We’re back! Doug is enjoying his retirement and we’re rebooting the Beer with Strangers blog as an interview and opinion show. On this episode we speak with Zac Rissmiller from 1623 Brewing (this starts at about 10 minutes in if my pre-show blathering gets you down), talk a little about box-of-chocolate beers and lay out how the rest of the shows are going to go. Please reach out and let us know what you think.

The thing about 1623 Brewing is that, although they make and distribute beer in Maryland and Colorado, they don’t have their own brewery in either. The Maryland brewery should be online before too long, but in the meanwhile they’re contract brewing with DuClaw and gypsy/collab brewing in Colorado. A business structure like this is one thing that always will separate craft brewing as an industry: If you make good beer, it doesn’t matter where or how you do it.

Zac provides insight on working in two places at once and about how the beer laws in Maryland and Colorado influence the company’s decision-making.

 

Show Notes for the 1628 Brewing Episode

1623 Brewing Company

1623 Brewing Company is a family owned, community driven brewery serving Colorado and Maryland.

Here’s some more 1623 Brewing background from the Baltimore Sun:

New Maryland brewery 1623 Brewing Co. debuts in Carroll County with launch party tonight

Zac Rissmiller has degrees in engineering, but he calls them “just pieces of paper.” Instead of putting what he learned in college to work, he pursued his love of brewing. As a survivor of the Columbine High School massacre that left 15 dead in 1999, Rissmiller said life’s too short not to pursue his passion.

And the other stories we discussed in this ep…

Reimagining the Boilermaker as a Craft Beer Cocktail | CraftBeer.com

There was a little romance connected with my first boilermaker. It was a little after 8 a.m. in a Jersey City, New Jersey, storefront Italian club where there was nothing odd about chasing shots with nips of macro beer joylessly on a Sunday morning.

Another take on the boilermaker:

A Shot And A Beer! – The Beer Whisperer

Or more aptly titled, a nice whiskey served neat alongside a fine beer. I Am The Beer Whisperer, Beervangelist, Prolific Beer Drinker, Purveyor Of Wisdom and … All Around Good Guy! However, I’m also the Whiskey Whisperer. Sometimes my alter egos duke it out, but sometimes they’re simpatico and hold hands around the campfire singing,Read More…

Easy Pairings to Make Remarkable Craft Beer Cocktails

In the strictest terms, craft beer cocktails aren’t really all that new. The disposition to add beer and alcohol together is probably as old as both. Fortified beer was good for keeping warm or for self medicating.

Valentine’s Day Doesn’t Only Have to Be About Beer, but It Can Be

There’s no reason to lock yourself down to just one beer, especially as February bears down on us like a bleak plague. This is the month for really experimenting with different beers, and here’s why: February doesn’t want you to be happy.