, is on that 2018 juicy IPA trend with an excellent entry of their own. And if you look at the history of Belgian brewing, full of pilsners and English ales, and the likes, no one can reasonably scoff at the idea. Keeping the lights on and brewing beers that people want, even if only for a time, is as much a part of the Belgian brewing tradition as anything else we associate it with. Brasserie Dupont taught me that.

But that’s only one part of the conversation. There are so many aspects of American craft brewing we take for granted that are basically driven by the brewing traditions Belgium then and now. And we wanted to talk about all of it as part of our underwriting series called Message in a Bottle.

So we invited a bunch of brewers, a few cider makers, and people who work in the longer value chain of craft beer around the world to try and get a sense of where this long tradition of Belgian influence hots America’s shores today.

This episode is called “The U.S. Evolution of Belgian”The ways in which flavor, ingredients, and technique have been pushed by American brewers has a lot of commonality with Belgian brewers.

The panelists are:Eric Johnson, Wild Heaven BeerPatrick Woodson, Brewery Bhavana