Good Beer Hunting

Welcome to another episode of The Fervent Few podcast. Every few weeks we present you with this bonus episode of the GBH podcast where we chat with members of our subscriber community. The Fervent Few subscribe to GBH like a magazine making a monthly contribution via Patreon. Members join us in a forum to talk about a wide range of topics that doesn't just stop at beer. And every week we pick one of these topics and present the community's answers to readers in the form of an article posted to Good Beer Hunting. You can find out more information by visiting patreon.com/goodbeerhunting On this episode we talk to Tyler Jackson of Chicago's Present Tense Fine Ales a brewery that wants to serve beer exclusively on cask. Then we talk to Carla Jean Lauter, a prolific beer writer and tweeter, about a successful battle against a brewery that opened with a very terribly named beer. But first Michael and I will talk about Founder's Harvest Ale and the way a very minor question can become very meaningful content for GBH. Finally, we start to think about the best beers we had in 2017.

Welcome to another episode of The Fervent Few podcast. Every few weeks we present you with this bonus episode of the GBH podcast where we chat with members of our subscriber community. The Fervent Few subscribe to GBH like a magazine making a monthly contribution via Patreon. Members join us in a forum to talk about a wide range of topics that doesn’t just stop at beer. And every week we pick one of these topics and present the community’s answers to readers in the form of an article posted to Good Beer Hunting. You can find out more information by visiting patreon.com/goodbeerhunting

On this episode we talk to Tyler Jackson of Chicago’s Present Tense Fine Ales a brewery that wants to serve beer exclusively on cask, then we talk to Carla Jean Lauter prolific beer writer and tweeter about a successful battle against a brewery that opened with a very terribly named beer. But first Michael and I will talk about Founder’s Harvest Ale and the way a very minor question can become very meaningful content for GBH and we start to think about the best beers we had in 2017.

Welcome to another episode of The Fervent Few podcast. Every few weeks we present you with this bonus episode of the GBH podcast where we chat with members of our subscriber community. The Fervent Few subscribe to GBH like a magazine making a monthly contribution via Patreon. Members join us in a forum to talk about a wide range of topics that doesn’t just stop at beer. And every week we pick one of these topics and present the community’s answers to readers in the form of an article posted to Good Beer Hunting. You can find out more information by visiting patreon.com/goodbeerhunting

On this episode we talk to Tyler Jackson of Chicago’s Present Tense Fine Ales a brewery that wants to serve beer exclusively on cask, then we talk to Carla Jean Lauter prolific beer writer and tweeter about a successful battle against a brewery that opened with a very terribly named beer. But first Michael and I will talk about Founder’s Harvest Ale and the way a very minor question can become very meaningful content for GBH and we start to think about the best beers we had in 2017.

There's a lot beer lovers may miss when they travel to the Pacific Northwest, a region overwhelmed not just with breweries, but really good ones. And while there are plenty of businesses that captivate beer geeks, one in particular has long caught my eye. Seattle's Reuben's Brews is something of rocket ship in an area pleasantly saturated with some of the best beer in the country. The name might not sound familiar to those outside Washington, but Reuben's is one of the fastest growing breweries in the state. Not long before I sat down with owners Adam and Grace Robbings in September, their business was growing at just over 100 percent in IRI-tracked dollar sales in their home state compared to 2016. Since opening about five years ago, Reuben's has expanded into a pseudo compound spread across a few different buildings in as many blocks in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, where they run a brewery and taproom, packaging facility, barrel-aging space and more. I came to know their beer years ago when my brother sent me a bottle of their award-winning Porter, but their lineup and my expectations have expanded rapidly since then. Amongst the phenomenal growth of Reuben's Brews, Adam and Grace have faced typical challenges not entirely unique to their company, ranging from the kinds of brands they make to how they're sold. However, Adam's methodical processes and logical focus continue to push together aspects of art and science that drives the brewery's core ethos. You'll find the way he talks about making beer - and the level of detail he requires to do so - is rather inspiring. Above all else, however, this is a family business. The beer is important, but not as much as the people that surround it. The namesake of the brewery - Adam and Grace's son, Reuben - is seen as a future. There's been plenty of success so far, but this is still the start of a much longer journey.

There’s a lot beer lovers may miss when they travel to the Pacific Northwest, a region overwhelmed not just with breweries, but really good ones. And while there are plenty of businesses that captivate beer geeks, one in particular has long caught my eye.

Seattle's Reuben's Brews is something of rocket ship in an area pleasantly saturated with some of the best beer in the country. The name might not sound familiar to those outside Washington, but Reuben’s is one of the fastest growing breweries in the state. Not long before I sat down with owners Adam and Grace Robbings in September, their business was growing at just over 100 percent in IRI-tracked dollar sales in their home state compared to 2016.

Since opening about five years ago, Reuben’s has expanded into a pseudo compound spread across a few different buildings in as many blocks in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, where they run a brewery and taproom, packaging facility, barrel-aging space and more. I came to know their beer years ago when my brother sent me a bottle of their award-winning Porter, but their lineup and my expectations have expanded rapidly since then.

Amongst the phenomenal growth of Reuben’s Brews, Adam and Grace have faced typical challenges not entirely unique to their company, ranging from the kinds of brands they make to how they’re sold. However, Adam’s methodical processes and logical focus continue to push together aspects of art and science that drives the brewery’s core ethos. You’ll find the way he talks about making beer - and the level of detail he requires to do so - is rather inspiring.

Above all else, however, this is a family business. The beer is important, but not as much as the people that surround it. The namesake of the brewery - Adam and Grace’s son, Reuben - is seen as a future. There’s been plenty of success so far, but this is still the start of a much longer journey.

There’s a lot beer lovers may miss when they travel to the Pacific Northwest, a region overwhelmed not just with breweries, but really good ones. And while there are plenty of businesses that captivate beer geeks, one in particular has long caught my eye.

Seattle's Reuben's Brews is something of rocket ship in an area pleasantly saturated with some of the best beer in the country. The name might not sound familiar to those outside Washington, but Reuben’s is one of the fastest growing breweries in the state. Not long before I sat down with owners Adam and Grace Robbings in September, their business was growing at just over 100 percent in IRI-tracked dollar sales in their home state compared to 2016.

Since opening about five years ago, Reuben’s has expanded into a pseudo compound spread across a few different buildings in as many blocks in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, where they run a brewery and taproom, packaging facility, barrel-aging space and more. I came to know their beer years ago when my brother sent me a bottle of their award-winning Porter, but their lineup and my expectations have expanded rapidly since then.

Amongst the phenomenal growth of Reuben’s Brews, Adam and Grace have faced typical challenges not entirely unique to their company, ranging from the kinds of brands they make to how they’re sold. However, Adam’s methodical processes and logical focus continue to push together aspects of art and science that drives the brewery’s core ethos. You’ll find the way he talks about making beer - and the level of detail he requires to do so - is rather inspiring.

Above all else, however, this is a family business. The beer is important, but not as much as the people that surround it. The namesake of the brewery - Adam and Grace’s son, Reuben - is seen as a future. There’s been plenty of success so far, but this is still the start of a much longer journey.

Our resident composer for the podcast and our commercial video work, Andrew Thiboldeaux, is writing original scores devoted to beers he finds fascinating. These are interpretations of the experience of drinking them. But they're also just great tunes.

Our resident composer for the podcast and our commercial video work, Andrew Thiboldeaux, is writing original scores devoted to beers he finds fascinating. These are interpretations of the experience of drinking them. But they're also just great tunes.

Our resident composer for the podcast and our commercial video work, Andrew Thiboldeaux, is writing original scores devoted to beers he finds fascinating. These are interpretations of the experience of drinking them. But they're also just great tunes.

The UK's independent brewing scene is booming. Recent figures from the British Beer and Pub Association put the number of active breweries in the UK at more than 2,000, meaning that the UK has more breweries than any other European nation. At the heart of this growth have been the UK's metropolitan areas, cities such as London, Manchester, Newcastle, Bristol, and many more. But thankfully, that growth hasn't been restricted to the cities, with more breweries choosing to establish themselves in smaller towns and in rural areas. We've even seen established city breweries such as Redchurch in London, start to build production facilities outside of these city hubs. Earlier this year I interviewed Dan Lowe, who co-founded Fourpure Brewing Co. with his brother Tom in 2013. Dan spoke to me about how Fourpure was planning a move similar to Redchurch's, in that they were looking at expanding to a purpose-built brewery on a greenfield site on the outskirts of London. But Fourpure changed its plans (for the time being, at least), choosing to invest more than £2 million ($2.7M) in its existing site in South London. This expansion will involve a new brewhouse, more capacity, and more lab and QC space. Eventually, they'll also double the size of their taproom. This, along with a whole bunch of other local breweries, including Partizan, Pressure Drop, and Mondo, also investing in their London sites, is indicative that there is still a lot of room here for growth. This growth is also giving newer, smaller breweries a chance to establish themselves too, as the expanding breweries move into other markets, thus freeing up space at the point of entry. Recently, I headed down to Fourpure, at the end of the Bermondsey Beer Mile, to catch up with both Dan and Tom. We talk about everything above and more.