Fear Of A Craft Beer Planet

First ep of 2021, the stars aligned and we managed to carve out a couple hours to shoot the breeze about beer. We discuss smoked beer and its polarity, JR talks about his first Covid Shot experience, construction on the new Tonewood Brewery is moving right along, and we run through the ramifications of legal weed in NJ. Speaking of legal weed in NJ, Richard pontificates about how his charge "poof, vanished!"

In segment one we explore what was basically the last live show anyone attended. Life long friend and listener to the podcast, Keith Oltman, celebrated his 45th birthday at MSG for the Brother's Show. It turned out to be an incredible show and Keith gives us his rundown of the show and what the vibes were like inside MSG that night.

Hilary Barile and Blair Bakker are 5th generation farmers at Rabbit Hill Farms in Shiloh NJ. For 4 generations Rabbit Hill was known for their Jersey Fresh potatoes. As American diets started shifting away from carbs, potatoes started feeling the pinch and Rabbit Hill had some decisions to make. At the same time, Hilary and Blair started noticing craft breweries and distilleries sprouting up in every direction in NJ. They had a brainstorm to grow barley, malt it themselves, and sell it to NJ breweries and distilleries. It was just crazy enough to work! On this episode Hilary and Blair break down the whole story, explain what barley malt is, how it's malted, and why the beer you're holding would just be hop water without it!

After we hung out with Dave Engbers and and Bob Kaiser on the phone in the last episode, we wrapped up the calls live with Natalie Crystal, New Jersey and Delaware Area Sales Manager for Founders. You’ll notice Natalie took the place of our host Jay Rose for this episode, he was VERY BUSY and had to hurry out the door after the phone calls. Nat does an awesome job mixing it up with Rob and Richard while opening a few heavy hitters from Founders including Mas' Agave, Blushing Monk, and Barrel Runner. She was also nice enough to open a Kane Brewing Mexican Brunch for good measure. Thank you Founders Brewing and thank you Natalie for 2 great episodes!

Jim Conroy, Lead Brewer from The Alchemist, joins us to talk about the brewery and the beer that basically changed the craft beer landscape. Jim walks us through his beginnings with The Alchemist and how they struggled to keep up with production, up to now as they have expanded and have been able to make more beer. We talk about old school lot beers, how Heady has become the official beer of Phish lots, and what the future holds for The Alchemist.

Stone Sanctimonious IPA Stone Tropic Of Thunder Lager Stone Vertical Epic 11-11-11