Brew Skies Happy Hour

Jim Koch's impact on the beer industry goes way beyond being a craft brewing pioneer. For example, when a variety of German noble hops was on the verge of extinction due to wilt, Jim Koch spearheaded the effort to save them. When a global hop shortage threatened to extinguish the craft beer industry, Jim Koch sold tons of his hop reserves to craft breweries in order to keep them alive. This is part 3 of a 3 part interview with Boston Beer Company founder Jim Koch.

“The ethnic cleansing,” is how top executives at Anheuser-Busch described their effort to destroy Sam Adams, Jim Koch, and the nascent craft beer industry in the 1990s. The efforts of Anheuser-Busch, makers of Budweiser and Bud Light among many (MANY) other brands, led to 8 long years of negative growth for craft beer in the United States. This is part 2 of a 3 part interview with Boston Beer Company founder Jim Koch.  

As the founder of the Boston Beer Company - makers of Sam Adams and many other brands - Jim Koch was an early pioneer in the craft brewing industry. Not one to mince words, his father's reaction to the news that his son was starting a brewery was rather blunt. However Jim's father was also a fifth generation brewer whose advice would be critical to the success of the Boston Beer Company. This is part 1 of a 3 part interview with Boston Beer Company founder Jim Koch. 

In the early 1970s, Miller was a second tier and mostly regional brewery. That begins to change when they're acquired by Phillip Morris and by the end of the decade they were number 2 and nipping at Budweiser's heels. Miller's rise is largely due to advertising and the greatest marketing innovation in all of beer history: Miller Lite. Welcome to The Beer Wars.  

Schlitz was once the second best selling beer in the US behind Budweiser and for a few years in the 1950s it occupied the top spot. These two brewing behemoths were neck and neck until the 1970s when Schlitz made a few bad decisions and fell off a cliff, never to return. This is the story of the downfall of Schlitz which is a Shakespearian tale of greed and rapidly compounding layers of bad decisions. 

Like many aspects of American life in the post war era, advertising transformed the brewing industry in a myriad of ways. Those who spent big dollars on advertising would thrive while many of those that didn't would close their doors forever. Market share became consolidated in fewer hands with the 10 biggest breweries in the US controlling 66% of the market by 1968. In this episode, Bret and Mike explore how this led to less choice and worse beer for American consumers. 

Prohibition radically altered the American palate. After more than a decade of using fruit juice and other sweeteners to make bad hooch and bathtub gin drinkable, Americans had no taste for anything bitter or sour. People wanted things that were sweet and crisp which isn't good for beer. For the love of god, Budweiser's pre-Prohibition beer was now “too bitter” for the American public! Beer sales and production went into a nose dive when something funny happened: World War II. 

In the late 1970s when the craft beer revolution was in its infancy, the vast majority of beer available in the United States was watery, yellow, and flavorless. How did we get to such a sad state of affairs? Turns out it has a lot to do with German immigration and industrialization. The temperance movement and Prohibition - which also had a lot to do with the Germans - didn't help. Neither did WWI - which definitely had something to do with the Germans. This is part 1 of Mike and Bret tying it all together and trying to make it make sense.

In the Season 1 finale, Bret and Mike discuss what they learned with their friend, fellow beer enthusiast, and podcaster the Gnarly Gnome. They also share their thoughts on what it means to be "craft" not just in beer but in all areas where that term is applied.   

Sometimes it's possible to do damn near everything right and still not succeed. That's the story of Oldenberg, an early adopter of the brew pub model that started in Cincinnati in 1987. In the 1990s, Oldenberg gained international attention for its Beer Camp, added the American Museum of Brewing History and Arts to its Ft. Mitchell, KY location, and expanded to other markets. But by 2001 the whole operation was no more. What happened? Oldenberg founder Dave Heidrich sat down with Bret and Mike to tell his story. 

Bill Owens, isn't he a photographer? Why yes, he is and quite an accomplished one at that. He took the iconic photos of the Hells Angels beating concert goers with pool cues at Altamont in 1969. But he also started the first brew pub in the US and developed several of the predominate styles in American craft beer. He has one hell of a story and he tells it to Mike and Bret in this episode.  

The Maltose Falcons are the oldest home brew club in the US and over the years their members have gone on to change American beer in numerous ways.  In this episode, Bret and Mike talk to Drew Beechum who is the Grand Hydrometer of the Maltose Falcons to learn more about how this one home brew club shaped an industry. And in case you're wondering, "Grand Hydrometer" is a fancy way of saying, "club historian."

These days, North Carolina and craft beer go hand in hand - especially Asheville - but it wasn't always that way. North Carolina's journey to being a craft beer destination began in the 1980s when a German immigrant named Uli Bennewitz tried to open a Bavarian themed brewery in a dry county in the Outer Banks. In this episode, Uli tells his amazing story to Bret and Mike.  

Ambitious Brew by Maureen Ogle was instrumental in getting us started on this journey into the history of craft beer so it makes sense for her to be a guest on the show. How did the temperance movement of the late 19th Century and Prohibition in the 1920s influence modern craft beer? Listen to find out.   

Charlie Papazian is, amongst many other things, the author of The Complete Joy of Home Brewing, founder of Zymurgy Magazine, founder of the Home Brewers Association, and founder of the Great American Beer Festival. American Craft Beer would be vastly different if it weren't for his efforts. In this episode he tells Bret and Mike how it all came about. 

In recent years, hops have become a staple of American Craft Beer. That all began in the 1980s with Sierra Nevada. In this episode, Bret and Mike talk to Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman about taking American Craft Beer from a small localized phenomenon to a global powerhouse.

Dr. Theresa McCulla has what might be the best job in the world. As the curator of the American Brewing History Initiative, she collects objects, documents, and oral histories from the talented women and men who make the American brewing industry the most creative in the world. In this episode she helps Bret and Mike make sense of what they have learned about the history of craft brewing thus far and leaves them with a lot of ideas for future episodes.

The Brew Skies Podcast officially will be available for download tomorrow, 4/15/22 with the History Of Craft Beer. The first three episodes will be available for your listening pleasure! Join Bret and Mike as they explore the history of craft beer in America withe insights and interviews with the people that made this happen.

Who the hell is Michael D. Morgan? And who is this Bret Kollmann Baker person? Find out in this episode while also getting a sense of what this season of the Brew Skies Happy Hour podcast is all about. 

When Fritz Maytag purchased a struggling brewery in San Francisco in the 1960s called Anchor Steam, he wasn't planning on revolutionizing the way that Americans think about and drink beer, but that's exactly what he did. In this episode Fritz Maytag joins Mike and Bret to talk about how and why that happened. Fritz also talks about how the 1960s happened in San Francisco in the 1960s.

In 1976 Jack McAuliffe started New Albion Brewing Company which is widely considered the first microbrewery in the US. Jack doesn't do interviews anymore but we tracked down his daughter, Renee DeLuca who filled us in on the details and wow, what a story! As an added bonus Renee talks about not knowing that Jack was her father until she was an adult and what it was like meeting him for the first time. 

Mike and Bret discuss some of the predictions they made about the future of the brewing industry back when the world went on lockdown because of the Coronavirus pandemic. What did they get right? What did they get wrong, and what does 2021 look like for the industry? And what do they have cooking for Brew Skies in 2021?

We're taking some time off and in this episode, Mike explains why. We'll be back better than ever so stay tuned.

In the first of a multi-part series, Mike and Bret talk about what they know and don't know about how the modern craft beer industry began in the United States.

Slate.com recently published an article titled, "Break Up Budweiser. And Molson Coors too. The Industry needs Trustbusting." On this episode Mike and Bret discuss how multinational beverage conglomerates came to dominate the American beer market, whether they should be broken up, and what the beer industry would look like if that happened.

The craft beer scene in Canada is still relatively young. "I'd say they're about where the States were in the early 2000's," is how Mike Wayne describes it. And he would know. After stints at Sam Adams and the Christian Moerlein Brewing Company in Cincinnati, Mike is now the brewmaster at Boomstick Brewing in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. In addition to the Canadian craft beer scene, this episode delves into how including the word "bitter" in a beer's name or description affects sales and how the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were originally created as an instrument of colonial control over the indigenous population.

In 1884 Cincinnati was the scene of the largest massacre of civilians by the National Guard in US History. This week Mike tells the bizarre story of grisly murders, corruption, incompetence, and sensational headlines that led up to it. Then he and Bret talk about the uncomfortable similarities to current events.

Portland, OR is a city know for its unique, innovative, and funky local culture. It's also very well known for its craft beer scene. Cascade Brewing was one of the first on that scene and has been in the vanguard ever since. But what came first? Did craft brewing gain a foothold in Portland because of the culture or did that culture emerge because of craft brewing? In this episode Mike and Bret talk to Kevin Martin, Director of Brewery Operations at Cascade about this and many other topics.

"Stop making me piss in a trough." Mike and Bret talk with Jason Parnes of Higher Gravity in Cincinnati, OH about what they hope will and won't change in the post-pandemic world.

Starting a craft brewery and brew pub dedicated to authentic Belgian style beers in rural Indiana doesn't sound like a great idea. But that's what Nathan did and it's working. In this episode Mike and Bret talk to Nathan to get the whole story behind Taxman Brewing.

When the guest canceled at the last minute, Mike and Bret decided to have a conversation with the producers of this podcast about the origins of Brew Skies. But the conversation quickly went off the rails and they soon regretted that decision.

Chris Davison didn't start drinking until he was in his mid 20's and now he's creating some of the most innovative beer in Ohio. He also once wrote over 2,000 beer reviews in a single year which he says is how he learned to objectively critique beer.

What impact has the coronavirus related shutdown of bars and restaurants had on a small, community themed brew pub? And now that Ohio is lifting those restrictions, how will the same community focused brew pub reopen safely? Mike and Bret talk with Tanya Brock from Dayton, Ohio's Fifth Street Brew pub to find out.

Mike and Bret talk with Joe Mumper, co-founder of West Side Brewing in Cincinnati, OH about how a slow reopening of businesses in the state will affect breweries and taprooms. Among many other topics, of course.

In the inaugural episode, Mike and Bret explain what this podcast is all about and discuss the impact the Coronavirus pandemic is having on the brewing industry and the broader culture. Bret also talks about how online sales are helping his brewery Urban Artifact weather the storm.