Grit & Grain Podcast

We’re less than a week from Christmas, which means it was the perfect time to sneak away with our best buddy and former co-host Sean Jackson for a secret Sunday podcast. Tucked away in Doug’s studio, we popped a few fancy bottles to celebrate Sean’s 50th birthday and caught up with him as much as we could in an hour (it’s never enough time). Tune in to hear about Sean’s bir...

As odd as it may sound, there really is an art behind making smoothie sours taste good.  Like anything else, there are good and bad examples, and often the difference is the thoughtfulness of the ingredients.  That’s why we wanted to bring in our buddy, Odd Otter head brewer, to help answer the age-old question: “How much soft serve ice cream is too much to add to your beer?” In all se...

We think it’s high time we took this interview gig a little more seriously, so we figured we might as well get some high-quality interview questions locked and loaded for future episodes, but we need to make sure they’re up to snuff first. This week, we are joined by the effortlessly dashing Erik Dahlin of The Odom Corp . to field test some of our new, totally professional interview qu...

Less than a week out from everyone’s favorite chaotic family holiday—the annual turkey-fueled collision of joy, gravy, and emotional turbulence—we decided it was the perfect time to sit down with our buddy R.J. Adler, from Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., to discuss pairing beer with Thanksgiving dinner. Naturally, we lasted about 253 seconds before veering completely off the rails and dedicating the en...

Time for a good old-fashioned debate. This week, we dive into the now-infamous New York Times opinion piece by famed journalist Mark Robichaux, “Wacky Labels and Silly Names are Killing Craft Beer”. With a few prominent craft beer industry leaders already having responded, we figured we should throw our expert opinions out there as well, just in case. With Bethany being a professional brewer for m...

We’re back, baby! The Washington Brewers Guild ‘s 2025 Washington Craft Beer Summit took place this week in SeaTac, Washington, bringing nearly 100 Washington breweries together under one roof to meet with vendors, attend expert lectures, and crown the first-ever Washington Craft Beer Hall of Fame inductees. We posted up for a live recording on the showroom floor again this year and ha...

Happy Halloween, Grit & Grain family! This week, we thought we’d dress up as a super serious political podcast. Just kidding! But we were indeed joined by the 10th District Representative and former Tacoma mayor, Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland, who joined us this week to fill us in on the current government shutdown, her history in Tacoma, and her love of craft beer (including her and...

It’s beer and cheese week! Beer industry veteran, professional cheesemonger, and German language educator, Ericka Baird, joined us this week to talk about everything beer and cheese. We picked up a variety of cheeses, from real Wisconsin curds to the world-famous Rogue River Bleu, and tried them alongside a few beers chosen by Matt. Ericka and Matt walk us through the pairings, and we see wh...

The Great American Beer Festival wrapped up last weekend, and Ron attended for the second time with Peaks & Pints regular, Grit & Grain listener, and travel buddy, Bryan Johnson. Their four-day epic adventure had everything from hostile tap takeovers, $300 Lyft rides, Mexican food with a side of cliff diving, and, of course, a silent disco. Tune in for all the details, plus Bethany and Mat...

Our best buddies at Vice Beer just celebrated their 3-year anniversary, so we figured it would be the perfect time to get owner, operator, and North Bank beer ambassador Michael Perozzo back on the mic for his third Grit & Grain appearance. Running a brewery three years out of a global pandemic comes with lots of ups and downs, but as you’ll hear on this week’s episode, it’s been a...

Back again with another hoppy episode this week! This time, we wanted to change it up and give you all a peek behind the curtain at a yearly industry tradition. During hop harvest season, brewers from all over the world come to Yakima to rub elbows with industry friends and rub hops to find out which lots and blends they’ll be using for the following year. Matt and Ron were lucky enough to be invi...

Nestled quietly in the margins of Oktoberfest and fresh hop season, pumpkin beers lay waiting to provide a reprieve from the punchy wet hopped IPAs and robust Marzen lagers. This week, we quickly sample 15 different pumpkin beers currently on the shelves. What pumpkin beers are our favorites? Which ones are kind of weird? Which ones stand the test of time, despite numerous years in production and...

This is super special! We all know Yakima is known for its incredible hop agriculture, but what many folks may not know is that the modern hop industry has its roots a little closer to Tacoma. This week, we are lucky to be joined by Shelly Schlumpf, president of the Puyallup Historical Society at Meeker Mansion . As a long-time veteran of public service in the Puyallup area, Shelly has spent her c...

That’s right! Besides being fresh hop season, pumpkin season, and festbier season, it’s also homebrew competition season. We’re lucky to be joined this week by Dustin Striplin from the Browns Point Homebrew Club to talk about their iconic Lights Out! Dark Beers Only competition making its return. With him is Phil Saurer, representing both Browns Point and the still young Peninsula Ferm...

We are just about a week away from the most wonderful time of the year for Pacific Northwest beer nerds — fresh hop season!  The chaotic, beautiful, and fleeting annual period where hops are plucked from the bines they grow on and thrown straight into beers while they are still dripping with aromatic oily goodness. We are spoiled to have so many fantastic breweries that make incredible versions of...

It’s that time of year again! Brew Five Three Beer & Music Festival , Tacoma’s biggest beer taster-glass gathering, kicked off in a new location this year, the historic Armory building, and we were lucky enough to be invited back for another live show. We get into some highlights of the festival, our favorite beers of the day, and our best buddy and beer festival specialist, Gini Sommer,...

Nestled in the small downtown area of Renton, Wash., a sleeping giant of a brewery is starting to make giant waves. We are joined by the family-owned and operated Four Generals Brewing . Brewer Ross, parents and business partners Mary and Mike, and Sales Manager Ali all took to the mic this week to tell the story of this small brewery doing huge things — including winning a silver medal at t...

We’re back with part 2 of our raw ingredients special, featuring Rikki Welz from Haas Farms and Brian Estes from LINC Malt . With Grainmaker only one week away, we figured it would be a great time to get all the details from these two about what makes this one of the best up-and-coming beer events in Washington, featuring incredible collaboration beers all geared to showcase specialty ingred...

It’s an extra special double header! We are joined this week by our best buddy and legendary hop sniffer, Rikki Welz from the world-renowned Haas Farms , and we are so happy to welcome Brian Estes, the man behind LINC Malt ‘s specialty grain program. The teams these two people help to lead at their respective operations are responsible for some of the most sought-after ingredients used...

We’re back! Thanks for sticking around during our holiday hiatus week.  We’re back and have a bunch of catching up to do. Matt climbed a whole mountain, Bethany went camping with her little kiddos (arguably harder than climbing a mountain), and Ron attended the inaugural Legends of the West hosted by our friends at Grains of Wrath , where he caught up with an old Tacoma industry friend...

This week, we were super lucky to be joined by another local beer podcast crew. Austin and Julie uploaded the first episode of Thru The Sightglass back in March 2024 (with our good friend Rachyl from @beersandbedtime !). After a few excellent local episodes from around the PNW, they hit the road in their sick, live-in van. They spent an entire year visiting breweries around the country and recordi...

The Washington Brewers Festival and Firestone Walker Invitational have come and gone, and the Grit & Grain crew was lucky enough to be on the ground for both. This week, we’re recapping the magic—our favorite beers, favorite moments, and the unforgettable folks who made both festivals shine. Don’t miss our Instagram highlight videos from the Washington Brewers Festival , where we chatted with...

Kendall Jones is back! For Part 2, we dive right into the article posted to his longstanding Washington Beer Blog the morning of our recording, wherein Jones breaks down the Brewers Association ‘s announcement of Mexican Lager being added to official style guidelines right on the heels of our Mexican lager episode . He also weighs in on how the Washington beer industry has evolved over the l...

Get ready for a super special double-header! This week, we are honored to invite local legend and Tacoma native Kendall Jones to Tacoma for a few beers and a few episodes dedicated to his decades-long journey as a steward of the Washington Beer World. From his early days as a humble dorm-brewer, to launching a sell-out beer-focused fundraising event (with the help of his talented wife Kim), to sta...

Our best buddies at Seattle’s Lucky Envelope Brewing are celebrating their 10th year in the beer business with a bang — A year-long series of collaboration beers with former brewers who have left Barry’s tutelage and continued their journey at other fantastic breweries around the Pacific Northwest. Tune in for some taste testing, the scoop on other upcoming collabs, and the secret to w...