Expert interviews, brewing insights, and industry trends.
There are no core brands at this small Oakland neighborhood brewery, only core styles. Yet the space to experiment, play, and learn has led to an evolution in process and ingredients—an evolution validated by major medals and high scores.
This small, taproom-focused brewery just outside of Fort Worth, Texas, has scored major medals and won fans with their thoughtful approach to flavor-forward beer that blends timeless technique with contemporary energy.
The Cleveland brewer walks through the ingredients and processes behind Shower Beer and Oni Giri—beers that both won 2026 GABF gold medals in their respective light lager and rice lager categories.
The founder of the award-winning Seattle brewery is pursuing life goals with a move to New Zealand while friends at Bale Breaker take on the Cloudburst brand and brewery, but it hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for Southern Hemisphere hops, “dad” beers, fresh hops, and more.
After leaving brewing to become an attorney, the cofounder of this Des Moines brewpub felt the pull to return to the brewhouse. Today, he continues to iterate on progressive hazy IPAs while honing low-ABV table lager.
Untappd recently honored Denver’s Off Script for its extraordinarily high ratings, driven by a singular focus on plush and indulgent hazy IPAs. But for founder Ryan Taylor, the real secret is the collaborative relationship he’s developed with Rob Bessett of host brewery Milieu Fermentation.
Controlling microbial growth in beer has long been the job of alcohol itself, but the rising demand for low- and no-alcohol beer presents a fresh challenge for brewers. In this episode, produced in partnership with Scott Labs, we look at what those main microbial offenders are, the primary pathways for their opportunistic growth, and how new solutions from the plant world are giving brewers additional tools to maintain the integrity of their beer.
This Madison, Wisconsin, brewery has built a reputation for bold and intense tart fruit beers that push sweetness without flab, full body without chewiness, and sourness with more than just the lactic tang.
In this special episode produced in partnership with Hopsteiner and recorded in their experimental field at their farm in Prosser, Washington, we discuss redesigning core beers with new advanced hop products, breeding better hops for the increasingly challenging environment, reducing waste in the brewhouse, and more.
In this panel discussion from the 2026 Brewer’s Retreat, Whitney Burnside of Grand Fir, Chris Baum of Varietal, and Ben Edmunds of Breakside share their thoughts on building signature character and personality in modern West Coast IPA.
In this panel discussion from the 2026 Brewers Retreat, Kevin Smith of Bale Breaker, Zach Turner of Single Hill, and Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River explore fresh-hop brewing from the early days of craft through the present.
In this 500th episode of the podcast, Henry Nguyen of Monkish, Sam Zermeño of Brujos, and Kelsey McNair of North Park join in a live discussion on hazy IPA recorded at our recent Brewer’s Retreat.
This growing New Hampshire brewery in the epicenter of hazy IPA, just across the border from Massachusetts, pushes malt and boundaries to achieve vivid results in hop-forward beers and tight balance in Mexican-style lager.
How do you make modern iterations of pilsner that still taste like pilsner? For this small-pub brewer in the mountains of California, the answer is using the right hops at the right time throughout the process.
With back-to-back GABF gold medals in festbier—as well as a GABF silver and a CB&B 99 score for helles—this long-running brewpub has found ways to work past their technical limitations and build characterful precision in small-scale lagers.
Tonya Cornett and Ian Larkin have been brewing medal-winning beers together, apart, and together again through three different breweries, but they’re constantly reinventing their pathways to success, just as they’re consistently tweaking their medal-winning beers.
How do you take an existing yeast variety that has grown up in a particular environment for a century or more and make it better for styles brewers are brewing, the hops they’re brewing with, and the cellars they ferment in today? In this episode, Chris White of White Labs, Richard Preiss of Escarpment Labs, and Justin Clouthier of Willibald Brewing share the methods at play and the work behind developing then learning and optimizing the new Suava strain.
Headquartered just outside of Bend, Oregon, this production brewery and multi-location brewpub has quietly grown into a powerhouse in a region that’s full of them. And refinement is the name of their game, whether they’re brewing Alpha King–winning double IPA or rice lager with basil, cucumber, and yuzu.
Forget last year’s hot side versus cold side social media debate. The real issue, says Trap Door head brewer Jake Watt, is the seasonal creep that’s pushing out fresh-hopped beers before the most compelling hops are even ready to be harvested. But ask him which methods he uses to hop these beers dubbed “fresh,” and he’ll answer, “all of the above, and more.”
Most professional craft brewers get their start as homebrewers, often with simple extract-based kits. Pinter’s mission to make that process easier—and the beer better—is helping a new generation of future brewers connect with the art and craft of making.
Through a series of projects and papers, these two respected researchers are shedding new light on how hops age, how variety impacts that aging, how conditions such as temperature and oxygen affect hops, and more. An important takeaway: There’s more life in two-, three-, or four-year-old hop lots than we may have previously thought.
As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, nothing seems more fitting than to take a look back at the earliest days of American brewing in the revolutionary era, guided by two brewers who’ve done the historical work and found ways to make that history relevant in our modern beer context.
Delicious fried chicken and an artful take on comfort food may be the primary draws for this Colorado restaurant chain, but the award-winning beer is no afterthought. With six top-flight medals over the past six years, they’re proving that smaller beers designed to be enjoyed with food have an enduring place in craft brewing.
For this Bay Area California brewer, the keys to better helles and West Coast IPA unlocked as he stripped away burdensome processes and ingredients and simplified recipes and techniques to their core essentials.