And now for something a little different.  I came across an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, thanks to my sister-in-law, that cited the struggles of the California wine industry. I found the similarities to the struggles that the people behind their beer businesses face to be truly compelling and undeniably relevant.  So I reached out to Megan Bell from Margins Wine because her quotes in the article were honest in ways I see few entrepreneurs able or willing to be.  The path of her winery and the legacy she’s built winds through struggle, success, pivots and uncertaint ..read more

In the span of a decade, Michigan saw a major craft beer boom, going from around 100 craft breweries to upwards of 400.  In the middle of that marketplace Kevin DeGrood opened Michigan’s North Center Brewing way back in 2015. He watched a fairly virgin market become deflowered with nearly 30 breweries just during the time he was finalizing his business plan.  His start up was methodical, specific and, by many accounts, the right way to do it. Unfortunately through a mix of employment issues, changing customer tastes and a near-impossible distribution market, his brewery finally clo ..read more

The focus of this show has always been to tell the stories of beer operations that one day turned off the lights for the last time.  I’ve chosen to be very selective when considering interviewing breweries that are still stirring their mashes. To date, I’ve only shared 5. There are a lot of reasons why but based on listener feedback, I’ve decided to look for opportunities to do it where it makes sense to the message of the podcast.  So I am excited, pleased and even a little proud to share the story of Deschutes Brewery with you in this episode.  Deschutes is one of those rar ..read more

A few seasons back I realized that to truly tell the story of the business of craft beer, we needed input from other countries. So I reached out to Canadian, Australian, Norwegian, UK and South African breweries. Some of those interviews have already been released.  But the very first international guest I tried to get was Nick Law.  He not only had a beer brand but he’d started a podcast and a consulting company so I knew he brought a perspective we needed to hear from. And he and his businesses are in the UK.  Of course, with all that going on, Nick was quite busy. So he and ..read more

Scott Hedeen was the quintessential beer fan. Back in the days when it was still cool to run all over Hell’s left testicle and cellar beers that don’t distribute to your state so you can trade them with other nerds of similar or increased nerdocity.  The only thing he may have been more into than beer was (maybe is) music.  But Scott’s on this podcast not because he sold his collection of rare beer to open a record label. No, he most likely would have been fabulously rich if he had done that.  Instead he liquidated some pretty amazing music memorabilia and rare records to fun ..read more

Rachel Rappa didn’t make beer. She imagined into life what grew into a large-scale kombucha brewery on Long Island in New York.  But the similarities between what she experienced growing her fermented sweet tea business to the craft beer industry are startling. She dealt with distributors, retailers, employees, seasonality, limited access to growth capital and packaging issues, just like we do.  She started as an artistic homebrewer and ended up owning 20BBL tanks and brewing primarily core styles. That could be the origin story for 80% of the craft breweries in America.  As ..read more

In 2023, the Australian Beer market was shocked by the announcement that a beloved brewery that had been awarded close to 40 medals for their beer was shutting down.  After 9 years blazing the path of Australia’s craft beer scene, Exit Brewing was planning to exit the brewing industry.  Around 2010, Grum & Frase had been inspired to start a brewery after spending time in Europe immersed in their beer culture. 4 years later they released their first beer, a saison. As their company grew, they expanded to an off-site taproom, followed by national and then international distributi ..read more

When Jason and Heather decided to open their brewery in Indiana they, like most of us, decided to do it their way. They looked at what existed and targeted providing their community with something new.  Jason made beer styles that he respected in traditional ways. That meant lower abv beers with flavor and consistency. The couple decided to specialize in their food offerings and target an underserved demographic in their market. That meant building one of the only vegan breweries I’ve ever heard of.  While their niche within a niche might be smaller than the one you set out to fill ..read more

George Thornton had many fantastic milestones in his career in beer. From humble beginnings slinging beer kits to home brewers at a San Diego homebrew store to building a thriving, symbiotic brewery/homebrew hybrid. He won AHA Homebrew Shop of the Year in 2018 for fuck’s sake.  George will explain how he sees rampant commercialism and growth for growth’s sake as a primary reason for the eventual demise of Home Brewing Company. See, he opened the homebrew shop in 2012, expanded to a brewery a few years later and closed them both in 2022.  He’ll share his nightmare landlord stories ..read more

Few people have been or will ever be as connected in the craft beer industry as Chris Black. If you haven't met him or heard of him, then you surely caught wind that Downtown Denver had a little beer bar called Falling Rock Taphouse for 24 years. In 1997 what we think of as the craft beer industry hadn't really begun yet. With only around 800 breweries in the US, opening a beer bar with 69 taps of what we call craft beer was an anomaly. And while it's hard to believe in 2023, opening a craft beer bar in Downtown Denver sounded like a risky and unproven idea. But it's no exaggeration to say ..read more