Good Beer Matters Podcast

Behind every beer is a story of how and why it came to be. My next guest is a writer and an educator who helps people understand the stories beer has to tell.

What are Gypsy Brewers? They are the rogues, the mercenaries, the A-Team of the brewing world. And, my next guest is one of the best brewers you’ve never heard of.

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An American Brewer pursues his dream of living in board shorts and brewing craft beer in Mexico. But like all good stories, this adventure brings loss, disaster and making a choice to continue when the challenges seem far too daunting.

A small brewery in Hawaii is taking the challenges of isolation and high cost of raw goods and turning it into an environmental experiment that, if successful, could change the way the world makes beer, wine and spirits. Check out Ola Brewing.

 I read a quote online recently that goes, “Challenges are what makes life interesting, and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” It made me think back to the early days before the craft beer movement was a thing. In the 60s and 70s home brewing was illegal, ingredients were hard to come by, equipment was built by hand, information was scarce and nobody drank dark, flavorful beer. To say that our early craft beer pioneers surmounted some steep challenges is a bit watered down. I had the opportunity to talk to one of those early pioneers, Ken Grossman, who is a brewing icon, founder, and owner of Sierra Nevada Brewing. Join us as he shares his thoughts on how overcoming challenges has shaped the past, the present and will even shape the future of Craft Beer.  

 Beer writers have the semi-glamorous and sometimes inglorious honor of traveling to various places to taste a lot of really good and really bad beer. This is all to inform and entertain the rest of us. They’re responsible for mundane beer reviews, technical essays on the next industry changing gadget, as well as inspiring stories of travel, adventure and flavor. But, every once in a while a beer writer takes a swig and then puts pen to paper, which truly opens the reader’s world view. My next guest is a beer writer, editor and podcast host who not only informs his readers, but takes them on a journey through the experiences and the philosophical realm of what beer can be. In this episode, he explores the “What” and the “Why” of beer and even discusses the three most dangerous words found in beer writing. 

In his book “Drink Beer, Think Beer,” John Holl not only provides an insider’s view into the beer industry, but opens up a window to the world and to ourselves. I urge every professional and enthusiast to read it and explore what beer can teach us.

 Decades ago, when craft beer was the wild west of flavor and ingredients were hard to come by, assuming someone knew what to do with them, studying the quality of beer was unheard of. Sure, the big breweries probably had food scientists in their employ, but I’ll bet you a beer that was to ensure consistency for the sake of revenue. The small brewer’s who tinkered in their garages with salvaged dairy equipment back then couldn’t afford labs and likely relied on tasting alone to evaluate new beer. This school of hard knocks approach helped later generations brew smarter and to finally learn what beer could taste like. 

Every brewery, no matter how small, needs a sensory program so that bar patrons won’t become the QA team by default. Thanks to Draughtlab, the education and tools are far more accessible to small breweries and aficionados than they have ever been. 

Our next guest is a sensory scientist who spent nearly a decade at New Belgium Brewing. She now helps breweries large and small set up sensory programs and to taste all the bad beer so we consumers won’t have to.  

I hope you enjoy episode 33 of Good Beer Matters with Sensory Scientist and Co-Founder of Draughtlab, Lindsay Barr

 The pilgrims on the Mayflower may have been the first Americans to create beer policy when the beer supplies, which was their only source of hydration, ran low and forced them to land short of warmer lattitudes. During the US Civil War, immigrant and first-generation American brewers demonstrated their patriotism by forming one of the first trade organizations, the US Brewer’s Association. Since then, beer policy has influenced American culture from World Wars, prohibition, a three tier system, legalization of homebrewing, trade tariffs and more. In the mid 80s, the US Brewer’s Assocation evolved into the Beer Institute and has been advocating for sound policy for the three hundred billion dollar industry ever since. 

Love it or hate it, policy and politics affects our daily lives in very complicated, even subtle ways. I recommend that the next time you go to Washington D.C. and meet with your representative, meet them at a bar and offer them a beer.  

The Brewer’s Association crunches numbers and stats for the benefit of independent breweries in the US. Today’s guest helps us understand these stats and gives a little insight as to how these breweries can differentiate themselves despite the crowd.