Good Beer Matters Podcast

This is a short series called Beer With Benefits. Armed with a smile and a tasty beer in their hand, these guests are changing the world for the better, one sip at a time. This one goes out to all the men. I know… I get it… I’m one of you. We feel the burden of the world on our shoulders. We may even have learned to just toughen up, to walk it off and act like we’re bulletproof. Then one day we re...

My next guest began with a passion for the environment and sustainability, then he discovered beer. He managed to put the two together when he founded his Portland, Oregon brewhouse in  2007. Eventually his brewery would become one of the only breweries in the world with B-Corp status, Salmon Safe Certification, and 1% For The Planet membership. In this episode he talks about beer and sustain...

Times have been tough this year for many of us. For those who are normally accustomed to life’s grand adventure, we’re probably ready for some stability. For those unprepared for uncertainty, we’ve been shaken to our core. If there was a time to come together, to share best practices and to build a community as well as a business, I’d say now is a pretty good time. But who can we turn to guide us...

There are many things that influence our decisions as beer drinkers, branding, advertisements, flavor, etc. Most of us take for granted the wealth of beers available to us everywhere we go. But, what about those things that influence our decisions that are completely outside our control? What about the nefarious business practices such as price undercutting or tied houses that are meant to gain co...

I want you to think back to that one perfect night you replay in your head over and over. You know the one. It’s the night that if you could go back in time, you wouldn’t change anything. Instead, you’d just sit back and relive the magic. It was the night where the food was amazing, the beer pairing sung like angels and the conversation flowed like a cold lager on a hot day. Have you ever wondered...

There are men so devoted to their faith, they sequester themselves from the outside world. In order to sustain themselves and give to charity, they make a variety of products. Luckily for us, some of these products are the best beers in the world. Trappist beers, as we know them, have been around for close to a hundred years. They have become a hallmark of quality, flavor and especially good for p...

Learning to pair beer with food is a lifelong pursuit that is all about the journey, not the destination. A great pairing has a way of elevating the experience, the discussion, the memory, and with some luck, the relationships with those around us. I’ve spent a fair amount of time learning, thinking about and experimenting with food and beer pairing. Not everything works. Sometimes we inadvertentl...

Beer culture is nearly as diverse and as rich as our human culture throughout the world. But, while it pains me to say this out loud, there really is more to life than just beer. When we look at all of fermentation, we can see how interconnected, yet diverse the world truly is. As we have learned from previous episodes, the craft beer movement is not alone in our pursuit of better and more interes...

The Beer Judge Certification Program, or BJCP, works to categorize the world’s beer styles so that homebrewers can submit their brews for feedback on how well they hit the targets. These same beer style guidelines have become widely accepted as the go-to style authority because they are specific and also give us a way to communicate about beer. However, defining these styles is quite a challenge d...

Defining farmhouse beers is a bit like trying to explain jazz or comfort food to someone who’s never experienced them. It usually requires a conversation because there is no single, simple definition we can all agree on. We tend to look to Belgium or France to bail us out of this pickle since Lambics, Saisons and Biers de Garde are the best known examples. In reality, farmhouse beers tend to be dr...

What do you get if you cross the mindset of a winemaker and the talented hands of a brewer to create a perfect blend of single-origin beers? You get a style-defying, exceptional brewery set deep in the heart of Californian wine country. The beers produced from this farm-style brewery are easy on the palate, but with enough character and nuance to be served in some of the finest restaurants in Napa...

For a travel writer who has lived in different parts of the world, settling down in one place for a length of time makes a statement. When that person becomes both a beer writer and educator in South Africa’s emerging beer culture, she makes yet a different and even more profound statement. I’ve never been to South Africa, but when I consider it, I think of Nelson Mandela, cooking around a braai,...

Julia Herz is the craft beer program director at the Brewer’s Association and publisher of CraftBeer.com. In her role at the BA she serves as an educator and as a spokesperson for the association. She also co-authored an excellent Book, simply called, “Beer Pairing”. Shout Outs: Upslope Lager  Haywire Pig Sty Red Rye IPA   Brewer’s Association  City Star Brewing  BA's Chec...

For me, the term Mexican Beer conjures great memories of tacos, the beach and delicious pale or dark, malty, crisp lagers brewed south of the border. Although it is not native to Mexico, the style is well known throughout the world to be refreshing and easy drinking. As the craft beer movement expands like a wave throughout the world, Mexico’s craft beer revolution is gaining some momentum and dis...

Chris Farmand is the Founder and CEO of Small Batch Standard, the leading financial, tax, and growth consulting option for the Head of The Class breweries. Chris and the SBS team have spent the better part of the past decade working with more than 100 craft breweries across the U.S., all with one singular aim: helping craft breweries grow profits. Shout Outs: Small Batch Standard Bent Water Brewin...

My guest today is John Glick who is now a consultant to businesses in the beverage industry. John spent the bulk of his career in the upper echelons of Anheuser Busch and the Craft Beer Alliance. Shout Outs:       Deschutes Brewery      Riff Cold Brewed       Grains of Wrath Brewing       Drinkworks...

My guest today is Neal Stewart. Neal has run the marketing helm for industry leaders such as Pabst and Dogfish Head Brewing for the past two decades. He is now the Marketing and Sales Director of Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon. Shout Outs:       Deschutes Brewery       Riff Cold Brewed       www. MountainSeaMedia.com &nb...

My guest today is Julie Rhodes who has spent her career in sales and marketing working with importers, distributors, and breweries. She now runs her own consulting firm called Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions aimed at helping beer businesses improve their sales and marketing. Shout Outs: NOLA Brewing & Wild Goose Canning Flix Brewhouse www. NotYourHobbyMarketing.com/covidresources  &nbs...

With more than 8,000 craft breweries, according to the Brewer’s Association, it’s safe to say that we have reached a new high watermark of quality and competition. Long gone are the days when a decent brewer can just open up and succeed without a solid plan. The market for craft beer now demands a brewer must carve out a niche, make superior beer, and run his or her business better. A brewer can b...

When it comes to tasting beer, the most important thing we need to decide is, do we like it, yes or no. But, for those of us who want to take it to the next level, we need to decipher what we are tasting, where those flavors come from and how to pair them to create the best flavor synergy. This is what brewers, beer judges and Cicerones spend their lives focused on. As you can imagine, this is a c...

Today women operate in practically every facet of the brewing industry, but it is still more common to see men on the brew deck than women. This was not always the case. Centuries ago women were the ones who brewed for their household and their community. Somewhere along the line this changed and now women are finally integrating back into a role they held for centuries. This is due in part to gro...

March is Women’s History Month , and the 8th is International Women’s Day . I can’t think of a better way to honor and support the women in my life, than by having a beer. The Pink Boots Society began to assist, inspire and encourage women in the beer industry through education and collaboration in 2007. Since then they have grown into an international non-profit organized to help women in all cap...

Sales and marketing may not be the first thing you think of when it comes to craft beer, but sales is one of the many necessary logistics of getting beer from the brewery to the glass in your hand. What are you doing to help your sales staff do a better job? My next guest has spent years in sales and marketing and is now helping others do it better than the rest.

For brewers in Hawaii, the challenges of culture, resources, demand, cost of living and more are especially difficult and expensive. If necessity is the mother of invention, my next guest found a way to solve these problems, create a large distribution footprint and has done it all while being a steward of the community and the environment.

Once upon a time, US TV commercials told us that Australia had a single word for beer. Now, things have changed and the new word for Beer down under is “Craft”. In this episode, an ex-pat and beer expert shares a story of travel, living abroad, brewing way down south, and how beer from both Australia and New Zealand are making really big waves for the global beer culture.