Drink Beer, Think Beer With John Holl

An introduction to craft beer by his brother and cousin led Marcus Baskerville to begin homebrewing and eventually start his own brewery. At Weathered Souls Brewing in San Antonio, he is making beers that inspire him and since opening has worked to change the city's beer culture. Over the last two weeks, as the country has reacted to the murder of George Floyd and the rekindling of the Black Lives...

We're a few days late for Lager Appreciation Month , but are firm believers that well-crafted pilsners and lagers are deserving of attention no matter what the calendar says. For nearly a decade now Chris Enegren has been making lagers in the German tradition at a brewery that bares his family name. When Enegren Brewing launched in Southern California that area was, and still is, populated with ho...

A note from host John Holl : The last time I was in Austin was 2015 and after a long few days of drinking beer, doing interviews, and generally getting my fill of the city, I intentionally carved out some hours on my last day there, before my flight home to visit with Jeffrey Stuffings of Jester King.  I wanted to leave on a high note, and that visit did not disappoint.  The brewery is the stuff o...

A note from host John Holl  "Because of my job I occasionally get some beer sent to the house for review. It’s a charmed life, really. More so when a beer stands out among the crowd and I can be transported by a sip to a place just beyond my current field of view.    This happened over the weekend as I had a socially distanced driveway beer with some friends. After an afternoon of yard work I open...

A few words from host John Holl: "Our guest this week is Sean Lawson of Lawson's Finest Liquids.   There are some beers that just stand out among the others. It’s not all marketing, because those beers that are all flash and no substance don’t seem to last too long in the craft beer space.    So the beers that can capture the imagination and get us standing in lines, or having friends mule some ba...

Spring is a time of growth, change, and an opportunity to get back into nature. Because of COVID-19 related restrictions, it might be tough to get fully out to nature, but for those with yards and local parks or forests, there's a chance to plant gardens of our own or get out and see the budding plants and trees. From host John Holl :  "We moved into a new house last year and I have a proper yard...

A note from John Holl about this week's episode: "The weather is starting to change for the better here in the northeast and as I look out of the window of the home office I can see the leaves on the trees grow faster by the day, spilling out vibrant green. The neighbors have a bright pink flowering bush across the street, and the birds have returned to the feeder.    While it’s been raining a lot...

Ethan Tripp was a homebrewer before he went pro, but from an early point in his career he decided that he was going to take his time both with opening his own place (with friends, of course) and the beers he wanted to make.    He wants to make deliberate beers that are rooted in tradition but also isn’t afraid of trying new things or using different ingredients to see how they develop. Time seems...

A note from host John Holl: I’ve been sitting on this interview for a few months now. It features Pete Slosberg, the co-founder of Pete’s Wicked, a brewery and brand that helped shape the course of craft beer as we know it today.    In an industry that would become known for a lot of big personalities and members of the first name club, Pete was a trailblazer. His Pete’s Wicked Brand was on the ra...

The interview for this week's episode was recorded only about a month ago, but it was a simpler time. At the regular table at the (now temporarily closed) Blind Tiger Ale House in New York City host John Holl sat down with two brewers and owners of breweries specializing in gluten free beer. Karen Hertz, the owner of Holidaily Brewing Company in Colorado was in the city for a women in beer event h...

If this episode of This Week in Rauchbier sounds a little different this week it is because we’re not at our normal smokey studio inside of Dovetail Brewing in Chicago. The Coronavirus has us all spread out and bunkered down. Hagan and Bill are off this week, rooting through their beer cellars no doubt looking for some ruby hued ashy delights.    But that’s not going to stop us from having a bang...

In an effort to bring some normalcy to this crazy world and to give you a respite from all of the COVID-19 news, we're bringing back the regular format of the show. This week is a conversation with Preston Theony and Luke Wortendyke of Wren House Brewing recorded in early February in Phoenix.  Theony is a co-founder and head brewer and Wortendyke is the lead brewer and, as you'll hear, making beer...

Unless you live under a rock and this podcast is the only way you get your news, you know that we’re in the middle of a global pandemic for the COVID-19 virus.    Seems like not too long ago there were memes about Corona bottles wearing surgical masks and now we’re being asked to isolate at home. It’s a real threat that has come to our states and towns and it’s having a huge impact on the brewing...

What was the beer scene like in Los Angeles when Ting Su opened up Eagle Rock Brewery with her husband and father-in-law a decade ago?    She describes it as non-existent and an uphill climb to get customers to try small batch beer made-in house. Like so many others, they found that the success came through education and that has been a key hallmark to the brewery’s growth and expansion.  By break...

What is a brewery made of? What's in its soul? For many breweries in the United States, the answer seems to be hops. That's an understandable response given the rise of the craft beer movement on the backs of lupulin. At Allagash Brewing  in Portland, Maine, the brewmaster, Jason Perkins, believes in yeast. That makes sense given the brewery's growth and popularity on the back of its White Ale. Th...

Collaboration beers are a fun exercise. They usually allow two breweries to get out of their comfort zones and try to create something that will create a buzz among drinkers.  Two of the world’s better known breweries got together more than two years ago to start talking about a collaboration and the result has just been released.    It’s called Vibrant P’Ocean , a 4.7% ABV blended sour ale create...

If you've spent even just a casual amount of time on Beer Twitter, you’ve come across Jeremy Danner. He's the passionate, outspoken, and thoughtful guy with an unending amount of Kansas City pride, a great love of family, and a near-constant live stream of beer.    He was the public face of Boulevard Brewing up until a few months ago when he was suddenly let go from the company. Now, people come a...

John Holl recently headed to Phoenix to check in on the beer scene. It was the 20th anniversary of the Arizona Strong Beer Festival and the 10th anniversary of Arizona Beer Week. The beer scene has really grown in the last several years but seems to be largely self contained with most brewers staying within the borders. Of course there are a few exceptions to that, including the now Anheuser-Busch...

There's an awful lot of fun that can happen with brewing on a small batch system. And when you have the resources of one of the country’s biggest brewing companies behind you, the possibilities are limitless.    That’s the situation this week’s guest enjoys. Megan Parisi has been with the Boston Beer Company for several years now, specifically working at the company’s Samuel Adams Boston brewery i...

This week the show is back in Nashville with our guest Brandon Jones of Embrace the Funk.    Jones is one of the more thoughtful brewers in the country. Maybe this is because he spent years working in newsrooms as a journalist. He has an ability to look at all angles of something, in this case beer, along with a clear and easy way of sharing information. That's just two of the reasons he is so res...

Here's a note on this episode from host John Holl: "I love lagers, especially well made ones. I haven’t been shy about my bias for crisp, malt forward, slightly spicy hopped lagers and pilsners in the past and one of my favorite places to imbibe them is at the Bierstadt Lagerhaus in Denver.    Tradition is the rule of the house at the brewery, just down the road from Coors Field . Ashleigh Carter...

When it opened a decade ago, Fremont Brewing was the sixth brewery in Seattle. The scene has changed tremendously since then and the brewery has grown from a small operation to one with over 100 employees producing around 55,000 barrels per year.    What hasn’t changed, says owner Matt Lincecum, is a commitment to sustainability.  Now, sustainability is a word that is used a lot in the brewing ind...

Nashville is a great city for drinking, from the bars along Broadway to the clubs on Music Row. But the beer has not always been local. That has changed over the last 20 years, and while it was not the first, Yazoo Brewing was one of the city’s early craft breweries and been a force for positive beer change in the music city where long neck bottles of Bud reigned supreme. And of course that beer i...

Welcome to a new year and a new episode of Drink Beer, Think Beer. The first month has become known as Dry January by a certain segment of drinkers. The excess of the end-of-year holidays and new year resolutions that have people thinking healthier thoughts has played into this cultural movement where people decide to give up booze – or go dry for the first whole month of the year.  So, I thought...

A note from Drink Beer, Think Beer host John Holl: We’re releasing this episode as a special Christmas Day bonus show. A gift to you. My guest today is Maureen Ogle , the author of several books including In Meat We Trust: An Unexpected History of Carnivore America and Ambitious Brew: A History of American Beer. There is a Revised Edition that is now available and you should use those holiday gift...