Drink Beer, Think Beer With John Holl

Alex Lovinggood of Barn Town Brewing has been in the beer business for less than a decade but has made a lasting impact wherever he has gone. He was a teacher and a bartender before he got into brewing. He started like so many others, as a volunteer washing kegs and learning the trade from time spent in various hands on experiences.  He worked at Temperance Brewing, Atlas (when it was called that), and later Brickstone, all in Illinois. He has been a major force behind The Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer and worked to help grow and shape the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild.  Last November he moved a little bit west to Barn Town Brewing in West Des Moines, Iowa where he is now a brewer.In this episode he talks about IPA, new styles of beer, food influences, festivals, and more.  For more Drink Beer, Think Beer or to check out Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals, follow us on Twitter @thebeeredge and subscribe to our beer industry focused newsletter. There is more information, articles, and engaging content at Beer Edge.Host: John HollGuest: Alex LovinggoodTags: Beer, Craft Beer, Pastry Sour, Hazy IPA, IPA, Iowa, Illinois

D.G. Yuengling & Son is the country’s oldest operating brewery, going back 191 years now. It survived major events over the course of 6 generations, most notably Prohibition, and really hit its stride in the mid-1980s when Dick Yuengling Jr. purchased the brewery from his father and began making Yuengling Lager, which is the company’s flagship beer and accounts for 80% of overall volume.  As the brewery, often referred to as just the family last name, looks to its sixth generation it is Jennifer Yuengling, the Vice President of Operations, and her three sisters who are poised to take over the brand and continue the family tradition.  To stay competitive in a crowded beer marketplace she says innovation is key. The brewery has continued to release new brands and find new partnerships to stay top of mind with its customers across 22 states. Yuengling is also the country’s largest craft brewery, as designated by the Brewers Association, but Jennifer is more interested in using the word independent, something the whole company is proud of being, she says. Jennifer spoke to the show from the brewery in Pennsylvania. For more Drink Beer, Think Beer or to check out Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals, follow us on Twitter @thebeeredge and subscribe to our beer industry focused newsletter. There is more information, articles, and engaging content at Beer Edge.Host: John HollGuest: Jennifer YuenglingTags: Beer, Craft Beer, Lager, Hershey, Yuengling, Florida, Pennsylvania

From host John Holl: "Every once in a while a beer comes your way from an unfamiliar brewery and just blows you away. It’s one of the great things about having so many breweries in the country these days – there is a lot to discover.  A few months back I had a slew of beers from Crane Brewing Co. in Raytown, Missouri. The gose and Berliner Weiss were subtle, flavorful, mixed with all kinds of ingredients and layered with nuance that made me want to know more about where they came from. So I called up Christopher Meyers, a co-founder of the brewery to talk about process, working with local farms, and their concept of 'tradition, evolving.'He spoke to me from the brewery in Missouri."  For more Drink Beer, Think Beer or to check out Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals, follow us on Twitter @thebeeredge and subscribe to our beer industry focused newsletter. There is more information, articles, and engaging content at Beer Edge.Host: John HollGuest: Christopher MeyersTags: Beer, Craft Beer, Missouri, Lager, Fruit, Berliner Weisse, Gose, COVID-19

It really is a small world. Before Covid-19 sent us all into lockdown John Holl  received an email from a listener who encouraged him to book Ethan Cox of Community Beer Works in Buffalo on the show. Alex wrote in saying that “Ethan is a big part of the craft beer culture here in Buffalo and helped take a plucky little nanobrewery and turn it into a place that represents the neighborhood and the city that is very much on a hidden gem.” So John did some digging and found out that Ethan is also a tireless advocate for New York Beer and the efforts that its guild is pushing to make it easier for breweries to do business, and the co-author of Buffalo Beer: The History of Brewing in the Nickel City published by History Press.  And it turns out, Ethan's sister lives in the same small town as John. So Ethan made the trip down to New Jersey ostensibly to see his sister, but managed to sneak away, douse himself in hand sanitizer, and share some beers in the back yard.  For more Drink Beer, Think Beer or to check out Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals, follow us on Twitter @thebeeredge and subscribe to our beer industry focused newsletter. There is more information, articles, and engaging content at Beer Edge.Host: John HollGuest: Ethan CoxTags: Beer, Craft Beer, New York, Pilsner, Fruit, Community, Buffalo, IPA, Pale Ale, Football, Travel, Barleywine 

Most people know Garrett Oliver as the globe trotting brewmaster of the Brooklyn brewery, but he is also an accomplished author, educator, and thought leader in the brewing space. His latest project is one that we can all get behind and support, it’s a foundation named after the late Michael Jackson, the writer.  Its mission is funding technical education and career advancement for black, indigenous, and people of color in the brewing and distilling industries. This interview was originally recorded for an article that host John Holl was writing for Wine Enthusiast Magazine, but there was so much more in the talk that could ever make it onto the page that we’re sharing a slightly edited version of the conversation with you today. Garrett spoke to the show from Brooklyn. For more Drink Beer, Think Beer or to check out Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals, follow us on Twitter @thebeeredge and subscribe to our beer industry focused newsletter. There is more information, articles, and engaging content at Beer Edge.Host: John HollGuest: Garrett OliverTags: Beer, Craft Beer, Michael Jackson, Diversity, Fundraising, Quality ControlThis episode is sponsored by: Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals  Help support journalism covering the beer industry by subscribing to the twice weekly newsletter. Learn more at our revamped website.  

This week's guest is Lisa Allen. She’s the head brewer of Heater Allen, the brewery her father started in 2007. He lived the classic story of a homebrewer that went pro and decided to make the beers he wanted to drink. In a hoppy landscape his beers stood out in Oregon, even if you couldn’t get them too far from the brewery itself.  Lisa says she was fascinated by fermentation and brewing science from a young age but didn’t plan on joining her father’s business. Instead she went into wine making. But, as fate would have it, she would enter the brew house to help out when her father needed to recuperate from surgery a few years back and and she hasn’t left. It has been to the great benefit of us all.  She spoke to me from the brewery in McMinnville, Oregon.For more Drink Beer, Think Beer or to check out Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals, follow us on Twitter @thebeeredge and subscribe to our beer industry focused newsletter. There is more information, articles, and engaging content at Beer Edge.Host: John HollGuest: Lisa AllenTags: Beer, Craft Beer, Oregon, COVID-19, Pilsner, HopsThis episode is sponsored by: Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals  Help support journalism covering the beer industry by subscribing to the twice weekly newsletter. Learn more at our revamped website. 

Remember the Brut IPA? It was, for a shining moment, seemingly the hottest beer style in the country and then it went away. The brewer credited with the style is Kim Sturdavant and he is our guest on the show today. From its origins, to its evolution ,and eventual death we cover the life cycle of a style. What does the future hold for the style? Well, Sturdavant who is working at Pacifica Brewing does not currently have one on his board. So, that has to mean something.Sturdavant spoke to the show from California. For more Drink Beer, Think Beer or to check out Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals, follow us on Twitter @thebeeredge and subscribe to our beer industry focused newsletter. There is more information, articles, and engaging content at Beer Edge.Host: John HollGuest: Kim SturdavantTags: Beer, Craft Beer, California, COVID-19,  Helles, Brut IPA, Styles, San Francisco This episode is sponsored by: Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals  Help support journalism covering the beer industry by subscribing to the twice weekly newsletter. Learn more at our revamped website. 

This is a special bonus episode on the channel featuring the Drinks Adventures podcast. A note from host James Atkinson:"I drove west of Sydney to the Blue Mountains where I visited Mountain Culture Brewing Company, a new brewpub founded by husband and wife team DJ and Harriet McCready. American-born DJ McCready exploded onto the Australian brewing scene at the inaugural Craft Beer Awards, now known as The Indies, in 2014.At the time DJ was brewing with a little known start-up from Sydney's northern beaches, Modus Operandi Brewing Company, where he created beers such as Former Tenant Red IPA, which won Champion Australian Beer at the awards that year and is still picking up gongs today. In fact, it was named Champion IPA at The Indies earlier in 2019.Now with their new brewing company Mountain Culture in a heritage building in the centre of Katoomba, DJ and Harriet have built a fantastic brewpub that is already being embraced by the locals. And as you would expect from a brewer of his calibre, the beers DJ is making up there are outstanding.We began our chat by returning to that night in 2014 when the Australian brewing industry fast became very familiar with the name DJ McCready."Learn more about DJ and read a transcript of the interview here. 

If you are interested in the subject of beer, it’s likely that you’ve already heard of Pete Brown and have read his words. He is the author of nine books on not only beer but cider and food as well.  His prose effortlessly brings readers along on journeys whether is walking through orchards, sitting at the PUB, or traversing oceans with IPA.  His latest book, Craft: An Argument was written and published during the COVID-19 lockdown and has just been released. Brown joined the show via Zoom from London. For more Drink Beer, Think Beer or to check out Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals, follow us on Twitter @thebeeredge and subscribe to our beer industry focused newsletter. There is more information, articles, and engaging content at Beer Edge.Host: John HollGuest: Pete BrownTags: Beer, Craft Beer, London, COVID-19,  Diversity, Writing, Pubs, ESB, Fullers, Lager, AleThis episode is sponsored by: Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals  Help support journalism covering the beer industry by subscribing to the twice weekly newsletter. Learn more at our revamped website. 

If you are a fan of this show,  you are likely a fan of beer in general, and you have likely already heard of Averie Swanson. She's had one of the more storied careers in beer thus far. Going from a volunteer at Jester King in Austin to its head brewer in just four years but new challenges awaited her, and so she moved north to Chicago last year where she started Keeping Together, a brewery that is focusing on mixed culture, rustic, Belgian-inspired beers.We cover a lot of ground in this interview, recorded just before the 4th of July holiday weekend. She spoke to me from Chicago about brewing philosophy, ingredients, and the changing nature of beer. For more Drink Beer, Think Beer or to check out Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals, follow us on Twitter @thebeeredge and subscribe to our beer industry focused newsletter. There is more information, articles, and engaging content at Beer Edge.Host: John HollGuest: Averie Swanson of Keeping Together (Photo provided by the brewery)Tags: Beer, Craft Beer, Chicago, COVID-19,  Diversity, Taprooms, Wood, Table Beer, Half Acre, Jester King, TexasThis episode is sponsored by: Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals  Help support journalism covering the beer industry by subscribing to the twice weekly newsletter. Learn more at our revamped website.