Jamie Bogner

Since their start in 2009, Matt Cole and Fat Head’s have cleaned up in the major competitions with their German-style wheat beers, American-style IPAs, and closely related styles. In this episode, Cole pulls back the veil and shares some of the process and ingredient choices that set their beers apart.

• Podcast

As an unabashed lover of hazy IPA, Murphy Johnson doesn’t apologize for focusing a huge portion of BlackStack’s brewing program on the hop-laden crowd pleasers. His latest obsession, meanwhile, is maximizing flavor without breaking the bank, using traditional American hops in some very untraditional ways.

• Podcast

The Twin Cities’ Fair State Brewing Cooperative both heralds the adjunct-driven history of Upper Midwest lager brewing and pushes the craft-beverage conversation forward with an honest approach to hemp-derived THC drinks.

• Podcast

Lager yeast is capable of so much more than many brewers give it credit for, and in this industry spotlight panel discussion brought to you by the yeast experts at Fermentis, Bob Kunz of Highland Park, Urs Wellhoener of Boston Beer, and Grant Lawrence of Fermentis explore ways to heighten expression in cold fermentations.

• Podcast

From Beachwood to Riip and now under his own brand, Ism, Ian McCall has honed his West Coast IPA craft and racked up a bunch of medals along the way. The secret? He’s not afraid of bitterness, as long as it’s properly shaped and timed.

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Over the past few decades, Victor Novak has earned his reputation as an award-winning brewer at breweries such as Dock Street, Taps, and Golden Road. Now, as innovation director at California’s Figueroa Mountain, he’s leaning into his love of classic lager styles as well as progressive fruit beers.

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The secret to making consistently award-winning cider is, of course, great fruit married to thoughtful design and flawless execution, and for this multigenerational family of apple growers from Colorado’s Western slope, anything less than the best wouldn’t do justice to their beloved fruit.

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The past few years have been challenging for brewers who depend on European hops, with concerns that the frequency of bad harvests could be accelerating. So, we asked two brewers who know a thing or two about getting the most from Noble hops to share how they maintain quality, from working with growers to developing novel workflows.

• Podcast
• Noble Hops
• European Hops

De Dolle Brouwers has a reputation for colorful branding and characterful, high-gravity beers that hold up beautifully in the cellar. Yet their process is intentionally laborious and layered, from the coolship and Baudelot cooler to the open copper fermentors and more in an old, classic Flemish brewhouse.

• Podcast
• Belgium
• Belgian Ale

With characterful, medal-winning lagers and a decidedly West Coast approach to “foggy” IPA, Humble Sea is navigating craft beer’s choppy waters out of Santa Cruz, California, with quality as their North Star and an appetite for exploring new routes.

• Podcast

The West Flanders brewery, launched in 1946 to brew the beers for a nearby (and equally well-known) monastery, has adapted decade by decade as ingredients fluctuate and technology progresses. But their goal—to faithfully produce these abbey beers in a way that’s true to the original recipes—remains the same even as the tools change.

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Brouwerij ’t Verzet infuses brash rock ‘n’ roll attitude and a penchant for experimentation into their studied, methodical approach to developing their own takes on traditional Flemish beers.

• Podcast