Episodes

  • Episode 480: Anthony Chen of AleSmith Shares the Inside Story Behind the Award-Winning Handgeplukt Kriek

    Episode 480: Anthony Chen of AleSmith Shares the Inside Story Behind the Award-Winning Handgeplukt Kriek
    May 15 2026
    For San Diego’s AleSmith, funky Belgian-style mixed-culture beers aged on whole fruit may not be impactful to the bottom line. As brewers, however, they love the process challenge of these multi-phase beers as well as the unique flavors made possible by complex fermentations and highest-quality fruit. Late last year, our blind panel at Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® rated their Handgeplukt Kriek a 98, and our editors we selected it as one of our Best 20 Beers in 2025. Then, at the 2026 World Beer Cup, the beer further cemented its elite status by taking home a gold medal. In this episode, AleSmith head brewer Anthony Chen walks us through the brewing and maturation process, from ideation and ingredients to step-mash, barrel-aging, maceration, and more. Along the way, he discusses: why commercial pitches work better for them then culturing dregs for mixed-culture beerhow malted and flaked wheat produce more “chunkies”using a pre-acidification process to protect the beer in the early stage of fermentationavoiding Pediococcus in mixed fermentation cherry processing and maceration And more. G&D Chillers G&D’s new Elite 290 Micro-series is built for brewers who care about sustainability and performance. It runs on a Natural Refrigerant with near-zero Global Warming Potential, has a compact footprint, and features variable speed fans for efficiency. They’ve chilled beer for over 3,000 breweries across North America, and with 24/7 support and remote monitoring, your cold side stays dialed in—day or night. Get the details on natural refrigerant technology at gdchillers.com/podcast. Berkeley Yeast Berkeley Yeast just launched Dry Tropics London! Our best-selling liquid yeast strain, now with all the ease-of-use benefits of dry yeast. Dry Tropics London delivers the soft, pillowy mouthfeel and juicy character you’d expect from a top-tier London Ale strain, but with a serious upgrade: a burst of thiols that unleash vibrant, layered notes of grapefruit and passion fruit. A lot of brewers love the clean passion fruit you get from Tropics, but they don’t want every IPA to be a tropical-fruit bomb. At the dry yeast price point, you can pitch and ditch without breaking the bank. Or, you can co-pitch with your house strain to adjust the intensity of the notes. And with nationwide free shipping, there’s never been a better time to try Dry Tropics. Order now at berkeleyyeast.com and experience the ease and impact of Dry Tropics London Yeast. PakTech This episode is sponsored by PakTech—delivering craft-beer multipacking you can trust. Our handles are made from 100 percent recycled plastic and are fully recyclable, helping breweries close the loop and advance the circular economy. With a minimalist design, durable functionality you can rely on, and custom color matching, our carriers help brands stand out while staying sustainable. Trusted by craft brewers nationwide, we offer a smarter, sustainable way to carry your beer. To learn more, visit paktech-opi.com. Indie Hops Oregon hop country is heaven to world-class lager varieties, and Indie Hops is proud to have introduced Oregon’s newest lager hop, Lórien, in 2022. Lórien is in a growing list of beers that have found their way to the podium and—more importantly—into the hearts of lager lovers across the country. Discover Indie Hops Lórien. (Side effects may include rampant festivity, sales bumps, and exceeded expectations.) Indie Hops—Life is Short. Let’s Make It Flavorful. Midea 50/50 Flex If you’re like many podcast listeners, you’ve got a lot of beers at home, and your regular fridge is at capacity. Enter the Midea 50/50 Flex—the industry’s first dual-compartment three-way convertible freezer. Here’s what all that means for you: options! The 50/50 has the power to be all freezer, all fridge, or a little bit of both. But you’ll probably want to use those 20 cubic feet as a massive, garage-ready beer fridge. You can also change which side the door is on or how you want the shelves to be arranged—the 50/50 totally flexes to fit your life. Plus, it’s designed to maintain a stable temperature even in non-climate-controlled conditions—so you can crack a cold one even on the warmest days in the man cave. Take your garage to the next level! Check out Midea.com/us/ to get more info about this game changer today. Old Orchard If your brewery is using fruit-juice concentrates, purees, and blends, then why not source everything from a one-stop shop? We might be best-known for flavored blends, but if you need 100 percent purees or concentrates, then we can likely help—even with options not listed on our website. Let us know what you need at oldorchard.com/brewer. ADM Are you ready to shake up the beverage world? ADM is passionate about helping you craft your next breakthrough. From cutting edge natural ingredients like hops to advanced technologies, ADM brings together science and creativity to elevate taste, quality, ...
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    54 mins
  • 479: Building Better Fruit and Spice Character in Your Beer

    479: Building Better Fruit and Spice Character in Your Beer
    May 12 2026

    From the very earliest days of what we now know as craft beer, flavor has been a defining factor and a guiding mantra for brewers casting themselves against the monolith of light macro lager that dominated American brewing for so many decades. If you track it back, fruits and spices have been ingredients in beer for as long as beer has been made, so this modern era of craft brewing is more rediscovery than revolution. But there’s no denying that familiar and enticing, or even exotic and intriguing, flavors have been an incredible draw in bringing people into the fold who might never have considered themselves beer drinkers.

    Of course, the ways we can add those fruit and spice flavors to beer have evolved significantly from the earliest days of craft brewing, and brewers now have tools to target and dial in fruit and spice notes with incredible precision—something that is increasingly important as brewers explore low-ABV and nonalcoholic beers and beverages.

    In this episode, produced in partnership with Amoretti, we explore best practices for delivering flavor impact that’s noticeable, authentic, seamless, and artful, but that also works to support the bottom line for breweries facing ever-increasing input costs.

    Joining the discussion are:

    Michael Lalli, brewmaster, Krebs Brewing and Prairie Artisan Ales (Krebs, Oklahoma)

    Micah Rush, R&D manager, The Bruery and Offshoot Beer (Placentia, California)

    Nic Bortolin, brewmaster and brand ambassador, Amoretti

    To connect directly with Nic Bortolin for questions or more information, please email him at Nic@amoretti.com.

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    1 hr and 22 mins
  • 478: Bart Watson of the Brewers Association Unpacks the State of the Craft Beer Industry

    478: Bart Watson of the Brewers Association Unpacks the State of the Craft Beer Industry
    May 8 2026
    If you’ve read any mainstream news coverage of craft beer over the past year, it’s likely you’ve seen something about the “death” of craft beer. The apocalyptic tones and pearl-clutching over the industry’s recent economic woes mostly lack context, often painting a complex and diverse industry with a single brush—yet the stories continue. In his recent State of the Industry presentation at the Craft Brewers Conference in Philadelphia, Brewers Association president and CEO Bart Watson made an effort to acknowledge the real challenges facing the industry while also dispelling some of the more hyperbolic assertions often seen in popular media. In this episode, we unpack the data and arguments for a more nuanced and accurate understanding of the current state of craft beer. Through the episode, Watson discusses: the question of how many breweries the market can sustainhow the long tail of breweries creates noisy data often not captured by industry analyticssectors where craft beer is growingthe importance of investing in experiencechanging the narrative and capturing the breadth of craft beer todayunderstanding who your customer is and what your value proposition should bethe seemingly contradictory trends driving the top and value tiers in the industry And more. G&D Chillers G&D’s new Elite 290 Micro-series is built for brewers who care about sustainability and performance. It runs on a Natural Refrigerant with near-zero Global Warming Potential, has a compact footprint, and features variable speed fans for efficiency. They’ve chilled beer for over 3,000 breweries across North America, and with 24/7 support and remote monitoring, your cold side stays dialed in—day or night. Get the details on natural refrigerant technology at gdchillers.com/podcast. Berkeley Yeast Berkeley Yeast just launched Dry Tropics London! Our best-selling liquid yeast strain, now with all the ease-of-use benefits of dry yeast. Dry Tropics London delivers the soft, pillowy mouthfeel and juicy character you’d expect from a top-tier London Ale strain, but with a serious upgrade: a burst of thiols that unleash vibrant, layered notes of grapefruit and passion fruit. A lot of brewers love the clean passion fruit you get from Tropics, but they don’t want every IPA to be a tropical-fruit bomb. At the dry yeast price point, you can pitch and ditch without breaking the bank. Or, you can co-pitch with your house strain to adjust the intensity of the notes. And with nationwide free shipping, there’s never been a better time to try Dry Tropics. Order now at berkeleyyeast.com and experience the ease and impact of Dry Tropics London Yeast. PakTech This episode is sponsored by PakTech—delivering craft-beer multipacking you can trust. Our handles are made from 100 percent recycled plastic and are fully recyclable, helping breweries close the loop and advance the circular economy. With a minimalist design, durable functionality you can rely on, and custom color matching, our carriers help brands stand out while staying sustainable. Trusted by craft brewers nationwide, we offer a smarter, sustainable way to carry your beer. To learn more, visit paktech-opi.com. Indie Hops Oregon hop country is heaven to world-class lager varieties, and Indie Hops is proud to have introduced Oregon’s newest lager hop, Lórien, in 2022. Lórien is in a growing list of beers that have found their way to the podium and—more importantly—into the hearts of lager lovers across the country. Discover Indie Hops Lórien. (Side effects may include rampant festivity, sales bumps, and exceeded expectations.) Indie Hops—Life is Short. Let’s Make It Flavorful. Midea 50/50 Flex If you’re like many podcast listeners, you’ve got a lot of beers at home, and your regular fridge is at capacity. Enter the Midea 50/50 Flex—the industry’s first dual-compartment three-way convertible freezer. Here’s what all that means for you: options! The 50/50 has the power to be all freezer, all fridge, or a little bit of both. But you’ll probably want to use those 20 cubic feet as a massive, garage-ready beer fridge. You can also change which side the door is on or how you want the shelves to be arranged—the 50/50 totally flexes to fit your life. Plus, it’s designed to maintain a stable temperature even in non-climate-controlled conditions—so you can crack a cold one even on the warmest days in the man cave. Take your garage to the next level! Check out Midea.com/us/ to get more info about this game changer today. Old Orchard If your brewery is using fruit-juice concentrates, purees, and blends, then why not source everything from a one-stop shop? We might be best-known for flavored blends, but if you need 100 percent purees or concentrates, then we can likely help—even with options not listed on our website. Let us know what you need at oldorchard.com/brewer. ADM Are you ready to shake up the beverage world? ADM is passionate about ...
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • 477: Source Material with Firestone Walker: Anywhere & Everywhere

    477: Source Material with Firestone Walker: Anywhere & Everywhere
    May 5 2026

    When you look at the top restaurants around the world, no matter what cuisine they may focus on, there’s one commonality they all share, and that’s deep relationships with those who grow and raise the very best ingredients. It’s the same in beer—you can’t be the best at what you do without the meaningful, personal, financial, and long-standing relationships that ensure the brewery has access to the very best quality ingredients. These relationships don’t materialize overnight, but for Firestone Walker, they’re the product of 30 years of work. In this series, we highlight a number of these crucial growers, brokers, and processors who have played a role in the world-class beer that Firestone Walker makes.

    Episode 3: Anywhere & Everywhere

    In this third episode of the Source Material series, we look at the international reach of hops with which Firestone Walker brews and head to New Zealand for a conversation with Brent McGlashen of Mac Hops, part of the bigger NZ Hops collective. Brent’s family has been farming hops down in Motueka for five generations, and their two farms produce quite a bit of the New Zealand hops that make their way into Firestone Walker beer. Joining from Firestone Walker is Tim Miller, raw materials manager and brewer, and it’s Tim’s job to source the highest quality ingredients, test and analyze them, and make sure that what comes into the brewery is what they expect to come in. Finding great hops wherever they’re grown, whether that’s Nelson, New Zealand, or Germany’s Hallertau, is a big focus for Firestone Walker, and the long-term grower relationships they’ve built over the past 30 years stretch far beyond North America to anywhere and everywhere that great hops are grown.

    Intro music: VintageGroove / Pond5
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    40 mins
  • 476: Matt Topping of COVA Finds Fruit Beer Gold with a Focus on Fresh Flavor and Drinkability

    476: Matt Topping of COVA Finds Fruit Beer Gold with a Focus on Fresh Flavor and Drinkability
    May 1 2026
    Matt Topping of COVA Brewing in Norfolk, Virginia, has a knack for winning medals with his fruit beers—but they aren’t what you think. From the full fruit refermentation to the light herbal spicing, he’s found an equation that’s equally successful on draft in the taproom and on the final judging table at the World Beer Cup. From slightly higher pH to low mash temps for fermentable wort, and from frozen purée to Ebbegarden kveik for the primary fermentation, he’s built a systematic approach to both the gose-style base and to the fruits and spices he layers on top. In this episode, Topping discusses: using Lactobacillus plantarum from Goodbelly for souring wortlow mash temperatures for greater fermentabilityusing frozen rather than aseptic purée to maintain the fruit flavor’s fresh edge strategically adding salt and hibiscus in the brite to dial in perfect amountscleverly pairing fruit-and-spice flavors such as rosemary-lemon, passion fruit–hibiscus, and moreproper temperature for herb steepingbrewing with difficult ingredients such as watermelon and strawberrycontrolling finished pH for greater function And more. G&D Chillers A quick word for the brewers out there staring down a broken chiller. You know the pain—warm fermentors, stressed yeast, and that sinking feeling when the repair quote lands in your inbox. With refrigerant regulations changing and the cost of obsolete refrigerants skyrocketing, sometimes the fix costs more than the unit is worth. G&D Chillers is there to help, whether you’re a small brew pub or large full-scale production brewery. Don’t throw good money at bad equipment. Invest in a solution that grows with your brewery—and keeps your tanks cold when it counts. Big thanks to G&D Chillers for supporting this podcast since 2019. Reach out to them at gdhillers.com/podcast to learn how they can support your next six years of growth. Berkeley Yeast Berkeley Yeast just launched Dry Tropics London! Our best-selling liquid yeast strain, now with all the ease-of-use benefits of dry yeast. Dry Tropics London delivers the soft, pillowy mouthfeel and juicy character you’d expect from a top-tier London Ale strain, but with a serious upgrade: a burst of thiols that unleash vibrant, layered notes of grapefruit and passion fruit. A lot of brewers love the clean passion fruit you get from Tropics, but they don’t want every IPA to be a tropical-fruit bomb. At the dry yeast price point, you can pitch and ditch without breaking the bank. Or, you can co-pitch with your house strain to adjust the intensity of the notes. And with nationwide free shipping, there’s never been a better time to try Dry Tropics. Order now at berkeleyyeast.com and experience the ease and impact of Dry Tropics London Yeast. PakTech This episode is sponsored by PakTech—delivering craft-beer multipacking you can trust. Our handles are made from 100 percent recycled plastic and are fully recyclable, helping breweries close the loop and advance the circular economy. With a minimalist design, durable functionality you can rely on, and custom color matching, our carriers help brands stand out while staying sustainable. Trusted by craft brewers nationwide, we offer a smarter, sustainable way to carry your beer. To learn more, visit paktech-opi.com. Indie Hops Oregon hop country is heaven to world-class lager varieties, and Indie Hops is proud to have introduced Oregon’s newest lager hop, Lórien, in 2022. Lórien is in a growing list of beers that have found their way to the podium and—more importantly—into the hearts of lager lovers across the country. Discover Indie Hops Lórien. (Side effects may include rampant festivity, sales bumps, and exceeded expectations.) Indie Hops—Life is Short. Let’s Make It Flavorful. Midea 50/50 Flex If you’re like many podcast listeners, you’ve got a lot of beers at home, and your regular fridge is at capacity. Enter the Midea 50/50 Flex—the industry’s first dual-compartment three-way convertible freezer. Here’s what all that means for you: options! The 50/50 has the power to be all freezer, all fridge, or a little bit of both. But you’ll probably want to use those 20 cubic feet as a massive, garage-ready beer fridge. You can also change which side the door is on or how you want the shelves to be arranged—the 50/50 totally flexes to fit your life. Plus, it’s designed to maintain a stable temperature even in non-climate-controlled conditions—so you can crack a cold one even on the warmest days in the man cave. Take your garage to the next level! Check out Midea.com/us/ to get more info about this game changer today. Old Orchard If your brewery is using fruit-juice concentrates, purees, and blends, then why not source everything from a one-stop shop? We might be best-known for flavored blends, but if you need 100 percent purees or concentrates, then we can likely help—even with options not listed on our website. Let us know what you ...
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • 475: CB&B Podcast Live from Philadelphia!

    475: CB&B Podcast Live from Philadelphia!
    Apr 28 2026

    The IPA gang is back together with some special guests for this star-studded episode recorded in front of a live audience of brewers at Union Transfer in Philadelphia. Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River, Kelsey McNair of North Park, and Evan Price of Green Cheek are joined by Ben Edmunds of Breakside and Oregon State University’s Tom Shellhammer—this year’s recipient of the Brewers Association Recognition Award—for a ranging conversation. Among the topics they cover: managing sulfur in hop-forward beer, evolving dry-hopping techniques, thiols and mercaptans, and reducing the dry-hop load for better beer—plus, they take questions from the audience.

    This episode even features a first for the podcast—a Pick 6 speed round, in which Vinnie Cilurzo asks Tom Shellhammer to share six beers that inspired him.

    Thank you to our presenting sponsors:

    Encompass

    If you're a producer trying to get better visibility into how your products are performing at retail, there's a better way—and it's officially in Orbit. Orbit gives bev-alc producers real-time depletion, shipment, and inventory data alongside a CRM built for managing distributor relationships in the field. No more week-old data. No more chasing distributors over email.

    Yakima Valley Hops

    YakimaValleyHops.com is your direct source for the finest HAAS hops and innovative hop products. Top varieties like Citra®, Mosaic®, Galaxy®, and more are available in just a couple clicks whenever you need them, no contracts required. Fast fulfillment. Reliable service. Consistent supply. Discover how easy hop sourcing can be at YakimaValleyHops.com, a John I. Haas company. Be sure to experience both the euphorics line designed for cold side additions and Lupocore line of next generation hop pellets.

    And thank you to our supporting sponsors:

    Haas

    Paktech

    Tripleseat

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    1 hr and 39 mins
  • 474: Brian Hink of Wander Back Beerworks Breaks Down Their WBC Gold Medal-Winning Helles

    474: Brian Hink of Wander Back Beerworks Breaks Down Their WBC Gold Medal-Winning Helles
    Apr 24 2026
    The founders of South New Jersey’s Wander Back Beerworks are no strangers to the beer world, but the industry veterans had modest expectations for the young project—barely two years old—when they submitted entries to the 2026 World Beer Cup. Winning a medal in one of the top-five categories, Munich-Style Helles, with over 150 entries, would be an uphill battle. But as the awards were announced, they found themselves on stage accepting a gold sash for the core beer named after the brewery itself, and a beer that they’d envisioned from the start as an expression of their passion for beer making and a celebration of local agriculture and malting. The beer, Wander Back Lager, is brewed with 100% locally-grown and floor-malted pils malt from Rabbit Hill Malt, and cofounder and head brewer Brian Hink is convinced that this malt—often kilned just days before they brew with it—is responsible for the fresh and vibrant malt flavor that defines the helles. In this episode, recorded the day after their win, Hink discusses: being inspired by local ingredients to start the breweryexploring the idea of freshness in malt and the brightness that it contributes to pale lagernibbling at the margins to improve recipes and processclosely monitoring pH through the sparge to avoid over-extracted tanninsstepping up dry 34/70 pitches with IPA before harvesting and pitching into lager, for optimal generation flavormash-out decoction for body without sweetnessWest coast pils dry hop approach with Krush and Motueka And more. G&D Chillers G&D now offers their Elite 290 Micro-series with 5H chillers—bringing even more flexibility to their propane-powered lineup. In fact, they’re building one right now for Red Clover Ale Co in partnership with Efficiency Vermont. It runs on a Natural Refrigerant with near-zero Global Warming Potential—projected to deliver around 10% more efficiency than A2L refrigerant systems. That’s smart sustainability backed by proven engineering and trusted performance. With 24/7 support and remote monitoring, your cold side stays dialed in—day or night. Explore the Elite 290 Micro-series and more at gdchillers.com/podcast. Berkeley Yeast Berkeley Yeast just launched Dry Tropics London! Our best-selling liquid yeast strain, now with all the ease-of-use benefits of dry yeast. Dry Tropics London delivers the soft, pillowy mouthfeel and juicy character you’d expect from a top-tier London Ale strain, but with a serious upgrade: a burst of thiols that unleash vibrant, layered notes of grapefruit and passion fruit. A lot of brewers love the clean passion fruit you get from Tropics, but they don’t want every IPA to be a tropical-fruit bomb. At the dry yeast price point, you can pitch and ditch without breaking the bank. Or, you can co-pitch with your house strain to adjust the intensity of the notes. And with nationwide free shipping, there’s never been a better time to try Dry Tropics. Order now at berkeleyyeast.com and experience the ease and impact of Dry Tropics London Yeast. PakTech This episode is sponsored by PakTech—delivering craft-beer multipacking you can trust. Our handles are made from 100 percent recycled plastic and are fully recyclable, helping breweries close the loop and advance the circular economy. With a minimalist design, durable functionality you can rely on, and custom color matching, our carriers help brands stand out while staying sustainable. Trusted by craft brewers nationwide, we offer a smarter, sustainable way to carry your beer. To learn more, visit paktech-opi.com. Indie Hops The multi-layered wonders of Indie Hops Strata are now easier than ever for brewers to tap into. Introducing Strata Cryo, in collaboration with Yakima Chief Hops. Whether brewing up a single hop Strata IPA to wow customers with the depth of flavor this variety delivers, or modernizing your flagship IPA to continue setting the highest standards, Strata T99, Strata CGX, Strata HyperBoost, and now Strata Cryo provide the tools for brewers to create their unique masterpiece. Indie Hops Strata. Life is short. Let’s make it flavorful! Midea 50/50 Flex This podcast is sponsored by the Midea 50/50 flex—the industry’s first dual compartment three-way convertible freezer. The 50/50 Flex is designed to flex with your life. It can convert to all fridge, all freezer, or half and half with just the touch of a button. Plus, with reversible doors and adjustable storage compartments, you can stay organized no matter your food-storage needs. The 50/50 Flex is also designed to maintain a stable temperature even in non-climate-controlled spaces. So it’s perfect for your garage, man cave, or wherever you need a little more space. Maybe use all 20 cubic feet as a beer fridge! Check out Midea.com/us/ for more information on how to take your beer storage to the next level. Old Orchard Your brewery deserves a supplier that can keep your customers engaged with new flavors. That's why Old Orchard ...
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Episode 473: Source Material with Firestone Walker: Deep Roots and Twisting Bines

    Episode 473: Source Material with Firestone Walker: Deep Roots and Twisting Bines
    Apr 22 2026

    When you look at the top restaurants around the world, no matter what cuisine they may focus on, there’s one commonality they all share, and that’s deep relationships with those who grow and raise the very best ingredients. It’s the same in beer—you can’t be the best at what you do without the meaningful, personal, financial, and long-standing relationships that ensure the brewery has access to the very best quality ingredients. These relationships don’t materialize overnight, but for Firestone Walker, they’re the product of 30 years of work. In this series, we highlight a number of these crucial growers, brokers, and processors who have played a role in the world-class beer that Firestone Walker makes.

    *Episode 2: Deep Roots & Twisting Bines *
    One of the keys to maintaining a consistent supply of the very best hops is long term relationships and deep commitment paired with the very best analytical science and process improvement, and the purpose of this series is to explore just what that means with some of the key players in this story of ingredient quality. In this episode, Firestone Walker Head Brewer Dustin Kral and Bud Hollingbery of hops broker Hollingbery and Son talk about the way that Hollingbery has worked closely with Firestone Walker for decades now to source and process hops, how current dynamics in the brewing and hops industries are impacting hops growers, and a lot more. Over the years, Bud has seen some remarkable change in the hop industry, and he’s not afraid to tell you exactly what he thinks.

    Intro music: VintageGroove / Pond5
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    40 mins