Barley & Me

Host Ben Rice travels to Stockton, CA to sit down with area comedian Rhoda Ramone and Barri & Steve Altimari of High Water Brewing at their unofficial taproom, Taps. Barri & Steve have been brewing under the High Water name for over 20 years and made a big splash in the beer world with their Campfire Stout, which tastes exactly like S'mores. But their experimentation goes back to day one. One of t...

Host Ben Rice travels to Rancho Cordova, CA, to speak with father-and-son team Jack and Duncan Alexander of forthcoming Burning Barrel Brewing, with special guest Peter Wisham of Beers In Sac, a mobile beer tracking app that has expanded to get into the personal, corporate, and beerfest events game. Be sure to check out their first annual Hazy IPA Fest in Sacramento this Friday. Peter also assiste...

For the first episode of 2018, host Ben Rice travels to Davis, CA, to sit down with Brennan Fleming (Dunloe??) of Dunloe Brewing and the esteemed Dr. Charlie Bamforth for a Barley & Me first! A professor and pupil sit down to see just how much the student has learned and discuss how far beer has come in the last 40 years. Dr. Bamforth holds forth on what happened to the British beer business under...

For the last episode of 2017, host Ben Rice invites some of his favorite people over for a riveting BATTLE OF WITS! Comedians Emma Haney and Stephen Furey return, having appeared on last year's Christmas Bottle Share episode AND the 40s episode, Garrett Boatman of that same previous Christmas episode also appears, plus Andy Armstrong (formerly of American River Brewing) and his wife Lea Gibson (bo...

Host Ben Rice travels to San Francisco to sit down with Anchor Brewing's brewmaster, Scott Ungermann, about Anchor's lauded history and the lovely Our Special Ale, AKA Anchor Christmas. We also get into Sapporo's recent purchase of Anchor, Scott's unique intersectional history with Anchor Brewing, and whether or not the buyout affects Anchor's "craft beer" status. The answer may surprise you. Also...

Host Ben Rice travels to Yolo Brewing (West Sacramento) to chat with director of brewing operations David Weiss. His guest this week is comedian and musician Alfonso Portela. We discuss Yolo ownership's previous endeavors, coffee, death, and drums. Alfonso learns about the brewing process and David talks about what he's excited about in the Sacramento beer scene. All this and more, on Episode 57 o...

Host Ben Rice travels to Nixtaco Taqueria in Roseville, CA, to host Danksgiving with Nixtaco owner Patricio Wise and special guests Zak Souza and Ismael Alarcon. While sipping on some IPA's, we discuss labor laws that leave your favorite restaurants closed on Mondays, what makes a good and bad dank IPA, the importance of good labeling and logos in beer, how to properly fry a turkey, why Patricio i...

Host Ben Rice travels to Windsor, CA with guest Steve Ausburne of Barrel Proof Comedy Podcast to sit down with Daniel Weber and Wes Deal of Barrel Brothers Brewing Company to discuss their first year in business and their plans to expansion. We take a few sidebars down some unsavory paths before coming out clean on the other side, thanks to some double-filtered, two-ply assistants. Then we get int...

Host Ben Rice visits the new Tilted Mash Brewing location to sit down with owners Derrick Prasad and Jonathan Martinez, along with guest Keith Lowell Jensen, to talk coffee and Tilted Mash's recent relocation. Things go sideways, as Ben chose to record during their twice-monthly comedy show Tilted Mashterpiece Theatre, as every comic on the bill (Shahera Hyatt, Diego Curiel, and Christy Farley) po...

Host Ben Rice travels to the 2017 California Craft Beer Summit to suss out interviews from attendees. In this episode, there are 5 separate interview segments. In segment 1, he speaks with Naiche Minor & John Hutchings from Fall River Brewing and Kyle Leddy from New Glory Brewing about their recent collaboration and their review of the first day on the expo floor for the summit, as well as the Fal...

Host Ben Rice sits down with beer know-it-all Dan Scott, Capital Beer and Taproom's Peter Halldorf, and YOLO Brewing's David Weiss to discuss the recent closings of Rubicon and American River Brewing Companies, plus tell their favorite stories about experiences with these breweries. We touch a little bit on causation, but this episode is about celebrating the time they were with us and our hopes f...

Host Ben Rice travels to San Leandro to speak with Cleophus Quealy's owner/brewer Dan Watson, along with Bay Area comedian Chad Opitz. The man with the best beer joke in the biz talks about getting his start in high school drama, moving into the thrilling world of odd-ball music in Seattle, then taking up stand-up in the weirdo town of Santa Cruz, while Dan talks about his early love of European b...

Host Ben Rice travels to Alameda, CA, to sip on suds and take in the gorgeous scenery of Faction Brewing, along with their owner/head brewer Rodger Davis and special guest, comedian DJ Sandhu. We talk about the trials of surviving in the Bay Area given the tech boom, start-up brewery costs, the band Tool, how The Grateful Dead got Rodger into brewing, and Ales for ALS, which is taking place at Fac...

On this episode of Barley & Me, host Ben Rice visits upcoming Rocklin, CA, brewery Moksa Brewing and speaks with owners Nu Boonkham and Scott Williams, as well as head brewer Corey Meyer (previously of New Glory Brewing) and also with special guest Rebecca Steele-Wilkie, owner of Cuvee Marketing and creator of the Instagram account Art of the Jockey Box, to talk about the expectations for Moksa, t...

Host Ben Rice travels to Nevada City with guest and renowned beer judge "Big Mike" Moore to talk shop with Jim & Simon of Ol' Republic Brewing. Ol' Republic specializes in European style ales and lagers. We talk about their early years, as they grew their brand in a world dominated by hop-heavy beer. Plus they let us know how they came up with the name for their award-winning Dortmunder Export Lag...

On episode 47, host Ben Rice visits an undisclosed location to talk about the state of the beer union. With him are Andy Armstrong of American River Brewing, his wife Lea, Kyle Leddy of Moonraker Brewing, his wife Claire, his daughter Olive, and Sacramento Beer Group founder Chris Guthrie. We talk about the Lagunitas and Wicked Weed buyouts, AB InBev's purchase of the entirety of the South African...

Host Ben Rice travels to Rancho Cordova, CA, to visit its newest brewery, Fort Rock Brewing, to chat with owner/head brewer Tom Fuquay and special guest Joyce Tayag of Tommy T's Comedy Club (located in the same building, what a tie in!). We'll discuss the trials and tribulations of an upstart brewery with no commercial brewing experience, plus the resurrection of Tommy T's. Listen up as we talk be...

We're back! Episode 45 finds host Ben Rice at Drake's Brewing in San Leandro, chatting with comedian Jason Cole and head brewer John Gillooly. This episode is a dream, as we spin off on frenzied tangents for nearly two hours, imparting opinions, stories, history lessons, and a metric ton of brewing facts and tips. Plus we talk about Drake's recent expansion into Oakland and their upcoming expansio...

Sactown Union's Quinn Gardner leads a panel discussion on Opening Night of Sacramento Beer Week 2017. featuring a panel of some of the greatest pioneers of the Northern California beer scene. Listen, as Dr. Charlie Bamforth (UC Davis), Barbara Groom (Lost Coast Brewery), Judy Ashworth (Lyons Brewery Depot), Shaun O'Sullivan (21st Amendment Brewing), John Martin (Triple Rock, Drake's Brewing), and...

Host Ben Rice sits down with comedian Dorian Foster to test out his sound equipment, nearly 6 months before recording the first ever episode of a beer podcast that would come to be known as Barley & Me. Never intended for release, we bring this to you, because SF and Sacramento Beer Week make all brewers way too busy to take some time to talk to me about beer. So here it is: the unreleased, demo t...

Host Ben Rice makes his second appearance at the Art of Beer Invitational. This will be either episode 43 of Barley & Me or Episode 1 of BarLeddy & Me, as Moonraker's Kyle Leddy takes over co-hosting duties midway through. Join us as we chat with Serious Talk Seriously's Johnny Flores (with Kyle and his wife Claire acting as co-guests!), then we speak with Elisia Gonzales and Delayna Fitzgerald of...

Host Ben Rice sits down with event directors Jennifer Land Irwin (Art of Beer, January 27) and Kate Whelan (Sacramento Beer Week, March 2-March 12) to discuss the ins and outs of planning major beer events, while sipping on Christmas ales at Sacramento's Hideaway Bar & Grill, a lovely dive bar on Franklin Blvd. We get into the nitty gritty of event planning, the triumphs and tribulations, plus the...

Host Ben Rice conducts a Christmas bottle share with some comedian friends at West Sacramento restaurant Sail Inn Grotto. Guests Stephen Furey (The Comedy Store), Garrett Boatman (retired), Luke Soin (Epic Tiki and The Sexy Podcast), Emma Haney (Fem Dom Com), and Becky Lynn (Hot Drunk Sets) join us, with Stephen Furey leading the charge as we rate the best and worst of: Candy! Cookies! White Eleph...

Host Ben Rice and guest Becky Lynn celebrate their anniver-soury by traveling to Portland, Oregon, and visiting world-renowned sour beer brewery Cascade Brewing. So why not do a podcast? We chat with brewery manager Grant Ritchie, blender Kevin Martin, and head brewer Mike Mathis about what separates sour brewing from typical beer brewing. Plus! Beers that got us into beer, making friends through...

Host Ben Rice vists East Sacramento sandwich shop The Shack with comedians Melissa McGillicuddy, Robert Omoto, and Kim Martel to discuss the art, taste, and reasons behind several non-alcoholic beers. We break down their (lack of) flavor and aroma, plus hypothesize why people would imbibe these concoctions in the first place. Plus! Melissa's diet secrets, Kim's discovery of a medical shortcut to d...