Podcasts about breaking brews

Jason Cercone's experience with podcasting expanded in 2019 when he launched the Breaking Brews Podcast. He transitioned his existing blog, which he started in 2014 to highlight the business side of the craft beer industry, into a podcast format in order to take advantage of the rapid growth happening in audio. With the arrival of the pandemic in 2020 and its subsequent slowdown of the food and beverage industry, Jason had the opportunity to reevaluate his career choices. Although he remained intrigued with the beer business, his work as a podcaster allowed him to develop an even greater passion. He began to consider how he could pivot his company in a way that would allow him to work solely on podcasts.In 2020, armed with one full-time podcast client, Jason rebranded his business as Cercone Consulting. His firm specializes in helping companies and personalities to create, produce, market, and grow podcasts in order to develop audiences and enhance brands. Today, he offers a complete suite of services for podcasters, which includes editing, booking guests, theme development, and strategy. In our conversation, Jason shares some amazing advice for budding podcasters, including what he believes are the right and wrong reasons for starting a show.If you have any questions or if you'd like to chat, you can reach me at my contact info below. The purpose of this podcast is to share ideas, inspire action, and build a stronger small business community here in Pittsburgh. So please say hello, tell me what you think, and let me know how I'm doing. It means a ton!YOU CAN REACH ME AT:Website: https://www.proprietorsofpittsburgh.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/proprietorsofpittsburghpodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/proprietorsofpittsburghpodcastLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darinvilanoPhone: 412-336-8247YOU CAN REACH JASON CERCONE AT:Website: https://jasoncercone.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasoncerconeFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/cerconeconsultingTwitter: https://twitter.com/jasoncerconeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncercone

We're back to our regularly scheduled programming this week! And by that we mean Nabeel is drinking again because Ramadan is over. This week's beer is a BBA peanut butter s'mores imperial stout from Hubbard's Cave in the Chicago area, which we picked up during our visit to the brewery a few weeks ago. The topic for this week is one of Asif's absolute favorite days of the NFL year, which is the schedule release. On this episode, we give you a complete rundown of both the Bears + Falcons schedules, which includes insights, analysis, and predictions (of course). We also talk about the marquee primetime matchups we're excited about watching this season too! Tune in and let us know what games you'll be at by tagging us on social media anywhere @BearsBirdsBrews. Thank you in advance also for listening and supporting our show. Every review, subscription, and share does a lot for us. Cheers!

The Breaking Brews Podcast is gearing up for Season III and it's time to get excited! But, before we do, let's you and me sit down and catch up...in between seasons.On this In Between Session, I drop some teasers on what you'll be hearing in Season III of the show. Also, I encourage you to pick up a new Breaking Brews hoodie or t-shirt, courtesy of our friends at Drunk Swag Source! And, I share with you the best ways to communicate with me via social media going forward.Also part of this In Between Session are recent podcast appearances I've made.First, I joined my friends at WordWrite Communications on the P100 Podcast to discuss the beer industry. You can check out the full episode, as well as the other episodes in their archives wherever you download your podcasts and by visiting p100podcast.com.Next, check out the full episode of Behind The Hops with Ryan Galiotto. We talked about, you guessed it, the beer industry - podcasts, current trends (good and bad), the story behind Breaking Brews, and much more. You can check out the Fueled by Hops Community on Facebook AND, last but certainly not least - check out the first-ever 412FueledFest on Saturday, March 14th! Info and tickets can be found by clicking here.MUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.com

On today’s episode, I sit down with Jason Cercone the founder of BreakingBrews, a community and company dedicated to helping brands grow efficiently and effectively.  Through the Breaking Brews podcast, Jason dives into the business side of craft beer.  Today, he shares his story with us.

This episode, we’re talking about people who are coming to Pittsburgh, whether it’s for work or just visiting.We’ll break down a report that suggests the city might be a better fit for tech workers than the mecca of the digital economy, Silicon Valley (gotta love our standard of living). We’re also talking about a recent article that probes the need for a new hotel at the convention center. (Hint: The answer isn’t very simple.)In between, we welcome the Breaking Brews Podcast’s host Jason Cercone for a chat about the business of beer and Pittsburgh’s place in the industry.This episode is sponsored by WordWrite:Centuries before cellphones and social media, human connections were made around fires, as we shared the stories that shaped our world. Today, stories are still the most powerful way to move hearts, minds and inspire action.At WordWrite, Pittsburgh’s largest independent public relations agency, we understand that before you had a brand before you sold any product or service, you had a story.WordWrite helps clients to uncover their own Capital S Story – the reason someone would want to buy, work, invest or partner with you through our patented StoryCrafting process. Visit wordwritepr.com to uncover your Capital S story.Logan:You are listening to the P100 podcast, the bi-weekly companion piece to the Pittsburgh 100, bringing you Pittsburgh news, culture, and more. Because sometimes 100 words just isn't enough for a great story. Logan:Hello, and welcome to a brand new episode of the P100 podcast. You're here with myself, Logan Armstrong, and co-hosts Dan Stefano and Paul Furiga. Guys, how are you doing?Paul:Great, Logan.Dan:Emphasis on the co-host there. You're the host with the mostest there.Logan:I try to be. I do what I can, but-Paul:Yes he does and he does it well.Logan:I get my mostest from the people I'm surrounded with. On today's episode, we're going to be examining tech jobs in Pittsburgh, and there have been a few recent articles for some vying to leave and some vying to stay that you may have seen. So we're going to be talking about that and seeing how Pittsburgh ranks compared with cities and metros around the country in tech jobs.Logan:Then we're going to bring in our good friend Jason Cercone from the Breaking Brews podcast. He takes a drink from breaking, excuse me. He takes a break from drinking beer and talks about the business side of it.Paul:Wait a minute, that wasn't in this segment. There was no beer drinking?Logan:Unfortunately no.Logan:We asked him about it and he said that he'd be happy to rejoin us.Dan:Logan, let's remember we're talking to the CEO of our company within the office, so no. There's no-Paul:Well that's fine. Let's chat.Dan:We don't have a video of this, but if you could see the winking eye. No, there is no-Logan:No beer during this segment.Dan:Drinking during this segment.Paul:Of course not.Logan:Okay, and then finally we're going to wrap up with what's missing from downtown.Paul:Oh.Logan:Indeed, mysterious.Paul:Question.Logan:That's right. You'll have to stick around to see what we're talking about, but we're in for a great episode so we hope you stick around.Dan:I hope it's not my car or anything.Paul:Okay guys, time to do one of our favorite things on the podcast. Talk about Pittsburgh getting another great national ranking.Dan:Another list, right?Paul:We're on another list.Dan:Yeah.Paul:This one's a good one. Although, if you're in the Silicon Valley area, maybe not so good.Dan:Right.Paul:A couple of weeks ago, Wallet Hub, which is an online service provider that looks at financial things, very popular with millennials.Dan:They make many lists.Paul:They make many lists of many different things. Top places to live in the country for tech workers. Pittsburgh, number five. Silicon Valley, not so high, which caused the San Jose Mercury News, which San Jose's a community that's smack in the middle of Silicon Valley, to write sort of a cheeky little article. Pittsburgh is better for tech workers than Silicon Valley? Question mark. Well, yes, if you want to live affordably, apparently it actually is.Dan:That's completely accurate. Yeah. The Bay Area, it's got to be one of the highest costs of living-Paul:It is actually.Dan:In the country.Paul:It has the highest cost of living in the country. And Logan, you were looking inside some of the rankings, and Pittsburgh ranked in the top 15 in a number of categories, right?Logan:Yes. So the three categories were professional opportunities, STEM friendliness, and quality of life. And Pittsburgh ranked 13th, 14th, and 11th in those, respectively. And some of the reasons that places like San Francisco and the Bay Area didn't rank so highly is that they would rank very high in one or two of these categories. So for example, San Francisco ranked third in both professional opportunities and STEM friendliness but then ranked 63rd in quality of life for reasons we were alluding to earlier. So it's good to see that Pittsburgh ranked in these lists as being as an all around. Maybe it's not top five or the best in STEM friendliness or professional opportunities, but it's well-rounded and our quality of life here is, according to this list, far better than some of our counterparts.Paul:And certainly as the community here has continued to transform, and I'm thinking now of Uber, and Apptive, and Apple's got a good presence in the city. Facebook's virtual reality company, Oculus, is wholly sited here in the Pittsburgh region. We're trying to attract more tech workers and we've got these great university programs, CMU and Pitt at the head of the pack, but others as well, where we're building this tech community. And I guess it does still surprise people in the more traditional communities, but it's legit. There's something going on here.Dan:Right. For better or worse, Pittsburgh will always kind of bring that blue collar atmosphere, that blue collar mentality, a bit rough around the edges. I talk about it all the time, but my wife's family, who, they grew up in California, they all lived in California for a while. They came to Pittsburgh here and they said, "Wow, I had no idea it was this green." So there's always going to be a bit of a stigma that the city carries around, but I think these lists show that to that the news is catching on here. And Pittsburgh is basically known now for the meds and eds and now tech. The reputation is definitely growing here and starting to overcome that stigma.Paul:That perception.Dan:Yeah. But there's ... Well, not to be Debbie Downer or play devil's advocate here, there are still the legacies of that history here that carries on, especially in our environment.Paul:Yeah. We still have work to do, that's for sure. I can remember when I first moved back to this region from the Washington DC area. I had a job in the south side and what is now South Side Works was still a working steel mill, and as I would drive across the Birmingham Bridge every morning, the smell of burning coke was my appetizer before breakfast.Logan:Morning coffee.Dan:That'll wake you.Paul:And there's been plenty of coverage, and legitimately so, that we still have environmental problems in the region. And certainly one of the reasons why the Bay Area, Silicon Valley, is disadvantaged on a list like this, is because there's such a huge economic disparity there. It's the most expensive metropolitan area in the country. Ours is not. Part of the reason Pittsburgh's so affordable, the collapse of the steel industry and heavy industry. So there's all this housing stock and we didn't have the kind of inflation maybe that a place on the coast like San Francisco has had, but we have economic disparity too, and that's something that we have to work on too.Dan:Right. I think that's being recognized now. We talked about a couple episodes ago here, that the city is starting to take a hard look at itself, especially in terms of the racial inequalities that exist here.Paul:Yes.Dan:Again, the three of us aren't the best people to speak to this. We don't live the same experiences that a lot of people do in this city, but we can play a role by listening and being active and playing a part in recognizing that. And trying to create opportunities, being part of the solutions here. It's going to take a long time for Pittsburgh to completely shrug off some of the legacies that came from the 20th century here, some of the stuff that might be dragging down the city, but we can do it.Paul:We absolutely can. And if we can, we'll put in the show notes, there have been a couple of interesting public source articles that have dug into some of these issues, and I was reading-Dan:Quite a battle in tech, here.Paul:It was a battle in tech, and there's one written by a fellow named Noah Theriault, I believe that's how his name is pronounced, and he's at CMU. And the conclusion of this article, which you found, Dan, I thought was really interesting. He said "Here many of us who come here for opportunities in the city's universities, hospitals, and tech firms, do so in a state of willful ignorance. We take advantage of the low cost of living, we relish the walkability of the neighborhoods. We gentrify. Many of us smugly believe that we are the city's rebirth, the salvation from rust and blight. Too few of us learn about the historical and ongoing realities that make it most livable." And I think that's something that's really at the heart of what we need to remember. It's great to be on lists like this, but really there is no Nirvana -Dan:Right?Paul:That exists among places to live in this country. We have work to do too.Dan:It's hard to put a number on somebody's personal experiences here. I think that's the crux of what you were talking about there.Paul:Exactly. Exactly.Dan:All right. We're here with Jason Cercone. He's the chief brand officer at Breaking Brews, also the founder there and they're a content network and digital resource platform for people in the beer industry. Not only that, he hosts the Breaking Brews podcast, which takes a pretty unique look at the beer industry. They focus a lot on the business side of things. So Jason, thanks for being here.Jason:Thanks for having me guys.Dan:Awesome. Okay. As we mentioned, what you like to do with Breaking Brews your podcast and kind of spins off of your business. You look at a pretty different side of things in the spirits industry, in the alcohol industry there, that people don't think of all the time and that's actually selling the stuff and getting it out there, right? Yeah.Jason:Yeah. What I discovered was there are a lot of podcasts dedicated to drinking beer and reviewing and having fun and those podcasts are all great, but I wanted to bring something different to the podcast world. And I started looking at the fact that we don't have a ton of podcasts that are dedicated to the business side. Which talks about sales and marketing and distribution, all those different facets that are very important and very critical to the beer world. That was where it really started to ... or where I really started to make it take off. And I talked to a lot of industry professionals that felt the same way. They said when they're cleaning kegs and doing some of the horrible work that goes on in the brew houses that they want to put on a good podcast and listen to something that they can learn from, and that was the resource I wanted to put out there for them.Dan:Right, well the industry's really exploded as far as the craft production or the craft beer segment goes. I think ... I'm just looking at some facts here from the Brewer's Association, retail sale dollars of craft beer in 2018, I think the most recent year of stats was $27.6 billion. You said you've seen that since you started the Breaking Brews podcast yourself, you started about four years ago, or is that just your business?Jason:Breaking Brews itself started back in 2014. This is actually my third iteration of a podcast. I actually did one, like I was saying before, where we just sat around and drank beer, and that got old after a while.Dan:Why aren't we doing that right now?Jason:That's a very good question. I know. I was quizzed on that when I walked in the door, why I didn't bring beer and I'm starting to regret that.Dan:We'll just have our first kegger podcast, here.Logan:Yeah, well that'd make for some good conversation, that's for sure.Dan:That's a great idea.Jason:I'm always happy to come back for a second round if you guys want me to bring some-Dan:Right.Jason:Good drinks.Dan:Great idea. But yeah, as we were talking about the industry is just enormous right now. We're seeing that too in Pittsburgh, right?Jason:Absolutely. Yeah. I mean when I started things in 2014, there was probably maybe a dozen local craft breweries and now you look at the landscape, there's over 50 throughout the region. It's incredible. So many of them are doing great products and getting it out to bars around the area and also creating an awesome taproom experience too.Dan:Why do you think that is?Jason:Pittsburgh loves its beer, man.Dan:Yeah.Jason:But overall I think that ... I mean we haven't ... we hear the talk about the bubble a lot and has craft beer reached its saturation point. And I've always been a firm believer that we haven't even come close because we're not even close to the number that we had, or number of breweries we had before prohibition.Dan:Yeah.Jason:I mean we're creeping up, we're getting close, but the population of all these different cities and states across the country is so much higher. And when I go out to events and I do samplings and I talk to beer drinkers, a lot of folks still really aren't aware of what's going on in the craft beer industry. So there's still a lot of education that we can provide and that was one of the main drivers of Breaking Brews was putting some education out there so people can better understand what's going on in the industry and what's going on with these products.Logan:That's an interesting benchmark that you mentioned there that the number of brewers before the prohibition. Is that a common milestone in the craft beer business? And are there things that were happening back then that are happening now? The same way?Jason:I think it's, it's obviously changed a lot in regards to how beer is made. Brewers have pushed the envelope to the furthest degree possible and then a little bit more. You see a lot of crazy ingredients going into beers that probably pre-prohibition they weren't putting donuts into stouts and Twinkies-Logan:What were they doing?Jason:Breakfast cereal. I know it's like they weren't living their best life at all. However, a lot has changed. It's just the question of people's tastes have changed too and it's what do they want? And that's what these brewers are constantly trying to stay on top of, is what does the beer consumer want to drink today? And that's why I think you see such a variety out there in the market.Dan:Is it fair to say that it's easier to start a brewery round now or at least, somebody can be in their basement and actually trying to kickstart their own beer?Jason:That's probably the biggest misconception is that it's so easy to start a brewery because it's like any other business.Dan:Look, I've seen the Drew Carey show and he had a brewery in his basement. I know how this works .Jason:That's one of the big problems when you see some of these breweries that come out and their beer really isn't that great. They're standing around with their friends in a circle and all their friends are drinking their beer saying, "This is the best beer I've ever had. You need to start a brewery." And that's all well and good, but if they don't have a business sense that goes along with making a good product or even a subpar product, if they don't manage it properly, it's just not going to succeed. So it's just like anything else. I think that the barriers to entry are a little bit less because a lot of people have done it, but the smart thing to do would be go into it knowing that it's a business and you have to do all the things that you would normally do to run a business, or partner with somebody that can handle that end of your business for you.Logan:Partner with someone like Jason, Jason Cercone.Jason:I am for hire. I am here if anybody needs assistance. I'd be happy to help.Dan:Have you ever, you yourself, have you ever actually started ... Well maybe not started your own brewery, but have you ever brewed your own drafts?Jason:I've partnered and done some collaboration beers with a few different breweries across town. I did an event last year where I partnered with Yellow Bridge Brewing out in Delmont. I just went out and brewed with them for the day and I was able to say that I helped and I call that a collaboration. And I've done that with a couple of other breweries too. And that's fun. I mean that's the brewing side of it for me. I've always been more of a beer drinker and I like to obviously talk about it and promote it and market it. Brewing it just wasn't really something I wanted to do full time. It's a hard job. I think that's where a lot of people look at that like a glamorous thing and brewers will tell you, those are long days. It's very industrial and they work their asses off to put together a good product. End of the day, they are dog tired.Dan:Sure.Jason:So yeah, important. If you're going to be a brewer, know you'll be working hard.Dan:Right. We talk about hard work there. We're talking about having a good business sense. What do you see are some of the secrets to say these successful craft brewers and the people that maybe ... even some of these breweries that say are smaller, let's think about Southern Tier years ago, nobody knew who they were. Now they've got their own brewery on the North shore and what are some of the secrets to some of these businesses that have made it?Jason:I think it's understanding how to grow and being very deliberate about it and not trying to just shoot the moon right out of the gate. Obviously you have to establish a loyal fan base and make good product at the same time. But if you try to go too heavy, if you're a small local brewery and you try to make a statewide distribution, your number one priority, chances are you're not going to succeed because you don't have the liquid to supply the markets. So there's a lot of different aspects that you have to look at, but probably the most important is to use a popular phrase of our time, stay in your lane, and understand what it takes to build that brand from the ground up.Jason:Don't try to get too far ahead of yourself before you're ready. And then once the time comes where you've established that brand, then you can start looking at ... popular thing now other than distribution is looking at secondary spaces. We're starting to see some breweries in the Pittsburgh area open up secondary spots so they've proven that their brand is good enough to support it and we wish them the best in carrying that out.Dan:Who would you point to as some really good success stories in the Pittsburgh area then and what they've done successfully?Jason:Oh man, that list is long.Dan:Yep.Jason:Yeah. One of the breweries that I work with, the Spoonwood brewing in Bethel Park.Dan:I was there just this weekend.Jason:Awesome. What'd you think?Dan:I loved it. It was my second time there. I had a great time.Jason:Yeah, they're doing great beer. Great food. It's a great tap room atmosphere. You really can't ask for much more than that. They've been ... they're coming up on five years.Dan:Wow.Jason:And I've been working with them since pretty much the beginning and we've been building that brand and we don't do a ton of distribution, but a lot of the beer that we put out there ultimately was just to build that brand and give people an opportunity to taste it. To where they might say, "Wow, this is in Bethel Park. I'm going to go down there and see what else they have to offer." Another brewery I work with is Four Points Brewing out of Charleroi. They've ... just under two years old at this point, actually just about a year and a half now and they're killing it. They're doing some great beer and then you've got a lot of the names that people hear of all the time, like your Grist Houses and your Dancing Gnomes and Voodoos and Hitchhikers of the world. Again, we could sit here and do a whole podcast where I just rattle off the list because there's a lot of good beer happening.Dan:Well, you're in luck, our next segment, we're going to list breweries for the next 25 minutes. All right.Jason:Yeah. Close off with reading the phone book.Dan:Exactly.Jason:Riveting radio.Logan:Now you've learned a lot of these techniques and methods. You have over 20 years’ experience in marketing and sales. Did that start off in beer, or and if not, how did you navigate into the beer industry from that?Jason:That was ... I mean that was broken compasses for days, man, that was ... No, it did not start in beer. I've been working in the beer industry – counting what I did with starting Breaking Brews – for going on six years now. I sold cell phones right out of college, landed at Enterprise-Rent-a-Car for several years after that. Ran Hair Club for Men here in Pittsburgh for about four years. And with Breaking Brews, when I started it, it was ultimately just to build something that I felt was a good resource that could teach people how to gravitate to these beers in a very approachable way. Because as I learned, a lot of people just weren't aware of what was happening around them. So I was able to parlay my skillset from all my years in the professional world into a business that now I can help the breweries and help the different businesses that I work with do sales and marketing and create a good customer experience. All those good things, all things that are very important to building a good brand.Dan:Bring it back a little bit locally here to ... Pittsburgh I feel like is ... we've got a pretty special relationship to beer here. And it's some pretty big names in terms of, you think of Iron City, Duquesne, there's obviously Rolling Rock used to be around. How do you feel like the city's adopted and adapted to this craft brewing? I don't know if you could call it a Renaissance because it hasn't been around until right now, but this upsurge right now that people are ... they are doing with craft brewing.Jason:Yeah I think with the breweries now, I mean obviously as we spoke about earlier, we've got over 50 across the region now. It says a lot for the fact that people are going to go to a good brewery regardless of where they're at. It's become very neighborhood centric where you look like an old neighborhood pub, that's in some respects, being replaced by the local neighborhood brewery. You're seeing them essentially on every corner, quote unquote. And I think that helps with the fact that these guys are able to grow their brands so well because then it expands beyond their neighborhood as well. But yeah, we have a very rich history here in Pittsburgh with beer going back years and years back to ... I mean, Iron City was the beer.Jason:And I think now you're starting to see more of a shift towards the craft brands and many of them have been here for ... You look at East End, they've been here for 15 plus years now and they really were setting some good trends for what could happen and how people could gravitate towards a craft brand. Same with Penn Brewery. I believe 1986, was when they hit the scene. So a lot of good things have come along that have really helped push it forward. And now Pittsburgh is becoming one of those hot beds and I shouldn't say becoming it already is. And probably our closest rival in the state, just like everything else, is Philadelphia. And I think both of us have a tremendous beer scene that we can be proud of.Dan:Yeah. I think if you ever see a Penguins, Flyers game, it looks like more than a few people have beers.Jason:Well now, you see breweries have gotten in with the rivalries, like Grist House, and I'm forgetting the brewery that they partnered with out of Cleveland, they did a Browns, Steelers rivalry beer.Dan:Oh did they really?Jason:Rivertowne and Sly Fox had partnered up a couple of years ago for the stadium series. And they did a ... Glove Dropper was the name of the beer. And they worked together on that and sold it in both markets and worked out really well.Dan:All right Jason, well thanks so much for being here with us, for everybody at home. If you're listening, make sure to visit. If you're interested at all about starting a brewery and perhaps finding ways to market it and get it out to the world, you can go to breakingbrews.com. Look for Jason Cercone and also look for Breaking Brews podcast. You can find that on all the major platforms including Apple podcast, Stitcher, Google play, Spotify, iHeart, all the big ones where you can find us. And Jason, thanks so much for being here.Jason:Thanks again guys. Appreciate it.Logan:Sure thing.Dan:Great.Logan:Centuries before cell phones and social media, human connections are made around fires, as we shared the stories that shaped our world. Today stories are still the most powerful way to move hearts and minds and inspire action. At WordWrite, Pittsburgh's largest independent public relations agency, we understand that before you had a brand, before you sold any product or service, you had a story. WordWrite helps clients to uncover their own Capital S Story. The reason someone would want to buy, work, invest, or partner with you through our patented story crafting process, visit WordWritePR.com to uncover your Capital S Story.Paul:It's now time to talk about the biggest building that is not in the downtown skyline. We are talking about what is known in the travel trade as a headquarters hotel. In other words, if Pittsburgh were to host a very large convention, a large hotel would be designated as the headquarters hotel. In many cities, this is a large hotel that's attached to the convention center.Dan:Right.Paul:And that typically has somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand rooms.Dan:Right.Paul:Pittsburgh – yinz don't have one of those n’at.Dan:Oh, they do have a hotel connected to the convention center, right?Paul:Yes, yes. We do the Weston and actually Dan, I'm glad you mentioned that.Dan:Yeah.Paul:Because in the original plans for the convention center development, that hotel was supposed to be about twice as big as it is and if it were, it would be the size of a headquarters hotel.Dan:Sure. Well, I think that is, it's interesting that you're bringing this up and I think we rewind a little bit. The reason we're bringing this up is, on February 3rd, in the Post-Gazette, Craig Davis, who used to be the CEO of Visit Pittsburgh.Paul:Yes.Dan:Yeah. Visit Pittsburgh is the local-Paul:It's the Convention and Visitor's Bureau in part supported byPaul:Our tax funds and they promote the city to businesses like conventions.Dan:Right, yeah.Paul:But also to leisure travelers.Dan:Draw people into the city. Yeah, it's important. Yeah. This article, what it did with, again with Craig Davis here, he had a piece of parting advice for Pittsburgh is how Mark Belko, the writer introduced this and he did a really nice job with this piece. Craig wanted to build a convention center hotel.Paul:Right.Dan:And that's what we're talking about here. And there's a lot of back and forth about whether it should be done, whether ... what kind of impact it would bring on the city here. And he had some really good information about it, yourself, but a lot of people, they want to see more here. And that's what we're talking about today.Paul:Right. So in the tourism and convention industry in Pittsburgh, this is the third rail of politics. Nobody really wants to talk about it. And I look at this article in the Post-Gazette, Visit Pittsburgh, great organization. Craig Davis, very effective leader and he's been hired to run a similar organization in Dallas. Smart person. He's in Dallas now, so he can kind of say, what maybe he couldn't say before when he was in Pittsburgh. And for people in his business, his line of work, you need to have a convention center hotel. The thing is, to build that would cost about, Oh, kind of like the same amount of money to build PNC Park or Heinz Field.Dan:Right? Yeah. In this article here, they have an estimate of $350,000 to $400,000 a room to build.Paul:Or in other words-Dan:That's all.Paul:Yeah. $240 million.Dan:Right. That's for a 600-room hotel.Paul:Exactly.Dan:Yeah.Paul:It's a lot of money. And it was not easy to get PNC Park and Heinz Field built. There was actually a referendum on the ballot one year that failed. It was called the Regional Renaissance Initiative. I mean we put renaissance in the name of everything, don't we? And it was after that, that a deal was brokered. A lot of critics said behind closed doors and smoke-filled back rooms that wound up producing Heinz Field and PNC Park. There doesn't seem to be a lot of political appetite for spending that kind of money, again.Dan:Right.Paul:On something like a convention center hotel.Dan:Again here, Mark did a great job with this article here and he put it pretty succinctly here. He said, "In recent years, Davis' pitch has landed with all of the enthusiasm of a root canal."Paul:Yes.Dan:I don't know about you guys, I get too enthusiastic over root canals, but I suppose not many other people do, but the article does bring up a good point. That there's been a recent hotel building boom in the region, in the downtown area, particularly across the river. Some other smaller hotels that have cropped up here and there, the Marriotts and whatnot.Paul:Many. You could throw a rock from where we sit right now, we can hit the Monaco.Dan:Absolutely, yeah.Paul:Throw it across the way, hit the Embassy Suites. We've got the William Penn, which has been here for a long time. The Drury is in the old federal reserve building.Dan:Right and that's just a block away from the convention center. But the kind of full service hotel that, again, this is from the article here that Mr. Davis would see here, that would require huge public subsidies. And that's-Paul:Yes.Dan:I think the sticking point that it comes down to.Paul:That is the third rail part.Dan:Whether we want this here and I think it's one of those things where you balance. You say, "How much are these conventions going to be worth compared to the costs, the investments that you have to make in a city here." And it could take a while until the scales tip one way.Paul:Well, and what's very interesting about this is, there are statistics, there don't seem to be any statistics readily available to say, "Yes, Pittsburgh, you should do this." What we tend to fall back on, are a couple of really great seminal events. First was the Bassmaster Classic several years ago. And still of course people who don't know Pittsburgh want to depict it as a smoky mill town. And we had this freshwater national competition for bass fishing. And it went off really great. And that's led, as Mark Belko's article points out to Visit Pittsburgh getting into seeking sports events. And we've had, I can't believe this, I didn't even realize this number, 22 NCAA championship events have been held in Pittsburgh and we've got more coming.Dan:Yeah. Just recently they had the National Women's Volleyball championship out here.Paul:Yeah.Dan:And I think a big part of that comes down to, they now have a world-class arena to do it in.Paul:Yes.Dan:Where Civic Arena definitely showed its age after a while.Paul:Right.Dan:That plays a different part here. But certainly the downtown hotel building boom assists with that.Paul:Absolutely. Absolutely.Dan:Convention centers is ... that's a little different. And again, I think what, Craig Davis is trying to say here is, having it connected to the convention center, people love that. It's very convenient just to grab an elevator, have a little sky walk over to the convention center. It's not always a feasible immediately though, it's nice to think of these things, but it's hard to find room for it. And whether you're going to supplement what is already there or again, it takes money.Paul:Well, my point about Bassmaster, the other thing that happened of course was the G20 in 2009. Those two events put Pittsburgh, reputation-wise, on a world stage. In the article, Mark Belko talks about Milwaukee, which is a nice enough town and they have a baseball team that has a better record over the last decade of a postseason-Dan:They spend more than the Buccos, but that's a-Paul:They do.Dan:That's a whole other podcast.Paul:However, in terms of the hotel market, not quite the same size as Pittsburgh and they're getting the Democratic convention this year.Dan:Absolutely.Paul:Why does Pittsburgh not have that sort of convention? And if we did, aside from the monetary benefits of the convention itself, what would it do for the city in terms of raising the reputation even more and bringing more convention business to Pittsburgh? It's hard to say. It's also hard to argue that it was really cool to have Bassmaster or certainly the President and world leaders for the G20. That was awesome exposure for Pittsburgh. This is kind of a question of how much is the region willing to spend? And apparently it's going to have to spend something, in order to create that kind of environment.Dan:I think what's important when you look at these national conventions, particularly in the political arena, that is strategic by the parties too.Paul:Oh yes.Dan:Wisconsin's very important in this upcoming election to the Democrats. As is Pennsylvania.Paul:Right.Dan:But they were also in Philadelphia not that long ago, so do they want to spend so much more time in Pennsylvania and look, Wisconsin, the people ... whenever they do the Monday morning quarterbacking of that election, they did not spend all the time there. So it's ... they're showing ... it's a quite a statement that they are spending the time in Milwaukee for this upcoming convention. But it also shows that if Milwaukee can host something like this, then, so can Pittsburgh.Paul:Why not Pittsburgh, yeah.Dan:I think Pittsburgh actually held the very first Republican convention that was back in the 1860s or so. And we had the hotel rooms for that one, I guess. You know.Paul:We did.Dan:Yeah.Paul:Well, country was a little smaller then.Dan:Indeed. Yeah.Paul:Might be a difference, but I think this is a topic we're going to come back to again, so we wanted to put it out there for everybody. Again, props to Mark Belko and his article and the truth speaking, shall we say, of Craig Davis. We'll have to watch the skyline and see where this one goes.Dan:Well, most importantly, just as a final coda to this, and Mark's article did describe this a bit at the end, for the leaders that want to see this kind of change, that want to see a hotel down here, they have to show their work. It has to be ... You have to come to ... with studies from respected institutions, respected people, who are proving that, "Okay, hey, when Milwaukee hosted this type of thing, if they had a hotel here, this is the impact that they would have got."Dan:There are other areas here in Louisville and Columbus that are building hotels. What will those hotels do for their ability to draw conventions? Are they stealing them from Pittsburgh? You have to come up with that information. You have to present it to the leaders, not only in our government, but the community to approve ... like, "Hey, okay, some of tax dollars should go to this."Paul:Absolutely.Dan:And if you can do that, if you can convince enough people, then maybe it happens. But that stuff takes some time too.Paul:Well, and just a final thought on this since Craig Davis left Visit Pittsburgh, they are engaged in a search for a CEO. So I would expect that once a new CEO is named, one of the first things that we should be looking for, is some thinking around this topic.Dan:Absolutely.Logan:And we are well beyond 100 words today. Thank you for listening to the P100 podcast. This has been Dan Stefano, Logan Armstrong, and Paul Furiga. If you haven't yet, please subscribe at p100podcast.com, or wherever you listen to podcasts and follow us on Twitter at Pittsburgh100_ for all the latest news updates and more from the Pittsburgh 100. 

It's the leftovers from episodes deemed not good enough for the regular show and now you get to consume them. These loosely related set of cobbled together clips feature Abjuration Brewing, Couch Brewery, Jason Cercone from Breaking Brews, plus guest hosts Katie, Kelsey, and Dennis from Firstsipbrewbox.comAlso there's some real short form review for garbage Steve puts in his body.Come back next week for a real episode.

SESSION SUMMARY: Untappd is a smartphone application that allows beer enthusiasts to "check-in" beers they consume, as well as apply their own rating of 1-5 stars. Untappd has 3-million+ users and is responsible for connecting beer drinkers from around the world. In addition, they have a business membership that bars, restaurants, and breweries can join that gives these destinations access to digital beer menus, as well as lets them update their available beers and notify users of what's on tap.While all this does have its positives for the beer community, it is not without its negatives. And in the premiere of second season of the Breaking Brew Podcast, we look at some of the mistakes that Untappd is making and share ways they can improve the platform.Host Jason Cercone is joined by Keana McMahon, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Eleventh Hour Brewing Company in Lawrenceville, PA - just outside the city of Pittsburgh - for over an hour of back and forth conversation about one of the beer industry's most polarizing topics. Is Untappd helping or hurting the growth of craft beer? Are consumers delivering accurate scores for the AMOUNT of beer they consume (checking in a beer and giving it a 1-star score after only tasting an ounce or two at a festival is not a true sample of that beer's quality and characteristics)? Do consumers realize their negative scores hurt the overall business operations of breweries? And is Untappd prepared to make changes to their platform to keep consumers AND the breweries and bars that support them happy?In addition to this episode, you can check out these referenced resources on Breaking Brews:How Untappd Culture is Negatively Impacting Craft BeerHow To Effectively Use UntappdYou can connect with Keana and Eleventh Hour Brewing below:Website | Facebook | Instagram | TwitterMUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.com

SESSION SUMMARY: Hops are a critical ingredient in the creation of beer. Without them, beer would simply not be beer. The flavors and aromas they deliver in various styles of IPAs, Pale Ales, etc. are typically what stand out in those styles. And, for beers where they aren't as prevalent, such as stouts and porters, hops are still a critical part of the brewing process and a necessity for brewers to deliver a high-quality finished product.In Session 32 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, host Jason Cercone and Brian Tennis, Owner of the Michigan Hop Alliance, take an in-depth look at the world of hops and discuss many important aspects you may not know about this wonderfully diverse flower.Hops are the flowers of the hop plant Humulus Lupulus. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavoring, and stability agent in beer, to which, in addition to bitterness, they impart floral, fruity, or citrus flavors and aromas. Hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine.In this episode, Brian drops plenty of knowledge about hops - including how many varieties are currently in commercial use, how breweries obtain these vital ingredients and how difficult some of them can be to get your hands on, how his business works with customers nationwide to deliver high-quality hops, best hop harvesting practices, how single hop beers can give you a true indication of the flavors and aromas each featured hop delivers, and much more.If you are looking for a source of hops, Michigan Hop Alliance can help you out. You can learn more about the Michigan Hop Alliance by catching up with Brian and his crew online:Website | Facebook | Instagram | TwitterMUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.comSEASON II SPONSOR: Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast is brought to you by Drunk Swag Source. You can get all your merch needs covered by visiting www.drunkswagsource.com. Use promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 10% on any order of $200 or more!

SESSION SUMMARY: Home delivery is all the rage. Thanks to Amazon, pretty much anything you can imagine can land on your doorstep in 1-2 days of pressing a button. Grocery stores and major convenience stores have also entered the home delivery realm, giving customers an opportunity to place their orders via the World Wide Web and get everything brought right to the house, no questions asked. Food services and subscription boxes like First Sip Brew Box bring everything to your front porch, too.In other words, you don't even need to put on your bathrobe to get everything you need anymore. But...you know...we wish you would.With seemingly everything now available via delivery, the question must be asked: What about beer? Can I get my favorite beers brought right to the house without having to visit my local bottle shop or distributor?The answer is yes.In Session 33 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, host Jason Cercone is joined by Michelle Arnoni, Founder of Beverages2U, a new service that delivers beer to your home for all residents of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Michelle is 4th generation in the beer business and has applied her years of experience to this new venture which is set up to be a groundbreaking platform in the world of home beverage delivery.While beer delivery can only be utilized within the borders of Pennsylvania (for now), beer enthusiasts nationwide can get their hands on the new beer swag that Michelle is offering through Beverages2U. And, as a special bonus to the loyal listeners of the Breaking Brews Podcast, you can use the promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 5% on your order of beer and/or swag!With home delivery solidifying itself as the most convenient way for consumers to shop, will delivery of beer be something that takes off nationwide? Michelle discusses this, as well as how delivering beer direct to consumers is bringing back a personal touch to the sales process that hasn't been seen for decades. All this and much more in Session 33 of the Breaking Brews Podcast!You can catch up with Michelle online at Beverages2U AND her other business, Brewed2Burn Candles. All the links can be found below.BEVERAGES2U: Website | Facebook | InstagramBREWED 2 BURN CANDLES: Website | Facebook | InstagramMUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.comSEASON II SPONSOR: Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast is brought to you by Drunk Swag Source. You can get all your merch needs covered by visiting www.drunkswagsource.com. Use promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 10% on any order of $200 or more!

SESSION SUMMARY: Is it better for your brand to grab on to an existing trend and ride the wave or set out to blaze trails and start a new trend? Or, is it a combination of the two? There's no right or wrong answer here, but it's important to understand how you want to loop trends in the industry into you everyday initiatives.In Session 34 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, host Jason Cercone is joined by beer industry professional Katrina Matthews to discuss various trends in the beer industry. How can a brewery stand out if they choose to not partake in an existing trend...such as, brewing New England IPAs? Additionally, how can breweries continue to grow their brand presence in a world dominated by Untappd check-ins, influencers, and A LOT of noise in front of consumers each and every day?Katrina joins the show all the way from Dublin, Ireland where she is studying for her Masters Degree in Marketing. She plans to put her education to good use in the beer industry once she graduates and returns to the United States. In the meantime, she is able to give us some insight into the beer scene in Ireland and how much room there is for potential in that corner of the world.MUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.comSEASON II SPONSOR: Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast is brought to you by Drunk Swag Source. You can get all your merch needs covered by visiting www.drunkswagsource.com. Use promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 10% on any order of $200 or more!

SESSION SUMMARY: No matter how the size of your taproom, managing it effectively can make or break you when it comes to delivering a quality customer experience designed to bring people back for repeat visits. There are several factors to consider - cleanliness, ambiance, ancillary offerings such as board games or TVs, food, friendly staff - plus a lot more that many owners and managers overlook.In Session 36 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, host Jason Cercone is joined by Jackie Carlson, co-founder of Natural 20 Brewing in Spokane Valley, Washington via Skype to discuss how Jackie has maximized her taproom space to ensure customers are walking away feeling like part of the family. Jackie and her husband are going through a rebrand at their brewery coupled with construction. But through all of the craziness and unpredictability a rebrand can bring, they've pressed on and still focus on delivering a quality experience each and every visit.A major theme at Natural 20 is gaming and guests are invited to partake in a large variety of board games while they enjoy their favorite beers. This is not uncommon at breweries across the country, but Natural 20 takes things to another level and you'll hear all about it on this podcast. Plus, Jackie shares some insight on Natural 20's rebrand, how they manage to get beer in select outside accounts to increase the visibility of their product, why it's important for breweries to distribute to beer destinations that take care of their lines so product remains consistent and well-represented, and much more.If you'd like to catch up with Natural 20 online and see what they're all about, the links are below. PLUS, rumor has it Natural 20 has a killer beer cheese and Jackie is willing to share the recipe with you! Stay tuned til the end to hear how you can connect.Website | Facebook | InstagramMUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.comSEASON II SPONSOR: Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast is brought to you by Drunk Swag Source. You can get all your merch needs covered by visiting www.drunkswagsource.com. Use promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 10% on any order of $200 or more!

SESSION SUMMARY: While beer traveling all over the world isn't always a possibility, t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, and other pieces of merch adorning your logo certainly is. Many times, I've seen someone on vacation halfway around the world from home proudly donning the t-shirt of their favorite brewery, thus taking their brand recognition from their own little corner of the world to parts never thought imagined.Solid merchandise can be a big coup for your brand and having the right items with a quality aesthetic appeal will make fans of your company happy to wear them when they're out and about, giving you a piece of advertising that costs little and speaks volumes. In Session 37 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, host Jason Cercone is joined by Leslie Tate, Co-Founder of Drunk Swag Source - a company she and her husband Stephen, the Head Brewer at Crosstown Brewing Company, run to help all businesses in the libations industry get set up with proper swag for their customers.In this session, Leslie shares why having a sound merchandise strategy is so important to your brand. In addition, she talks about effective logo design and ensuring the logo you land on (or secondary logo in some cases) looks good when shrunken down for print on a piece of merchandise. Leslie also shares why it's beneficial to have giveaways with your logo at events and festivals.If you've listened to any of the other sessions in Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast, you've learned that Drunk Swag Source is this season's sponsor. In this episode, Leslie tells you how she can help you and your company get set up with anything you need from a merchandise perspective - hats, t-shirts, scarves, socks, keg rings, tents - pretty much anything you can think of! Everything can be found at www.drunkswagsource.com. AND, use promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 10% on any order of $200 or more! If you have any questions or need further assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to Leslie and Stephen at info@drunkswagsource.com.MUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.com

SESSION SUMMARY: Education is something that's been instilled in us from the earliest of ages. From elementary school right up through high school and beyond, the importance of education in one's particular field, or fields, of interest is never something to take lightly. It's what gives us a more well-rounded perspective, helps us create and participate in meaningful conversations on various topics, and drives home the appreciate we have for the things we love.When it comes to craft beer, education is critical to the growth and evolution of our culture. Why? You're about to find out on Session 38 of the Breaking Brews Podcast.Host Jason Cercone is joined by Certified Cicerone David Nilsen to discuss beer education from top to bottom. David is a cicerone, beer writer, and presenter and brings a wealth of knowledge to the podcast. Jason and David dive into David's favorite beer presentation, why education often times gets labeled as snobbery, why it is up to industry professionals to continue driving education forward, and much more.Also, Jason and David talk about one of his favorite published features. You can click here to check out that feature for yourself. David is very active on social media and you are encouraged to follow him and join him in his beer-fueled plight. A link to his website where all his published works, as well as his social media platforms, can be found below:Website | Facebook | Twitter | InstagramMUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.comSEASON II SPONSOR: Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast is brought to you by Drunk Swag Source. You can get all your merch needs covered by visiting www.drunkswagsource.com. Use promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 10% on any order of $200 or more!

SESSION SUMMARY: Beer and cheese. On their own, they're both awesome. Paired together? They're even more awesome. Cheese has gained worldwide acceptance as one of the best items to pair with adult beverages. Beer, wine, whiskey...it all works and it's all spectacular.And because of that fact, it made perfect sense to keep the beer and food pairing sessions of the Breaking Brews Podcast rolling with a deep dive into the world of beer and cheese pairings!If you listened to Season I, you most likely stumbled across Session 9 where Jason Cercone and Master Cicerone Brian Reed provided a broad commentary on food and beer pairings. Brian shared some exceptional insight on how beer enhances certain flavor profiles (and vice versa), why contrasts in flavor between the beer and food items makes for a better experience than having two flavor profiles that matchup, and much more. You can jump back in the archives and take in Session 9 at your leisure.In Session 39, Jason and Brian are joined by Anais Saint-Andre Loughran, Co-Founder of Chantal's Cheese Shop in Pittsburgh's Bloomfield neighborhood. Anais is a cheese monger extraordinaire and knows cheese front to back, top to bottom, inside and out. She and Brian put their heads together to pair seven beer styles with seven cheese styles and all were consumed and discussed in great detail on this wildly informative, incredibly fun podcast that originated from Chantal's. For all of our Pittsburgh listeners, Chantal's gets a 16/10, 102% on Rotten Tomatoes, would highly recommend score from the Breaking Brews Podcast. If your occasion calls for specialty cheeses, check out Chantal's. And, pro tip: DO NOT leave without some of the Saint Angel cheese. It's covered on the show. You can thank me later. Here is how you can connect with Brian and Anais on the World Wide Web:BRIAN: Instagram | TwitterCHANTAL'S CHEESE SHOP: Website | Facebook | Instagram | TwitterMUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.comSEASON II SPONSOR: Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast is brought to you by Drunk Swag Source. You can get all your merch needs covered by visiting www.drunkswagsource.com. Use promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 10% on any order of $200 or more!

SESSION SUMMARY: On many sessions of the Breaking Brews Podcast, we've discussed creating the ultimate customer experience - something that's going to make someone's visit memorable, noteworthy, and have them leaving wanting to shout from the rooftops how much they can't wait to come back and bring 10 friends with them.This is where the power lays these days. Great beer and food are simply table stakes because people have so many options to choose from. In order to captivate consumers, you need to build a destination. A locale that offers so much, people will travel great distances to experience what you're offering without thinking twice. In Session 41, host Jason Cercone is joined by Jim Stutzman, Co-Founder of Lazy Horse Brewery and Winery in Ohiowa, Nebraska. Lazy Horse is a destination that is 45 minutes removed from the nearest restaurant...and neighboring town, for that matter. People travel 2-3 hours to experience Lazy Horse because they've built themselves into the type of place that not only serve quality beer, great wine, and wood-fired oven pizzas, but also has friendly, knowledgeable staff, an ambiance that makes customers feel welcome, and an overall positive vibe throughout the entire venue, inside and out.Your brewery, restaurant, bar, etc. doesn't need to sit by itself 45 minutes away from your nearest competitor to be a destination. Chances are, there's about 100 yards between you and a consumers' alternative choice. What are you going to do to ensure they choose you first? Your mindset needs to be thinking customer experience and treating your venue like a true destination at all times.This session covers how you can make your staff feel valued so they continue to produce the best experiences possible, how everyone on your team can learn from their own experiences, simple ways to market your brand throughout you region that will help you stand out, and much more.Here are the best ways to connect with Lazy Horse Brewing:Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter MUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.comSEASON II SPONSOR: Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast is brought to you by Drunk Swag Source. You can get all your merch needs covered by visiting www.drunkswagsource.com. Use promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 10% on any order of $200 or more!

SESSION SUMMARY: Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is unfiltered and unpasteurized beer which is conditioned and served from a cask without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure. In the United States, it is most commonly seen sitting on a bar top in a gravity rack with brewers adding additional ingredients to a base beer to give it some extra flavor. Some bars and breweries have hand pump engines that pour cask ale the way it was meant to be served, just like they do in the English-style pubs you'd encounter on the other side of the pond.Sadly, cask ale (also known as real ale) is labeled as "warm" and "flat" by many beer consumers. However, it's important to understand that a beer's true flavors and aromas can stand out even more prevalent fashion in a well-done cask beer. In this session, we are going to put to rest many of the misconceptions surrounding cask ales in today's beer world.In Session 42 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, host Jason Cercone is joined by Josh and Stephanie Lepke, Founders of The Leaning Cask Brewing Company in Springdale, PA - about 15 minutes outside of the city of Pittsburgh. Josh and Stephanie bring all of the nuances of an English pub to their destination and brew beer with plenty of old world inspiration. Josh has also dialed in his skill set for modern brews, delivering strong in the American IPA category and beyond. Their taproom features a hand pump engine that allows customers to experience cask ale the way God intended. At the same time, Josh, Stephanie, and their staff provide as much information and education as they can to help consumers understand why cask ales deliver a different drinking experience and help enthusiasts gain a new appreciation for the liquid in their glass.This session features some great conversation about what inspired Josh and Stephanie to take the direction they have with their brand, how they've grown The Leaning Cask throughout the Pittsburgh market, some ins and outs of cask ale and cask conditioning you may not be aware of, where they see cask ales going as the beer world continues to evolve, and much more.You can catch up with The Leaning Cask Brewing Company on your favorite World Wide Web destination of choice:Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram MUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.comSEASON II SPONSOR: Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast is brought to you by Drunk Swag Source. You can get all your merch needs covered by visiting www.drunkswagsource.com. Use promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 10% on any order of $200 or more!

SESSION SUMMARY: Building a craft beer destination has many facets. Clearly, good beer is at the top of the list. But not just good beer...a wide selection of good beer to ensure there's something for everyone. What's the food strategy? Statistics have shown that people who order food tend to order 1-2 more drinks, thus increasing their length of stay and driving their tab higher. So giving some options for grub is always a good play.What kind of experience is your staff delivering? Are they friendly and knowledgeable? Are they making consumers feel welcome? Are they offering every guest beer to go in the form of a crowler, growler, 4-pack, and/or 6-pack? They should be...because customers are more prone to take something to go when prompted.Across the world, many people have built craft beer destinations. All have their own unique dynamics, all seek to deliver a great experience. For this session of the Breaking Brews Podcast, we are going to the birthplace of Breaking Brews to take a deep dive into what it takes to build a kick-ass craft beer bar!In Session 43 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, host Jason Cercone is joined by Mike Sukitch and Cassie Cormack of Mike's Beer Bar in the North Shore of Pittsburgh. Mike's is located right across the street from PNC Park and is in the heart of the highly-visited area of town that features sports (PNC and Heinz Field), concerts (Stage AE), hotels, dining, and more. Mike purchased the bar formerly known as Beerhead...and formerly known as The Beer Market before that...at the close of 2018 and has transformed the bar from a hot pre-event destination to a 7-days-a-week destination that everyone needs to check out.Mike's upped their tap count from 50 to 80. Those beers + what's in the cooler = over 500 beers in the house at any given time! They've added pre-mixed cocktails to their menu. Local ciders and meads are also available. They recently installed a kitchen (up until September of 2019, they did not serve food) that allows them to provide grub for their patrons. They have live music on the weekends. In brief, they've taken major strides to create a killer destination that emphasizes great beer, great people, and great times.Throughout this session, you'll learn how Mike and Cassie train their staff to deliver exceptional experiences, how they manage the large volume of beer under their roof, how they've established great relationships with local breweries and brewery representatives, and much, much more.Check out Mike's online and, of course, in person whenever a trip to the North Shore is in your plans.Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram MUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.comSEASON II SPONSOR: Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast is brought to you by Drunk Swag Source. You can get all your merch needs covered by visiting www.drunkswagsource.com. Use promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 10% on any order of $200 or more!

SESSION SUMMARY: When is the right time to grow your brand? Can ego get in the way of smart decision-making when it comes to expanding your operations? When is the right time to take your brand "on a world tour?"All this and MUCH more unfold in the Season II finale of the Breaking Brews Podcast.Session 45 features some very candid conversation between host Jason Cercone and Erik Budrakey, a beer industry veteran whose years of experience have helped him establish True Brew Magazine, a publication with readership across the globe. Erik has helped many brands increase their distribution footprint by wisely focusing on all aspects that will impact their plans. He has also helped breweries project adequate sales forecasts and execute those plans to precision. True Brew Magazine is a beer lifestyle publication that covers a wide variety of topics in the beer universe. You can click here to check it out for yourself!Erik's passion for the beer industry spills into the conversation that unfolds in this podcast. His years of experience will help you get a better grasp on what you need to focus on within your business: growing your distribution footprint methodically and not overextending yourself, emphasizing quality product at every juncture, accurately planning and forecasting sales and not settling for "almost" getting there, the importance of self-awareness and getting help when needed, and much more. As we wind down Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast, THANK YOU for listening to the show! Please let me know what you think of the podcast by dropping a rating and review on your podcast platform of choice. I'll see you for some smaller episodes in the upcoming weeks and stay tuned for news and updates about Season III of the Breaking Brews Podcast coming soon.MUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.comSEASON II SPONSOR: Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast is brought to you by Drunk Swag Source. You can get all your merch needs covered by visiting www.drunkswagsource.com. Use promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 10% on any order of $200 or more!

SESSION SUMMARY: Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms on the planet. Owned by Facebook, this photo-sharing network contains much of the functionality that Facebook has and presents a tremendous opportunity for brands to showcase their wares and connect with consumers by sharing dynamic imagery and videos.Much like any social media network, a strategy is necessary to maximize your time spent on Instagram. And in Session 35 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, we are diving deep into the various aspects and approaches you should utilize as you use Instagram to build your brand.Returning to the podcast is Aaron Williams, Marketing Manager of Monday Night Brewing. In Season I, Jason and Aaron recorded a similar episode dissecting the many areas of Facebook that are crucial for brands looking to advertise on that space. This session takes similar principles and applies them to Instagram. If you'd like to learn more about utilizing paid Facebook initiatives, you can jump back in the archives to Session 26 and consume what's been called one of the most actionable podcasts in the Breaking Brews portfolio.In this session, Jason and Aaron discuss good content to post on Instagram, how to best utilize hashtags to your advantage, how to implement Instagram Stories, some common mistakes brands make on Instagram, the one thing you should NEVER do on Instagram, and much, much more. You can catch up with Aaron and the Monday Night Brewing brand by clicking the links below:Website | Facebook | Instagram | TwitterRESOURCE: I mentioned a video from Sunny Lenarduzzi demonstrating why you shouldn't purchase IG followers and likes. Here's the link to said video: https://youtu.be/EaLh8mbpsPIMUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.comSEASON II SPONSOR: Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast is brought to you by Drunk Swag Source. You can get all your merch needs covered by visiting www.drunkswagsource.com. Use promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 10% on any order of $200 or more!

SESSION SUMMARY: When it comes to the social media triumvirate (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), Twitter has fallen to #3 on most people's priority lists these days. That's not a blanket statement, of course, but many people and brands prefer Facebook and Instagram over Twitter. That's OK...build your brand the way you like. That said, there's still a lot of value in Twitter and today we are going to dive into how you can get the most from this platform.In Session 40 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, host Jason Cercone goes one on one with you in an effort to bring Twitter back to prominence. While it may not be as popular as Facebook and Instagram or have as many users, there are still enough people on the network to make it valuable. Like all social media, the best returns come when you develop a strategy that helps you attack with excellence. This session of the podcast provides some tips and strategies to help you do just that.Throughout this session, Jason covers:How many daily users are on TwitterHow Twitter has evolved over the yearsCommon mistakes brands make with TwitterShould you tag multiple accounts on your posts?How to not use hashtags obnoxiouslyThe biggest Twitter no-no you should adhere to alwaysWhere does the power lay in Twitter?And moreYou can connect with Breaking Brews on Twitter @breakingbrewsco and with Jason directly @jasoncercone.PAID TWITTER RESOURCESHow to Use Twitter Ads: A Complete Guide For MarketersTwitter Ads Campaigns: A Simple Setup GuideMUSIC CREDIT: Theme music and music clips for the Breaking Brews Podcast - Hellfire by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins, licensed via www.audionetwork.comSEASON II SPONSOR: Season II of the Breaking Brews Podcast is brought to you by Drunk Swag Source. You can get all your merch needs covered by visiting www.drunkswagsource.com. Use promo code BREAKINGBREWS at checkout and save 10% on any order of $200 or more!

SESSION SUMMARY: If you've been a loyal listener of the first 29 sessions of the Breaking Brews Podcast, you've stumbled upon rants and discussions about the importance of clean glassware and the utter grossness of dirty beer glassware on more than one occasion. This epidemic rears its ugly head at pubs, taverns, and tasting rooms far too often - with servers and bartenders presenting beer to customers in glasses with bubbles all over the glass (known as nucleation points), lipstick on the rim, greasiness, even old food particles. Furthermore, some brands have posted photos featuring dirty glassware when showcasing beers in their portfolio. This is no good. No good at all. It's gotten to the point that a hashtag category has been created for the purpose of sharing snaps of dirty glasses: #dgm (or Dirty Glass Mafia if you're not into the whole brevity thing). In the season finale of the Breaking Brews Podcast (Session 30), Jason Cercone is joined by Advanced Cicerone Dev Adams to discuss the dirty glassware epidemic and how all of us, as craft beer professionals and enthusiasts, can do our part to put said epidemic to rest. The conversation starts with Dev's journey through the first three levels of the Cicerone Certification Program ©. She shares the different components of the testing, why each level is important, and various aspects you should be cognizant of if you're preparing to take any level of the certification.Dev and Jason also discuss low service standards plaguing the beer industry today. From servers rolling their eyes at customers to a complete disregard for beer knowledge, many people do not realize how poorly this reflects on a brand's reputation and, subsequently, how much less money they're making because they're not engaging their customers and providing baseline information that will enhance a consumer's experience. Dev drops some tips to help servers and bartenders improve in this area as well.From there, it's all about dirty glassware. Why is it important to utilize beer clean glassware? How does dirty glassware impact the overall beer experience? Why is this epidemic so overlooked? Why are some brands going the extra mile in regards to distribution to ensure their beer will be enjoyed the same way at a bar that it is in their taproom? Why do so many people feel it's "no big deal" to drink from a dirty glass? You wouldn't want to eat your dinner off of an unwashed plate, so why would you want to consume your beer that isn't cleaned properly, right?Dev produced a great video that walks you through the proper steps of cleaning glassware from A to Z. Her method ensures the glassware will be as clean as possible, producing proper head retention, appealing lacing on the side of the glass as the beer is consumed, and a complete lack of nucleation points throughout the body of the glass. This creates a photogenic beer and, most importantly, a beer you can thoroughly enjoy from first sip to last.As brands, your mindset has to be that every beer you pass across your bar is going to end up photographed and on the Internet. Be sure your brand is always represented accordingly with the cleanest glassware around.You can check out Dev's video on her Facebook Page, Miss Lupulin. Also, you can find the video embedded on the show notes on Breaking Brews - breakingbrews.com/podsession30YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:How to Know Your Glassware is Beer Clean on Breaking BrewsMUSIC CREDIT: All music heard on this session of the Breaking Brews Podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com.

Episode 67 : FOMOFF Nick lights up this episode with Romp N Roll memories immediately followed by his yinzer accent impression. We cover how we missed out on Fresh Fest this week. Thanks to Hop Nation USA and our friend Jason from Breaking Brews for shouting us out on their most recent episode. Go check them both out! We rehash the Voodoo release idea but from there we get into the beer reviews and the concept of muling beer. Nick makes an observation about women in line for craft beer. Nick regrets not going to Fresh Fest again. Sara joins for a few minutes to discuss the vegan milkshake IPA from DG and Very Local PGH. We review DG's releases and Nick requests your Fresh Fest stories as the podcast wraps up this week. Beers We Drank: Swishy Socks - Dewey Beer Co x Burley Oak (IPA - 6.8%) Hard Corn - Hitchhiker Brewery x Walters PGH (Pale Ale - 5.8%)

Jason Cercone from BreakingBrews.com returns! Adam and Steve are here, too. They do some Freshfest pregaming, talk about Isuzu creating its own beer truck for the market, and run down the traitorous Platform Beer Company. Then Jason provides the Top 5 business tips for breweries he's learned from doing his Breaking Brews podcast. Finally, they talk wrestling and prep a drinking game in anticipation for the Summerslam weekend and following Raw and Smackdown. This segment may also feature a half-assed Stone Cold Steve Austin impression, a decent Andre the Giant, and inadvertent plugging of the WWE Network. Beers: Troegs Field Study IPA Hitchhiker Next to Normal Sour w/ Blueberries and Coffee Full Pint White Lightning w/ Pomegranate

SESSION SUMMARY: While it may not be a subject that gets a ton of press, Information Technology, or IT, is the backbone of any business and vital to your day-to-day operations. Think about how frustrating things get when your WiFi connection goes down or your Point of Sale system stops working in the middle of a busy Saturday night. Setting yourself up for success in this area can save you tons of headaches in the long run and help your business run much more smoothly.On today's session of the Breaking Brews Podcast, Jason Cercone welcomes Trey Bowden, an IT professional who formerly worked for Dogfish Head for over a decade and now runs his own IT company known as Goodbetterbest Technologies where he helps businesses build a solid back-end infrastructure. Trey brings a wealth of knowledge to the show and puts it all on the table to help ensure you're doing things right with your IT initiatives. Trey also shares stories from his time with Dogfish Head, what ultimately led him to working for the company, getting to participate in collaboration beers with his colleagues, his contributions to Dogfish's famous Steampunk Treehouse, and why he decided to branch out on his own and found Goodbetterbest Technologies.This episode breaks down several areas of IT that you should focus on, including:What is IT and why is it so important to your business?When you should begin focusing your attention on ITSome common mistakes that business owners make with ITWhy it's important to involve your staff in your IT directionBest practices for improving your IT infrastructureWhy it's important to have a trusted resource that can point you in the right directionIf you'd like to connect with Trey, you can do so here:Website | Facebook | Email TreyMUSIC CREDIT: All music heard on today's session of the Breaking Brews Podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com.

SESSION SUMMARY: In Session 25 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, host Jason Cercone and Kayleigh Lohse, Co-Founder and Social Media Manager at Presidential Brewing in Portage, MI, spoke in length about the importance of a strong, consistent, organic approach to Facebook. The session detailed how frequently you should post, what type of content you should share, tips and strategies for engaging your audience, and much, much more. In Session 26, the conversation about Facebook marketing continues as Jason is joined on the podcast by Aaron Williams, head of marketing at Monday Night Brewing in Atlanta (do NOT call it Hot-Lanta lest ye be scolded like Jason was in the first 10 seconds of the discussion), to cover the paid side of Facebook and how to get the most from paid ad campaigns on the world's most popular social network. More and more, Facebook, as well as other platforms like Instagram, are establishing algorithms and criteria that force you to invest money in order to gain traction. Like any other popular medium of its time, it's not uncommon, nor unethical, for said medium to demand compensation in return for providing reach to hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people in your niche. The good thing about paying Facebook are the analytics and data tied to your campaigns. All give you a clear, concise snapshot of the effectiveness of your ad and help you stay the course or make improvements for your next campaign.At Monday Night Brewing, Aaron utilizes paid advertising on Facebook 24/7. Whether it's brand awareness campaigns designed to increase visibility of the Monday Night name in the three states they distribute beer to, driving traffic to an event, or helping people discover what's happening in their Atlanta taproom, Aaron has developed a great paid strategy, combined with an organic approach, that allows Monday Night Brewing to leverage Facebook at multiple junctures - all of which help bolster the brand's visibility throughout the beer community.On this session of the Breaking Brews Podcast, Aaron and Jason discuss: Combining organic and paid approaches to accomplish significant gains on FacebookWhen is the right time to begin running paid ad campaigns on Facebook?Should you include Instagram in your paid campaigns?Should you use images, photos, both, or none in your campaigns?The difference between boosted posts and paid adsWhat is split-testing, or A/B testing?How do you construct an ad campaign on Facebook?How do you track results and, when necessary, make adjustments to your campaigns?The one piece of advice you need to hear before running your first adGet to know the Monday Night Brewing brand at the following outlets:Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter MUSIC CREDIT: All music heard in today's episode of the Breaking Brews Podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.comEVENT ALERT: Grab your tickets to Hot Glass, Cold Beer, Pink Boots

SESSION SUMMARY: We've made some tremendous steps forward in our world. And, at the same time, there are still areas where we fall short. Unfortunately, we still live in a society where racism, sexism, and other epidemics plague our day to day lives and real humans battle through this hate in search of a more peaceful existence.Without question, the beer industry is a world that has seen a true lack of diversity as the popularity of this adult beverage, and culture, has boomed. Primarily, the beer industry consists of white males in the roles of sales, ownership, and production.But as time has gone on, women have joined the beer industry and made a tremendous impact on the growth and evolution and beer. Likewise, minorities have also become part of the revolution, forever proving the beer industry does not need to be dominated by one sex or one race to be relevant.In Pittsburgh, Mike Potter of Black Brew Culture - an online magazine covering diversity in the beer industry - Day Bracey, and Ed Bailey - comedians and co-hosts of the Drinking Partners Podcast - joined forces to celebrate diversity and bring a "fresh" perspective to the industry with the inaugural Fresh Fest Beer Fest in August of 2018. The event struck a chord not only with beer industry professionals, but enthusiasts, media, and other minority-owned businesses as well - making it a wild success that had everyone anticipating what this trio would bring together next.In August of 2019, Fresh Fest is back for Round 2 and Day and Mike took some time out of their busy schedule to rap about this year's event on the Breaking Brews Podcast. In this episode, we learn about Day and Mike's journey through the craft beer landscape, how they, along with Ed, came up with Fresh Fest, and what they say to the person who calls Fresh Fest a "racist beer fest." In addition, Day, Mike, and Jason talk about existing oppression in today's society. The trio's vision for Fresh Fest was to combat those stigmas as much as possible, all while delivering an immersive experience that brings businesses from all walks of life together to celebrate the camaraderie the beer industry inspires.You can learn more about Fresh Fest, connect with social media platforms, and secure your tickets to what promises to be one of the best events of the year at freshfestbeerfest.com.To catch up on the Drinking Partners Podcast, click:Website | Facebook | Instagram | TwitterCheck out Black Brew Culture:Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter MUSIC CREDIT: All music in this episode of the Breaking Brews Podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.comEVENT ALERT: Grab your tickets to Hot Glass, Cold Beer, Pink Boots

SESSION SUMMARY: When Prohibition came to an end, the federal government left it up to each individual state to decide how they would handle the sale and distribution of beer and other adult beverages. What this led to was a tapestry of laws that saw each state operating very, very differently from one another. To this day, many laws that made next to no sense when they were put into effect back in the 1930s still exist...making even less sense as the beer world and alcohol culture as a whole has evolved.In Session 23 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, Jason Cercone is joined by Lauren Baker, current General Manager of The Harmony Inn and former Production Manager at North Country Brewing, to discuss some beer laws across the country that help the growth of beer in some states, but hinder others. In addition, Jason and Lauren talk about beer distribution and how that model has changed over the years.One topic of discussion on today's show is a new law that was going to be passed in Pennsylvania in July of 2019. This law called for the addition of a 6% sales tax on every pint sold across the bar at brewery taprooms throughout the Commonwealth. But, thanks to the efforts of the Brewers of Pennsylvania, brewery owners, and beer enthusiasts, a compromise was reached that will make this new tax much more manageable for small breweries who stood to lose upwards of $100,000 a year in revenue if they absorbed the tax and did not pass it on to their customers. Click here to read about the tax and the compromise that was reached on the Brewers of PA website.Another big topic covered on this episode is beer distribution. When does it make sense for a beer brand to sign a wholesaler agreement? Why are these agreements so iron-clad in that they do not allow a brewery to transition out, even if a wholesaler is not living up to their end of the agreement? There is a lot to be considered for brands of all sizes in this area and, as mentioned before, laws and regulations are different in each state and dictate how a brewery can grow their distribution footprint. Lauren has worked for breweries in Texas, Colorado, and Pennsylvania and brings knowledge about how a brand can be successful when it comes to expanding their footprint. She and Jason cover when and why a brewery may want to venture down that path and, when weighing the options, doing it so all parties involved can win.Connect with North Country Brewing:Website | Facebook | Instagram | TwitterAnd The Harmony Inn:Website | Facebook | Instagram | TwitterMUSIC CREDIT: All music heard on today’s session of the Breaking Brews Podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com

SESSION SUMMARY: Sometimes, we take for granted all the hard work that gets poured into the beer we love to enjoy. The number of people whose efforts help make that beer possible often gets overlooked as well. From brewers to hop growers to malt house operators to quality controllers to packagers to sales reps to delivery personnel to servers, your beer is literally touched by dozens of hands before it ever reaches your pint glass.Today, we are going to take a look at a critical process that helps beer come to life and learn about the men and women who make it so.In Session 22 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, Jason Cercone is joined by Brendan Carroll of CNC Malting Company in Fenelton, PA. Brendan purchased a former elementary school and repurposed it as a malt house, carrying out the process of prepping various grains for use in the production of beer and whiskey. CNC has supplied numerous breweries and distilleries with one of the most important ingredients needed to produce their final product. Malted barley is the source of the sugars (principally maltose) which are fermented into beer. The malting process allows the grain to partially germinate, making the seed's resources available to the brewer. This, of course, leads to the production of beer when combined with water, hops, and yeast.Brendan shares his story of how he got into the malting business and why he decided to take this path instead of opening a brewery. He shares what he and his team do at CNC on a daily basis and gives us some inside perspectives on the malting process. Brendan also breaks down the process of malting, as well as how different grains produce different beer styles. This session is the first in a mini-series on the Breaking Brews Podcast that will feature each critical ingredient found in beer. Stay tuned for future episodes detailing water, yeast, and hops. If you'd like to connect with Brendan and CNC Malting Company, click the links below:Website | Facebook | Instagram MUSIC CREDIT: Music from today's show is brought to you by purple-planet.comJoin the new Breaking Brews Podcast Central Facebook Group Today!

SESSION SUMMARY: October 14th is the anniversary of the day that homebrewing beer without federal taxation was made possible in the United States, thanks to President Jimmy Carter, in 1978. The law officially became effective in 1979. Homebrewing had been banned when Prohibition began in 1920, but—shockingly—homebrewing surged past its pre-Prohibition popularity. The ingredients were easy to come by, and it wasn’t as dangerous to produce as liquor. However, many states, counties, and even cities have passed their own laws. --- Info courtesy of beerandbrewing.comSince then, thousands upon thousands of men and women have entered into the world of homebrewing. Some practice homebrewing as a hobby while others aspire to learn the skills of the trade and take their talents to the professional level. Many brewers currently producing beer on a commercial scale got their start making their first batches in their kitchens and garages. Homebrewing has helped open up a diverse, dynamic, innovative platform and, ultimately, helps shape the beer world forever more. In Session 21 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, I am once again joined by Zack Morrow of Noble Stein Brewing Company in Indiana, PA. Zack was featured in Session 1 of the show and you can jump back in the archives to hear his advice on some do's and dont's you should know before opening a brewery. Today, Zack talks about what it takes to scale up from homebrewing to pro brewing.Zack tells the story of how he and his friends gathered to make their first batch of beer in his college apartment and how it sparked a passion for brewing. He also shares the experience of having bottles of conditioning beer explode in his closet, forcing him to wash his wardrobe before going back to work.From there, Zack shares his experience scaling up to commercial brewing equipment when Noble Stein opened its doors in 2016. What were some of the challenges he faced? Are the skills obtained at the homebrew level applicable to commercial brewing? Did he carry over any recipes from his homebrewing portfolio to the Noble Stein lineup? All this and more will be tackled throughout this interview. Connect with Noble Stein Brewing online:Website | Twitter | Instagram | FacebookMUSIC CREDIT: All music heard during this session of the Breaking Brews Podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com.

https://assets.fireside.fm/file/fireside-images/podcasts/images/1/1c2e964e-6fbf-4dd7-acc7-fb9bf726a856/episodes/6/6fc8e22e-a942-4872-a6e7-6bd88e3efc38/header.jpg Beers Rusty Rail Brewing and Sheetz Project Coffee Hopz IPA - 5.4% ABV Rusty Rail Lite Brite Brute IPA - 6% ABV Show Notes 01:30 - Breaking Brews episode 16 featuring Should I Drink That 03:40 - Rusty Rail Brewing and Sheetz Project Coffee Hopz IPA collaboration 14:05 - Show news and a return of sickpuppy? 16:42 - Homework results from Episode 126 18:01 - Rusty Rail Brewing Lite Brite Brute IPA 20:13 - Dogfish Head and Boston Beer merger and drinking DFH beers with music 22:23 - Homework for this episode: "What is your favorite craft beer and music pairing?" Follow SIDT Twitter - @sidt Facebook Page- shouldidrinkthat Facebook Group - shouldidrinkthat YouTube - shouldidrinkthat Instagram - shouldidrinkthat Untappd - spoon

https://assets.fireside.fm/file/fireside-images/podcasts/images/1/1c2e964e-6fbf-4dd7-acc7-fb9bf726a856/episodes/6/6fc8e22e-a942-4872-a6e7-6bd88e3efc38/header.jpg Beers Rusty Rail Brewing and Sheetz Project Coffee Hopz IPA - 5.4% ABV Rusty Rail Lite Brite Brute IPA - 6% ABV Show Notes 01:30 - Breaking Brews episode 16 featuring Should I Drink That 03:40 - Rusty Rail Brewing and Sheetz Project Coffee Hopz IPA collaboration 14:05 - Show news and a return of sickpuppy? 16:42 - Homework results from Episode 126 18:01 - Rusty Rail Brewing Lite Brite Brute IPA 20:13 - Dogfish Head and Boston Beer merger and drinking DFH beers with music 22:23 - Homework for this episode: "What is your favorite craft beer and music pairing?" Follow SIDT Twitter - @sidt Facebook Page- shouldidrinkthat Facebook Group - shouldidrinkthat YouTube - shouldidrinkthat Instagram - shouldidrinkthat Untappd - spoon

SESSION SUMMARY: With the beer industry thriving, many events have surfaced that help celebrate the scene and its dynamic culture. Craft beer is all about community and those responsible for producing the liquid that makes it all possible are always at the core of events designed to raise money for charity, bring awareness to specific causes, and provide a tremendous alternative to beer tents with $1 drafts of domestic light lager...all while helping elevate the profile of craft beer and introducing new enthusiasts to diverse, innovative products.The generosity of the beer industry has led to the creation of many events. Most of them are planned well and support a great cause. Others, unfortunately, fall short. The object of today's show is to pinpoint some of the aspects of good events and bad events and help anyone who is planning out a beer festival get started on the right foot.In Session 19 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, Jason Cercone is joined by Meg Evans and Lauren Baker. Lauren made her first appearance on the show back in Session 3 while this is Meg's Breaking Brews debut. If you listened to Session 3, Lauren talked about her role as Production Manager at North Country Brewing Company. Since then, she has transitioned to General Manager of The Harmony Inn (a bar and restaurant also owned and operated by North Country Brewing) and Meg has picked up where Lauren has left off, vacating her role as Head Brewer at Rock Bottom to make the jump to North Country as Production Manager. If you are thinking about putting a beer event or beer festival together, what should you consider? This episode goes into great detail about many aspects, including but not limited to:What is the purpose of your event?Have you scouted out the location of your event?How big of an event do you want to host?Do you have enough bathrooms for your guests?How do you plan on taking care of your vendors?What are some of the common mistakes event planners make when executing their event?Do your vendors have everything they need (instructions on when and where to unload, ice, dump buckets, water for glass rinses, etc.)? How do you ensure the best experience for vendors? For guests? For sponsors?How do you acquire sponsors?Does your event have a charitable aspect to it?How do you properly stipend a brewery to have their beer poured at your event?How will you ensure safe, responsible drinking at your event?What do you do when months of planning go haywire day of your event and you need to think on your feet to make it all work out?What steps can you take to ensure your event will return for a 2nd year and beyond?If you'd like to read more on the subject, check out 7 Points to Consider When Planning a Beer Festival on Breaking Brews.Connect with North Country Brewing:Website | Facebook | Instagram | TwitterAnd The Harmony Inn:Website | Facebook | Instagram | TwitterMUSIC CREDIT: All music heard on today’s session of the Breaking Brews Podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com

SESSION SUMMARY: The craft beer industry is comprised of many brave men and women who weren't afraid to throw caution to the wind and take a gigantic leap into the unknown when they decided they wanted to open a brewery. It's this type of dedication to one's vision that has helped this industry grow, survive, and thrive. With the launch of 7,400+ breweries and counting in the United States are the many ancillary businesses that not only promote the craft beer scene, but help entrepreneurs with all manner of wild ideas start successful enterprises as well. Platforms such as blogs, books, websites, podcasts, documentaries, and educational services...as well as companies offering products like bottle openers, can coozies, t-shirts, hats, and huge varieties of beer swag all have a chance to play a factor in the evolution of craft beer culture.One company doing just that and more is First Sip Brew Box. First Sip is a monthly subscription service where beer-related goods are delivered right to your door. Each box contains anything from t-shirts, glassware, chapstick, BBQ sauces made with beer, and much more. Today on the podcast, Jason Cercone sits down with one half of the First Sip power team, Dennis Guy.Dennis shares how he and his wife Samantha came up with the idea for First Sip Brew Box and how it came after a journey down the path of opening a brewery. When they realized it wasn't going to be financially feasible to bring a new brewery to the market, they pivoted and created a service that allows them to partner with breweries and promote all the good they're bringing to the scene. Dennis is one of the most positive people you'll ever encounter and the conversation throughout this interview dives deep into entrepreneurial mindset, what it takes to keep that positivity when negative energy beats down your door seemingly every day, and why it's important to embrace every step of the process it takes to build a successful small business. A great deal of Dennis's motivation comes from the values his mother instilled in him throughout his life. You'll hear the story of how he and his wife received a small business loan, an accomplishment that took place just days before his mother passed away. It's truly an inspirational story that all of us can relate to in some way, shape, or form. Dennis is a veteran of the US Army and recently participated in a Pennsylvania Commonwealth-wide collaboration beer that saw 20 veteran-owned breweries come together as one. The beer went live on Memorial Day Weekend 2019 at each of the participating breweries. The US Army also filmed a short video about Dennis, the values he gained from his mom's strong will, and the growth of First Sip Brew Box. You can check out that video here: https://youtu.be/Ar5IUbGw1ggIf you are looking to start a project of any size, whether it be a bar, a brewery, a podcast, a blog, or anything else that requires entrepreneurial mindset, this is a podcast you don't want to miss.If you'd like to learn more about First Sip Brew Box, here are the links:Website | Facebook | Instagram | TwitterMUSIC CREDIT: All music heard on today's session of the Breaking Brews Podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com

SESSION SUMMARY: With new breweries opening seemingly every day, the number of destinations consumers have to choose from when looking to enjoy a high quality beer is abundant. Combine this with the number of other activities looking to capture entertainment dollars and you may find yourself looking for new ideas that will help you stand out and keep patrons flowing through your doors. One of the best ways to ensure you built loyalty in today's competitive, crowded marketplace is by delivering an experience that truly resonates with your guests. An experience that makes them feel welcome, makes them happy they decided to visit, makes them feel a 'WOW' factor that leads them to tell everyone they know about you, and ensures they'll be back to frequent your establishment again in the future. In today's session of the Breaking Brews Podcast, Jason Cercone is joined by Andrew Coplon, Co-Founder of Secret Hopper. Based in Virginia, Secret Hopper is a service created by Andrew and his wife that sends mystery shoppers into brewery taprooms to evaluate a thorough, diverse list of criteria. Their findings help brewery management and ownership evaluate their staff, pinpoint strengths and weaknesses, and discover areas where they can generate more revenue for their business. Throughout the show, you'll hear how Secret Hopper has helped breweries across the United States take positive strides towards cultivating a better customer experience. Data the secret hoppers collect can aid in developing and implementing new strategies for keeping customers, staff, management, and ownership happy. Win-win for all! This information is powerful for an established brewery looking to take their experience to new levels as well as for a brand new brewery who has yet to open their doors and wants to start off on the right foot. Loyalty is a different animal in today's business world. With options galore, consumers will naturally frequent all sorts of establishments in search of a memorable experience. Deliver that memorable experience and chances are excellent they'll be back in the future. But deliver a bad experience and the likelihood of these customers returning is extremely low. It's easy to write you off when there's another brewery just down the street ready to serve their needs. Andrew shares strategies he's helped his client base utilize, including the power of a server introducing themselves by name to their customers to how much additional revenue can be generated when a server asks their guests "Would you like to take a growler, 4-pack, or t-shirt home with you?" There are many ways to cultivate a tremendous customer experience. And today, we're going to begin exploring some of those directives on the Breaking Brews Podcast.If you are interested in learning more about Secret Hopper or joining forces with Andrew to build on the experiences unfolding in your taproom, here's where you can connect:Website | Facebook | Instagram | TwitterMUSIC CREDIT: All music in today's session of the Breaking Brews Podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com

SESSION SUMMARY: Podcasts have become one of the most popular and consumed methods of media in today's on-the-go world. Many folks have replaced radio shows and music with podcasts covering a plethora of subjects while listening in the car, at the gym, or sitting at their desks at home and/or work. It's a tremendous way to learn, grow, and be entertained. No matter what subject matter you're most passionate about, chances are excellent you'll find a podcast dedicated to it if you search hard enough.Doug Derda has been doing a beer podcast since...well, pretty much since the beginning. His show, Should I Drink That?, first hit the podcast waves on Cinco de Mayo in 2006...a time when podcasting was in its infancy. Today on the Breaking Brews Podcast, Doug joins host Jason Cercone to talk about the evolution of podcasting, the many directions his show has taken, Doug's take on the beer industry today, and much more.The show starts with a look back at early podcasting technology and what it took to get Should I Drink That? spread around the Internet. You'll also hear the legendary story of how a YouTube video (also a new platform when SIDT first started) of Doug chugging a beer helped put their show on the map and how it's remained popular to this day. Doug also shares his opinions on 'beerholes.' Throughout the session, Doug and Jason dive into what it takes to put together a good podcast and how much it's changed since 2006 when Doug first cut his teeth in the medium. They discuss how much is involved with the entire process - from recording to editing to adding music to publishing to marketing and everything in between. They also share some tips and pointers you can utilize if you've been considering starting a podcast, whether it be about beer or any other topic you're passionate about.They also discuss how much can be learned by listening to other podcasts and absorbing how other hosts deliver their content. In addition, Doug and Jason share realistic expectations you should have when getting a podcast off the ground. You can check out what Doug is up to with Should I Drink That by clicking the links below:Website | Facebook | Instagram | TwitterMUSIC CREDIT: All music heard in the Breaking Brews Podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com.

SESSION SUMMARY: As of the release of the 13th session of the podcast, Pennsylvania produces more beer annually than any other state in the country and is home to 350+ breweries and counting. It's a state that's seen tremendous growth and evolution regarding the liquid we love, with innovation being at an all-time high and breweries from across the country looking to break into successful PA markets by making their wares available to thirsty citizens throughout the Commonwealth. In this installment of the show, host Jason Cercone is joined by Nate Kresge, Owner & Co-Founder of GK Visual in Harrisburg, PA. Nate and his crew produced the documentary known as Poured In Pennsylvania, an up close and personal look at PA's longstanding history with beer. Poured In PA features interviews with 50 breweries and tells the story of America's oldest brewery (Yuengling) to homebrewers on the cusp of breaking into this thriving, growing industry. Nate shares what GK Visual does outside of the beer world and how all of his company's work helped inspire the creation of Poured In PA. We get to hear about how a small YouTube video about breweries in Harrisburg created by Nate and his crew not only got pirated, but managed to find its way into bars in Hawaii and beyond. This, plus the GK Visual team's love of beer made Poured In PA a passion project that took them on a statewide journey to discover great liquid and the men and women who work daily to bring it to life. Nate and Jason also share their best Yuengling stories and reminisce about how those historic beers serve as treasure to the beer drinkers who don't regularly have them at their disposal. They also talk about where the beer industry is headed, what sort of projects Nate and his crew plan to tackle next, and small documentaries he and his team are doing just for fun at GK Visual.Most importantly, Nate shares two very big pieces of news about Poured In PA:1) You can now watch the documentary on Amazon Prime Video2) Poured In PA will become a series in the upcoming monthsIf you are a Prime member, Poured In PA is now available for you to screen. Go check it out!Catch up with Poured In PA online: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram MUSIC CREDIT: All music in today's show is courtesy of purple-planet.com.

SESSION SUMMARY: In Session 11 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, Jason Cercone is joined by Jaye Beattie, Co-Founder and Vice President of Four Mile Brewing in Olean, New York. Four Mile opened its doors in 2015 and is the first brewery to produce beer in Olean since the end of Prohibition. Jaye shares his expertise on opening a brewery in a smaller community where craft beer was not a large commodity and how their business helped add to the revitalization efforts of Olean from day one.America has many small towns where breweries have set up shop where most businesses would avoid like the plague. Once established, these breweries helped breathe new life into the community, bringing people back and, thusly, bringing additional businesses to the area and making operations successful for everyone. Jaye and his partners started as homebrewers and saw a genuine opportunity to start a viable business in the Olean community. They hit the ground running and never looked back. Jaye shares his background in the beer world, starting as a bartender at Olean's Breadstick Cafe and also homebrewing on Four Mile Road with his fellow co-founders. Jaye helped bring craft beer to the taps at his bar and his passion for quality beer made taking the leap to opening Olean's first post-Prohibition brewery that much more natural.One element Jaye elaborates on is the importance of community involvement. If you are in the same boat as Jaye and his partners and are looking to open a brewery in a small town, it's imperative to be active in your community, source local materials and ingredients, and collaborate with other businesses whenever possible. Another aspect Jaye takes pride in his how Four Mile helped educate customers and broaden their horizons when it came to craft beer. Many of the first visitors to the brewery weren't quite sure what an IPA was. But, thanks to solid liquid + a commitment to helping customers advance their palates, the crew at Four Mile got their patrons hooked on high-quality, great tasting beer!Four Mile Brewing has become a staple of the Olean community and beyond. Located only an hour from Buffalo, they're part of the growing, evolving scene unfolding throughout the Buffalo region.If you'd like to connect with Four Mile Brewing online:Website | Facebook | Twitter | InstagramMUSIC CREDIT: Music from the Breaking Brews Podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com.

SESSION SUMMARY: Megan Pritts of Noble Stein Brewing Company joins Jason Cercone on Session 10 of the show to discuss search engine optimization, or SEO if you're into the whole brevity thing, as well as various aspects of social media practices that Megan uses to manage marketing for Indiana, PA's Noble Stein Brewing Company. Megan is a marketer by trade and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the podcast.The show kicks off with Megan talking about how she entered the marketing world and how her company tasked her with handling SEO responsibilities. The conversation then steers towards how SEO has changed over the years as the internet has evolved and how you can best harness those changes to help your business. Megan also shares the importance of keeping an updated website and how it helps with search engine rank. Next, we learn how Megan has established a voice for Noble Stein through networks like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and how she's able to utilize each platform to get the most from her efforts. As of the release of this podcast, Noble Stein has been able to find levels of success through Facebook without investing in ads. Megan admits this may not last forever, but she enjoys the challenge of getting the most from organic content and communicating with fans of the Noble Stein page as frequently as she can. She's also an advocate of "playing by Facebook's rules," which you'll hear more about as the show unfolds.Megan and Jason also discuss the power of conversation on Twitter and the visual appeal of Instagram, why it's best to not push content from one platform to another, and why it's important to establish consistency with your social media practices. And, as is tradition on the Breaking Brews Podcast, we share a brief rant about clean glassware and why it's important at your establishment and in ALL of your promotional efforts. You can catch up Noble Stein Brewing online at:Website | Facebook | Twitter | InstagramMUSIC CREDIT: All music on the Breaking Brews Podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com

Jason Cercone, host of the Breaking Brews podcast, returns and has brought gifts of honey wine and cider to the 3rd most popular craft beer podcast in Western Pennsylvania. Adam and Steve get to taste and review products from Kingview Mead. They all talk about Levity winning the Breweries in PA March Madness, Brewdog's choice of location for their Pittsburgh brewpub, and the collapse of Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week. Then it's 101 lessons on mead styles and brewing methods. Finally, they set out to start their own wrestling promotion based around craft beer and make Wrestlemania 35 predictions.Cider & Meads Kingview 4 Peck Pina Colada Cider Kingview Happy Apple Pie Mead Kingview Viking Grog

It's the star-studded 100th episode of the Hop Nation USA podcast featuring Steve, Adam, First Sip Brew Box's Dennis, and the team from Abjuration Brewing in McKees Rock Dave, Tom and John. They all sit down to talk about Abjuration's first year and their accomplishments. Then the tables are turned on the hosts as brewers at Abjuration review their homebrewed beer while giving tips on how to improve your own homebrewing operation. Finally they all keep it 100 with a quiz pitting Hop Nation USA against Abjuration. All this plus bacon farms, supporting communities, beer dojos, Little Debbie, and drinking local With cameos from Breaking Brews, Should I Drink That?, In Poor Taste, Craft Beer Industry Pod and Bum Wine Bob. Beers: Abjuration Rice IPA Abjuration CIA (Cocktail Inspired Ale) Abjuration Maple-Bacon Imperial Stout

SESSION SUMMARY: Session 8 of the Breaking Brews Podcast delves into creating a tremendous taproom experience for customers. With so many tremendous venues to visit these days, attention for a consumer's entertainment buck is being fought over every day. And the venues that create a memorable visit will be the ones who earn a customer's business time and time again. While 100% undying loyalty to just one brand may be a thing of the past, a consumer will always come back AND tell others to check you out when you give them a reason to do so. This session is going to tell the story of a brand that's done just that.Today, we hear from Luke, Jay, Tony, and Dave - four of the team members behind Levity Brewing Company in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Levity has been going strong since 2016 and has grown their brand visibility throughout Western PA and beyond. Their taproom sits a little over a mile away from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and has become a premier destination in town for great beer, exceptional food, and live events. They've gone the extra mile to deliver their community a locale that satiates many desires and it's helped them become a pillar of Indiana for people of all ages. We start the show learning about how Levity came to be, with Jay and Luke sharing their entrepreneurial aspirations and how it dawned on them that a brewery was the way to chase their passion. We talk about their building, taproom space, brewing capacity, and what their focus is for a beer portfolio. From there, we learn how the Levity crew slowly incorporated food into their operations and grew their menu over time, thus giving visitors a reason to stay longer and never leave hungry. As Jay points out, they could see the drop-off in business after the happy hour times ended to later in the evening until they went full bore with food. Adding food to their initiatives also helped attract additional clientele and we'll learn how Tony and Dave have cultivated a menu packed with delicious choices for consumers to tear into.Finally, the guys discuss how they host live events at their space and share some tips and pointers one should consider when starting a brewery or looking to interject food and live events into their practices. Again, with so many options at a consumer's disposal today, providing multiple reasons to make someone feel at home is critical to repeat business.Connect with Levity Brewing on the World Wide Web:Website | Facebook | Instagram | TwitterMUSIC CREDIT: All music in today's show is courtesy of our friends at purple-planet.com

SESSION SUMMARY: In Session 6 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, host Jason Cercone is joined by Dennis Hock, Founder of Strange Roots Experimental Ales, and Bert Mooney, Director of Operations at Strange Roots, to discuss the ins and outs of rebranding. In 2017 and stemming into 2018, the Strange Roots brand underwent a complete company rebrand from their original name, Draai Laag Brewing. In this Session, Dennis and Bert share some what it took to execute the rebrand effectively.Before breaking into rebranding, Jason, Dennis, and Bert discuss the evolution of Draai Laag/Strange Roots, their foundation as a traditional farmhouse brewery utilizing only wild yeast to produce their beers, and how they've grown an incredibly loyal fan base by staying true to their original motives and continuing to push boundaries with their wild, sour offerings. If you are considering initiating a rebrand, you'll want to listen to this session of the podcast to determine if A) it's the right move for your company and, if it is B) what areas you'll need to focus on to execute your rebrand.Hook up with Strange Roots on your favorite corner of the web:Website | Twitter | Instagram | FacebookMUSIC CREDIT: All music on this session of the Breaking Brews Podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com

SESSION SUMMARY: In Session 5 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, Jason Cercone covers some basic social media tips and strategies that all beer brands of any size can implement immediately. The three networks covered in this session are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. There's not a lot of technical detail shared about these platforms (that will be covered in future episodes of the show with emphasis on one network per show), but some basic principles are discussed and can be utilized if you're looking to bolster your social media presence. Jason's two biggest principles with social media are as follows:No matter what your posting strategy is, do it consistently.Social media should be fun. So...have fun!This episode covers some basics of each network, why a consistent approach will help your brand visibility in the grand scheme, how you can compartmentalize each network to get the most return on your time and money, some trends of social media that will never change and will help your practices as you adhere to them, and much more.Connect with Breaking Brews online:Website | Twitter | Facebook | InstagramMUSIC CREDIT: All music in this session is courtesy of purple-planet.com

SESSION SUMMARY: In Session 4 of the Breaking Brews Podcast, Jason Cercone is joined by Ian Staab, Co-Owner and Brewer at Yellow Bridge Brewing Company in Delmont, PA, to discuss one of the biggest phenomenons in the craft beer industry today: cans. Without question, cans have helped put many breweries on the map with sleek label art, increased accessibility, ability to be transported, and, of course, because of the great liquid inside. There are numerous advantages to cans and many breweries are factoring in cans to their initial business plans today. We start off the show hearing about Ian's background, then learn about how Yellow Bridge came to life in 2016. From there, Ian shares how he and his crew started canning beer around their one-year anniversary and haven't looked back. They've tried many methods of canning and have invested in a canning line that helps them get 20+ cases of beer ready for consumers to grab on-the-go. We talk about how this has helped generate additional revenue in their taproom and has resulted in increased brand exposure for Yellow Bridge as their beer has landed in various parts of the country it normally wouldn't thanks to the trade market. If your brewery is considering canning or looking to improve current practices, this is the podcast for you. Catch up with Ian and Yellow Bridge online:Website | Twitter | Instagram | FacebookMUSIC CREDIT: Music in this session is courtesy of purple-planet.com

SESSION SUMMARY: Session 2 of the Breaking Brews Podcast is all about the Cicerone! Host Jason Cercone is joined by Brian Reed, one of only 18 Master Cicerones in the world, to discuss many aspects of the program, including Brian's plight to obtain his Master level certification, how the Cicerone program is helping men and women understand beer on a higher level, and how they can pass along that knowledge to consumers at bars, restaurants, and taprooms. FROM THE CICERONE WEBSITE: The Cicerone Certification Program certifies and educates beer professionals in order to elevate the beer experience for consumers. The program has four levels:LEVEL 1: Certified Beer Server - First-level certification for those who work with beerLEVEL 2: Certified Cicerone - Certification for professionals dedicated to beerLEVEL 3: Advanced Cicerone - A designation of distinctive expertise and tasting skillLEVEL 4: Master Cicerone - The ultimate test of beer expertiseIf you've been considering taking the Cicerone and would like to learn more about the program, visit www.cicerone.org. The first level is highly recommended for beer servers to gain a better understanding of the liquid they're presenting to customers. Connect with Brian online!Twitter | Instagram MUSIC CREDIT: All music in today's session is courtesy of purple-planet.com.

SESSION SUMMARY: It's the world premiere of the Breaking Brews Podcast! This show is focused on the business side of the craft beer industry. Each session will bring you scenarios, experiences, and banter from industry professionals that will help you improve upon your day-to-day practices. Or, if you're a beer enthusiast, you'll gain a better understanding of the subject at hand to build upon your appreciation for the thriving landscape of beer. To kick things off, host Jason Cercone sat down with Zack Morrow, co-owner and head brewer at Noble Stein Brewing Company in Indiana, PA. Noble Stein has been going strong for 2+ years and Zack took some time to share some of the tips and strategies he and his partners practiced when getting their brewery off the ground. We start the show hearing about Zack's background and discovery of craft beer. From there, we delve into how the idea of Noble Stein Brewing came about and how Zack and crew brought things to life, including discussion on picking a location, managing start-up capital, gaining community acceptance, and adjusting to commercial equipment. We round out the session with Zack covering some of his top Do's and Dont's that you should consider if you're thinking of starting your own brewery.Connect with Noble Stein Brewing on the World Wide Webs:Website | Twitter | Instagram | FacebookMUSIC CREDIT: All music heard in today's session comes courtesy of purple-planet.com

SESSION SUMMARY: The Breaking Brews Podcast makes its debut (ish) with a special sneak preview of the first five sessions, all of which will go live the week of March 4th. In this introductory episode, you will get a feel for what the show is all about: a strong focus on the business side of beer with stories, experiences, and real-world scenarios discussed by industry professionals. Beer industry professionals and beer enthusiasts alike will be able to walk away from each session having learned something to help them in their day to day relationships with the world's greatest adult beverage.The introductory session has clips from Sessions 1-5, featuring the following:Session 1 - Zack Morrow from Noble Stein Brewing discusses some do's and dont's you'll want to consider when opening a brewery. Full session debuts Monday, March 4th.Session 2 - Master Cicerone Brian Reed gives us an in-depth look at the Cicerone Certification Program. Full session debuts Tuesday, March 5th.Session 3 - Lauren Baker, Production Manager at North Country Brewing, talks about her role in helping the brewery grow, both internally and externally. Full session debuts Wednesday, March 6th.Session 4 - Ian Staab, Co-Founder of Yellow Bridge Brewing, talks about how canning their beer has helped increase their exposure and strengthen the bottom line. Full session debuts Thursday, March 7th.Session 5 - Jason Cercone, Founder & CEO of Breaking Brews and host of the Breaking Brews Podcast, shares some easy-to-implement social media marketing tips and strategies. Full session debuts Thursday, March 8th. MUSIC CREDIT: "Hot Rod" and "Big Vision" courtesy of purple-planet.com

We’re live from P1 listener, Loran Sekely’s house for this week's’ Panthers preview show. As the cats head up to Pittsburgh to beat the Steelers, we’re sitting in Loran’s living room talking about all things Pittsburgh. From the famous Primanti Bros sandwiches to one of Pittsburgh’s finest breweries- Dancing Gnome. We have a great conversation with Dancing Gnome’s Ryan Janusko and Scott Mitchell back when there were in Charlotte for Resident Culture’s CANnaversay Party. We also hear from Jason Cercone who runs Breaking Brews. So grab your terrible towel and belly up to this week’s Cheers Charlotte NFL rundown. The post NFL Week Ten – Cheers, Pittsburgh! appeared first on Cheers Charlotte Radio | Craft Beer and Homebrew Podcast.

This week Adam, Steve and Dennis are joined by Pittsburgh Libations Week organizer and Breaking Brews siterunner Jason Cercone. We talk about the upcoming PLW Kick Off Bash as well as what we can expect from Pittsburgh Libations Week. Then Jason takes over the show in preparation for the return of Over A Couple of Beers and interviews the Hop Nation USA hosts. Finally, we put Jason on the spot again in honor of WWE Evolution and have him pair female wrestlers with some of his favorite beers. All the while they review seasonal Oktoberfest offerings. Beers:Shiner OktoberfestOtter Creek/Camba Bavaria OktoberfestRusty Rail Noktoberfest

An early examination into all things Philly-related makes for an entertaining opening to the latest Drinking Partners release. Jason Cercone, founder of Breaking Brews – a Pittsburgh-focused craft beer blog and website dedicated to highlighting and promoting the libations culture and community – joins Ed and Day as the talk switches to the Steel City and the thriving alcohol industry. Mr. Cercone’s goal, and one that the Drinking Partners enthusiastically support, is the make Pittsburgh a “drinking destination.” In support of that, he has founded Pittsburgh Libations Week, a year-long celebration with its inaugural week set for October 12 – October 20, 2018, an event that will educate and enhance those who sip anything crafted in Pittsburgh. The interview is a dynamic and thorough look into how both Mr. Cercone and the Drinking Partners have been advancing the idea of Pittsburgh as a “boozy” city. For anyone who enjoys any of the city’s craft creations, this is a must listen. For more information about Pittsburgh Libations week, visit https://www.pittsburghlibationsweek.com.

Podcast 11 - Triple IPA Night! Jake with a countdown to start Jake is drinking a Fort Point from Trillium Beer #1 - Pew, Pew, Pew : Aslin Beer Company (Herndon, VA) (12.8% Triple IPA) - very sweet, lots of booze Alex, Sara and Nick give a quick rundown of @BreweriesinPA 's event #PhillyInvadesPittsburgh. We won a 4 pack of Levante Brewing (West Chester, PA) - Color Run (another triple!) The group discusses snack foods at length. Alex really hates Combos. Thanks to Steve at Spoonwood Brewing (Pittsburgh, PA) for hooking us up with extra beers from the fest and some brewery news for the upcoming Coheed and Cambria show! (July 22, 2018) Jake fires off some categories about the fest: Best Beer: Alex - Peachy McPeachface (Free Will Brewing Co. - Perkasie, PA) Sara and Nick: The End (2SP Brewing - Aston, PA) Coolest Representatives: Breweries In PA Favorite brewery who gave out a Cease and Desist order 10 minutes into the fest: Tired Hands (Ardmore, PA)! Tuned Up Brewing (Spring City, PA) has a sweet festival tap system. Jake went to Trillium (Canton, MA)! His description is focused on his look, the feel of the brewery and he got quite a fright from a 30th birthday party. Beer #2: Sugar-Coated Pony Kisses - Stable 12 Brewing (Pheonixville, PA) Smooth drinking, 5.8% IPA with lactose sugar Falconers Flight, Mosaic and Mandarina Bavaria hops. Very citrusy nose, smooth, sweet and crisp. We talk architecture and the industrial feel in bigger breweries. Jake wants to branch out to smaller, less known breweries, stay tuned! Check out our friend Jason with Breaking Brews, click the link below! Nick, Alex and Sara went out after the beer fest. Dancing Gnome (Sharpsburg, PA) was the first stop (DUHHHHH) - Warm Hand Splash(DIPA) released Saturday, Pharmakon(APA) released Wednesday, then Grist House (Millvale, PA) for dinner with Pgh Burrito Bus and Kaboom Candy (Fruited Sour) and Llucid Llama (DIPA)! Beefy is our new adjective for beer. Segment of the Week: Don't Be That Guy! Beer Releases; Plan ahead and schedule or surprise announcement? Beer #3: Color Run - Levante Brewing (West Chester, PA) We like the style of the can. Well balanced, but Sara didn't think it was beefy enough. Next week, we'll have guests! Brent, member of B.A.S.H. (Butler Area Society of Homebrewers), will be on to talk about their upcoming event - 10th annual BrewersFest at Cooper's Lake! More fun segments to come in the following weeks and we'll take suggestions. This week's links! Breweries In PA: http://www.breweriesinpa.com/ Breaking Brews on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/breakingbrews/ 10th Annual Brewers Fest @ Coopers Lake: https://www.cooperslake.com/clchome/eventdetails.php?clceventid=4cd82c00-d53a-11e7-8f7e-1f00a025d8cb

This week Sam, Adam, and Steve are joined by craft beer connoisseur and marketer Jason Cercone. He sits down with the boys to discuss Breaking Brews, Pittsburgh Libations week, the ever growing Pittsburgh craft beer scene as well as the growing localization of all adult beverages. Then the whole show gets silly and they ask Jason to pair beers with WWE stars past and present. All the while, they drink and review new can releases from local brewers in the Pittsburgh Area. Beers:Grist House Double Edged Sword DDH DIPAHitchhiker Cococcino Coffee PorterDancing Gnome Beyond Infinity DIPA

https://images.fireside.fm/podcasts/images/1/1c2e964e-6fbf-4dd7-acc7-fb9bf726a856/episodes/e/ef3ccef0-d7ea-4ad2-bd14-c1b1e25d9da8/header.jpg Pittsburgh's champion of craft beer passed away suddenly last week. Because of his 20+ years of hard work and dedication to educate and promote craft beer in the area you are drinking better beer. In his memory here is a re-release of when Tony asked me to co-host Beer School with him in 2009. “If they aren’t serving good beer in heaven, they will be soon.” - Scott Smith of East End Brewing Co. Please take a moment and read his incredible obituary in which only Bob Batz Jr. could sum up our feelings and his legacy. - http://bit.ly/TheBeermanObit Beers Victory Festbier, Dogfish Head Punkin, Brewdog Punk IPA, Troegs Java Head Stout Tribute to Tony live recording Jason Cercone recorded a tribute show to Tony at Piper's Pub. You can find the show on his website Breaking Brews. Follow SIDT Twitter & Periscope - @sidt Facebook Page- shouldidrinkthat Facebook Group - shouldidrinkthat YouTube - shouldidrinkthat Instagram - shouldidrinkthat Google+ - +shouldidrinkthat SnapChat - sidtbeer Untappd - spoon Special Guest: Tony "The Beerman" Knipling.

https://images.fireside.fm/podcasts/images/1/1c2e964e-6fbf-4dd7-acc7-fb9bf726a856/episodes/f/f9918e0e-4f87-4fd3-b0d4-7d8ca3f194b4/header.jpg Where in the world has Spoon been? Find out now! Links N'at Drinking Partners - http://epicastnetwork.com/partnerspod Breaking Brews Power Hour - http://breakingbrews.com/ Yinz Love BBQ - http://www.yinzlovebbq.com/ Follow SIDT Twitter - @sidt Facebook Page- shouldidrinkthat Facebook Group - shouldidrinkthat YouTube - shouldidrinkthat Instagram - shouldidrinkthat Google+ - +shouldidrinkthat SnapChat - sidtbeer Untappd - spoon

From the Natty Brohs archives: Woah! Deadspin broke the news today that Manti Te’o’s “dead” girlfriend was all a hoax and never existed or died. This story is a crazy puzzle with so many questions, so the Natty Brohs picked this as an opportunity to break down the story from all angles. Can we make sense of this story? Who might have been behind it? And who were the Brohs and Fauxes? We go through the news we know and of course cover the best tweets of the day. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/zach-brooks/message

From the Natty Brohs archives: Zach and Anthony are joined by Star Wars expert Brendan to talk about today’s Breaking Brews that Disney will buy the rights to Lucasfilms and Star Wars. Disney will start production on a sequel almost immediately for a 2015 release. Was the move a Broh or a Faux and hear their predictions for Episodes 7, 8 and 9. Follow Brendan @fitzybrendan for more expert geek analysis. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/zach-brooks/message

From the Natty Brohs archives: Covering the big referee controversy in the NFL this Monday. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/zach-brooks/message