Expert interviews, brewing insights, and industry trends.
For Charlotte, North Carolina's Resident Culture, taste and quality are sacrosanct. No ingredient or process is sacred in the quest to improve.
The fifth-generation leader of this family-owned British malthouse discusses the ins and outs of barley, malting, heritage varieties like Golden Promise and Maris Otter, crop year challenges, crystallization and roasting, batch blending, and more.
The existence of Denver’s Hogshead Brewery is further evidence that passionate, opinionated brewers tend to make great beer. Founder Stephen Kirby is outspoken about what he loves and doesn’t love in brewing. In this episode, he lays it all out there.
The brewers at Cellarmaker are known among peers for their nuanced approach to hops. Here, they discuss everything from finding hops that punch hard to understanding how “bag appeal” translates to finished beer, how stored hops change over time, and more.
New Anthem earned 2019 CB&B Beer of the Year honors after two IPAs scored perfect 100s; they did it again in our new IPA issue. How do they do it? Cofounder Aaron Skiles walks us through their process of building consistency through constant change.
Mark Bjornstad, cofounder of Drekker Brewing in Fargo, North Dakota, talks about the ingredients, process, and approach behind their thick, jammy, fruit-smoothie-like beers.
Chris Harris, founder and brewer at Black Frog Brewing in Holland, Ohio, embraces malty depth, seems impervious to the latest craft trends, and wants everyone to feel welcome.
The cofounder of Arizona's Superstition Meadery has always been driven to explore what makes something the best. In this episode, he walks through the process of innovation they’ve built to support those aspirations.
The longtime Bell’s brewer dives into the minutiae that make this evolving style of highly hopped, low-calorie beer so compelling, and discusses the particulars behind one of their biggest releases in recent history—Light Hearted Ale.
The last few years have been the best of times and the worst of times for Wyoming-based Melvin Brewing. While the beer has never been better, a series of unforced errors rocked the party atmosphere that the brewery has always striven to project.
Odell Brewing in Fort Collins, Colorado, is notoriously tight-lipped on recipe and process. But in this hops-forward conversation, COO Brendan McGivney discusses their slow, steady approach to changing their flagship IPA—so that it can stay the same.
San Diego’s Societe Brewing has long had a reputation for being brewers’ brewers, with dual-core IPAs expressing different sides of the West Coast coin, and a wild beer program designed around drinkable, funk-forward, lower-acidity beers.
Today’s brewing world is baroque in its embrace of excess, but for Bissell Brothers of Portland, Maine, the not-so-secret strategy is a deep desire to perfect their existing beers rather than create a stream of new ones.
Left Hand Brewing's cofounder and president discusses the challenges his brewery is facing, and he shares perspective learned from navigating the first craft beer shakeout of the late 1990s.
Biotransformation is not just real, it’s measurable, says New Belgium's hops-focused innovation brewer in this deep dive into the mechanics of hops aroma and flavor.
Boston offers a remarkable concentration of top breweries, but Vitamin Sea has carved out a niche with their own take on the New England IPA style, influenced by both coasts and a dedication to nonstop pilot brewing and testing.
We all taste beer, but do you really taste it? Developing a disciplined, analytical approach to honing your palate is a key skill for every brewer, and Barr’s thoughtful approach will make a difference in how (and what) you taste.
Destihl Brewery started as a small-town brewpub, but it was sour beer that put them on the map in the late 2000’s. In this episode, Founder Matt Potts discusses how they’ve developed these different beers, from traditional to kettle sours.
The heads of brewing and quality for Hardywood Park in Richmond, Virginia, explore the challenges of brewing their flagship Gingerbread Stout, Pils, Richmond Lager, hazy IPAs, and more.
The head brewer and cofounder of Virginia’s The Veil Brewing Co. is known for both his hyperfocus on spontaneous lambic-style brewing and for pushing the boundaries of beer with a commitment to experimentation, challenge, and learning.
In this special subscriber-only bonus segment of Episode 128, Matt Tarpey discusses the mental anguish of customer feedback, building an approach to lager brewing not tied to traditional styles, The Veil’s multifaceted approach to brewing IPAs, and more.
Kyle Matthias is assistant brewmaster of pilot brewing at Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon. He oversees a production calendar of about 140 brews per year on the brewery’s 3.5-barrel pilot system. The potential for learning is immense.
Breakside Brewery, under Brewmaster Ben Edmunds, has taken home 16 GABF medals and eight from the World Beer Cup. They've done it by shaving down beers to the elements that appeal most to their expert tasters.
The former brewing director of Jackie O’s in Ohio left the acclaimed brewery to launch his own barrel-aging project in California. Here, he talks big beers—from malt and yeast to blending.