How NOT To Start A Damn Brewery: the podcast

In the early days of Australia’s craft beer explosion there was a brewery that out cooled all the others. I remember seeing their tight branding, the confidence that exuded from their marketing and their insane growth trajectory and just being immediately jealous of Black Hops Brewery.  When I sat down to write my book in 2019 I even found out these guys had already written one about their start-u...

Ralph Rapa wanted to open a small craft brewery on his terms. He wanted it to reflect his life in the American railroad industry. He wanted it to be comfortable, unpretentious and fun.  So he enlisted his longtime friend Lisa Henrie to handle marketing, HR and PR, raised some capital and shoveled coal in the engine of Rule G Brewing Company in South Florida.  After a solid start, the brewery was p...

Doug Martin is a guy who has just about done it all.  From working in beer in Germany to opening a brewery in California to pivoting to non-alcohol products, he’s followed many of the playbooks that the craft beer talking heads are claiming will save your business.  But he’s on this show because the many beer-related businesses and non-beer production businesses he had his hands in have all closed...

Sam and Sara Kazmer brought great craft beer to a market they felt was underserved - Atlanta, Georgia when they flipped on the lights at Elsewhere Brewing in 2020.  They wanted to produce award-winning beer in a unique, community-event driven taproom. They wanted to create space, community and memories for themselves and every customer that shared in their dream. And, as we’ll hear in the 4th segm...

Kiernan May is a cool guy.  He transitioned from a corporate career to open a brewery in New York with big dreams and a bigger bag of passion.  His brewery was built on Kiernan’s analytic and logical understanding of the world that surrounded him. He put the pieces and plans together in a way that was structured and strategic. He grew sensibly, understanding his limitations and how to operate with...

You’re about to hear the story of Matt Swan and the late Tumbledown Brewery from Farmington, Maine.  Opened in 2014 and closed late 2025, Matt’s experience is varied and truly interesting.  His is the first brewery we’ve talked to from Maine and the only one with a red ale as it’s flagship. We cover a lot of ground from distribution, burnout, capitalization and contract brewing. One of my favorite...

Tanglefoot made some solid lagers in an unlikely place. Temple, TX is a town of about 90K people about an hour to Austin. A huge segment of that population has Czech blood in their veins and a thirst for beer from the Old Country.  But as Andy Martinec found out the hard way, that didn’t necessarily mean they would support a local business making great examples of Czech lagers. You’re about to hea...

Pono Brewing of Portland Oregon was conceived as a lifestyle as much if not more than a beer brand. The beers were lively, fun, inventive and everything a craft brewery should be.  Larry Clouser and his partners grew from humble beginnings as a contract brewery to statewide distribution to opening a brewpub/restaurant before finally closing the doors in 2023.  Larry’s story covers contract brewing...

Blue Cat Brewpub was an Illinois icon. One of the state’s first brewpubs, they made award-winning beer for 23 years.  After the owners sold and the brewery was rebranded unsuccessfully, the new owners were looking for a way to save the dream. That’s where Charlie Cole came marching into the picture.  After working at most of the Quad-city’s breweries, hosting a beer-centric radio show and snagging...

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 th...

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...

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 s...

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 co...

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 bee...

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.  S...

When Dennis Espinosa partnered with his mom to open Main and 6 in Jacksonville Florida he had the highest of hopes.  In 2017, like pretty much everyone in craft beer, he only saw victory ahead.  Most people would agree that he was set up for success. He started with award-winning beers, bought the building and hired an designer to make it special. He won more awards for his beer, actually a ton of...

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 the...

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 underser...

When Doug Appeldoorn got the inspiration to open his brewery, he wasn’t just any old home brewer.  He and co-founder Pietro first started a brewing collective that hosted events to champion creativity, inclusivity and the homebrew community of Toronto, Canada.  They followed virtually every home brewer’s dream and found a permanent space to create a brewery with the dream of taking their homebrew...

That may have been the moment that solidified the future of Oregon’s Flat Tail Brewery.  But the story of success, failure, embezzlement, money laundering and rebirth on the timeline of Dave Marliave’s craft beer career has so much more to teach us.  So I sat down with Dave to discuss what he’s felt, what he’s learned and how you can protect yourself from thieving partners and monopolistic distrib...

I think most of you would think that if I gave you 2300 shareholders that would invest 2.2 million dollars in your brewery that you could make it work.  If I said you could secure another 400 grand from a state loan and 600K the SBA that your 3.2 million dollars would give your brewery a runway to space travel.  And if I said you could go back in time to when there were only a few hundred US micro...

It’s important to me to dig deep and wide into the US craft beer scene. And while I plan to maintain at least 80% of my content domestically, we can’t solve the problems of the business of craft beer with a US based myopia.  So I’ve been searching the globe for stories of craft beer closures in other countries.  That’s how I found myself in Steve Dunkley’s orbit listening to his story and the stor...

Hedgehog Brewing was founded by Jonathan Harris and his brother Chris in April 2019 just outside of Austin, TX.  After home brewing voraciously for years they’d honed their recipes, harvested their own yeast and set about making their unique mark on craft beer. They focused on fermenting beers with wild Hill Country yeast with a core of the business in farmhouse beers. They also did well with thei...

Zach Rabun opened Mockery Brewing in Denver’s ubiquitous RiNO district long before it was cool. Most of you know that it's now become one of the best-known beer destination in the states. After working at Coors and Denver area brewpubs, he set a concise theme for his brewery:  First, take a detailed, educated look at traditional beer styles and rules. And then make a Mockery of them.  This kin...

Fractal Brewing Project opened in 2019 and closed in 2023 in Huntsville, Alabama. Maybe it isn't a song as old as time but the story is one we hear alot. There's this money guy who loves beer, befriends a brewer and gives that brewer a percentage of his new brewery. The money guy overbuilds his vanity project and creates a truly beautiful space with all the toys, the bells and even some wh...