Untappd Virtual Happy Hour

Dan Lipke joins Greg for a Virtual Happy Hour! Hailing from Burlington, VT, Dan Lipke has built his life around a love of beer. He has worked for over 25 years in the brewing industry. Dan initially met Gregg Berman the founder of Clown Shoes in 2009 and the two have worked together since to create all of the fantastic Clown Shoes beers. Enjoying nearly all styles of beer from Czech lagers to Hazy IPAs, Dan loves the creative aspects of the Clown Shoes brand. His interests include cooking, running, traveling, and spending time with his family.

Greg is joined by Mandy Naglich, an Advanced Cicerone, National Homebrew Competition Gold Medalist, and writer. She covers food, travel, and beer for a variety of print and online publications including Food & Wine, Vice, Taste of Home, VinePair and other outlets. She is the co-author of the desserts cookbook, Hello, Cookie Dough. As an AROXA Certified Beer Taster, her sensory expertise and wildly popular blind tasting classes have been covered in publications and podcasts like The Sporkful, The New York Times, SevenFifty Daily, Vice, and Mic.com. Mandy’s homebrewed Belgian beers regularly win accolades at sanctioned competitions including multiple first-place awards at the New York Regional Competition and the National Homebrew Competition held by the American Homebrew Association. She is the homebrew advice columnist for VinePair. Mandy lives, writes, and brews in New York City but you can follow her beer adventures around the world at @beerswithmandy.

Greg is joined by Tristan Chan, Founder of PorchDrinking.com, a national beer publication focused on telling great stories within the craft beer industry. Over the past eight years, their approach toward showcasing positivity within the industry, reporting the news, and showcasing beer through the context of pop culture, has resonated among their growing readership and staff. Tristan also recently launched his own marketing consulting firm, The Porch Collective, to help breweries and hospitality brands share their stories through PR, Social Media, Partnerships, and overall Marketing Strategies.

Greg is joined by Ale Sharpton for this Virtual Happy Hour! Dennis Malcolm Byron aka Ale Sharpton is a world-renowned beer authority, award-winning journalist, blogger ( AleSharpton.com), photographer, event planner, host, copywriter, and creative director for numerous projects. While passionately traveling the globe to cover everything from automobiles to culinary scenes, celebrity profiles, sports, hotel destinations, art, and what he terms “the world’s best beverage,” Ale has contributed to more than 30 magazines and websites combined. His current media outlets include Thrillist.com, Craft Beer & Brewing,CraftBeer.com, USAToday, Lifestyle Publishing, City Lifestyle, Atlanta Magazine and others. Although a native New Yorker, Ale proudly calls Atlanta, Georgia his home. Follow Ale’s globetrotting adventures on Twitter ( @alesharpton ) and captivating Instagram ( @realalesharpton ).

In celebration of Untappd's 10th Anniversary, Greg is joined by Dan McLaughlin, founder of the Pony Bar in NYC. Dan McLaughlin got bitten by the beer bug in the mid-’90s, but it wasn’t until he was bartending at The Blind Tiger in New York City’s West Village back in 1999 that he first started thinking about running his own place. He and Pony Bar partner Pat Hughes opened their first in the mid-2000s (Lansdowne Road in Hell’s Kitchen, which is still open), but one wasn’t enough. “I felt I had the know-how and financials to pursue opening a bar that centered on American-made beer from small breweries,” McLaughlin says. From there, Pony Bar was born.

Greg is joined by Latiesha Cook, CEO, Co-Founder, and President of Beer Kulture, and Khris Johnson, VP of Beer Kulture, a nonprofit organization whose vision is to increase diversity, inclusion, and equality within the craft beer space through humanitarian assistance, educational programs, and compassionate community services.

Greg is joined by Matt Johnston & Bob Russell, co-founders of Collective Arts Brewing. Matt Johnston is the CEO and co-founder of Collective Arts Brewing. Matt has worked in the brewing industry for nearly 20 years in various senior marketing, sales, and operational roles. Matt has always been driven by creativity, which ultimately led him to leave a steady position to start Collective Arts with partner Bob Russell in 2013. Matt is currently based in Hamilton, ON, Canada. Bob Russell is the Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Collective Arts Brewing. Bob has more than 30 years of experience working in graphic design, branding, and art direction. Prior to co-founding Collective Arts in 2013 with partner Matt Johnston, Bob started his own design firm, Russell Design. Bob is currently based in Stowe, VT, USA.

Day 2 of Canada Week, Greg is joined by Greg Zeschuk, Owner of Blind Enthusiasm Brewing Company. Originally trained as a medical doctor, Greg started the videogame company BioWare in 1995 in his hometown of Edmonton. BioWare created a number of successful games (Baldur’s Gate, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Mass Effect) before being purchased by Electronic Arts (EA) in 2007. Greg left BioWare in 2012 to start working in beer. Greg started The Beer Diaries, a YouTube channel focused on craft beer, and served as the first Executive Director of the Alberta Small Brewers Association. This led to Greg starting a brewery in his home town of Edmonton. Greg built two buildings - the award-winning Ritchie Market, housing a brewery (Blind Enthusiasm Brewing Company) and restaurant (Biera), and a second stand-alone brewery, the Monolith. Out of its Market brewery Blind Enthusiasm creates lagers and wheat ales and runs an extensive barrel-aging program. The Monolith was built to marry scientific method with tradition and it's dedicated to making exclusively mixed fermentation and spontaneous beer.

It's Canada Week! Greg Avola is joined by Émilie Leclerc, Founder of La Petite Biere blog. Émilie is a Canadian actress who also loves great beer and food. She joins all her passions on her blog: la_petite_biere on Instagram. She travels Quebec province and around the world to discover the best places that promote the “craft” movement: distilleries, breweries, restaurants, bars, brewpubs, festivals, theaters, cities, villages, etc. She regularly talks about her favorite beers, spirits, “food and beer” pairings and about her “beer recipes” finds. Emilie wants to promote a healthy lifestyle, so she also regularly talks about her non-alcoholic or very low alcoholic beers. She is also a “beer-nalist” for various Quebec newspapers. You can follow Émilie for Beer, spirits, travel, restaurant advice, beer recipes and pairings, alcohol-free products, vintage fashion, concerts and festivals.

For this Virtual Happy Hour, Greg Avola chats with Dr. J Jackson-Beckham, Founder & Principal Equity & Inclusion Strategist for Crafted For All, LLC and Diversity Ambassador for the Brewers Association. J Nikol Jackson-Beckham, Ph.D. is a scholar, writer, and equity and inclusion strategist who provides consulting and training to individuals and organizations in the craft brewing industry. Crafted For All, LLC is a platform that works to bring the diversity of craft beer to people and the diversity of people to craft beer.