Reuben's Sightglass

Today we sit down with Lamar Neagle and Sam Zisette, two of the co-founders of Ballard FC. Ballard FC is a USL 2 team based in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, and had its inaugural season in 2022.  USL 2 is the fourth tier of the US professional soccer system, MLS being the top tier, USL 2 being a semi-professional fourth tier.We talk about: Forming a brand new organization from scratch, taking an idea to reality and a team playing in from of a packed out Interbay Stadium in its inaugural season;How soccer builds community;Startup founders being the jack-of-all-trades!How to get the word out - social media, traditional media, events;Thoughts around how to build a squad.Cheers to the new USL 2 season, and "Up the Bridges!"Links:Ballard FC - https://www.goballardfc.com/USL2 - https://www.uslleaguetwo.com/Reuben's Brews - https://reubensbrews.com/

I first met Kyle Larsen in the UK when he was head brewer for Siren Craft Beer.  In quite a crazy coincidence, Kyle - originally from Seattle - was working at a brewery very close to where I was originally from in England. We kept in touch, and as he moved back to US he opened his own brewery Kings and Daughters. A wonderful brewer, with a wonderful brewery, we've brewed a couple of collaborations already and it's always fun sitting down and having a beer with him.In this podcast, we talked about:Goal settingCultural differences when working overseasBrewery nichesLow alcohol beers, versus non-alcSoft IPA - including recipe tipsAlternating proprietorshipsThe need for craft beer to adaptLinks:Kings and Daughters Brewery - https://kingsanddaughters.com/Siren Craft Brew - https://www.sirencraftbrew.com/Reuben's Brews - https://reubensbrews.com/

Having met co-founder Jeff at a Brewbound conference back in 2019, it was only time before Reuben's Brews and Monday Night Brewing brewed a collaboration beer together. Jeff Heck and Peter Kiley came to Seattle in December 2022 to brew, and so we couldn't resist the chance to sit down and talk beer.In this episode we talk about a number of things, including:Jeff and Peter's personal journeys into craft beerThat craft breweries should focus on areas they can prove they have discernible valueAre brewery taprooms - and maybe breweries themselves - on a path to become "alcoholories" who focus on more than just beer?The changing perception of authenticity in craft beerThis was great fun to record, and we hope you enjoy it.LinksReuben's Brews - www.reubensbrews.comMonday Night Brewing - https://mondaynightbrewing.com/ 

Adam sits down with Kendall Jones of The Washington Beer Blog to talk about the trends they saw in 2022, and then translate that into what they see coming in 2023 for craft beer. They talk about non-alcoholic beer, with some warnings for craft brewers. They talk the impact of inflation, and the economy's potential impact on beer in 2023 with the talk of a possible recession. They also talk about the pandemic's impact on beer festivals.Adam prefaces the conversation with an update on a project Adam and Kendall have also been working on - The Taster Tray. This is a weekly free, fun, and informative craft beer newsletter. Sign up at thetastertray.com !Links:The Taster Tray: http://thetastertray.com/Washington Beer Blog: http://washingtonbeerblog.com/Reuben's Brews: https://reubensbrews.com/  

This special episode of Reuben's Sightglass was recorded live at Reuben's Brews on March 8th, 2022 at the Seattle launch of Cri-Star IPA. Many thanks to John Harris of Ecliptic Brewing for making the drive up to Seattle and for the Reuben's and Ecliptic teams for making this delicious beer possible! Cri-Star is a mashup of Reuben's Brews Crikey and Ecliptic Brewing's Starbust IPA, which both feature a similar blend of hops. 6.8% of collaborative IPA glory, the result is a tropically floral IPA with notes of citrus and pine.

Our host for this episode, Kendall Jones, is a central figure in the Washington brewing community. He is the founder of the Washington Beer Blog , co-founder (alongside Adam Robbings) of the Hop Mob, and a perennial judge at Washington State beer competitions. He also visited Reuben's Brews on the very first weekend we were open, and was one of the first journalists to publish a story about our brewery.This episode was recorded live at Reuben's Brews in November 2021 to celebrate our annual Rye Fest, which is happening the week of November 29th, 2021. The panel tasted through our Roasted Rye IPA, Dark Munich Lager, and Three Ryes Men Barrel-Aged Barleywine. 

Siren Craft Brew was founded by Darren Anley in 2013, and has quickly grown to one of the best craft breweries in the UK and known worldwide for its collaborations. Located just outside of Reading, near in fact to where Adam used to live,  Siren is known widely for its innovative and daring beers, and has been recognized as one of the best breweries in the world by Ratebeer.Throughout this conversation  we circle around the similarities between our breweries, the stories of how we were founded, and both of our interest in pushing the breadth of our beer lineups. But we also explore the unique role that UK craft beer culture  and regulations play in to the beers that Siren brews.

Design is one of the least discussed but potentially most important things a brewery can do to tell their story. If you do it well you will  connect with your customer, helping to build a critical and lasting bond, or as Ben Butler of Top Hat puts it, a "gentle handshake." This is especially true for new breweries trying to make their mark in the crowded marketplace today: how will your customers know what you stand for and what you are trying to say? And how will you stand out on the shelf with packaging that communicates this same message?Ben Butler founded Pittsburgh's Top Hat design and marketing agency before he had even graduated from college. His energy, passion, and entrepreneurial spirit - along with partner Aaron Easler and the whole Top Hat team - have propelled his agency to the forefront of craft brewery design and branding. Beginning with their "Will Work for Beer" campaign that drew the attention of their first brewery client Lord Hobo Brewing, leading to an impressive (and award-winning) brand refresh of Pittsburgh's iconic Iron City Beer, and on to successful projects for the likes of us at Reuben's Brews, Top Hat has made a mark as an innovative partner for breweries and other small businesses to refine their storytelling through design.Adam and Matt at Reuben's Brews are equally passionate about the role that storytelling and design have with connecting the consumer to the true mission of a brewery. When we embarked on our brand refresh project in 2019, even before connecting with Ben and Top Hat, we spent considerable time delving in to the "Why" of Reuben's Brews: the reason we brew and the reason we push to be better. In the closing notes of this episode Adam brings up the seminal "Start with Why" TED Talk by Simon Sinek which is worth watching for anyone who is interested in branding.This episode concludes the fourth season of Reuben's Sightglass and hopefully provides a capstone to this overview of the Business of Beer.--The fourth season of Reuben's Sightglass dives deep into the Business of Beer. Listeners will learn about the backend of the brewery businesses, the highs and lows, mistakes and wins, and what makes a good beer vs what makes a great beer. Let this season guide you through your personal beer story.It's time to embark on your beer journey.

Sightglass Season 4, Episode 5: The Art of Running a World-Class Beer Bar: Nat and Vern from Brouwer's CafeThe cornerstone of the craft beer industry are the retailers: bottleshops, grocery stores, and restaurants who all help consumers on their journey to discovering new beers and new breweries. For Adam and Matt, and a generation or more of the Seattle beer community, Brouwer's Cafe in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle has been a quintessential place to discover great new beer while eating delicious food, while making friends along the way.In this conversation recorded in August 2021 we catch up with two of the guys behind this legendary operation and hear more about how they conceive of Brouwer's relationship with their visitors, their ideas behind building the restaurant the way they did, and more about the history of how this institution came to be. And in the end, Adam and Matt both look back fondly on great memories they've had at Brouwer's over the years, a clear example of the indelible role retailers like this have in the lives of their customers.--The fourth season of Reuben's Sightglass dives deep into the Business of Beer. Listeners will learn about the backend of the brewery businesses, the highs and lows, mistakes and wins, and what makes a good beer vs what makes a great beer. Let this season guide you through your personal beer story.It's time to embark on your beer journey.

Sightglass Season 4, Episode 4: Understanding the Wholesaler Tier, with Scott Cook of NW BeveragesSince the end of prohibition the alcohol industry in the United States has been governed by the Three-Tier System for alcohol distribution. The first tier is something we've covered often on Reuben's Sightglass: the brewery (or winery, distillery, etc.), also known as the supplier. We soon will cover the third tier in next week's episode: the retailer (your local bottleshop, restaurant, or grocery store.) But probably the least understood of these entities, at least for the average consumer, is what a wholesaler or distributor does in our industry. Scott Cook, the General Manager of NW Beverages, is here to shed light on their essential, distinct, and at times complicated role in getting you your favorite beer.NW Beverages, including its earlier entity Click Wholesale, has been a trusted and crucial partner for our brewery for a number of years. Scott Cook leads NW Beverages as General Manager, helming an important organization in Western Washington that works closely with hundreds of suppliers (like us) and thousands of accounts (like your favorite bottleshop or local convenience store.)  The role of the wholesaler is to get our product, and dozens of others, to market efficiently and to ensure that retailers have what they need to give you, the consumer, exactly what they want, when they want it.And what is one of the main take-aways from this conversation? That you - yes, you! - have more power than you know in influencing how retailers, wholesalers, and suppliers like Reuben's Brews get you the beer that you want. Listen now to find out how exactly that happens.--The fourth season of Reuben's Sightglass dives deep into the Business of Beer. Listeners will learn about the backend of the brewery businesses, the highs and lows, mistakes and wins, and what makes a good beer vs what makes a great beer. Let this season guide you through your personal beer story.It's time to embark on your beer journey.

Sightglass Season 4, Episode 3: What a Leading Brewery Accountant Wants You to Know About Starting a Brewery, with Chris Farmand of Small Batch StandardThanks to our friend Chris Farmand and the entire team at Small Batch Standard for their contributions to the health of our craft brewing industry. Their insights provide small businesses like ours with important data to fine-tune our strategy and plans for the future. This episode of Reuben's Sightglass, recorded in early June 2021, details some of the important considerations small businesses like craft breweries must grapple with as they build themselves and their community for success. The confluence of businesses started by passionate individuals with the realities of a very capital-intensive and growth-driven industry is a ripe topic for an in-depth conversation. We hope this episode opens a sightglass for enthusiasts of craft beer in to the thoughts and considerations of their favorite craft brewery, and gives some insights and important questions to ask themselves for anyone dreaming of starting their own brewery.Small Batch Standard is a leading craft brewing and distilling accounting, strategy, and consulting firm. Sign up for their Insights newsletter here and be sure to listen to their True Craft Podcast, which Adam Robbings is co-hosting this season.--The fourth season of Reuben's Sightglass dives deep into the Business of Beer. Listeners will learn about the backend of the brewery businesses, the highs and lows, mistakes and wins, and what makes a good beer vs what makes a great beer. Let this season guide you through your personal beer story.It's time to embark on your beer journey.

Season 4, Episode 2: How to Launch a Successful Neighborhood Brewery with Tommy Ransom and Audra Johansen, Ravenna BrewingIn this special live-recorded episode Adam Robbings, co-founder of Reuben's Brews, and Matt Lutton, Marketing Manager of Reuben's, sit down with Ravenna Brewing's owner Tommy Ransom and head brewer Audra Johansen to learn about the backstory, construction, and success of this Seattle neighborhood brewery.The fourth season of Reuben's Sightglass podcast explores the Business of Beer, lending a behind-the-scenes sightglass for consumers eager to learn more about how the craft beer industry operates.From a background in technology to a real estate search that led him and his partners all over the city of Seattle, Tommy lays the groundwork of his philosophy for launching a successful craft brewery. Audra also explores her path to the head brewer role at Ravenna, including stints at other iconic Seattle brewpubs that informs her vision for what Ravenna Brewing's beers aught to be.The four recorded this podcast during Seattle Beer Week 2021 on the patio of Reuben's Brews while drinking CRISPY SHIFTY, a collaboration between Reuben's Brews and Ravenna Brewing released in 2021 as part of Reuben's Brews' annual Hometown Series collaboration project. Crispy Shifty, a Pacific Northwest Kellerbier, recently was named a Grand National Champion winner at the US Beer Tasting Championship. --This  season of Reuben's Sightglass dives deep into the Business of Beer. Listeners will learn about the backend of the brewery businesses, the highs and lows, mistakes and wins, and what makes a good beer vs what makes a great beer. Let this season guide you through your personal beer story.It's time to embark on your beer journey.

Episode 0 -  Introduction: The History of Reuben's Brews featuring founders Adam and Grace Robbings. In this live recording of Reuben's Sightglass Podcast, Adam, Grace, and Matt discuss the backstory of Reuben's Brews and the business of beer. It all started with Grace and her newborn son, Reuben, buying Adam a homebrew kit. Adam would always critique the beers they bought, so Grace challenged him to “put up or shut up” and start brewing his own beer. Adam learned to make beer in a way that he wanted it to be made.. it became an obsession to make the perfect beer.Adam and Grace started winning awards and pouring at beer festivals as a home brewery, and when they realized it was successful, they knew it was time to start their own brick-and-mortar brewery.Beer is personal to the couple. So is educating and entertaining the community.Grace finds joy in working with people. With a background in education and as a returned Peace Corps volunteer teacher, she has found the transition from teaching to connecting with the Seattle community as a brewery to be an easy switch.Adam's background in finance has helped him build this successful business that they have today. His entrepreneurial spirit started in middle school, when he created a school newspaper. In the UK, entrepreneurship was not encouraged, so he went down a finance route, but when he got his hands on the homebrew kit, he was hooked.During this episode, the Founders answer personal, business, and beer questions submitted from the community.--This upcoming season of Reuben's Sightglass will dive deep into the Business of Beer. Listeners will learn about the backend of the brewery businesses, the highs and lows, mistakes and wins, and what makes a good beer vs what makes a great beer. Let this season guide you through your personal beer story.It's time to embark on your beer journey.

James Dugan, Andy Miller, and Paul Reiter are our friends, our new Ballard neighbors, and the people behind the iconic Portland brewery, Great Notion. They live by the slogan “Keep Beer Fun” and have built their brewery by staying on top of and creating new beer trends. They’ve even broken the mold and launched their own beer app.Join us for the story of how the three met, how they’d share their homebrew at a Portland block party, and the fortunate chain of events that led them to starting on Alberta Street to now having five locations, including two in Seattle. We explore what makes their perspective and beers unique, and we have a lot of fun along the way.Follow Reuben's Brews @ReubensBrews on Instagram and Twitter and please leave us a review and a rating at Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show! You can also learn more about our brewery by visiting ReubensBrews.com, and we encourage you to visit us at our Taproom next time you are in Seattle!

Tomme Arthur - member of the "first name club" in craft beer -  is a legendary and highly influential brewer out of San Diego, California. We sat down with Tomme to discuss his career, from his roots in the nascent San Diego craft beer scene in the '90s to his recent endeavors, which include new brands like Tiny Bubbles. HIs perspective on the growth of craft beer in San Diego and America is essential to understanding how we've gotten here and where we may go next.  Follow Reuben's Brews @ReubensBrews on Instagram and Twitter and please leave us a review and a rating at Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show! You can also learn more about our brewery by visiting ReubensBrews.com, and we encourage you to visit us at our Taproom next time you are in Seattle!

Georgetown Brewing Company is an icon in the Seattle and Pacific Northwest brewing community and have brewed some of the most popular local beers of the last two decades, including Manny's Pale Ale and Bodhizafa IPA. This week we are sitting down with one of the co-founders of this iconic brewery, a legend in his own right, Manny Chao. We chronicle his career in the industry and learn more about his brewery's approach to recipes, innovation, and branding.Follow Reuben's Brews @ReubensBrews on Instagram and Twitter and please leave us a review and a rating at Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show! You can also learn more about our brewery by visiting ReubensBrews.com, and we encourage you to visit us at our Taproom next time you are in Seattle!

Firestone Walker Brewing Company is a brewery that we've long looked up to: they brew a tremendous portfolio of quality beers, they've got a number of locations around Southern California that shows off their authenticity so well, and they've maintained a distinct and clear voice throughout their brand. In the second episode of our third season of Reuben's Sightglass we sit down with David Walker, co-founder of Firestone Walker, to discuss the difficulties they've overcome in their 25 years of brewing, their vision for their brewery,  the connection between brewers and farmers, and much more. Follow Reuben's Brews @ReubensBrews on Instagram and Twitter and please leave us a review and a rating at Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show! You can also learn more about our brewery by visiting ReubensBrews.com, and we encourage you to visit us at our Taproom next time you are in Seattle!

Welcome to Season 3 of Reuben's Sightglass! This season begins with a scene-setting interview with the one-and-only Bart Watson, Chief Economist for the Brewers Association. We explore the lay of the land at this point of Covid recovery and explore what you, the consumer, are telling us as breweries. What does a return to normal look like, how have breweries pivoted and been impacted, and what forward looking advice does the data give us as brewers. Stay tuned for the rest of Season 3 in the coming weeks over four more weekly episodes.

Michael Ferguson is the Director of Hop Breeding at Haas, one of the Yakima Valley's premiere hop growers. His job is to cultivate the next great hop, and that involves breeding and evaluating thousands of clones, in search of the needle in the haystack. And we may have just found it. Adam and Matt sit down with Michael to discuss HBC 1019, a brand-new varietal that Reuben's Brews is helping to sponsor, and which made it in to our recent release "Puffs of [Classified]". Learn all about this hop and Michael's work in particular on this episode of Reuben's Sightglass.

Our guests on our 2020 Year in Review episode of Reuben's Sightglass are Jamie Bogner, Cofounder and Editorial Director of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, Jeff Alworth, beer writer and editor of Beervana, and Kendall Jones, beer writer and founder of Washington Beer Blog.

It has been three months since we last checked in with our friends John Dantzler (Torch and Crown Brewing, New York City, NY), John Harris (Ecliptic Brewing, Portland, OR), and JC Hill (Alvarado Street Brewery, Monterey, CA), so we rang them up to see how their breweries and their communities are faring during the last quarter of 2020. Adam Robbings, co-founder of Reuben's Brews in Seattle, speaks with each brewery owner about the unique challenges in their cities and the state of their brewery since we last spoke. Common questions emerge through the conversations: Have we seen the end of line culture in craft beer? How have we prepared for the third-wave of COVID knowing what we learned from earlier surges? What are we most looking forward to when things return to "normal"?

Adam speaks with the founders of one of his favorite local bakeries, located walking distance from his and Grace's home in Seattle. Kit and Jesse got their start around the same time as Adam began brewing, and the stories of how both family-owned businesses based in fermentation got off the ground are similar. The three explore the world of yeast and fermentation, the importance of process, and the magic of repeating high-quality products. Ultimately, what’s the secret? Time.

Just 50-some miles up the road from Reuben's Brews is the Skagit Valley, an important agricultural region in Washington State and home of world-famous tulips. Adam and Matt speak with Dave and Will from Skagit Valley Malting about their unique role in the brewing, distilling, and baking industries. This fascinating business is leading the way in Washington State malting from developing their own malting technology to their philosophy of a "two-handshakes away" relationship between farmers and the folks using their grain to make great artisanal products.

Seattle's Westland Distillery was founded in 2010 and has quickly made its mark on the worldwide whiskey scene. Westland's Co-Founder and Master Distiller Matt Hoffmann and Director of Marketing Steve Hawley sit down with Adam and Matt to walk through their unique vision of American Single Malt Whiskey. We dive deep on the specifics of their processes and their ingredients, and explore the wonderful overlap of malt flavors that exist between their distillery and the beer community.

At this year's Texas Brewers Guild annual meeting, held just before the shutdowns, Adam met John Holler, of Holler Brewing in Houston, TX. John and his wife Kathryn's journey to starting a brewery echoes our own origin story. Adam and John also discuss the unique challenges of being a brewery in Texas, which existed even before the pandemic arrived.

In this fifth installment of our series of the impact of Coronavirus on breweries we connect with our friends in Oregon, California, and New York City to see how life at their breweries is progressing now that all areas have begun reopening in phases. A continuing discussion emerges around the issue of margins: while sales of packaged beer are up (often times by a lot) this comes at the expense of higher margin keg and on-premise sales. How are breweries getting by in this new climate, and what does it mean for their bottom line in 2020. All four markets (Portland, Monterey, New York City, and Seattle) have seen regression in the local reopening plans, and the four breweries discuss how the ups-and-downs of reopening are affecting their teams and their short-term business plans.

In this episode Adam and Matt speak with Aaron Lindstrom and Steve Popplewell of Theo Chocolate in Seattle, WA. Steve is the senior chocolatier and Aaron is the chocolate ambassador for one of Seattle's most successful chocolate brands, and we bond over the creative process of developing flavors and recipes, the importance of sourcing to creating a unique product, and the benefits of rolling industrialized processes back to an older way of doing things.

In this episode Adam speaks with Jack Harris and Chris Nemlowill, the founders of Fort George Brewery in Astoria, OR. The conversation ranges from the history of the brewery and the influence of brewing at the mouth of the Columbia River, to the extraordinary changes in brewing and restaurant operations that Fort George has implemented. How does a brewery maintain its culture and mission amidst the changes brought by COVID-19?

This week co-founder of Reuben's Brews Adam Robbings sits down with Annie Johnson (2013 AHA Homebrewer of the Year), Larry Rock (Sales Representative, Reuben's Brews), and Rodney Hines (co-founder of Metier Brewing) for a panel discussion about diversity in the brewing industry. How can we all effect a lasting change in our industry, to ensure that we don't let the momentum and opportunity of the current moment pass us by?

Bryan Roth, editor of Sightlines by Good Beer Hunting, has a unique perspective on the Coronavirus crisis in the brewing industry. He has close relationships with breweries nationwide but doesn't work at a brewery. Adam talks with Bryan about his 30,000ft, writers-eye view of the landscape while covering a wide range of topics from the impact of retail sales, the White Claw behemoth, the acceleration of contemporary trends and consumer habits, to thoughts for new breweries in planning.

In this fourth installment of our series of the impact of Coronavirus on breweries you'll get a detailed view of the crisis from the perspective of four brewery owners in California, New York State, Oregon, and Washington. As states move towards phased reopening our panel discusses what’s next: occupancy and social distancing requirements in their restaurants and tasting rooms, the role of businesses to create safety protocols themselves, and contingency planning for the future, all while each brewery is still uncertain as to when they’ll be able to reopen. An elephant in the room throughout the conversation is the specter of a recession, or worse a depression, that may stem from the economic impact already wrought by COVID-19.

Last week Reuben's Brews put out a public survey to gauge sentiment around Washington State's phased reopening program, and the reopening of our tasting rooms. With almost 1,500 responses, we wanted to share what we've learned. Listen in on this live conversation between Adam and Grace Robbings (Co-Founders), Ashley Hermosillo (Tasting Rooms Manager), and Matt Lutton (Marketing Manager) from Monday, May 25th, where the four of us sat down to discuss the results for the first time.

Recently Adam sat down with Andy Gundel of Urban Family Brewing Co., a friend and a neighbor, who has a unique perspective for a brewery owner: he took over an existing business and has taken it to new heights. Andy discusses his path towards brewery ownership, the changes he's led over the years (including moving in next door to our brewery earlier this year), the impact of COVID-19, and their future plans (which include self-distribution).

Earlier this year we sat down with Gary Sink, the publican behind West Seattle's Beveridge Place Pub. Gary is a fixture in the Pacific Northwest craft beer community, and in this episode we hear about his path to owning and opening one of the seminal beer bars in the city. Reuben's Brews has a long history with Gary and Beveridge Place, and we enjoy reminiscing about past events.

This latest episode of The Impact of Coronavirus on Breweries series checks in with three of our friends around the nation: John Harris from Ecliptic Brewing in Portland, OR, JC Hill from Alvarado Street in Monterey, CA., and John Dantzler from Torch & Crown Brewing in New York City. Every two weeks we reconnect and see what's new in their breweries and their regions since we last spoke, and explore their feelings about what comes next. At the end Adam Robbings, co-founder and brewmaster of Reuben's Brews, gives his own report about what is happening at the brewery and in Seattle.

A conversation with Doug and Tom, the founders of Zeeks Pizza, a Seattle and Pacific Northwest institution born in 1993, and one of Reuben's Brews' first accounts. Zeeks' story begins with two friends leaving the corporate world for one of passion and entrepreneurship, which mirrors Adam's journey to starting a brewery. Doug and Tom share stories of growing their business over great PNW craft beer, which they've long featured in their restaurants.

This is this second episode of The Impact of Coronavirus on Breweries series we check in with three of our friends and discuss how their breweries are navigating the Coronavirus pandemic. Every two weeks for the next couple of months we will speak to John Dantzler from Torch & Crown Brewing in New York City, John Harris from Ecliptic Brewing in Portland, OR, and JC Hill from Alvarado Street in Monterey, CA. Today we reconnect and see what's new in the proceeding two weeks, and explore their feelings about what comes next for their breweries and their regions.

In our third of three conversations from a trip to Bellingham, WA we took late last year we interviewed our friend Chad Kuehl, the owner and head brewer of Wander Brewing. We have a great discussion about how Chad and his wife Colleen got in to the brewing business and how they chose Bellingham as their home base. We also get in to the economics of brewing beer at different size breweries, and the benefits of both staying small or growing larger.

This is the first of a series of podcasts following three of our friends and their breweries through the Coronavirus pandemic. Every two weeks for the next couple of months we will speak to John Dantzler from Torch and Crown Brewing in New York City, John Harris from Ecliptic Brewing in Portland, OR, and JC Hill from Alvarado Street in Monterey, CA. We will learn how the pandemic is impacting their region of the United States, their communities, their breweries and their teams. We will follow them over time as we go through this once in a generation situation, with perspectives from different parts of the country and very different brewery business models.

In our second of three conversations from a trip to Bellingham, WA we interviewed Frank Trosset, the head brewer of Aslan Brewing Co., one of the Pacific Northwest's only organic craft breweries. We discuss some of the unique challenges his team faces, including limitations in hop selection to government involvement in their recipe development. We finish with a discussion of the Noma Guide to Fermentation, which Frank took inspiration from to make an innovative non-alcoholic beer that they serve at their pub.

In the first of three conversations from a trip to Bellingham, WA we interviewed Mari and Will Kemper of Chuckanut Brewery and Kitchen. Join us for a free-flowing conversation about their more than 25 year career in craft brewing and learn more about Will's important contributions to the industry as a whole. Mari and Will are legends in the craft beer world, particularly here in the PNW, who are quietly making some of the best lagers in the nation.

On 12/30/19 we sat down with Kendall Jones, editor of the Washington Beer Blog, to discuss the year in beer and other thoughts as the decade concludes. This live recording was made at Beveridge Place Pub in West Seattle.

The Art of Barrel Aged Sours is the third of three panel discussions we hosted in May 2019 during Seattle Beer Week. In this special, short episode we feature a portion of the conversation panelists Patrick Ceriale (Urban Family Brewing), Gordon Schuck (Funkwerks), Chad Kuehl (Wander Brewing), and Jeremy Grinkey (The Bruery / Bruery Terreux) about the world of barrel aged sours, led by Kendall Jones of the Washington Beer Blog.

The Art of Hops is the second of three panel discussions we hosted in May 2019 during Seattle Beer Week. In this episode, we feature the conversation panelists Michal Frankowicz (Fort George Brewing), Michael Hunsaker (Grains of Wrath Brewery), Patrick Jansen (Matchless Brewing), and Adam Robbings (Reuben's Brews) had about the wild world of hops, led by Kendall Jones of the Washington Beer Blog. At the conclusion, Adam and Matt have a conversation about Adam's philosophy of sourcing hops, and where he gets ideas for new beers.

In May 2019 we hosted an event at the brewery during Seattle Beer Week and had three panel discussions with some of our friends and colleagues, hosted by Kendall Jones of the Washington Beer Blog. In this episode, we discuss The Art of Lagers. Panelists include Aaron Blonden (Matchless Brewing), Harvey Kenney (Chuckanut Brewing), Josh Pfriem (pFriem Family Brewers), and James McDermet (Reuben's Brews).

Andy Roy, a fifth generation hop farmer from Moxee, WA, joins Sightglass for a conversation about the hop farming industry, the intrinsic link between the farmer and the brewer, and a recap of the 2019 hop harvest. Andy is a hops contract manager at his family farm, which has been around in the Yakima Valley for more than a century.This podcast was recorded at the brewery just before Andy joined us as a guest speaker at our Tasting Tuesday: Fresh Hops, from Bine to Beer  event in October 2019.  Thanks to Andy for taking part in the podcast and the Tasting Tuesday event.

In our first episode of Sightglass, we talk with Peter Mark, the owner of Kuma Coffee in Seattle. Our conversation runs through the history of the company and the processes by which Kuma selects and roasts their beans. The parallels to the brewing industry are astonishing.