Podcasts about herlinda

Ned Lawson from Ethic Ciders is here with Dana Glei from the Gravenstein Apple Fair on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. We featured Ned Lawson and Ethic Ciders on this episode back on August 1, 2024, before last year's Gravenstein Apple Fair. Herlinda calls the fair "the cutest little country fair" with old-fashioned attractions and lots of fun. The music lineup is on this page of the website. The Gravenstein Apple Fair takes place at Ragle Ranch Park in Sebastopol on August 9th & 10th. The craft cider tent started with just a few producers and this year there will be 18 different local producers there. The only rule at the fair is that the apples have to be grown locally, from within 100 miles. Ethic Ciders New Lawson started Ethic Ciders 10 years ago and opened the tasting room a year and a half ago. They are "orchard to glass" and they "do the whole thing right there." Ethic Ciders also makes a brandy (called a Pommeau in French) and a non-alcoholic product. They are also starting to produce a cider vinegar tonic. They make it not by de-alcoholizing cider. Instead, they start with apple cider vinegar and add lycee, lemon balm and hibiscus. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Ethic makes a cider called 1870. In the Gold Rush era, homesteaders planted a lot of apples in the area. As the Gold Rush waned, some of those orchards fell into disrepair. Then these apples were rediscovered later. Visit our sponsor Pizzaleah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu and the most authentic flavors around!

Dr. Ron is here with Docta-Ron beer, along with Natalie and Vinny Cilurzo on Brew Ha Ha with Herinda Heras and Steve Jaxon. Natalie and Vinny Cilurzo from Russian River Brewing Company are in the studio with guests from New Zealand. Brent McGlashen is a fifth-generation New Zealand hop grower. He and Vinny spent today brewing the test batch of a special beer they will release later this year. Also in the studio is Dr. Ron Beatson who is the most famous New Zealand hops expert, and David Biondi, who represents New Zealand hops in the US. The beer Docta-Ron is named after Dr. Ron. Their special beer will use a new variety of hops called NZ-109. It has taken ten years in development. The special brew will use this new variety of hops that they nicknamed “Juicy.” The California Lake Cluster was imported to NZ in 1897. New Zealand wanted to produce hops that were different. They only produce about 1.5% of the world hops crop, so they need to be special and different. Vinny says they love NZ hops. He compares them to NZ Sauvignon Blancs which have their own intense flavors compared to the same grapes grown anywhere else in the world. These hops are so potent that a little goes a long way. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Herlinda tells about how her father, who was in the Navy, says that New Zealand was the most beautiful place he ever visited. New Zealanders have been growing hops for over 200 years. Zed versus Zee New Zealanders follow the British usage of calling the letter Z “zed” where in the US it's “zee.” So Dr. Ron calls it “N Zed one-oh-nine” where we would say NZ-109 with the Z as “zee.” Visit our sponsor Pizzaleah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu and the most authentic flavors around!

Fogbelt Brewing Company owner Paul Hawley is here along with Native American brewer Pedro Mancilla to tell about the return of Red Tail Ale. Hawley, co-founder of Fogbelt Brewing Company is here along with Native American brewer Pedro Mancilla to talk about bringing back Red Tail Ale. Fogbelt is making some of Mendocino Brewing's classic Red Tail Ale. This was the most famous brew early in the craft brewing movement. In the 1980s it was one of the leading new beers. Fogbelt Paul tells how he and Remy Martin started the brewery in 2013 after home brewing for a time. Remy studied brewing at UC Davis. They opened their brewpub on Cleveland Ave in Santa Rosa in 2014, then outgrew that space. They moved production to an offsite warehouse. Then in 2022 they opened the Healdsburg Beer Garden in the red caboose. Pedro Mancilla introduces himself. He is the brewer at Fogbelt Brewing company. He has Native American Ancestors and shares “I am of you and you are of me” in his native language. The Red Tail Hawk in a symbol of wisdom, protection and care for the land. The Red Tail Ale project is more than a beer, it is a celebration of his connection to his heritage. Don Barkley developed the recipe back then for Mendocino Brewing and now he has given the recipe to Fogbelt. Herlinda met Pedro when they were at an event at Anchor Brewing, where Pedro used to work. He was working there and had access to Fritz Maytag's extensive library of books about brewing. She saw him reading a book that was about brewing at that event, so she asked him about it. The owner of Chobani yogurt has purchased Anchor Brewing and its assets, so there are good propects for a return of Anchor Steam and Liberty Ale. There were several other “bird beers” that Mendocino Brewing made. Fogbelt has started with Red Tail Ale but they also plan to bring the others back. These include Eye of the Hawk, Talon, White Hawk, Black Hawk, Blue Heron and Peregrine. Right now, Red Tail Ale is available at the big local retailers, such as Oliver's, Tip Top, Wilibees, Bottle Barn and others. Fogbelt has the distribution rights so they are in charge of that. Cascade and Cluster hops, caramel malt for the amber red hue and the taste as well. Herlinda judges it “delicious.”  

James Pardieu and Richard McChinak, co-chairmen of the Battle of the Brews 2025 join Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha. Richard was in the studio last year on this episode to promote the same event. Battle of the Brews 2025 will be Saturday April 12 from 1-5 PM at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. This year marks the 25th annual event. It is sponsored by the Active 20-30 Club of Santa Rosa, a charity organization for persons between age 20 and 39. Members age out at 40, so there are always new people on the scene. More than half of the event is about BBQ now. There is also cider, Kombucha and mead. Herlinda is judging the beer competition in the morning, for the 11th or 12th year. The first time she remembers being the only female judge, but that's not the case anymore. Admission is $95 which includes all you can eat and all you can drink, responsibly! All the money raised goes to serve underprivileged youth in Sonoma County. Last year they raised over $72,000 and they have totaled over 1.5 million dollars over the last several years. The club uses the funds they raise for many local charities targeting youth. The have contributed to the Children's Museum of Sonoma County. Each member also participates in shopping for school supplies, benefiting over 200 kids last time. There are constant needs. "If there's a need, we're here to fill it.” Each chapter has their own area that they support. Visit our sponsor Pizzaleah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu and the most authentic flavors around!

The Cuvers. Hendrik Cuver and his wife Amber Cuver, from CuVer Brewery in Windsor, join Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha today. They are here to talk about their Windsor, California brewery where they specialize in Belgian beer. Hendrik was on this episode of Brew Ha Ha back on September 16, 2021, when they were just opening the brewery. He was also on this episode on May 5, 2022, a year and a half later. Also today, Harry Duke will be calling in live from Russian River Brewing Co. in Windsor. The Pliny the Younger public event is in full swing there. His portion of this live radio show will be on this separate podcast episode page, to allow each guest to have their own audio and podcast indexing. Cuver's Origin Hendrick and his father were used to drinking Belgian beers when they immigrated to California in 2012. A year later they started home brewing in order to have the beer that they wanted. They continued doing that while Hendrick was back in Belgium getting his Master's degrees in Biochemistry. Then when St. Florian's brewery came up for sale, they made the purchase. The history of Cuver Brewery and the two families that founded it are closely intertwined. Hendrick invited his fiancée Amber and her family to meet his family at Thanksgiving. Amber's father Reed Cushing became a partner in the brewery. When Hendrick and Amber got married, they changed their surnames to Cuver, derived from combining Cushing and Verspecht. Read the whole story on the Cuver website, on this page. Visit our sponsor Pizzaleah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu and the most authentic flavors around!

Wade Johnson and Justin Bowman from Oliver's Markets and Erin Latham from Moonlight Brewing Co. join Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha. Wade Johnson is the head of the gourmet cheese department at Oliver's Market. Justin Bowman is the beer and spirits manager at Oliver's Market in Cotati. Erin Latham is here from Moonlight Brewing Co. She has brought their We Love LA beer to taste and to describe the fund raising campaign. Erin was also on BHH last year on August 15, along with Brian Hunt, to promote the 32nd Anniversary party. Last week we talked to Andy Link of Common Space Brewery in Los Angeles. They are leading the We Love LA effort. Moonlight's We Love LA Beer Moonlight's We Love LA beer is an American style lager that will be released this Saturday at their taproom. They have a roster of bands and other performers plus food trucks. 3350 Coffee Lane. A portion of the proceeds from the beer sales goes to the United Way Los Angeles. They are also accepting direct donations. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Wade Johnson takes care of cheeses at all the Oliver's stores. He has brought three cheeses to taste today. They are a California-made Gouda, an Irish cheddar and Point Reyes Farmstead Bay Blue. He started at Oliver's in 2010 and “grew up behind the cheese counter.” Visit our sponsor Pizzaleah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu and the most authentic flavors around!

Natalie and Vinny Cilurzo discuss the We Love LA wildfire relief collab beer, with Leah Scurto from PizzaLeah who is sitting in for Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon today. Andy Link will also join us on the phone from Common Space Brewery in Los Angeles. Herlinda Calling from England First, Herlinda Heras calls in from England where it is 1:00 in the morning. Herlinda was on this episode last year about the 2024 edition. She is there for her eleventh year judging the British Pie Awards in Melton Mowbray, about a four-hour train ride north of London. There are 26 categories of pies and all but one are savory pies like fish pie, steak and kidney pie, cold pork pie and many more. This year there 879 pies and 167 judges. Herlinda was the only American judge and she even got an interview on the BBC. They judge in an 800-year-old former church. The English tradition of savory pies extends even to football, rugby and cricket clubs, which have their own team pies. As we would get a hot dog and a beer at a baseball game, they will get a hand pie and a beer for their day at the stadium or grounds. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Herlinda judged the steak and ale category which alone had 67 pies. There is even a gluten-free pie and a vegan pie. Shepherd's pie is different, that has mashed potatoes on it. These pies have to have a full crust on top and bottom. Appearance is important so the pies are decorated on top. The first thing they look for is a soggy bottom, which is a quick DQ. Visit our sponsor Pizzaleah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu and the most authentic flavors around!

Marty Nachel Brew Ha Ha with Herlinda Heras and Steve Jaxon welcomes Marty Nachel, founder and President of the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame. Herlinda has judged beers with him in Mexico. First, Herlinda reminds us of the February 22 Beer City Fest. You can sign up to run in the half marathon, or just come to celebrate and drink beer later. Also, the Santa Rosa Beer Passport promotion is going on. “The American Craft Beer Hall of Fame has been established to honor, celebrate, and commit to history those people who are responsible for initiating, sustaining, and promoting the American craft beer industry. This Hall is to ensure that the memories of their contributions and achievements will not fade with time." – from the American Craft Beer HOF website Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Nominees and Inductees Herlinda Heras and Tara Nurin are on their advisory board. In that role, they each got to nominate ten people for induction. The first nominees have been published and the winners were announced on February 15. Some of them are familiar to us, including Fritz Maytag from Anchor and new Albion founders. Visit our sponsor Pizzaleah in Windsor for the finest pizza menu and the most authentic flavors around!

Herlinda with Dan and Celeste Hanes. Dan and Celeste Hanes from Cooperage Brewing Co., join Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha today. The last time Cooperage was featured on BHH was when Nicholas aka The Fridge was our guest on this episode of May 25, 2023. Cooperage's new location is at 575 Ross St. in downtown Santa Rosa. This place is much larger than their other original one at 981 Airway Court also in Santa Rosa. They have pool, darts, pinball and other kid and dog friendly attractions and there is trivia on Mondays. There are also rotating food trucks outside as well as great beer. First, Herlinda reminds us of the February 22 Beer City Fest. You can sign up to run in the half marathon, or just come to celebrate and drink beer later. Also, the Santa Rosa Beer Passport promotion is going on. Cooperage is a big part of both Beer City and the Santa Rosa Beer Passport promotions. Their new location means they have enough space to throw a big party in the parking lot. So on March 22, they will be throwing a block party in the empty parking lot next door. They will have BBQ, burgers, several bands and local vendors, all at the new downtown location. Their name for it is the Coop Rage party, at least for now. They have a great following and the local community has supported them, so they are glad to be able to do this in their new downtown location. “We want to be part of the re-creation of downtown.” Tyler, Cooperage's brewer, started by working the taps at Whole Foods while people knew he was already brewing great beer by himself. Joe Tucker of RateBeer fame loved Cooperage and said it would be the next great American brewery. They brought three beers today. One is a pale dry ale, called the Crispy Crusher. It is an “affordable, approachable beer.” They keep the price low, $4 or $5 a pint, depending on what time of day. Every Saturday the free beer shuttle is a popular attraction in Santa Rosa. Their hours at the new downtown location are Monday – Thursday from 3:00 to 10:00 PM, Fridays and Saturdays Noon to Midnight, Sundays Noon to 7:00 PM. Their IG will tell you what food trucks are coming and when. Stella says the highlight of her day is to meet all the dogs that come to their dog-friendly locations. The Mexican wrestling is a great show. Next time is Saturday, May 3. The wrestling is a tournament with judges and a champion. Once, Dan's little son panicked because he saw his dad get body slammed and he “lost his marbles” as Mom tells the story. How do you say, “KAYFABE” in Spanish?

Mike Schnebeck from Fort Point Beer Co. in San Francisco is our guest in the studio today on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. Mike was on Brew Ha Ha once before in 2023, on this episode. Herlinda happily reports that Fort Point Beer Co. is actually growing and doing very well. They also are producing cider. And also, today is the eleventh anniversary of the first episode of Brew Ha Ha, back when Herlinda did the show with Joe Tucker. It was four years after that, on Feb. 8, 2018, that this podcast started. Cheers!

Steve, Mark and Herlinda Our former co-host Mark Carpenter is back with us for a visit today on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. His last visit was this episode in July of 2021. For a long time Mark Carpenter was the co-host of this show. He was the brew master at Anchor until he retired. Mark has news about the present status of Anchor Brewing. Sapporo decided to close it but an investor has bought the company and is slowly working on restoring the location and the company. Here is an article from AP news about that. The new owner, Hamdi Ulukaya, has plans to revitalize Anchor Brewing, which everyone agrees is good news. He is the very successful founder of Chobani Yogurt so he is certainly ready and qualified for the job. Mark says he is taking his time about it and has a good approach similar to that of Fritz Maytag, the previous owner who also bought Anchor and revitalized it in the early 1970s when Mark Carpenter started there.  Both Fritz Maytag and Hamdi Ulukaya are openly enthusiastic about the meaning and importance of a business like Anchor as a valuable cultural asset. A Brief History of Anchor Brewing Mark briefly tells the story of how he found Anchor. He had been working for the telephone company. He took a tour of Anchor and liked the place enough to ask for a job. It was a small place and had three employees. Mark considers himself lucky to have been hired and to have found Fritz to be such an enlightened owner who gave Mark a book about brewing and sent him to take brewing courses in Michigan. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more info. Mark has brought a bottle of Truman Royal Ale for Herlinda as a birthday present. It was brewed in England in 1982 to celebrate the birth of Prince William. Anchor Brewing's Liberty Ale was the first modern IPA brewed in the United States. They didn't call it IPA, but it had all of the characteristics. Herlinda's video interview with Mark Carpenter, Tony Magee and Don Barkley is also still on display at the Museum of Sonoma County. It's Herlinda's birthday! Happy Birthday Herlinda!

Herlinda and Stuart. Sake sommelier Stuart Morris is our guest today on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras, with Hachidori Sake. Stuart Morris is a sake sommelier trained in Japan and is a former partner with Kenichi Tominaga of Hana in a sake distribution company. He was a chef “in a previous life” and discovered sake while working in restaurants. He made lots of effort to get to Japan and he learned sake making there. They begin tasting some sake and noticing the flavors. One is light and clean with lemon, cucumber and melon rind flavors. He makes three types of sake, with different rices and yeasts. He became one of the first six non-Japanese people to get the Japanese sake certification. His own label is called Hachidori which means hummingbird in Japanese. Sake brewing is similar to brewing beer. Sake is brewed in a process that is close to beer brewing. It is made from rice, water and koji, a mould. He grows it in an 80-degree humid room, so the temperature needs to be just right. There is a sake museum, the only one in the US, in Berkeley, that shows the history of sake production. The milling of the rice has an effect on the flavor, the more milled, the more delicate the flavor. You have to taste it to understand it. The highest ABV sake is 20%. His mentor in Japan is a 10th generation sake maker. Visit Russian River Brewing Co. on 4th St. and at their Windsor location. Click the logo to visit their website for hours, menus and beers on tap. Stuart worked at Hana where he became friends with the Tominaga family. He later became a partner with Ken in a sake distribution company, before he took the job he has now. These bottles of Hachidori sake are the very first ones that Stuart has produced for sale. They will be rolling out into some retail and restaurants. They will range in price from about $30/35, then one at about $45, then one at about $100. Sake does not age like wine and usually fresher is better. Stuart stores it in a fridge or at a white wine temperature. Sake rice is very high in starch. The more glucose, the more starch, the more elegant style of sake you will get. When Stuart is helping restaurant customers choose sake, he starts by asking them what they like. Some people's wine preferences are a way to predict what sake one would also like. The key is to drink some sake to taste it and find out what you like.

hiveworks mead co. Sean Duckworth, COO and Alexander Mendoza, CEO of Hiveworks Mead Co. are back on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. The last time they were on the show was this episode back on February 22, 2024. Steve Jaxon starts by asking Sean and Alex simply to tell about mead. It is an alcoholic fermented beverage made from honey. Mead is probably the oldest fermented beverage in human history, is gluten free and has tons of flavor, so what's not to love? It takes about six weeks from beginning the brewing process to when it is delivered. Mead is like honey in that it is not perishable. It might lose some of its flavor but it does not go “off.” Herlinda remembers finding great mead in Finland when she was there to judge a beer and Sahti competition. Braggot is a style of mead that can have stronger flavor and higher alcohol, but which also uses grain in its production. The term Honeymoon refers to drinking mead for a month after getting married. Silver Medal Winners in their First Competition They are based in Rohnert Park. One of their products just won a Silver medal in its category in the first competition they have been able to enter. Mead is actually the fastest growing sector of the alcoholic beverage industry today. The TV series Game of Thrones had a lot to do with raising awareness of mead and making it more popular. Since their style of mead is relatively light, that makes it easy for people to try it and get to know it. Their overall style is a Dry mead, with no residual sugar. Some other meads are sweeter and thicker. Another mead is hopped. Their hopped mead is not a braggot because there is no use of grain. Herlinda wants to mention President Carter who signed California Senator Alan Cranston's bill to allow home brewing in the US. That was the one legal change that let the home brewing movement begin. Alex and Sean have known each other since the second grade. They were home brewing in their early twenties. It didn't hurt that they also played a little D&D. So at one point they realized that there was no commercial product similar to their idea. They are expanding their distribution throughout the Bay Area into restaurants and shops. They will double their production capacity in the next year. Watch out for Hiveworks Mead Co.!

Phaedra Achor Flora Luna Apothecary founder Phaedra Achor is back on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras today. Phaedra was also on Brew Ha Ha almost exactly two years ago on this episode on Dec. 22, 2022. There is big news in the beer world. Herlinda reports that RateBeer dot com is closing. Our friend and former co-host Joe Tucker sold it to a big brewing company several years ago. Buying a big beer ratings company, only to shut it down, looks like a corporate power play. There may be buyers who wish to purchase its assets. A lot of site users have postings there that date back many years. There are a lot of stakeholders who have questions. Herlinda will try to get Joe Tucker to come on the show soon to tell us more about it. Flora Luna Apothecary is Phaedra's company that produces botanical bitters, syrups and infusions, for creating uniquely flavorful cocktails and other beverages. Phaedra has a lot to say about holiday cocktails. The first one she is making in the studio today, named Festival of Lights, is a celebration of Hanukkah. It is a gin fizz made with olive oil which gives it a unique flavor and texture. Visit Russian River Brewing Co. on 4th St. and at their Windsor location. Click the logo to visit their website for hours, menus and beers on tap. What Bitters Are Bitters are botanical extracts, made from three components, a bark, a root and an aromatic botanical. Then, when you macerate them in an alcohol base, you extract the bitter compounds. Traditionally they were a medicinal, used to soothe the gut. Angostura bitters are the most famous example. Syrups are similar to bitters but they are more an infusion, with the ingredient cooked in the syrup. Phaedra formulates all the recipes and makes everything herself. Her website has all of her products. Her quarterly subscription box contains seasonal concoctions four times a year. The recipes that come with it can be made with or without alcohol. Flora Luna began in 2015 when Phaedra threw a cocktail party and made five different kinds of bitters for the occasion. They were a hit and some guests were really impressed. This encouraged Phaedra, then she realized that there was interest in cocktails and a lack of great bitters on the market. For the rest of the show they continue tasting and discussing some beautiful craft cocktails.

Jeffery House and Herlinda Heras Jeffery House is back on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras, with news about the company he founded and is back managing now. Jeffery has been on Brew Ha Ha before. His most recent visit was this episode last May, after his book was released. He sold Ace Cider to Vintage Wine Estates which burned through money and declared bankruptcy. He and his sons attempted to buy the brand back. They went to an auction in New York for the assets. They “got pipped at the post” as a third-generation Budweiser distributor had the winning bid. But Jeffery approached them offering his services and they accepted it. Jeffery is confident that in a year or two they should be back to where they were. Jeffery mentions that they had been debt free for five years and their distribution was getting really strong. The consumers have been very loyal. Awareness of the brand is strong and they are happy with the compliments they are receiving now. The Cider King Jeffery House's book The Cider King came out in May. It is his autobiography, tracing his life from England, in the advertising business, coming to America, starting to import British beer into America. He encountered cider while in the beer business. The book goes through all the events from his discovery of the Sebastopol apple orchards to the founding and growth of Ace Cider. Visit Russian River Brewing Co. on 4th St. and at their Windsor location. Click the logo to visit their website for hours, menus and beers on tap. Their ciders range from 5% to 8% ABV but the alcohol is not as prominent in the flavor profile, compared to beer. They discovered a strong demand in the Hispanic market, for example there are about 500 taps of Ace Cider in El Paso, TX. Herlinda mentions that cider is a great choice for holiday meals and also for toasts. Jeffery says you could pour his Joker cider and it will pass for California sparkling wine. Jeffery's wife was in the cantina scene of Star Wars, she was an intergalactic spy smoking a hookah pipe in the bar. In the western part of Britain, cider is a more popular drink than beer. Bretagne, in northwest France, is also the home of cider in France. That is also the land of crepes and their classic combination is any kind of crepes with a glass of cider. Cider is gluten free, low calorie and refreshing. It is also versatile, so you can drink it alone or with anything. Cider is actually made more like wine than beer and is taxed as wine too. You make it in a couple of weeks. You can vintage age it but it doesn't have to undergo all that. It is growing in popularity as people gain awareness of it. That is a different than the trajectory of some of those seltzer drinks. They shot up in popularity then down again (kind of like shaking a can, opening it, getting a big splash, then just a wet mess).

Author Tara Nurin is back on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras, after judging at Bahia Beer in Brazil with Herlinda last week. Tara Nurin and Herlinda Heras were in Bahia, Brazil last week, to be judges at the Bahia Beer Festival of the Brazilian International Beer Awards. They discovered Brazilian drinks and steakhouse style, and did a city tour of Salvador, the capital, too. Bahia is the part of Brazil closest to Africa and since colonial times has had the largest African population. Bahia is not on the main tourist path so the Bahia promoters were very happy to meet the international beer crowd. It also seemed that the locals were actively participating and happy that they were all there. Tara is the author of "A Woman's Place Is In the Brewhouse." She got a standing ovation at the end of a presentation she gave about diversity and wellness in the industry. Herlinda found Brazilian beer flavored with Acerola cherries and a lot of dark beers. There is a type of Brazilian beer called Catarina Sour, from Santa Catarina. Tara found that the overall quality of the Brazilian beers was exceptionally high. Visit Russian River Brewing Co. on 4th St. and at their Windsor location. Click the logo to visit their website for hours, menus and beers on tap. Here is the results page at the Bahia Beer Festival website. (Use the handy Google translate button to read the Portuguese page in English.) They also discovered the Brazilian steakhouse style called churrascaria, which serves all kinds of roasted meats on skewers. There is a large Japanese population there too and they found one churrascaria restaurant that also had a sushi bar. Herlinda reports that a top class resort with unlimited drinks cost only $70 per day. Cashaça is a distilled spirit similar to rum, used to make a cocktail called a Caipirinha. Herlinda brought some back and will make one for Steve soon, but not today. We also hear from Tara Nurin about her plans to offer consulting services focussed on wellness in the beverage industry. After the competition, Herlinda and Tara received this message from the organizers:  "Fellow Judges,  I would like to thank the panel of judges, who played an essential role last week in the 1st BBA – Brazilian International Beer Awards, held in the state of Bahia in Brazil, that already born as the largest international beer competition in Latin America in its first edition.  The numbers reflect the success of the event: 1,060 samples were entered, sent by 188 breweries from 34 countries. In total, 101 breweries were awarded, 86 Brazilian and 15 international.  The 274 medals awarded highlight the excellence of the participating beers:  • 99 gold medals  • 88 silver medals  • 87 bronze medals  Of the total, Brazilian breweries won 229 medals, while international breweries took home 45. See you in March 2025 at CBC BRASIL - Concurso Brasileiro de Cervejas em BALNEÁRIO CAMBORIÚ-SC"

Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras today features a call from Herlinda in Bahia, Brazil, where she is a judge at Bahia Beer, part of the Brazilian International Beer Awards. Mark Carpenter is also joining Steve Jaxon in the studio today. He was head brewer at the now-closed Anchor Brewing for more than four decades. He was also this show's co-host for many years. Herlinda is in Bahia, which is in the north of Brazil. It is a city and region with a mixed history. Since it is the port closest to Africa it was a center of the early slave trade into Brazil. It remains one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the country. There are over 1000 beers up for tasting and judging and about 25 judges. The resort on the beach is delightful and cost only $70 per night. They are judging beers from 8am to 6pm for two consecutive days. Visit Russian River Brewing Co. on 4th St. and at their Windsor location. Click the logo to visit their website for hours, menus and beers on tap. Mark in Romania Mark will have to come back to hear more about Brazil when Herlinda returns. He describes his time in Romania, where everything is less expensive on the exchange. For example, his friend spends $7 per month for TV and cell service. Mark recommends Romania to everyone. The food is great and the people are very friendly. Up in the north the picturesque homes and villages seem stuck in past time.

Michael Young, Kat Prescott and Mike Griffo, Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras enjoying the Thursday Drive Brew Ha Ha. Mike Griffo and Kat Prescott are in from Griffo Distillery in Petaluma on this edition of Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. Jenny Griffo was on the schedule but is not available. Jenny has been on the show before, on this episode of April 18, 2023. Kat is the Griffo Distillery events coordinator. Every weekend they do put on music performances which are kid friendly and dog friendly. They had a sound engineer come in to help them design the room and the acoustics are great. The bands and audiences always appreciate it. Griffo Distillery Gin won "White Spirit of the Year" at the ASCoT Awards.  They serve cocktails that use their spirits and a year-round rotation of seasonal ingredients. You can also purchase a cocktail kit to bring home. Plus, there are cocktails in cans. Their version of a Tom Collins uses a little blood orange juice and cardamom clove syrup from Phaedra Achor's Flora Luna Apothecary. Visit Russian River Brewing Co. on 4th St. and at their Windsor location. Click the logo to visit their website for hours, menus and beers on tap. “We are driven to lift and defy expectations of flavor through ingenuity and precision and to enliven moments of togetherness.” – The Griffo Distillery website Espresso Corretto Mike has a doctorate in physics and he explains that doing experiments in quantum mechanics is less interesting than operating a high-tech custom-designed distillery. Griffo Distillery also makes cocktails with cold brew coffee, such as the espresso martini in a bottle that Steve is going to taste. Their Espresso Corretto is aged in grappa barrels and uses cold brew because it is less acidic. "Corretto" literally means "corrected" in Italian, and "caffé corretto" is a shot of anything into some coffee, usually grappa, whiskey or an Amaro like Ramazzotti, Amaro Lucano or Averna. The common Italian term is "caffé corretto" because in Italian we don't say "espresso" most of the time, we just say "caffé" and assume that all of it is espresso of one kind or another (stovetop or pressure machine). I'll have a shot of Amaro in mine, grazie. -cd  “I told them we shake cocktails in studio.” – Herlinda Heras Espresso Martinis may be the most popular cocktail in America right now, says Herlinda. The Old Fashioneds, Espresso Martinis and the Gin Gimlets are their three most popular cocktails. They are located close to Lagunitas, five doors down. Kat has worked with the Mystic Theater. She has a lot of experience with live music show production which she applies to organizing concerts and community events. They have local partners like COTS which assists the homeless in Sonoma County who use the concerts to get attention to their work assisting people in need.

Golden State Cider Unfiltered Breanne Heuss, Marketing Director for Sonoma Craft, is our guest on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. Sonoma Craft is the umbrella organization that holds Golden State Cider, Sonnenschein Cocktails and Seismic Brewing. This is Breanne's first time on Brew Ha Ha but co-owner Christopher Jackson was on this episode of the show on May 19, 2022, to talk about Golden State Cider. He was also on this episode in July 2019 to talk about starting Seismic Brewing. Breanne is responsible for marketing the three brands that share their company values of making high quality products using sustainable practices. Seismic Brewing has refocused as a craft lager brand, with distribution at the tap room and in selected locations in the Bay Area, but on draft only. They still make their different lagers, including Tremor and the Red lager. Breanne has been with Sonoma Craft for three years, and she worked for Golden State Cider before that. Herlinda mentions that spirits have overtaken beer in terms of annual sales in the US. Unfiltered After they taste their Unfiltered cider, they will taste a cocktail too. Golden State Cider has different tiers of cider. The base tier, called the core tier, includes the Mighty Dry, Brut and Jamaica. They have added one that is unfiltered, which is very dry and has big rich apple flavor. They also have a non-alcoholic cider, called “Dry and Mighty.” Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. The Sonnenschein Cocktail is the Valencia Mimosa. It is made with fresh Valencia orange juice, and a bit of apple eau-de-vie. Each can holds two mimosas. The ABV is 10%. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. All the Sonoma Craft companies are dedicated to sustainable practices and to supporting local and statewide charities. They are also involved in hurricane relief in western North Carolina, with the local Craft Brewer's Guild.  And they support local farmers by using fruit and other ingredients as much as possible from growers that are local, California-based or on the west coast. Golden State Cider has the Core series, the Harvest series and the Radical series. You can find all of them here on the Ciders page of their website.  They are open Monday through Sunday from noon to nine.

The Rio Nido Roadhouse Oktoberfest crew. Raena Jones-Metzger from Rio Nido Roadhouse joins Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha today. Brew Ha Ha is a double show and podcast today. Claire Elaine from Wooden Petal Bake Shop is also with us today. Since we have two guests on one radio show, we make two podcasts from the one live show, so that each guest can have their own podcast audio and a sharable (and indexable) web page. So over here is Claire Elaine and Wooden Petal Bake Shop's podcast episode page. Gioia Merrill, the sous-chef and Tricia Bagley, one of their bartenders, also join Raena in the conversation, after the break (at about the 9:30 mark). Raena was on the radio with Herlinda five years ago, just before her daughter was born. Reyna has brought some Oktoberfest beers to taste. They will offer flights and pints of these beers. The Rio Nido Roadhouse fifteenth annual Oktoberfest will be Sunday, September 29, from 1pm to 4pm. There is no entry fee. They will be serving a Warsteiner German pilsner, Headlands Brewery Festbeer and another from Cooperage. There is also a German dark beer only on draft. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. They have a bratwurst, knackwurst and a weisswurst combination, chef-made spaezle, caramel apples, braised cabbage and a whole German menu. They also have games, live music and kids activities. Costumes are encouraged. Keith Church and David Albini, accordionists, will play the music to make it sound like Bavaria. The weather forecast is good, too! Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. For more information, visit their website Rio Nido Roadhouse dot com. Photos from the Rio Nido Roadhouse website. 

Lindsey, Connor and Jeff. Connor was about 5, now he's 12. Jeff Reitz and Lindsey Osborne from Barley and Bine Beer Café in Windsor, join Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha. People often confuse bines and vines. Hops grow on bines, not vines, which grow vertically. The Barley and Bine Oktoberfest party is Saturday, September 28, from 2pm to 11pm. They have a large selection of beers, almost all are California-based breweries. Herlinda remembers that they have been through a lot since they opened the café seven years ago. They have survived fires and a pandemic. Now they are getting ready for their sixth year celebrating Oktoberfest. Their Oktoberfest party feature the Steve Balich Band which plays authentic German and Bavarian music. Herlinda suggests watching their social media for updates about special events, including appearances of special beers that have a cult following. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Oktoberfest Marzen means March which is Festbeer brewing time, so they are consumed in the fall. These are not necessarily high-alcohol beers. They are tasting one from Cooperage with is 5.7% ABV. Jeff and Lindsey have brought two items from their Oktoberfest menu. This will be their sixth year celebrating Oktoberfest. They will have 15 different beers on party day. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. Barley and Bine makes a half-liter size beer stein, which is a German beer glass. Oktoberfest is also a chance for them to serve brats, which they do in great numbers. They also have 5 different kinds of mustard. They change the menu every month including lots of kinds of street tacos and tater tot nachos of all kinds. The soft pretzels are probably their #1 item. They also have a digital menu board that shows up-to-the-minute information about the beer including when the keg was tapped and how much beer is left in the keg.

Paul Hawley and Miguel Smith from Fogbelt Brewing are the guests on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. Fogbelt first brewed beer in 2013 and started brewing commercially in 2014. They also have a pub in Santa Rosa and a new larger production space. They were among the first brewers to emphasize fresh hops and wet hopped beer and this is the time of year when that is happening. September 16-22 they have interesting corn dogs, not the normal kind. Each month they work on different beer and food pairings. Today they have a wet hop IPA that goes with a jalapeño corn dog. One is made with Fruity Pebbles. Another is a Ramen noodle corn dog, with a cheese sauce. “These are the wildest looking cord dogs that I have ever seen.” -Steve Jaxon Wet hopped beers are very seasonal and you would try to drink them as soon as you can. Their wet hop Oktoberfest celebration takes place in their parking lot on Saturday, September 21. They will also have a full German menu with sausages and potato salad, sauerkraut, etc. Monthly Beer & Food Pairings Every month they do a week-long food pairing, alternating between their two locations. In September the wet hopped beers go with these exotic corn dogs. Then, this October, the Santa Rosa location will feature tamales. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Miguel came to Fogbelt as Head Chef, after having worked in fine restaurants in San Francisco and many other places, since age 14. The morning of a hop harvest, Paul will go out to the fields and inspect the crop. They bring the hops directly to the brewery. Meanwhile, Remy in getting the wort made in the brewery, and he then adds the hops to the empty clean vessel, then they pour the boiling wort back in, for kind of a tea extraction before going into fermentation. The requirements of logistics make it fun and challenging. Picking window on hops is usually a couple of weeks, so they have a little wiggle room. But if the weather changes suddenly they might have to react fast. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. They have a dog costume contest, and the winner gets featured on a beer the following year. There was mastiff dog dressed as the joker that won last year and his beer is coming soon. Herlinda has bad news, that Hopland Tap is closing. Ron Lindenbusch kept it open as long as he could.

Leah Scurto and Herlinda Heras. Leah Scurto from Pizzaleah joins Herlinda Heras and Harry Duke who is sitting in for Steve Jaxon on Brew Ha Ha today. Herlinda Heras is back from another trip to Liverpool, this time to see Pete Best and his band. Leah Scurto is Herlinda's neighbor and friend. This is her first time on Brew Ha Ha but she was a guest on our other podcast, California Wine Country, on this CWC episode of April 27, 2022. In that show we hear about how Leah was getting ready to serve pizzas at the 2022 Healdsburg Wine and Food Experience. Herlinda brought Leah into beer judging. Leah will be cooking at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, CO, in October later this year. “They get the best of the best of the chefs, paired up with breweries.” It's Leah's fourth year doing it. Leah's partner this year is a brewery from Iowa called Big Grove, which is the official craft brewer of the Iowa Hawkeyes, check out their website^. Big Grove making a double IPA and an Oktoberfest for the Great American Beer Fest. Leah is cooking for Thursday and Friday nights. To pair with the double IPA she will make pickles with that brew, then make a pickle dip. She will make a mushroom pizza to go with the Oktoberfest. Pizzaleah in Windsor, near Oliver's Pizzaleah is located in Windsor near Oliver's, at 9240 Old Redwood Hwy, #116. Their beer list includes a tap where she rotates local brewers in and out. Right now there is a beer from Ghost Town in Oakland. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Leah has brought some pizzas including the Old Graybeard which is the people's favorite. It's a sweet, spicy and salty with a little orange zest. They make their own sausage for the pizzas. Everything is in-house including the peperoni which is a recipe that Leah worked on for years. They pair that pizza with the Old Caz Free Craig's. Leah participates in international pizza competitions This summer she was at the Caputo Cup in Naples. Caputo is a brand of flour from Naples and they put on the pizza festival and the competition. Leah placed third! See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. When Leah needed a job in Santa Cruz in college, she got hired at a pizza shop where she eventually stayed for more then 2 decades. She opened 20 restaurants for them so she sure knows the business. She opened her restaurant about four years ago and survived the pandemic as the first order of business. It happened to be just as the pandemic was closing everyone down. She weathered the storm by being available for delivery at a time when that was the only way to get food to the people. The beer selection at Pizzaleah is important to Leah. She wants to support local brewers by featuring their products and also whenever possible she tries to support small local suppliers and organic production. The Lola pizza, with pesto, potato and caramelized onion, is paired with the Crispy Crusher from Cooperage.

Golden Rule Cider from Ethic Cider. Ethic Ciders founder New Lawton is back on this crunchy episode of Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras, to promote this year's Gravenstein Apple Fair. Ned Lawton appeared on Brew Ha Ha on this August 25, 2018 episode, promoting Cider Week that year. Herlinda is going to Italy next week to visit some friends who have bought a house near Lake Como, which they will be converting into a bed and breakfast. The Gravenstein apple is to cider makers what Pinot Noir is to local winemakers. It is the go-to fruit for their art. It is tart and sweet and ripens early. Ethic Ciders got started with their acquisition of an old apple orchard which was in need of renovation. Once that was done they were able to produce a crop and make the cider from that. Gravitude: Grateful for Gravensteins They are tasting a cider called Gravitude. Its name means "grateful for Gravensteins. It is sparkling and very food friendly. The tartness is what makes it combine with foods in the same way that a wine with strong acidity does. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. They will be pouring ciders at the Gravenstein Apple Fair on Aug. 10. There they will also be launching a new product, Gravitude in cans. Some of their ciders are traditional and others are their creative recipes that combine flavors. You will also be able to meet the cider makers.  There are also styles that come from different countries. It is popular in France, from Brittany. There will be cider producers and also cheese and gelato "It is a really classic country fair," says Herlinda. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. There is also a press where you can press apples. Some producers will have special ciders to pour. The arts and crafts are true local artisans and you can find stuff you won't see anywhere else.

Beer Historian John Burton and Eric Stanley, curator of the Museum of Sonoma County join Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha. John Burton also operates the Santa Rosa Bartending School. The exhibit ON TAP has been open at the Museum of Sonoma County since April. Check it out before it closes on September 1. This Saturday, July 20 there is a reception from 4:00 to 8:00 PM, where they will serve a very special beer. They will convert their sculpture garden into a beer garden. They will serve an original recipe from Jack McAuliffe, one of the co-founders of New Albion Brewery. Herlinda has brought some of the beer to taste today. It is a pale ale with Cascade hops. It's not very hoppy by today's standards but it was considered hoppy in 1977. Albion is the name of Britain in the Greek language. The Cascade Hop was the first type created in a university laboratory, in the early seventies. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. John lent the museum a lot of pieces from his collection, for the On Tap exhibit. Some bottles are as old as the 1800s. He also has a lot of pieces from the Grace Bros. brand, which was the great local brand from 1897-1966. John Burton knew Virginia and Cathy Grace. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. The exhibition traces the brewing business from the arrival of German immigrants in the 1840s. This inspired the idea to transform the Museum of Sonoma County sculpture garden into a German-style beer garden for the event on July 20.

Legendary brewer Don Barkley is again our guest on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras today. His last appearance on BHH was this episode of March 28, 2019. Don founded the Mendocino Brewing Company in 1983 as the Hopland Brewery. It was the very first brew pub in the United States. They had a big hit with Red Tail Ale and their brew pub was the model for all subsequent ones. They are brewing a revival of one of Jack McAuliffe's original New Albion Brewing Company recipe. New Albion was the first craft brewery. Jack made all of their equipment himself. Michael Lovett and Don Barkley worked for New Albion and left to start Mendocino Brewing after New Albion closed. Don kept all of Jack's notes and instructions, that is how they have the exact recipe for New Albion Pale Ale to make today. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. At a time when everyone else was producing lager beer, Red Tail Ale was a unique new flavor. They tried to expand the business with some outside investors, but in Don's opinion they were never able to figure out how to make a craft brewery work. Wolfhouse Brewing in Cloverdale is making the beer although they can't call it that. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. It is hard to make it just right. Herlinda remembers a brewer that tried to make it and it wasn't quite right. They also made Blue Heron which was an IPA.

Herlinda Heras Herlinda Heras calls into the studio from the Aro Rojo 2024 in Mexico, to speak to Steve Jaxon on Brew Ha Ha today fro Monterrey, the capital of the state of Nuevo León. She is a judge in a competition called the Aro Rojo 2024. Aro Rojo means "Red Ring" and their logo is a dragon in the shape of a ring. There are both professional and home brew competitions with a total of 715 beers in the competition. There are judges from all over the world, including Charlie Papazian, the godfather of home brew in the United States. Pete Schlossberg from Pete's Wicked Ales is also there as a judge. About a quarter of the judges are women, this year. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Getting Through Customs with Beer Herlinda brought a lot of beers to show at the presentation, two suitcases worth. She always brings beer wherever she travels and she has never had issues at customs. This time the passport folks waved her through but the Mexican National Guard stopped her. They were looking for beer, and she was not supposed to have more than three liters. But they didn't open the other suitcase and they eventually let her through. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. She explained that the beer she had may have been over three liters. When she said they were commercial samples and not for sale, they let her pass. Monterrey is also the home of the largest beer factory in the world. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa!

Gary Saperstein, organizer of BEER FEST - The Good One, joins Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras today on Brew Ha Ha. Gary holds the title of Development Director for Face to Face, the organizers of Beer Fest - The Good One. It takes place Saturday, June 8, 2024 at the Luther Burbank Center. Visit Eventbrite for tickets. Face to Face has for 40 years been working to end HIV in Sonoma County, 1983-2023. This year is the 31st annual edition of Beer Fest, which makes it the oldest beer festival in Sonoma County. The event is held outdoors and there will be tents and shade as well lots of beer, food and music. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Face to Face In 1983 Face to Face started, right at the beginning of the Aids crisis. A group of angels saw a need for help and set up the organization to help terminal patients. Over the years, the agency has evolved and does much more work than before, but their mission is rooted in the history of HIV. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa! There will be many local breweries attending and pouring beer at Beer Fest, including Lagunitas, Hen House, Lost Coast, Farmers, Moonlight, Russian River and many smaller labels you don't see every day. Herlinda had her first taste of Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat Ale at the Beer Fest. "My favorite beer is the one in front of me." -Mark Carpenter, founding father of Brew Ha Ha Today, Herlinda has brought two beers fresh from the Hen House, brewery which is about to hold its annual Freshtival on June 15, 2024. One is a refreshing IPA called Frozen Envelope. The other is Virtuoso, a West Coast IPA. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. Herlinda's Next Competition: Aro Rojo in Mexico Herlinda is leaving soon for Mexico City where she will be a judge at Aro Rojo, the big Mexican beer competition. She will also give a talk there about the history of beer in California. That's a hot topic for them to hear about there, because of the international importance of our local craft brewing industry. They saw that Herlinda had a lot to do with setting up On Tap, the exhibit at the Museum of Sonoma County about the history of hops and brewing in Sonoma County. Oliver's Market is the biggest sponsor of all of Beer Fest: The Good One. They will be serving Korean street tacos for the event. Trader Joe's is a sponsor. Visit Santa Rosa is a sponsor, always interested in promoting Santa Rosa and its title Beer City. Gary describes how Face to Face has evolved, and managed to keep its services free. They also provide mental health services. They do needle exchange and supply Narcan. This has saved over 3500 lives, according to Gary.

Herlinda Heras with Raven Brewery guests. The brewer and co-founder of Pivovar Raven, or Raven Brewery in Pilsen, Czech Republic are our guests today on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. They are Ladislav Vrtiš, co-founder, and Jiri, which translates to George in English. Miroslov Puc is also in the studio but we won't hear from him on the broadcast. They are friends of Lana Svitankova, Herlinda's fellow international beer judge and a recent guest on BHH. The crew from Raven Brewing in Pilzen is on a beer tour of California. First they spent 5 days in San Diego, now it's Sonoma County and environs, including Beer City, Santa Rosa. Sierra Nevada and Russian River Brewing Co. are on the itinerary too. They just came back from a driving tour through Yosemite National Park. Czech Pilsner and German Pilsner are different. For the Czech, they have softer water, especially in the town of Pilzen. Second, the brewing process, they use decoction to brew the beer. The Germans and US use infusion. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. Pivovar Raven, or Raven Brewery The Raven brewery was founded in Pilzen in 2015. A law was proposed to require bars that serve beer to also offer a non-alcoholic beverage at a price that is lower than the cheapest beer. But the law did not pass. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa! Pilsner Urquell is still a very popular brand in Czechia. It might cost $3 in Prague. In smaller cities, you can get a good local pilsner for a buck. The local bars are also the meeting place for social life and also to find service people. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. The California IPAs are a bit strong, around 7 or 8 ABV. The Czech beers are lighter.

Tara Nurin Beverage industry mental health is the subject with Tara Nurin today on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke sitting in for Steve Jaxon, and Herlinda Heras. Tara has been on Brew Ha Ha many times, the last time was this episode just last week. The day before yesterday, Lana Svitankova, Herlinda and Tara were at UC Davis speaking about the brewing industry. Tara was there to discuss her book and to read a part of it. The students at UC Davis in the brewing program come from all over the world. Lana and Herlinda talked about international judging and they took questions from the students. The members of the panel at UC Davis were an all-star lineup of the craft brewing world. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa! A Beautiful Mind Last night they attended Lo and Behold's event called A Beautiful Mind, a fund raiser for NAMI, the National Association for Mental Illness. They held a cocktail competition and a raffle and it was sold out. May is National Mental Health Awareness month. You can order the Beautiful Mind cocktail at a roster of local restaurants and the proceeds go to NAMI. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. People in the beverage and hospitality industry can suffer physical and mental ailments due to work stress. She has been developing ways to teach resilience to managers, owners on how to create holistically healthy workspaces. In addition, Tara teaches workers to understand their own needs and to be able to maintain a stable state of mental health for the long term. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Tara practices Transcendental Meditation and she also applies it to her efforts to reduce stress in the hospitality workspace.

Smith Street Taps 10th Anniversary commemorative glass. Meng and Kim Chow, owners of Smith Street Taps in Singapore, join Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras today. It is their first time on Brew Ha Ha. Lana Svitankova is also in the studio today. Her full conversation with Herlinda can be heard over here on its own podcast episode. Meng and Kim have brought a Smith Street Taps glass like the one pictured here, as a gift for Steve. They have just celebrated their tenth anniversary. They also have another stall now, called by a similar name, Smith Street Taproom. Herlinda met Meng and Kim in Singapore when she was judging in the Asia Beer Cup. The city is obviously very clean and well organized, and Herlinda remembers feeling safe in the city, even when she got lost at night. Singapore's Hawker Stalls Smith Street Taps is located among the hawker stalls in Singapore. These are large food courts with many restaurants serving a wide variety of styles of food. It is Singapore's way of organizing what would otherwise be street food. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa! Kim explains that Smith Street Taps is the first and only hawker stall dedicated to craft beer, among all the many hawker stalls in Singapore. They have craft beer on tap from all over the world. Hawker culture in Singapore is heritage, so it is protected, promoted and highly appreciated." -Kim Chow Rumble in the Jungle (photo by Lana Svitankova). Meng has opened a beer called Rumble in the Jungle, a Stout which he produced in a collaboration with Brewlander, a local brewery, and Jungle Beer, formerly of Singapore and now based in India. It is a stout flavored with chickory from India, with an 8% ABV. "Works for me!" says Steve Jaxon. Herlinda remembers a 16 hour flight from California to Singapore, which Meng and Kim also just did. Thinking out loud, next time, she might fly 9 hours to Japan first, then fly the next leg from Japan to Singapore, another 9 hours. The Singapore Sling The Singapore Sling is the number one local cocktail. It is a gin-based cocktail believed to have been created by a bartender at Raffles Hotel in Singapore. They still serve them there, so go get one if you're visiting Singapore, it can't be missed. Spoiler Alert! --> In a shaker with ice, add gin, cherry liqueur, Cointreau, Benedictine, pineapple juice, lime juice, Grenadine syrup and a dash of Angostura bitters. Serve strained into a hurricane glass. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Meng had the first craft beer bottle shop in Singapore, before Smith Street Taps. He is on his way to Boston for his son's graduation from Northeastern University. Meng's great wish is to find out how he can get to drive a hop picking machine like the one at the museum. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. The Museum of Sonoma County exhibit ON TAP is about the history of hops and beer in Sonoma County. It will remain open until September 1. Click on the green the On Tap logo (or that link) to visit the museum's website: Photo credits: featured image, C.Y. Shing, Flicker/PD/CC. Beer glass, Smith Street IG. Rumble bottle, Lana Svitankova.

Tara Nurin, historian of brewing, at UC Davis Tara Nurin, historian of women's role in brewing history, is our guest again on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. She was on the show on this episode on February 23, 2023, with her book A Woman's Place Is In the Brewhouse. Lana Svitankova is also here, she is a beer judge from Ukraine and a judging colleague of Herlinda. She is visiting for some events associated with the opening of the Museum of Sonoma County exhibit ON TAP on Saturday April 27 at 4pm. On Tuesday, April 30, at 1 pm, Tara Nurin, Lana Svitankova and Herlinda Heras will be appearing at a conference at UC Davis as part of the Professional Brewing Program. On Saturday, April 27, Tara will be reading the chapter about Sonoma County, at the exhibit. That is the story that starts with the opening of New Albion, the first new brewery post-Prohibition, which opened in 1976. Tara tells the story of the man and two women who founded New Albion. Tara's book tells about the women have been involved in brewing throughout history. Lana has translated some books about brewing into the Ukrainian language. She is also a promoter of the Ukrainian style of beer, a golden ale. She describes it as a cousin of British and Belgian golden ale, the difference is that the Belgian is stronger and the British is lower in ABV and not that sweet. Ukrainians like it sweet and not very bitter. Ukrainian Golden Ale Until recently, a Ukrainian golden ale has been available in markets in Los Angeles. The one that Lana has brought has a name that is hard to pronounce. Lana used to work for a Ukrainian brewery called Barbar, who made golden ale and stout, mostly. Herlinda met Lana when they were judging in Finland and Poland. The Museum of Sonoma County exhibit ON TAP is about the history of hops and beer in Sonoma County. Don Barkley did a video interview with Herlinda, that will be playing in the exhibit. It opened with a big crowd on April 20. It will be open until September 1.

John Burton, beer memorabilia collector, is our guest on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras today. He is working with Herlinda Heras who is assisting the Museum of Sonoma County with its upcoming exhibition ON TAP, about Sonoma County hops and the history or craft brewing. John Burton made a great collection of beer memorabilia while he worked as a bartender in Santa Rosa for a long time. He also operates a well-known bartending school called Santa Rosa Bartending. Herlinda has organized interviews with some of the biggest names in local beer history, like Tony McGee and Mark Carpenter, for the museum. She connected them to John Burton and he will be providing some choice items for the exhibit. Grace Bros. was a local brand that started in 1897 in Santa Rosa and the brand continued until the late 1960s. John's collection of bottles and cans starts in their first year. John has a lot of Grace Bros. pieces. A 1960s Grace Bros. Beer Commercial In the show, we hear a 30-second commercial for Grace Bros. beer, from John's collection. It was recorded probably in the 1960s in Hollywood, California. In the 1940s, Grace Bros. was the fourth-largest brewery in California. Here is the commercial: http://brewhaharadio.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Grace_Bros_Beer_30_sec.mp3 Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. John Burton is a member of a beer memorabilia organization that organizes exhibits. Herlinda's friend Ken Hartoonian also has a collection. He was a guest on Brew Ha Ha recently. John shares memories of the Grace family and how they decided to stay in Santa Rosa instead of Southern California. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. John is also the writer and publisher of some books about his collection. He has also written an instructional book about bartending, called Bartending Basics. Herlinda is organizing a reception for all of the ‘legends' of the local brewing industry. She will invite the founding fathers and mothers of the business. She is looking forward to the On Tap exhibition being full of really interesting, beautiful and memorable material. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa! Russian River Brewing is a sponsor of the exhibit, so is Lagunitas and Oliver's Market. The sculpture garden is beautiful and they will turn it into a beer garden for one evening. The grand opening is April 27.

Richard McChinak and Ben Kerstetter from Battle of the Brews are in-studio guests on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. Richard McChinak, is the Battle of the Brews co-chair, and Ben Kerstetter is the newly elected incoming President of the 20/30 Club, Santa Rosa chapter n. 50. The 20/30 Club started doing this event 27 years ago. They only had about 20 breweries back then but now there are many more. Saturday April 6 from 1-5 pm at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. There are 20/30 chapters all over the country. They do a lot of fundraising events for under-privileged youth in Sonoma County. As musical attractions, Battle of the Brews has Painted Waves and Voodoo Vultures playing plus a local DJ Rob Cervantes, who is a Drive Hall of Famer. Herlinda Heras has been going to Battle of the Brews since its beginning. This is Herlinda's eleventh time judging at this event. It's a chance to meet all her friends in the business. The weather is supposed to be good. One year the band was Digital Underground but they had to scale it back after that year. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. There is a big Raffle Station in the middle of the show. All of the money raised goes to causes related to helping kids. The $95 admission ticket gets you all the food and drinks you can manage to enjoy, plus all the music and the whole scene. They also have cider, hard kombucha as well as non-alcoholic options. A Great Day for Barbeque This year the Barbeque section is different, they doubled the number of BBQs and brought in many other food vendors. There is an entire parking lot full of food vendors. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. The judging is a BJCP-sanctioned event. There is also a People's Choice award. Some brewers will bring exclusive beers brewed just for the event. There are even awards for Best Chicken and also a People's Choice award for barbeque. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa! There are so many beers and it is so much fun that it is easy to drink more than you thought you would. So plan you transportation with all the options available, except driving.

Today's Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras is a Triple Header! We have three great guests. Cynthia Caughie from Homerun Pizza is our guest on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras and she brought some Knuckleballs, their specialty. Cynthia was also on Brew Ha Ha in November, on this episode. Ryan Frank, head brewer at Headlands Brewing is here. Ron Lindenbusch is also in today. He is a founding father of Lagunitas and a self-titled beer weasel, however emeritus. Ron Lindenbusch's complete interview is on his own dedicated podcast episode, right here. This episode is all about Homerun Pizza. Ryan Frank's talk about Headlands Brewing is also on its own podcast episode. This way, each guest gets to have a unique online destination for their own search traffic. Also, it keeps the individual podcast episodes to a nicer, shorter length. (Stand by, Ryan's will be posted soon 4-3-24) Cynthia got to spend some time in Arizona for Spring Training, and the players loved the knuckleballs. Watch the Homerun Pizza website for evidence of how much the players like them. Homerun Pizza is open daily. Homerun Pizza is open Sunday Monday and Tuesday from 3:00 to 8:00; Wednesday & Thursday 11:30 to 8:00 pm and Friday & Saturday 11:30 to 9:00. Happy Hour is every night from 3-6 pm. Every Wednesday, 2 Knuckleballs for $5. It's their signature dish, their pizza dough stuffed with mozzarella cheese and with bacon or peperoni. They are doing a special Knuckleball, with sausage, and also a vegetarian version with tomato and basil. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Right now this year they are doing one specialty Knuckleball per month. For Valentine's Day they did Nutella and pretzel, with salted caramel. For March, it's the Sausage Knuckleball. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. They have a dish made with French Fries, bacon, jack and cheddar cheese and their Homerun Sauce, a spicy Ranch. Herlinda calls it Sonoma County Poutine which is hilarious! Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa!

A Headlands Brewing 4-pack with its paper collar. Ryan Frank, Headlands Brewing head brewer, joins Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras, in studio today, with Cynthia Caughie and Ron Lindenbush. Each of the other guests have their own podcast page from today, Cynthia from Homerun Pizza is here and Ron Lindenbush is here. In this episode, we hear mostly from Ryan Frank. Headlands Brewing started in Marin County but has recently put roots down in the East Bay. They have a taproom in Lafayette and they produce their beer in Pittsburg. They are dedicated to philanthropy and they pledge 1% for the Planet. Ryan describes Earth to Beer, a collaboration among 40 different breweries. “A better world is brewing,” is the slogan. They are tasting a Kolsch which is a beer from Koln, a light crisp soft and floral beer, an ancient German specialty. They source all of their own materials locally, including Admiral Malting in Oakland. He chose Pacific Northwest hops, to make it a California interpretation of a German Kolsch. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. Headlands Brewing is located at 3420 Mt. Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette. It's kid friendly, dog friendly and has great food. Their beer is available at Homerun Pizza, Earth to Beer Kolsch is on draft. They are also at Barley and Bine, and Beer Baron. Bottle Barn has some cans and they are on promotion at northern California Whole Foods stores. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Bingo at Homerun Pizza Cynthia tells about Bingo at Homerun Pizza on the last Tuesday of the month. It's free, kid friendly and a lot of fun. Ryan Frank gets to taste a sausage Knuckleball with the Earth to Beer Kolsch, just like they serve it at Homerun Pizza. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa! Headlands Brewing uses paper collars on their 4-packs. This fact starts Ryan into a description of all the choices they make in packaging to reduce their footprint, use less plastic and promote recycling. You can see the paper collars in the picture above. April 27 ON TAP opens at the Museum of Sonoma County. Herlinda describes a lot of her efforts looking for content. Make sure you don't miss this exhibition which will be a big hit.   

Eric Stanley from the Museum of Sonoma County is our guest, here to discuss ON TAP Sonoma County Hops and the Craft Beer Revolution, an exhibition that will open on April 20, 2024. He joins Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras, live in the Wine Country Radio studio. Herlinda Heras has been in England and Ireland, which we heard about about over the last few episodes. Now she will be staying in town to assist with the exhibition. There are two paths to this exhibition, as Eric describes it. One is about the history of hops as part of Sonoma County agriculture and the other is about the more recent craft beer revolution. Brew Ha Ha will be a sponsor of this exhibition. Herlinda is personally acquainted with many of the people who have made history in local brewing. She has been busy bringing several of them in to participate. For example, New Albion was the first licensed brewery after the repeal of Prohibition and it opened in the town of Sonoma. Tara Nurin will be appearing and reading from her book, since she interviewed a lot of the women who were part of the revolution, for the book. Natalie and Vinny Cilurzo will be participating as well as Ken Hartoonian, who was on this show recently and who has a big collection of brewing memorabilia. Famous brewers like Mark Carpenter, Ron Lindenbush and Don Barkley will be a part of it as well. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. About the Museum of Sonoma County The Museum of Sonoma County has a permanent Sonoma County history exhibition. called Sonoma County Stories. Gaye LeBaron had a lot to do with it, she is a local historian and friend of Steve. The museum is located in the old Sonoma County Post Office building, which was built in 1910. It is a beautiful building, which had to be moved from its original location, in order to save it. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. They are looking for sponsors for this exhibition, so if you are or work for a candidate for exhibition sponsorship, please contact Herlinda Heras. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa! Hops Have Made a Comeback Locally Hop growing used to be a huge local business and recently hops have been making a comeback, as a local crop. There are several reasons for that. Starting in the 1850s this area was a leading hop region in the country, up to Prohibition. But after Prohibition it wasn't until the 1980s that breweries came back. The exhibition will tell the story of what happened to the local hops industry, from the last crop in the early 1960s, up the re-emergence of hops in Sonoma County.

3.1415926535897932, or about 22/7. Herlinda Heras is judging at the 2024 British Pie Awards and calls in to Brew Ha Ha today, and with Harry Duke sitting in for Steve Jaxon. Here is an episode of Brew Ha Ha from March 22, 2018, when Herlinda had just returned from that year's  competition. The winners are listed at the 2024 British Pie Awards website. Today we hear all about her itinerary on her current trip to the England and Ireland. She began in London, judging the National Fish and Chips competition. Then, she visited Dublin, Ireland, where she saw Teeling Whiskey, the Guiness attraction "Beer Disneyland" and a museum exhibit. Her last stop was the British Pie Awards, an annual event in the town of Melton Mobray. This is Herlinda's 10 year as a judge in this competition. The pies at the 2024 British Pie Awards are very traditional and the judging takes into consideration all of the characteristic virtues of combining meat and crust. The categories of pies have evolved, so that today there is a category for Vegan pies, as well as vegetarian recipes and many others. Herlinda explains how there is a hole at the top of the pie, as in the picture here. This is part of the recipe, specifically the baking process. They place a bit of jelly into the hole which bakes into the pie.  

We get a phone call from Herlinda Heras in London, she is there to judge this year's UK National Fish & Chip Awards. The National Federation of Fish Fryers of the UK sponsor the annual event. There are contestants from all over the UK as well as other countries, including the US, which was represented by a British couple from Georgia who have a fish and chips shop. There is the usual panorama of awards, in many categories, even the potatoes. On the Tuesday night before the event, they had a reception in the Houses of Parliament. They were actually in session and voting while she was there. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Part of the awards was a recognition of extraordinary customer service, and Herlinda heard stories about how during Covid confinement, fish and chip deliveries were almost the only contact that some people had with others. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa! There is also an award for best sit-down restaurant, and many other categories. See the National Fish & Chip Awards website for all the categories and winners. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. The biggest award is to the “take away” which is British for “to go” service. That award went to a shop called Ship Deck, located in Caerphilly, Wales.

Chris Keeton from CCBS 2024 calls in to Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras to talk about the California Craft Beer Summit. There will be a convention, the California Craft Beer Summit, March 12-14, in Sacramento. There is the website, ^ with all the info you need. The rest of today's Brew Ha Ha episode is a conversation with the folks from Hiveworks Mead, which is on its own page. Chris Keeton Chris Keeton is the President of the Sacramento Area Brewers Guild and is also the head brewer for the Alaro Craft Brewery, which is located very close to the convention center. Morgan Territory Brewing won at ccbs last year, as they win a lot of competitions. Beer City, Sat. Feb. 24 in Santa Rosa The general public can purchase tickets to the event. The awards ceremony is March 13 during the CCBA Summit. The Competition will be held in the Crest Theater. They will have 197 breweries and 1300 beer entries, which makes it the third largest one of these in the country. Judy Ashworth, the famous publican, was with Herlinda at the competition last year. Judy is a very famous figure in the craft brewing industry and she was on Brew Ha Ha on this episode back on December 19, 2019, along with former co-host Mark Carpenter. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. The CCBS 2024 winners will be announced on a website after the convention. There will also be a live stream on The Brewing Network YouTube channel. The results will be published at this site: https://brewerscupofca.com/ See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. The Craft Beer Summit is a great networking opportunity for like-minded entrepreneurs to learn more about their business. The Guilds also provide an important service to their members. For example, the fact that we can taste beer and cider at our farmers markets is due to some lobbying done by the guilds. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa!

Fogbelt Brewing founders Paul Hawley and Remy Martin are back on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. Paul and Remy have been on Brew Ha Ha several times, including this episode last September and this other episode the previous August. This is a busy time for beer fans with the FeBrewary promotion and Beer City all taking place. For Beer Week, Fogbelt Brewing is making Bacon and Beer pairings. It's as classic as pizza and beer. They serve what they call “Billionaire's Bacon” and also Salmon belly, served with a flight of beers. Their annual Godwood Triple IPA has just been released. It is made with Simcoe, Mosaic, Aurora and Eldorado hops, all of them. They do three separate dry hops and a touch of caramel malt. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa! Ten Years of Fogbelt and Brew Ha Ha Paul and Remy just celebrated their tenth anniversary and so did the Brew Ha Ha. They went to school together and studied moviemaking, then moved to New Zealand and ended up working for a winery and making their own beer on the side. Continuing to Australia they “became passionate” about beer. Remy studied beer and Paul studied finance and the new team was ready. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. The Fogbelt location in Healdsburg is a beer garden which is also in an old train, just like Wine Country Radio. Fogbelt Brewing Co. is located at 1305 Cleveland Ave. in Santa Rosa. The Beer City Festival in Santa Rosa Courthouse Square is on February 24. There are three races, half marathon, 10 K and 5 K, which are optional. Next week the organizers will be in the studio on Brew Ha Ha. Herlinda went to the SF Beer Week gala. It was advertised as a “space” theme, including Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. Herlinda was the only person in the gala in costume. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Fogbelt is proud to be making a lot of different beers, something for everybody. Their Redwood Lager won a Gold Medal at the Sacramento State Fair. Fogbelt also organized a Beer Camp, an adult summer camp with lots of beer. They hosted it at Wildhaven in Healdsburg, which is a glamping resort. They had a few classes in search and rescue, cooking demos, a falconry demo, and most of it was all about beer. Paul's dad is a falconer and taught a class about it.

Ed Gobbo, Harmonic Brewing Co. founder, is our guest today on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. He was on Brew Ha Ha once before, on this episode of September 22, 2022. Joanne Marino, executive director of SF Beer Week, will call in to the show. You can listen to her phone call with Steve, Herlinda and Ed on this separate podcast episode. (Separating the podcast into two allows each one to have its own search traffic and shareable location.) Harmonic Brewing's new location in Thrive City Harmonic Brewing's new location is in Thrive Center at the Chase Center, where the Golden State Warriors of the NBA play. The original Harmonic Brewing location was in Dogpatch, a neighborhood in San Francisco where they began their business. Their theme is celebrating Craft, Culture and Community. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa! The first beer they taste is Prague Rock, a pun on Prog Rock. It is a Czech Pilsner style. Ed Gobbo gives credit to Admiral Maltings. which is a local facility that makes malt from locally grown barley. He likes working with them because of their careful attention to quality. It is also nice to have a local supplier which lowers the carbon footprint. Ed and his partners were home brewers for about 10 years, and they had other careers before they started Harmonic. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. Harmonic Brewing will be at San Francisco Beer Week, which is coming up soon. The entire community is excited for the return of the gala at the beginning of Beer Week. Herlinda describes how Beer Week has extended into other parts of the Bay Area. February 9 – 18. The last Gala was in 2020 just before everything shut down. We will hear more about during Herlinda's call with Joann Marino. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and in Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. There is even going to be an app this year, to help people plan their attendance to the events. On February 10 there will be an Admiral Maltings event where they can meet the brewers and the maltsters and the farmers too. There are so many events, you have to plan your visit. Ed describes some collaborations he has done, which you can sample at SFBW. (Photo credit: Sarah Chorey from the Harmonic Brewing Co. website.) 

Joanne Marino is calling in to Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras, she is the executive director of SF Beer Week. Ed Gobbo from Harmonic Brewing Co. is also in the studio today. Ed Gobbo's complete interview and podcast episode is over here on this page. (This way, both Harmonic and SF Beer Week get to have their own search traffic and shareable location.) Check out Ed's interview, he has a lot to say.

Today Herlinda Heras' Maui Report takes the stage on this special podcast episode of Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon. Herlinda Heras called in from Maui where she was travelling for her birthday. She extended her stay and she is finally back today. Herlinda had the opportunity to report on Lahaina when her friend who lives there invited her. She was hesitant to visit, not wanting to be a looky-loo. However as she was invited, she got to see, “many beautiful things to do” there. Whereas the Sonoma County fires were huge, covering a broad area, Lahaina is rather small. A lot of old buildings from the 1700 burned and cannot be rebuilt. But the people on Maui are still operating their business and still need tourist traffic. Thanks to her very wide circle of friends, Herlinda was able to attend some exciting social events and visit some incredibly beautiful natural attractions. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. Herlinda has brought a beer called Mango Stickee Rice for tasting, which you can imagine is juicy and delicious. There is also a charity collaboration that lots of brewers are making, including Russian River Brewing Co. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and in Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Calling in on the phone from Maui is Leanne Pletcher, director of public relations from the Maui Tourism Bureau. They are working to encourage people to come and visit and enjoy the many parts of the island while Lahaina is healing. Visit Homerun Pizza, home of the Knuckleball! Fresh pizza dough made from scratch daily, la pizza è deliziosa! There are breweries and distilleries on Maui too, that Herlinda encourages people to visit. Maui Brewing Co. is in south Maui, near the coast. Up country, there are small towns and parks to visit as well as a pineapple farm. Maui Links Here are some links about Maui brewers and distillers and about visiting and helping Maui: Maui Nui Strong: https://www.mauinuistrong.info/ Maui Tourism, general info: https://mauitourism.org/ Go Hawaii, travel information: https://www.gohawaii.com/malama Maui Brewing Co., makers of Mango Stickee Rice beer: https://mauibrewingco.com/ Ocean Organic Farm and Distillery: https://oceandistillery.com/ Haliimaile Distilling: https://haliimailedistilling.com/ Mahalo Aleworks: https://www.mahaloaleworks.com/ MAHALO. Maui Brewing Co. Mango Stickee Rice beer.

Natalie Cilurzo Natalie Cilurzo from Russian River Brewing Co. is on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras to talk about Pliny for President 2024. Herlinda is traveling today. We begin with Natalie telling the story of how RRBC got started, from when Korbel started the brand and hired Vinny. Later when Korbel decided to leave the beer business, Vinny and Natalie got the brand and recipes, organized a business plan with investors, and opened their brew pub in 2004 in Santa Rosa. That means that 2024 is also the 20th release of Pliny the Younger. When they had to postpone their retail release during Covid, it meant separating the wholesale distribution of Pliny the Younger from the on-site consumer retail release. The brewery is a lot bigger than it used to be and this reorganization has made the process more manageable. Pliny the Younger 2024 The 2024 Pliny the Younger will be available at will begin to appear at many of their clients in the Bay Area on draft, at SF Beer Week Feb 9 – 18, and a few other events. The in-person release is March 22 to April 4, this year. The complete release plans are all listed at the Russian River Brewing Co. website and socials. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. Check out the family-friendly New Year's Eve party! Russian River Brewing Co. has also released the 2024 Pliny for President. It used to be just for fun, pre-social media. But now, it's a lot more established, with branding, merchandise and a great slogan, “Hop Care for Everyone.” Blind Pig is Pliny's running mate, as always. The 2020 release was sold online in cans, and people who were cooped up during the pandemic really appreciated it. This 2024 Pliny for President has flavors of 4 different hops, Simcoe, Nectaron, Amarillo, Zumo, so the beer has citrus and stone fruit flavors from those hops, but a but lower alcohol than last time. It's at local retail stores and they will release it quarterly. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and in Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. The Windsor location was designed with Pliny the Younger in mind. It was important for there to be enough space for the crowds that come every year. Some travelers even park their RVs in the Windsor parking lot, with permission. SF Beer Week is back and the opening night Gala is back for the first time since the pandemic. Russian River Brewing Co. will be there. Tickets for different kinds of entry are available at the SF Beer Week website. In lingua Latina PS: some suggested Latin slogans for Pliny for President, suitable for carving into marble:  Ex multis cerevisiis, unum = Out of many beers, one. Lupuli pro Omnibus = Hops for Everyone. 

Herlinda Heras in Maui reporting on the Kokua Project. Herlinda Heras is calling from Maui, to talk about the Kokua Project with Steve Jaxon on Brew Ha Ha today. Bryan Rengel of Old Caz Beer is also with us. Over here is the podcast episode of that entire show. Here is just the portion where Herlinda speaks to us from the Maui Brewing Company, looking at the ocean. She is there for her birthday and to see breweries that are participating in the Kokua relief beer project, which is raising money for Maui fire relief. The Kokua Project The Kokua project is a fund raiser for victims of the Lahaina fire last August. On the other side of the island from where the fires happened, it is still quite beautiful. Being from Sonoma County, we can relate to having fires and also doing brew projects to raise funds for fire relief. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and in Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Please consider making a donation to any of the following organizations for Maui fire relief: For info about the Kokua Project: https://mauibrewingco.com/kokua/ The Global Empowerment Mission Maui Brewing Fire Fund https://globalempowermentmission.kindful.com/?campaign=1268238 TS Restaurants Legacy of Aloha https://www.tsrestaurants.com/legacy-of-aloha/ Maui Humane Society https://www.mauihumanesociety.org/  See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. Check out the family-friendly New Year's Eve party!  

Marc Meltonville, food historian, is our guest on today's Brew Ha Ha podcast, in a replay of a May 21, 2020 show. There is no new show today due to bad weather upsetting people's travel plans, so today's podcast episode repeats one of Steve Jaxon's favorite classic Brew Ha Ha shows. Enjoy!

Adam Bosch, co-founder of Parliament Brewing in Rohnert Park, joins Herlinda Heras in studio on Brew Ha Ha today. He was on Brew Ha Ha once before, on this episode of September 8, 2022 along with Peter Lopez of Juncture Taproom. Adam has brought several Parliament beers for a taste and talk. The first is a German style Pilsner that won best Pilsner at Battle of the Brews this year. The second glass is the same pils but dry hopped with Riwaka hops from New Zealand. That provides a little toasted spice flavor and makes a comparison with the other pils. Patience, a perfect name Adam also brought a barrel-aged beer called Patience, perfectly named, because time was key. The barrels had whiskey in them for more than 13 years, then the beer is aged in them for a year and a half. Then it was in the bottle for 4 years. At 13% ABV it is an Imperial Stout sipping and savoring, the opposite of a 'daytime' lager. It can be aged like a fine wine and this one is already 4 years in the bottle. On February 9th of 2024 they will be attending San Francisco Beer Week, and this is the first year that the gala is back. For the occasion they are preparing some special releases. One is a lambic made with cherries that they get from a grower near Sacramento. They call it the Bridesmaid because it took second place in several competitions. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and in Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Parliament Who can resist a musical pun? Parliament Brewing company deserves a little bit of Funkadelic in the break. After the break, we hear a quick history of Parliament Brewing. When his brother got out of law school, he got a home brewing kit. He fell in love with the science of beer. They and their father and some partners opened 5 months before the pandemic shutdown, and survived. Adam gives thanks to his staff and vendors and collaborators who all contributed to making it work. They changed their business plan, under the suggestion to "react, don't over-react." See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. Check out the family-friendly New Year's Eve party! Two other hazy beers are next to taste. The first is Prism, very hoppy and fragrant 6.6% with herbal tea flavors. The second is Crash, 7.1% ABB, with Riwaka hops. Herlinda was stuck at the airport the other day and got to taste some Parliament Kaleidoscope in the airport bar. We also hear about a trip to Washington that the Bosch brothers took, to see the hops that they use.

Herlinda and Josh. Our guest today on Brew Ha Ha is Heidrun Meadery head meadmaker Josh McCarthy. The Heidrun is the name of a mythical viking goat. Mead is the oldest alcohol in the world, brewed with honey. Heidrun takes the still fermented mead and then turns it into a sparkling beverage using the traditional champagne method. They are the only meadery that we know of so far that does champagne mead. Honey is very sweet, Josh explains. They add water to the honey to dilute it to the sugar proportion desired, and they also remove other parts like wax. Then they chill it down and handle it like wine. The bubbles are done the same way as in traditional champagne. The only difference is the ingredient they start with. The mead is able to carry flavors of the forage that the bees covered, so you can taste radish blossom, carrot blossom and more in the mead. They do brut naturel, so they are bone dry. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. Hawaiian Christmas Berry They also have an estate at Point Reyes Station, and they collect honey there. They also bring in honeys from around the world. This honey comes from Hawaii. Josh points out that whatever flavors come from the honey are the only flavors in the finished product. They never add any other flavors, just the honey itself. Their small community of bees includes feral hives and domestic hives. They don't like yellowjackets which come and destroy the hive. Herlinda reminds us, don't use Round-Up which takes out the good bugs too. Honey, water and yeast make mead. Josh explains, they start like beer but treat it like wine. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. They use the same fermenting yeast that champagne producers use. It does not impart any of its own flavor. They ferment about 10 days for the wine to get through fermentation. Then they do a natural settling process, four to six or eight weeks, depending on the honey. Each variety is very different. Their tasting room is located in a greenhouse and it is a nice visit. There are many flowering plants that are for the bees, and you can taste the garden in your glass. Every wine they make is 12.5% ABV, which is the same as sparkling wine.

Today's podcast episode is a replay of a fun episode from May 9, 2019, featuring Norman Greenbaum, longtime Sonoma County resident famous for the song Spirit in the Sky (because today, Thursday December 14, The Drive is running a replay of the show from 2 weeks ago, live on Wine Country Radio, in our usual time slot). Enjoy this episode from pre-Covid-19 days! Norman Greenbaum and his portuguese guitar. Norman Greenbaum is our guest on Brew Ha Ha today, joining Steve Jaxon, Mark Carpenter and Herlinda Heras. He wrote and performed the iconic 1969 song "Spirit in the Sky." Herlinda Heras is back from her trip to Portugal and has brought three Portuguese beers to taste. Norman Greenbaum is a longtime Sonoma County resident. Steve asks Norman if the success of his song still surprises him. It has been in movies and commercials and continues to have its own life. Any band or singer wants to have a hit record, and he was lucky to have a hit on the charts. He says he may have been a one-hit wonder but it has been in over 60 movies and a couple dozen commercials. The song in commercials It was in an ad for Audi in the last Super Bowl. Spirit in the Sky was in the Budweiser Discovery Reserve American Red Lager beer advertisement. The beer was brewed to commemorate the 1969 moon landing. The song was recorded in San Francisco. Herlinda asks Norman to tell the story of the song and he remembers various scenes and themes from old Western films. The Stovall Sisters were his backup singers, they were from Oakland where they also sang in church. Mark Carpenter remembers the environment of the late 1960s and remembers the song as a really big hit. See our sponsor Victory House at Poppy Bank Epicenter online, for their latest viewing and menu options. Beers from Portugal Herlinda Heras has brought beers from Portugal, including an "APA" which they call an American Pale Ale. Praxis Brewery is in Coimbra which is famous for having really good water. The Praxis family younger generation has revived the brewery and Mark says it's a great example of Europeans doing an American style. It is 6% alcohol which is reasonable. There is also an 8/5% double Bock from Vaida Brewery outside of Aveiro which is south of Porto. Herlinda has also brought a beer with a woman on the label. Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more. Norman Greenbaum remembers that New York was a center of music recording but he was not fond of the city. He knew that Hollywood was the other center of that business so he went to LA. He started Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band and signed with a record company immediately. The Eggplant that Ate Chicago was their first hit. Now his songs have been in countless commercials and movies. Norman does say he is flabbergasted and thanks "the Spirit in the Sky for taking such good care of me." He never gets tired of hearing it even if he wrote it. It still sends shivers up his spine. Norman has brought a special guitar today which is from Portugal. He bought it at the flea market in Petaluma for $25, 40 years ago and brought it to a luthier for repairs. It disappeared and 42 years later, the guy contacted him saying it was fixed!  It is called a Viola de Terra made of birds-eye maple.