Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

Latest Episodes:

466: Ryan McCay of Living Waters Finds His Flow in Barrel-Aged Stout and Barleywine Mar 27, 2026

Show notes

Living Waters in Nashville, Tennessee, is a full-service coffee house as well as brewery, and its affinity for strong, well-articulated flavor runs through all the beverages they produce and serve. Recently, the brewery’s Barrel-Aged Dyson Sphere (Construct IV) scored a 97 in Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine^®—garnering the highest score in the category—so, naturally, we wanted to know more.

That success stems in part from cofounder Ryan McCay’s deep passion for barrel-aged stouts and barleywines, and he uses the brewery’s proximity to major bourbon and whiskey producers to his advantage. While Living Waters may be small, and the releases are somewhat limited, they’ve nonetheless built a deep stock of casks with aging stock now averaging around three years old, and they take a brand-agnostic, flavor-first approach to building blends from these various components. At the same time, their counterintuitive approach to adding coffee to stout may surprise you.

In this episode, McCay discusses:

building different base recipes to fit specific whiskey casks
blind blending for a brand-agnostic, flavor-first approach
barrel selection to maximize desirable flavors
off-gassing coffee to avoid green-pepper notes in beer
cinnamon addition methods that vary by variety

And more.

G&D Chillers
The Craft Brewers Conference is coming up April 20 through 23, 2026—and G&D Chillers will be there. If you’re heading to CBC, swing by and talk shop with the folks who know brewery operations inside and out. G&D’s biggest strength isn’t just the equipment—it’s our deep understanding of how a brewery runs. From cellar layout to production flow, our team brings decades of hands-on experience to every install and every conversation. Whether you’re running a single-stage 5H unit or scaling up with a Vertical Air Chiller, G&D builds systems that are reliable, efficient, and built to last. Because when your chiller’s solid, your beer stays cold—and your operation stays on track. Plan your visit at gdchillers.com/podcast—and come see us at CBC, Booth 1518.

Berkeley Yeast
Berkeley Yeast just launched Dry Tropics London! Our best-selling liquid yeast strain, now with all the ease-of-use benefits of dry yeast. Dry Tropics London delivers the soft, pillowy mouthfeel and juicy character you’d expect from a top-tier London Ale strain, but with a serious upgrade: a burst of thiols that unleash vibrant, layered notes of grapefruit and passion fruit. A lot of brewers love the clean passion fruit you get from Tropics, but they don’t want every IPA to be a tropical-fruit bomb. At the dry yeast price point, you can pitch and ditch without breaking the bank. Or, you can co-pitch with your house strain to adjust the intensity of the notes. And with nationwide free shipping, there’s never been a better time to try Dry Tropics. Order now at berkeleyyeast.com and experience the ease and impact of Dry Tropics London Yeast.

PakTech
This episode is sponsored by PakTech—delivering craft-beer multipacking you can trust. Our handles are made from 100 percent recycled plastic and are fully recyclable, helping breweries close the loop and advance the circular economy. With a minimalist design, durable functionality you can rely on, and custom color matching, our carriers help brands stand out while staying sustainable. Trusted by craft brewers nationwide, we offer a smarter, sustainable way to carry your beer. To learn more, visit paktech-opi.com.

Indie Hops
Taste the flavors of Indie Hops at CBC this year in Philly! Fourteen incredible beers will showcase Strata, Luminosa, Lórien, and Audacia—plus our most promising new experimental hop IH19082 in a single-hop XPA! Experience our newest hop, Audacia, in an IPA by Grand Fir, a hoppy lager by Meanwhile, and a hazy by Worthy Brewing. Explore the wonders of Strata in IPAs from Odell, Russian River, Grains of Wrath, and Grand Fir. Refresh your palate with the crisp summery flavors of Lórien in an Italian pils by Sun River and a Mexican lager by Hold Out. And bask in the “liquid sunshine” magic of Luminosa with an IPA from Fort George. Check out the full CBC beer lineup at www.indiehops.com and plan to stop by our booth #926. We’ll be as happy to see you as you’ll be that you made the effort! Indie Hops—Life is short, let’s make it flavorful.

Midea 50/50 Flex
This podcast is sponsored by the Midea 50/50 flex—the industry’s first dual-compartment three-way convertible freezer. The 50/50 Flex is designed to flex with your life. It can convert to all fridge, all freezer, or half and half with just the touch of a button. Plus, with reversible doors and adjustable storage compartments, you can stay organized no matter your food-storage needs. The 50/50 Flex is also designed to maintain a stable temperature even in non-climate-controlled spaces. So it’s perfect for your garage, man cave, or wherever you need a little more space. Maybe use all 20 cubic feet as a beer fridge! Check out Midea.com/us/ for more information on how to take your beer storage to the next level.

Old Orchard
If your brewery is using fruit-juice concentrates, purees, and blends, then why not source everything from a one-stop shop? We might be best-known for flavored blends, but if you need 100 percent purees or concentrates, then we can likely help—even with options not listed on our website. Let us know what you need at oldorchard.com/brewer.

Ss Brewtech
Pumps are critical to any advanced homebrewing setup. From mash recirculation to wort transfer, and even for cleaning, a quality pump is a key part of every brew day. The Ss Brew Pump from Ss Brewtech is engineered to tackle even the messiest brew days. Featuring an IP55 water resistance rating, an easy-to-use DIN head with 360-degree rotation, and a flow rate of up to 11 gallons per minute, it has the power to keep your brew day moving. Visit www.SsBrewtech.com/Pump to learn more about how the Ss Brew Pump can upgrade your homebrewery.

2026 Brewers Retreat
Tickets are on sale now for the annual Craft Beer & Brewing Brewers Retreat August 23–26 in the hop country of Yakima Valley, Washington. There’s nothing like this fantasy homebrew-camp experience, as you brew in small groups led by some of the most inspiring brewers in the world—folks such as Vinnie and Natalie of Russian River, Ben from Breakside, Henry and Adriana of Monkish, Kelsey from North Park, Whitney from Grand Fir, Sean from Lawson’s Finest, and more. This year we’ll be brewing under the bines at Bale Breaker, and it’s sure to be an unforgettable experience. Tickets are on sale now and going fast at brewersretreat.com.

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465: Corn Coast’s High and Tight Hazy IPAs Find Success Through Discipline Mar 20, 2026

Show notes

Will Walter grew up in a military family, joining the Marines after college just as his father had. But the pull of brewing proved strong, and in 2022 he and two partners—also former military officers—opened Corn Coast in a small industrial park in Lincoln, Nebraska.

That same year, they won a bronze medal at the Great American Beer Festival for their hazy imperial IPA, Citra Soaker—and they followed that in 2023 with two silvers, in Juicy or Hazy Strong Pale Ale and Juicy or Hazy IPA. Then, in 2025, the brewery pulled in a gold medal for their ESB, Windsurfing on the Thames, along with a Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® Best in Beer trophy for their West Coast pils, Share the Stoke.

That kind of success isn’t a fluke, but in tasting the beers the appeal is obvious—light and airy yet structured tropical tones expressed with definition and precision. They don’t necessarily have a house character, but they’re all are imbued with an identifiable point of view.

In this episode, Walter discusses:

the initial design and ensuing iterations of medal-winning Citra Soaker
the impact of whirlpool timing and temperature
using low-alpha hops in IPA
considerations when brewing lower-ABV hazy beer
managing a particularly finicky yeast strain for hazy IPA
making seasonal malt changes to amplify malt character in colder months
adding Krush Cryo for extra impact in competition batches
balancing flavor when using flowable hop products
building a tropical foundation with Nelson HyperBoost
Sabro Cryo as background support in IPA

And more.

Indie Hops Strata Cryo
The multilayered wonders of Indie Hops Strata are now easier than ever for brewers to tap into. Introducing Strata Cryo, in collaboration with Yakima Chief Hops. Whether brewing up a single-hop Strata IPA to wow customers with the depth of flavor this variety delivers or modernizing your flagship IPA to continue setting the highest standards, Strata T99, Strata CGX, Strata HyperBoost, and now Strata Cryo provide the tools for you to create your unique masterpiece. Indie Hops Strata. Life is short. Let’s make it flavorful!

Midea 50/50 Flex
If you’re like many podcast listeners, you’ve got a lot of beers at home, and your regular fridge is at capacity. Enter the Midea 50/50 Flex—the industry’s first dual compartment three-way convertible freezer. Here’s what all that means for you: options! The 50/50 has the power to be all freezer, all fridge, or a little bit of both. But you’ll probably want to use those 20 cubic feet as a massive, garage-ready beer fridge. You can also change which side the door is on or how you want the shelves to be arranged—the 50/50 totally flexes to fit your life. Plus, it’s designed to maintain a stable temperature even in non-climate-controlled conditions—so you can crack a cold one even on the warmest days in the man cave. Take your garage to the next level! Check out Midea.com/us/ to get more info about this game changer today. Cheers!

Old Orchard
The beyond-beer space is booming, and Old Orchard is here for it, supplying breweries with fruit ingredients for all your beverage needs: low/no alcohol, hard lemonades, seltzer, cider, and more. Old Orchard has supplied hundreds of industrial customers across 49 states, including nationally and internationally loved brands, so you'll be in good company. More information and free samples are waiting at oldorchard.com/brewer.

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464: Bobby Kros of Kros Strain Lets the Liquid Do the Talking Mar 13, 2026

Show notes

Bobby Kros hates interviews as much as he loves brewing beer, and while the cofounder of the La Vista, Nebraska, brewery may occasionally search for words to describe what he’s doing, the beers he makes are perfectible capable of speaking for themselves. And speak they have, winning Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® Best in Beer trophies in 2021, 2024, and 2025, in three wildly divergent styles. Yet Kros isn’t resting on his laurels, and he continues to experiment with new ingredients and techniques in pursuit of perfection.

In this episode, Kros discusses:

brewing Czech-style pale lager with floor-malted Bohemian malt
improving efficiency through dry hopping without sacrificing quality
balancing beween hot-side, whirlpool, and dry-hop additions in hazy IPA
experimenting with new and unreleased concentrated flowable hop products
changing recipes for every batch in the elusive hunt for perfection
using lighter C-malts in barleywine while using the barrel as an ingredient
cask-conditioning in orange-wine barrels

And more.

Midea 50/50 Flex
This podcast is sponsored by the Midea 50/50 flex—the industry’s first dual compartment three-way convertible freezer. The 50/50 Flex is designed to flex with your life. It can convert to all fridge, all freezer, or half and half with just the touch of a button. Plus, with reversible doors and adjustable storage compartments, you can stay organized no matter your food-storage needs. The 50/50 Flex is also designed to maintain a stable temperature even in non-climate-controlled spaces. So it’s perfect for your garage, man cave, or wherever you need a little more space. Maybe use all 20 cubic feet as a beer fridge! Check out Midea.com/us/ for more information on how to take your beer storage to the next level.

Old Orchard
Your brewery deserves a supplier that can keep your customers engaged with new flavors. That's why Old Orchard releases juice concentrates and blends with trending flavor profiles like White Sangria and Passion Orange Guava. If you need a custom solution, Old Orchard’s R&D team wants to hear from you. Fruit ingredients that get you: get Old Orchard's free samples at oldorchard.com/brewer.

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463: Dan Brouillette of Lumen Crunches the Data to Find the Best Hops Mar 06, 2026

Show notes

Dan Brouillette has always worked in creative fields—he was a professional photographer before launching Lumen in the waning days of the pandemic—but he’s always been particularly attracted to the technical aspects of creation.

Like every IPA-focused brewer, he’s on a neverending search for the most expressive, layered, and interesting hops. But he’s also found that the information upon which many brewers rely when choosing hop lots often tells an incomplete story. Total oil numbers can be misleading, as they include oils that don’t survive the brewing process; hops that smell good relative to others at selection may not have high enough oil concentration to punch through in finished beer. Brouillette has found that using past chemical data paired with his own sensory can be far more effective when seeking out hops that are going to give him the impact he seeks.

In this episode, Brouilette shares:

how spreadsheets are often a better tool for selecting hop lots than the old-fashioned rub
his process for earmarking specific hop compounds at certain thresholds to ensure they’re effective in beer
designing different types of hazy IPA that appeal to different use cases and drinkers
achieving beautiful hop expression in hazy IPAs with less than 4 percent ABV
brewing hazy IPA with only 40 percent base malt

And more.

“We’re brewing our World Beer Cup beers right now, and those will be much different than a beer that I want to make Top Drops on Instagram,” Brouilette says. “They’re just different audiences. We don’t brew one type of hazy IPA. There are different segments and sub-styles within the style, and we brew all of those.”

G&D Chillers
G&D’s new Elite 290 Micro-series runs on a Natural Refrigerant with near-zero Global Warming Potential—built for brewers who care about sustainability and performance. They recently built one for New Belgium Brewing, delivering around 50% energy savings over CO₂ systems and 9% more efficiency than A2Ls. That’s real-world impact from a brewery that knows what it takes. With 24/7 support and remote monitoring, your cold side stays dialed in—day or night. Learn more about sustainable chiller solutions at gdchillers.com/podcast.

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462: Bierstadt, New Belgium, Wayfinder, and the Anatomy of a Lager Collaboration Feb 27, 2026

Show notes

Beer collaborations are a particularly effective way for brewers to share and learn, but what if you could take that experience and share it with a wider audience? That's the idea behind this episode, recorded shortly after the brew day wrapped on a forthcoming collab brewed by Kelly McKnight at the pilot brewery of New Belgium in Fort Collins, Colorado, along with Ashleigh Carter of Denver’s Bierstadt Lagerhaus and Natalie Rose Baldwin of Wayfinder in Portland, Oregon.

Throughout, these three accomplished brewers discuss:

finding common ground in a recipe and ingredients
diving into each others’ brew sheets
exploring modern techniques such as cool pooling (even with German hops)
understanding what qualities of subtler European hop varieties come through from the rub into the finished beer

And more.

G&D Chillers
G&D’s new Elite 290 Micro-series is built for brewers who care about sustainability and performance. It runs on a Natural Refrigerant with near-zero Global Warming Potential, has a compact footprint, and features variable speed fans for efficiency. They’ve chilled beer for over 3,000 breweries across North America, and with 24/7 support and remote monitoring, your cold side stays dialed in—day or night. Get the details on natural refrigerant technology at gdchillers.com/podcast.

Old Orchard
If your brewery is using fruit juice concentrates, purees, and blends, then why not source everything from a one-stop shop? Old Orchard might be best-known for flavored blends, but if you need 100% purees or concentrates, then Old Orchard can likely help—even with options not listed on their website. Let Old Orchard know what you need at oldorchard.com/brewer.

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461: Von Ebert and Zero Gravity Save Money and Make Better Beer with Process Aids Feb 24, 2026

Show notes

In this episode, produced in partnership with RahrBSG, we’re taking a close look at process aids in the brewhouse and cellar, from anti-foaming agents and finings to enzymes and more. Whether you’re trying to keep more foam in your beer (rather than lose it while brewing and cellaring), fill tanks with more beer and less headspace (by limiting foam height within tanks), or clarify beer while reducing filtering time and expense (by using finings), there's a process aid that fits your goal.

Here, we discuss the ins and outs of using these tools effectively in the brewery with Sam Pecoraro of Von Ebert in Portland, Oregon; Steve Theoharides of Zero Gravity in Burlington, Vermont; and Ashton Lewis, technical support manager at RahrBSG.

We produced this episode in partnership with RahrBSG, your leading source for brewing ingredients and supplies. To learn more about the solutions RahrBSG offers, visit their site and contact your representative today.

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460: How Notch and Halfway Crooks Formulate Recipes for Tasty (and Convincing) Nonalcoholic Beer Feb 20, 2026

Show notes

Last week, we hosted a series of three webinars focused on different aspects of nonalcoholic brewing. In this episode of the podcast, we share an excerpt from the first session—focused on formulation—featuring Notch founder Chris Lohring, Halfway Crooks cofounder Shawn Cooper, and Abstrax Hops technical sales manager Craig Thomas. Through the course of the conversation, the trio discuss malt choices and process for NA beers, hop usage and different formats, dialing in bitterness, building body without sweetness, adjusting chloride content for fullness, and much more.

If this piques your interest, the full webinars are available for viewing on our website:

G&D Chillers
A quick word for the brewers out there staring down a broken chiller. You know the pain—warm fermenters, stressed yeast, and that sinking feeling when the repair quote lands in your inbox. With refrigerant regulations changing and the cost of obsolete refrigerants skyrocketing, sometimes the fix costs more than the unit’s worth. G&D Chillers is there to help, whether you're a small brew pub or large full-scale production brewery. Don’t throw good money at bad equipment. Invest in a solution that grows with your brewery—and keeps your tanks cold when it counts. Big thanks to G&D Chillers for supporting this podcast since 2019, reach out to them at gdhillers.com/podcast to learn how they can support your next six years of growth.

Brightly Software
Brightly Software, a Siemens company, partners with organizations at every stage of their asset lifecycle journey. Brightly is a complete asset-management and operations software that enhances organizational sustainability, compliance, and efficiency through data-driven decision making. Streamline maintenance, simplify capital planning, and optimize resources with solutions uniquely designed to support long-term goals. Learn more at brightlysoftware.com.

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459: Zach Typinksi of Urbanrest Brews Gold Medal Pilsner Without Pilsner Malt Feb 13, 2026

Show notes

Generally speaking, there’s some correlation between brewery scale and lager quality—and while there are plenty of exceptions to that rule, there’s no denying that honing lagers into the best versions of themselves requires repetition, time, and access to the best ingredients. Over the past few years, however, an ever-increasing number of very small breweries have found success in major competitions not despite their size, but because of it.

In Ferndale, Michigan, Urbanrest is squarely in that group, and their recent GABF gold medal in the American Pilsner category is further proof that careful process and thoughtful beer design don't depend on scale. The beer itself, Kaiser, started as a Franconian-inspired keller-pils, but over the years it’s morphed into what they now call an American pils. Funny enough, it contains only Vienna-style malt from a small craft maltster and none of the pilsner malt that most would expect.

But that’s not the only way Urbanrest has strayed from the classic narrative. In this episode, founder and brewer Zach Typinski discusses how they:

ferment German lager with a dry 34/70 strain while fermenting American pils with a liquid 34/70
blend various base malts in both lager and IPA
find the perfect amount of “rusticity” in American pils
manage caramelization in their direct-fire kettle, in lieu of decoction
kräusen lagered beer for carbonation, since the brewery doesn’t own a carb stone
build texture and retain foam through the kräusening process
source and contract great hops despite their small size

And more.

G&D Chillers
G&D’s biggest edge isn’t just the equipment—it’s their deep understanding of brewery operations. From layout to production flow, they bring real-world expertise and build reliable systems that last, whether it’s a single-stage 5H or a Vertical Air Chiller. New Belgium Brewing recently partnered with G&D to install a propane-based Elite 290 chiller —delivering around 50% energy savings compared to CO₂ systems. As Andy Collins, New Belgium’s Carbon Neutral Engineer, put it: “We’re really happy to work with a partner like G&D Chillers who helped us significantly reduce the amount of HFCs used in our refrigeration systems.” With 24/7 support and remote monitoring, your cold side stays dialed in—day or night. See how leading breweries are cutting energy costs at gdchillers.com.

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458: Tom Nielsen of Emberside Redraws the Boundaries between the Science and the Art of Beer Feb 06, 2026

Show notes

Through his decades of work in the brewing industry, many spent in R&D and quality at Sierra Nevada, Tom Nielsen has played a critical role in getting craft beer a seat at the broader brewing table. While industry advocacy groups were once dominated by macro brewers pursuing their own narrow goals, Nielsen (and a cohort of craft contemporaries) helped change the bigger conversation, connect ingredient producers and processors with brewer end users, and usher in a new golden age for hops flavor and aroma as well as malting-barley quality. Now Nielsen is tackling a new challenge—scaling down while maintaining the same rigorous approach to quality—as he builds the brewing program for the forthcoming Emberside Brewery in his home state of New Jersey.

In this episode, Nielsen discusses:

the development of the innovation process at Sierra Nevada
perfecting Pale Ale and how the brewery prioritized R&D
factors that improve packaged beer stability
evaluating quality in crystal malts
testing malt quality and consistency with equipment such as the farinator
moving beyond visual inspection for barley and hops
improving malt flavor with new (and old) barley varieties
advances in pelletizing that retain more hop punch
blending science, sensory, and a bit of art to achieve great beer

And more.

G&D Chillers
G&D now offers their Elite 290 Micro-series with 5H chillers—bringing even more flexibility to their propane-powered lineup. In fact, they’re building one right now for Red Clover Ale Co in partnership with Efficiency Vermont. It runs on a Natural Refrigerant with near-zero Global Warming Potential—projected to deliver around 10% more efficiency than A2L refrigerant systems. That’s smart sustainability backed by proven engineering and trusted performance. With 24/7 support and remote monitoring, your cold side stays dialed in—day or night. Explore the Elite 290 Micro-series and more at gdchillers.com

Midea 50/50 Flex
The Midea 50/50 flex is the industry’s first dual compartment three-way convertible freezer. The 50/50 Flex is designed to flex with your life. It can convert to all fridge, all freezer, or half and half with just the touch of a button. Plus, with reversible doors and adjustable storage compartments, you can stay organized no matter your food-storage needs. The 50/50 Flex is also designed to maintain a stable temperature even in non-climate-controlled spaces. So it’s perfect for your garage, man cave, or wherever you need a little more space. Maybe use all 20 cubic feet as a beer fridge! Check out Midea.com/us/ for more information on how to take your beer storage to the next level.

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457: Cory Buenning of Fritz Family Focuses on Highly Attenuated Lagers With Perfect Proteins Jan 30, 2026

Show notes

Fritz Family founder Cory Buenning brewed from the mid-90’s through the mid 20-teens for Wyoming craft beer pioneers Snake River, but the itch to do his own thing was strong, and after returning to Colorado after a few years in Kentucky, he leased the old Bootstrap brewery in Niwot, installed a new brewhouse and cellar, and got to work making the beers he wanted to make—a variety of primarily lager beer, brewed thoughtfully and carefully. Years later, the brewery has developed a strong following among locals, but is also a favorite hangout for the area’s brewers, and you’ll often find brewers from neighboring breweries at the Fritz bar for a post-shift beer. It’s brewers beer, after all—easy to drink, impeccably made, and unassuming.

In this episode, Buenning shares his approach to making refined lagers at a taproom scale, and along the way discusses:

how cold knockouts, cold fermentation, and no diacetyl rest make better lagers
brewing with an jacketed oil-heated brewhouse rather than steam-heated
acidifying the mash using sauergut
building body in clear beer through proteins not carbohydrates
carbonating naturally via capped tank
using forced fermentation tests on all lagers
managing gelatinization issues with European malt through modified step mashing
ingredient approaches to Pilsner, helles, and Kölsch
understanding yeast timing and performance to dial in harvesting and rep itching
managing head pressure with 34/70 to reduce sulfur

And more.

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