Podcasts about great fermentations

Gabe Jackson from The Beverage People is here today with Steve Jaxon, Mark Carpenter and Herlinda Heras. Plus, later in the show we have a phone call from Tara Nurin, from New Orleans. The Beverage People is a retailer that has all the supplies, ingredients, equipment and instruction for home brewing and for making other foods at home, including wine, cider, mead, cheese, olive oil. Home brewing was legalized in 1979. The company started in San Rafael, as Great Fermentations then created a second location in Santa Rosa in 1980. They changed the name to The Beverage People in the mid 1980s. They have classes on brewing, winemaking, cider making, cheesemaking, etc. They sell a beer kit for a 5-gallon batch of home brewed beer. They have brought the brewing tank to the studio, and also some hops and cold live yeast. They sell small amounts of ingredients and they pack yeast especially for 5-gallon batches. There are short and long classes all the time on all their subjects. If you have an olive tree you can harvest the fruit and process the olives at home. You can do Greek style (the dry salt method, -ed.) or with lye. (There is also a brine process.) Tara Nurin calls in from New Orleans, at Tales of the Cocktail. It is the biggest cocktail party and bartender convention in the world. There are seminars and parties and tastings, all for the community of people who work in the beverage business. They are actually talking about preventing sexual harassment, inclusivity, mental health and wellness in the restaurant community.

Masks in the grain room is just part of the plan for Great Fermentations master plan to help their customers brew the beer they want to brew.

After hanging out at Pies and Pints 2019 earlier this year and Jordan & Griswold stopping by for some happy hour libations the week before, we were finally able to get the Pigs together for a visit to Mashcraft Fishers....and it was well worth the visit.    We walked up to the counter, looked at the board and said...."We need one of each".  That's where the fun began.  We greedily took flights of every beer they had on the menu.  Everyone was especially astonished by the IIPA LUPU Imperial IPA boasting a 10.1% ABV but you would never guess it was a 10% brew and we had to double check we had the right beer.    We ran through the gamut of beers on tap and eventually David the general manager joined us after getting back from another event they had been supporting in the community.   Tune in to hear all about the many tasty, clean brews and then stop on in to wet your whistle and dine on some of the great food also available at Mashcraft.   Shout outs: Blakes Cider, The Bier Brewery, Pies and Pints, Briarscratch, Kopacetic Beer Factory, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, Untappd, New Holland Brewing Company, Anchorage Brewing Company, Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery, Jonathon Mullens, Final Gravity, Great Fermentations, Taxman   After the show, start filling your own Tavour crate at https://about.tavour.com.    Cheers!   Be sure to check us out Sundays on Indy In-Tune. www.indyintune.com   Members of the Hopped Up Network. An ever-growing group of independent beer podcasts. Dedicated to providing insight into our local craft beer communities.   www.hoppedupnetwork.com

Tony Magee, the founder of Lagunitas Brewing Company visited Brew Ha Ha back on Nov. 14, 2014 for on-air interview with Steve Jaxon. Steve is in the studio with Joe Tucker, who was his co-host on the show at the time. Steve began by asking Tony Magee to tell the story of how he got started in the brewing business. Tony Magee began, “It was Christmas 1992 and my little brother got me a home brewing kit for a Christmas present, and I brewed it in January, drank it in February. It was a California Common Beer, an Anchor Steam sort of variety, drank it in February and was immediately smitten. I had never even considered brewing before that.” Steve asked Tony Magee if he had been a beer drinker before that. “Only at Marin Brewing Company. That was my singular connection to beer. Out there in the world I would pick up Red Tail Ales at the liquor store, they were essential to everything. So I brewed that batch in February and I said that’s it, I’m in, and by December I had the brewery open. ...a week later I went and got another batch from Great Fermentations that used to be there in San Rafael, and brewed it, but it wasn’t even done fermenting before I just wanted to try another batch. And so the next thing you know I had five batches going and all of a sudden you’re bottling and you’ve got more beer than you know what to do with in the house and you start trying to give it away. And so I did and after a little bit, people were liking it and so I thought, well how do I go about selling this? And what I was doing before this was a little bit less than satisfying, so I wanted to get away from it.” Knowing that the story went a long way farther after that point, Steve asked how that step from home to Lagunitas was made. “Well, it was the kitchen, … and then I burned up a stove, and moved out to the deck, then I thought I’d get a license to do it out here on the deck, and I’ll sell these kegs one five gallon keg at a time. I filled out all the paperwork for the ABC to get a license, and only then talked to the County and the County said, “Uh, we’re never going to let you have a commercial brewery in your house. Are you kidding me?” And so I quickly, I didn’t want to redo all the paperwork, and all the paperwork said “Lagunitas” on it and so I was like, all right, I’m keeping the name, cuz I like the name…” And from that point, “This is Game On. This is no longer going to be just a cabinet shop making one piece of furniture at a time, you know? Now, it’s got to be something else, and that sort of kicked me over the edge, that little nudge over that cliff, so bigger space, we need to sell more beer, that means I’ve got to hire another guy, which means I’ve got to sell more beer, which means I’ve got to hire more guys, which means you’ve got to sell more beer, and you’re off to the races! I describe it in the book as being chased down the street by a pack of wild dogs. You don’t slow down or look behind you because if you stop, they catch you." Steve noted, “...the book is available everywhere, it’s unbelievable, you must check it out, it’s the whole story of Lagunitas, written by the founder, Tony Magee. Tony Magee continued with the Lagunitas story. “We began bottling in 1995 which was kind of the beginning of the bubble for Craft, that lasted about 5 or 6 years into 2001, before really, there were too many breweries. There were too many breweries making poor beer. There were too many breweries trying to grow too fast. There was too much easy money in the industry. Just like the dot com bubble, the same thing happened to Craft. And so that’s what we were born into. Because that’s what we were born into, we had to become very good students of what beer lovers wanted to drink. Because what they had in front of them apparently wasn’t what they wanted. So we had to find new flavors, and we did.” Joe Tucker asked, "You just mentioned the flavors that are important to the brewery.

Papa Smurf, Tex Mex and Jordan travel to a land far away called Muncie where we find a hidden little gem known as New Corner Brewing. As we walk through the office and head to "what's behind the next door" it feels as though we are transported back in time to a true speakeasy. We sit down with the Owner Shawn Brady and his go to man Mark Watson. It is a fun, humorous, and informative roller coaster of an episode. We get to sample numerous amazing beers from these guys. We get to sample beer cheese from Tulip Tree Creamery and Beer Pickles. I think we touch on almost every topic. Do you know who made Heimdall's Sword in Thor? Do you know the secret to making pickles with beer? The answers to these and many more questions lie just ahead in this episode of Blind Pig Confessions. Shout-outs to:  Bier Brewery, Great Fermentations, Tulip Tree Creamery, Sky Hope Acres, O'malley's (Weston Missouri) (sp), Broad Ripple Brew Pub, Jonathon Mullens, Ron Smith, Redemption, Winterfest, David DelaGardelle (Cedar Lore Forge), Griswold, Liberty Street, Andy Brading (came in did all the work ). Elm Street, Guardian, Wick's Pies, Alley's Alehouse, Mel, and Funkatorium

Our favorite Dead Squirrels, Jim and Donny, stop by Alley's Alehouse to tell the boys about their upcoming, fifth album, SQ1RL5.  Squirrel fans will not be disappointed and will quickly notice the deeper riffs, (with the help new drummer, Rocky Rodriquez) and some of the best song writing to date.  We got sneak peaks of a few tracks from the new album: We start the show with a snippet of U Gotta Lotta Nerve and they take us out at the end with Calabash Joe.  Not only do these fine gents like to jam, but they also won us over for their love of beer.  They are sponsored by one of the only big boys which works with and not against the craft brew scene, the one and only Pabst Blue Ribbon.  And when they join the boys at the round table, they have no problem digging into some craft beers.  Always a pleasure, Jim and Donny once again helped to provide a night of great conversation, laughter, and a lot of beer drinking.  So tune into hear more about the work that went into SQ1RL5 and be sure to join us at Alley's Alehouse on June 30th for The Dead Squirrels 5th Album Release Party. Cheers! http://www.thedeadsquirrels.com/ Shout outs in this episode:  Chris Burch; Sam Ash School of Rock; Redemption Alewerks; Nuvo; Great Fermentations of Indiana; Nick Wengler; The Stranger        

What a treat is was to be invited back once again to cover Indiana's Next Hop Model hosted by Indiana On Tap and Nuvo.  Another solid evening of beautiful brews and brewery models. but Dan Gohr of Redemption Alewerks once again stole the show and kept hold of his crown.  And hopefully all who made it were able to stop by the Redemption table and try some of our Blind Pig/Redemption collaboration brew, Sooey Saison.  Tune in to this exiting hour of the Blind Pigs as we took time between beers to talk to some of the folks including:  Eric Fear and Mackenzie Schenk of Round Town Brewery(look for the upcoming show recently recorded at Round Town); the man, Sean Hopenstein Manahan of the Kopacetic Beer Factory; Wooden Bear Brewing Co.; WZPL's Nikki Reed, Colin McCloy of Taxman; Old man Jerry of The Bier Brewery; and Mr. Mathew Muncy from the Indiana On Tap Podcast who were also our recording neighbors for the evening.  Lots of Shout outs including:  Josh Springer(or as Jordan refers to as, Chris...we still don't know why, but thank you, Mathew for calibrating him) of Bottoms Up Beer; Quaff On Brewing; Chilly Water Brewing Co.; Great Fermentations; Brian Graham of Four Day Ray Brewing; The Indiana Whiskey Co.; Metazoa Brewing Company; Evil Czech Brewing and Public House, Crooked Ewe Brewery & Ale House; Fiddler's Hearth; and Bare Hands Brewing(soon to be open in South Bend as well as Granger) Cheers! http://www.indianaontap.com/ http://www.nuvo.net/      

Our first encounter with those tasty brews from Grand Junction Brewery was at the 2016 Noblesville Brewfest, and boy were we pleased. Owner, Jon Knight, knew he didn’t want to mess with fancy, dancy, new fangled brews.  He wanted to get back to the basics and make good clean beers inspired by his rich European heritage the way they did in the past. So he joined forced with Head Brewer, Shawn Kessel, and went to work and have quickly made the young Grand Junction Brewing Co. one of the most sought after and successful breweries in the state. We had the pleasure of being invited to a special VIP night to sit with Jon, Sean, and assistant brewer, Mike Hofferman, have a few brews and learn more about this wondrous brewing company nestled in downtown Wesfield.    As usual, humor quickly ensues as we devour some fantastic GJ brews, the Orange Bird on a Boat Double IPA, Radio Moscow Imperial Stout, and the perfect Imperfect Backside Stout.  Tune in for the fun and learn more about Jon and Sean’s beginnings into the beer scene and how you can become a member to a special VIP Grand Junction club which has some marvelous benefits. Not only are they making solid brews, they are giving back to the community who is showing so much support for them.  You could feel and love and cheer in the room coming from the packed house of local VIP members.  We bellied up to the bar after the show and had a chance to meet some of the local patrons and hear some of their favorite Grand Junctions stories.  It was a difficult place to leave at the end of the night.  We weren’t able to thank them or their patrons enough for such a fun night and we can’t wait to get back there again.  Lots of shout outs this week including:  Jonathon Mullins and Broad Ripple Brewbub, Chris Knott and Flix Brewhouse, Andrew Castner of Mashcraft Brewing, Anita Johnson and Great Fermentations, The Ram, Chris Bly and Central State Brewing, Dan and Jerry of The Bier Brewery, Brian Graham and Four Day Ray, and of course, Mr. Dan Gohr of Redemption Alewerks   And a big thanks to Mr. Robert Rolfe Feddersen for letting us use his music to end the show.  The big man with the bigger heart, who, like the Pigs, loves this special Indiana craft beer scene.  Check out his page (http://www.robertrolfefeddersen.com/) and find out where you can see him live. http://www.grandjunctionbrewing.com/  

We always look forward to our talks with Jerry.  Bier Brewery's owner and house comedian, Jerry Connor, always brings good conversation. . . and delicious beer.  Sitting with the Pigs back home at Alley's Alehouse, Jerry does some well deserved gloating from Bier's recent Gold Medal award won at the World Beer Cup which is becoming a standard from this Indy brewery.   It's not always just fun and games on BPC, and this week we get into some serious discussions. . . about belly naval beer and Dougy's tasty stache.  Although Cowboy was unable to attend this week's round table, Jerry took his abuse out on poor Pat who had to be taught the hidden meaning behind Bier Brewery's Track Bier.  As usual, we express our love for American craft brews (our despise of Bud) while sipping on some Bier Brewery brews with a number of shout outs on this week's show including our partners over at Great Fermentations, Indianapolis Girl Pint Out, and our good friends down south at BriarScratch Brewing.  Cheers! 

WZPL's Nikki Reed of the Smiley Morning Show joins the Pigs for a hysterical craft beer fueled evening of adult conversation. Tune in to hear about some of the events she has coming up this summer including the 99.5 WZPL Birthday Bash and the after party at Revel Nightclub with a Meet & Greet with Charlie Puth, hosted by Nikki. We review a few beers, Widmer Brothers Hefe and Moldelo Pacifico, and Nikki suggest we brew some rabbit beer. Too much to mention here, so you'll just have to turn up the knob and hear about Jordan's boozy tomatoes, edible 6packs, Strip and Go Naked, and Emily Grounds of Nuvo Promotions crashes the show. Shout outs to The Bier Brewery, Great Fermentations, and Nuvo's upcoming Burger Week that will dive into in much more detail on next week's episode.

We have been asked for months by fans when the hell were we going to start brewing.  Well, the time is finally here.   Thanks to our new sponsors at Great Fermentations of Indiana, the Pigs are now, not just talking smack about other people's beer, but walking the walk and producing our own Blind Pig Confessions brews.  And we could not have done it without the expertise help from Great Fermentations, the largest supplier of craft beer and wine supplies in the state. They have everything one needs, whether they are the beginner looking to brew as a hobby in the garage, or the experienced novice brewing on a large scale.  Not only do they have everything needed to brew, but they also provide many classes on the finer points of brewing and wine making.    Join us the evening for a fun, yet quite informative journey with the owner of Great Fermentations, Anita Johnson. We had a great time talking shop while enjoying some beers made at Fermentations.  If you're not brewing your own beer now, you will be after this episode.  Check out Great Fermentations and tell 'em the Pigs sent you.  (A few shout outs in this episode to their neighbors, The Bier Brewery, Journeyman Distillery, and Evil Czech Brewery and Public House.)