Beer Guys Radio Craft Beer Podcast

Harris Stewart used to procrastinate studying law in college by brewing beer. Until one day, he realized that he should probably brew for a living. TrimTab was born out of that desire. We talk to Harris about the Alabama brewing scene, running a business and managing a family, expansion into Georgia and of course the beer. Plus, with the summer months coming, we'll learn why it's not a great idea to leave your beer in the car.

It's no secret that Atlanta is a great food town. But it's also becoming a fantastic beer town as well.  From crafting amazing beers (that are now being canned, thanks to new law changes) to providing fine fare, the Atlanta brewpub has managed to thrive in this busy and competitive market.  We talk to owner and brewer emeritus Bob Sandage about his brewpub, new Georgia laws, and whether or not milkshake IPAs are really a beer. 

Not long ago, if you wanted an amazing craft beer, you reached for something from Belgium.  Today, American craft beer has made huge strides, and many Americans (and non-Americans) reach for American beers first.  But Belgian beer is still the bomb and should definitely not be missed by any beer fan. On this week's show Kraig Torres (Hop City, Barleygarden) and Jen Price (The Chick's Guide to Beer, Atlanta Beer Boutique) join us to talk about all things Belgian beer.

Where's a better place to start a brewpub than a college town? We last spoke with the Akademia crew where they were a brewpub in planning.  Now they are open and slinging great beer and food in Athens, GA and distributing their beer to the local area.  They've got a barrel-aging program in the works, and a prime rib night.  Count me in. Owners Matt Casey and Morgan Wireman join us for this week's episode of Beer Guys Radio live from the (very noisy) Classic City Brew Fest.

420 Fest descends on Atlanta this week and we sat down with brewers Nick Nock and Nick Burgoyne to talk about the SweetWater Experience tent.  They share info on the beers available - from collaboration brews to barrel-aged offerings, and wild and funky stuff from SweetWater's Woodlands.

Beer journalist, author and homebrewer Stan Hieronymus joined us this week. If you have an interest in hops, this is the show for you. Stan talks about the modern evolution of hops, and whether there is really a hop shortage. Plus, we talk about the 2nd annual Columbus Beer Bash, how to win a membership in the SweetWater Woodlands Circle. And, we completely suck up to South Dakota for a very good reason.

If you are an IPA lover, you needed to be at Monday Night Brewing's Garage.  The inaugural Day of the Juice Festival took place there, and while there were more than IPAs on tap, this was definitely a celebration of all things hoppy.  We talked to two great IPA brewers from the East Coast. First up was Basil Lee from New York City's Finback. Next, we spoke to the crew from the Emerald Coast's (that's the Florida Panhandle) Idyll Hounds. 

Lincoln Fill Station has been bringing craft beer to Snellville, Georgia for several years.  They also are the home of a little Beer Guys history - the site of our very first live broadcast.  We joined Tiny and the crew at TinyPalooza 3.5 once again this year, and sampled a great variety of beers on tap.  We also got to chat with Trey Sinclair and Steve Anderson to talk all things Dry County, including their forays into coffee and distilling. 

Ron Smith and Mary O. Boyle, authors of Atlanta Beer and Prohibition in Atlanta sit down with us at the 2018 Roswell Beer Festival to share some of the great stories behind Georgia's breweries.  From the very first brewery whose early foundations were based on the necessity of having something to drink that wasn't filled with bacteria (like water) through to the modern movement towards local and hyper-local breweries.

Mead is one of the, if not the, oldest forms of alcohol in existence. And you can see why - take honey, add water, and voila! Of course, it's much more complicated than that. We are at Monday Night Brewing's Garage to talk to co-founders Derek Piper and Tom Dilbeck about the mead making industry and more! (Did you know that it takes more than a million blossoms to make one bottle of mead?)

As Atlanta's oldest (still operating) craft brewery, it would be easy for Red Brick to rest on its laurels.  However, the Westside brewery has undergone an overhaul of its image and its beers.  The taproom boasts dozens of new beers, and their release schedule has been extremely busy.  We join President/Brewmaster Garret Lockhart and Director of Brewing Operations Gavin McKenna at the brewery. We talk about the development of their new brews, the taproom, and memories of Myrtle Beach. 

Presented by the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild the "Dreamer's Workshop" is a two-part series aimed at educating breweries-in-planning (or dreaming) on navigating the process of opening a brewery.  Aimed at Georgia-based brewers, most of the information will be valuable to brewers in every state. In Part 2 we'll hear from professional brewers about some of the challenges they faced in opening their brewery, and things they would do differently today.

Presented by the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild the "Dreamer's Workshop" is a two-part series aimed at educating breweries-in-planning (or dreaming) on navigating the process of opening a brewery.  Aimed at Georgia-based brewers, most of the information will be valuable to brewers in every state.

We're broadcasting from Monday Night Brewing's Garage this week.  Does your homebrew blonde ale continually have an underripe apple taste? Or is there rancid butter tastes in your porter? Does your IPA taste more like band-aids than tropical hops?  We talk about some of the mistakes homebrewers make, the off-tastes that can crop up, and how to fix them. 

Jason Pellett's beers are out of the ordinary. After all, it was certainly a bold move for Atlanta's Orpheus Brewing to make a tart plum saison (Atalanta) one of its flagship beers.  But persistence pays off. Now, the downtown brewery is filled to capacity, has one of the first coolship projects in the state, and is making some of the most unique beers in the south.  We talk to Jason about the brewery, it's future, and the importance of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.