Expert interviews, brewing insights, and industry trends.
Fifteen years ago this week, Hill Farmstead in Vermont opened its doors to the world. In this ranging conversation, founder Shaun Hill discusses everything from the early development of hazy IPA and Brett experimentations in Farmstead Ale to intentional management philosophy and balancing mental and physical health with brewery work.
For American growers, planting fields of virus-free hops is a hedge against rapidly declining yields and the susceptibility of prized aroma varieties to viruses and viroids. But brewers have their own expectations—can these plants that get a healthier start deliver? This episode aims to answer that question, and more.
The small brewery about an hour outside of Indianapolis strikes a cool and edgy pose in its tiny town surrounded by agricultural fields, but the nuance and polish of their beer has found fans across the state (and amongst our magazine’s blind judging panel).
The cofounder and brewing director of New Zealand’s 2024 champion large brewery loves finding exactly the right places for domestic and imported hops, but he often uses them in ways you wouldn’t expect.
The New Zealand Beer Awards’ reigning champion microbrewer punches above his weight class, with medal-winning lagers produced unconventionally in a small brewpub where time definitely equals money. But he’s also pushing boundaries with localized takes—as with a tart, sparkling harvest ale that combines country’s signature white-wine grape with its signature hop.
Brewers outside New Zealand tend to associate its hops with IPA, but for more than 30 years, Kiwi brewers have been making their own kind of pilsner using the homegrown harvest. In this episode, the head brewer at Mount—home of the award-winning Mountie Pilsner—shares the keys to finding balance and drinkability in a cool-pooled, dry-hopped lager of 45 IBUs.
This fifth-generation hop farmer has watched craft beer pull New Zealand’s hop-growing industry back from the brink, and today he and his team are using experience, data, and more sophisticated tools to optimize their varieties for the different types of brewers who use them.
The molecular biologist and head of R&D for New Zealand’s Garage Project has spent his career studying yeast and coaxing them to work in more effective ways. Today, he’s working on everything from refined thiol expression to better mouthfeel and malt expression in nonalcoholic beers.
Is it the hop variety that matters most? Or when it’s picked? The soil it’s grown in? How it’s fertilized and irrigated throughout a season? Or something else? These two preeminent researchers—one from the States, one from New Zealand—debate the relative impacts of various factors on hop flavor and aroma.
The founder and head brewer for Garage Project in Wellington, New Zealand, is tackling more than just brewing these days. Garage Project’s team is breaking the fourth wall, investing in the Hāpi Research partnership with hop grower Freestyle—all for the sake of deeper hop flavor.
Earlier this week, Brewing Industry Guide All Access subscribers received Kate’s latest article about how commonly shared economic and sales data for beer may not be painting an accurate picture. On this episode, she shares perspectives behind that story and insights into how craft brewers are bucking some prevailing trends.
If a beer is 5 percent ABV or less, can you really call it an IPA? You might, if you’re subject to Utah’s peculiar alcohol regulations—ultimately, though, it's the award-winning flavor and aroma that absolve the pale little “lies” told by the Park City prodigies at Offset Bier.
Brian Hutchinson of Cannonball Creek, Jake Gardner of Westbound & Down, and Phil Joyce of Amalgam discuss the similarities as well as points of difference in their award-winning approaches to brewing West Coast–style IPA.
Mark Rubenstein and Spencer Guy of Louisville, Kentucky’s Atrium Brewing share the creative fuel and technical process behind their high-scoring stouts and crowd-pleasing fruit-forward quick sours.
Neil Fisher of Weldwerks is back for a special 400th episode conversation that touches on current challenges in craft beer, opportunities on the horizon, discipline and fundamentals, advantages of openness, fostering connection, and more.
Contrary to popular misconception, great dessert stouts require balance and intention. In this episode, James Herrholz explains how Corporate Ladder uses roast, bitterness, and a wide range of malt to build depth and dimension into indulgently sweet beers.
For the past decade, Denver’s River North Brewery has pushed the limits of fermentation with ultra-high-gravity beers, and in this episode they share insights into building balance and refinement in very, very big beers.
After decades leading yeast and quality programs at some of the biggest breweries in the Western Hemisphere, Casey retired to work on his passion project: telling the story of American lager brewing from the 1830s to the present.
Drawn to the challenges of complex fermentations, this microbiology major and VLB-trained brewer continues to apply the lesson’s he’s learned about yeast selection, hop load, acidification, Brett acclimation, and more—lessons that could be valuable to any brewer working with mixed cultures.
The expert, brewer, and publican who helped to elevate Poland’s true national beer style—porter—dives into the style and its modern evolution from a local perspective, also telling the story behind the special day he conceived nearly a decade ago.
The low-ABV, 100-percent-oak-smoked-wheat-malt beer came back from the dead in the past decade, and the original Grodzisk brewery was similarly revived to focus on the style. In this episode, head brewer Marcin Ostajewski shares history as well as contemporary techniques for making the beer dubbed “Polish champagne.”
These are the conversations that piqued your interest, with highlights from the most-downloaded podcast episodes of the past year.
Brewing in Czechia is steeped in tradition, but there are corners exploring modern craft styles in a very Czech way. In this episode, the brewers of Zichovec in Louny, Czechia, talk through their approach to classic styles with modern flair as well as modern styles with a local touch.
What happens when an experienced brewmaster trades his 100-barrel production plant for a five-barrel kit built into an old farm? Smart but simple efficiency measures, lagers that lean into the farm’s terroir, and a focus on gentle processes that optimize flavor by reducing stress on ingredients, wort, and fermenting beer.