Four Brewers | Craft Beer And Homebrew Podcast

Season 2, Episode 45 – This week on the show, we’re drinking beers from Russian River Brewing Company. BOOM. If you’re a craft beer drinker, you’ve heard of Russian River Brewing Company. Craft beer drinkers far and wide seem to adore Russian River and their beers, ranging from the somewhat hard to find and ever-so-hoppy Pliny The Elder, to the hard to get beers like the tart and acidic Beatification. Russian River has roots in the Inland Empire of southern California, originally hailing from Temecula, California, but moved up the coast to Santa Rosa, California, which is where they call home today. Pliny The Elder We’re kicking off the show with the legendary beer geek-hoppy-holy-grail, Pliny The Elder. Bottles of this beer tend to be hard to find outside of central California, so getting some bottles for the show this week was a bit of an endeavor for us. Luckily, we have a few friends in high places, and were able to score a couple bottles, one from La Bodega Wine & Spirits in Riverside, California, an

Season 2, Episode 44 – This week, we’re at The Beachwood Blendery with Gabe Gordon and Ryan Fields drinking the first two bottle releases from The Blendery, Propagation 001 and 002. Propagation 001 and 002 go on sale TODAY, November 1, at 11 am. If you’re not already in line, get down to The Blendery and pick up some bottles ASAP! The time has finally come, and we couldn’t be more excited. Beachwood BBQ and Brewing‘s new sour/wild beer project is finally off the ground. They’re releasing their first two beers today, Propagation 001 and 002, a petite saison and a Berliner weisse, respectively. Beachwood has quickly become one of the best breweries in southern California, garnering awards at the World Beer Cup and medals at the Great American Beer Festival. When they announced The Blendery back in December of 2014, beer geeks everywhere knew they were in for something special. The Blendery at Beachwood BBQ and Brewing This week, we’ve got owner and chef, Gabe Gordon and brewer/barrelmaster Ryan Fieldson the sho

Season 2, Episode 43 – This week, our good friend John Ryti joins us and he brought some killer brew from Ironfire Brewing Company in Temecula, California. This week’s episode is sort of a mixed bag. A little bit of homebrew, some macro beer, some kettle sours, and some IPA. Nothing wrong with mixing it up, right? nagelBOOCH Kombucha We’re kicking off the show with some home-brewed kombucha by Mr. Nagel. If you’ve never heard of kombucha, it’s basically fermented tea. It usually has a funky aroma with a sometimes fruity and tart taste. It’s very low in alcohol, and is loaded with many of the same microbial thingies you’d find in yogurt. I also hear it’s great for hangovers…just sayin’. If you’re interested in making your own batch of ‘booch, Kombucha Brooklyn sells an inexpensive kit that comes with everything you need to get started. Guinness Nitro IPA Next, we’re going to the dark side, or, the light side, in Guinness’ case. Guinness recently announced their Nitro IPA. Yep. IPA, in a can, on nitrogen gas. W

Season 2, Episode 42 – This week, the boys are headin’ to Texas. Jason tends to travel quite a bit for work. One of the fringe benefits is that he’s able to explore the local beer scene in whatever town he’s visiting. Jason was cool enough to bring some beers back from his recent trip to Texas. San Antonio, Texas, to be exact. Texas Craft Beers We’re starting with a classic Texas lager (which is now owned by Pabst Brewing Company) Lone Star Beer. While Jason brought this back as more of a gag, we find out that it’s actually pretty tasty. One of the highlights of Jason’s trip was his visit to Jester King Brewery. Color Matt extremely jealous. Jason talks about the brewery and some of the beers he tried while he was there. He even brought back a bottle of Vulgar Affectation for us to try on the show. Yo Soy Un Berliñer Big thanks to Jason for bringing back the brew. A trip to Texas may be in order for all of us, soon… BREW THE SHIT OUT OF IT. Beers from this week’s episode:Pabst Brewing Company: Lone Star BeerF

Season 2, Episode 41 – This week, beers from Sixpoint Brewery, a super-yummy hoppy pale ale from our local friends, Wicks Brewing Company, sprinkles of Almanac Brewing Company’s Citra Sour, and some in-depth homebrew discussion on Quad recipe formulation. This week on the show, we’re taking a trip to Brooklyn, New York (we’re not really there, duh) to get some of that sweet Sixpoint Brewery action! Wicks Brewing Company – Paladin Pale Ale But first, we start with a new segment on the show, the 4B Mailbag! To accompany the Mailbag segment, we’re drinking a delicious beer from a local favorite of ours, and many in the Inland Empire of southern California, Wicks Brewing Company’s Paladin Pale Ale. This beer is Wicks’ first official bottle release that has made its way to shelves, and it’s superb. A super-hoppy and danky pale ale that has the punch of an IPA with the ABV of a pale ale. This is no session ale, folks…it’s a pale ale, and it’s delicious. Sixpoint Brewery Beers Next up are the Sixpoint Brewery beers.

Season 2, Episode 40 – This week we’re drinking some GABF medal-winning beers. Every year, beer drinkers from all over the United States and the world descend upon Denver, Colorado for the Great American Beer Festival. It’s one of the biggest beer festival we know of, and two of the Four Brewers got to attend this year. 2015 GABF Medal-Winning Beers While the draw and the allure of GABF is the seemingly endless beers available to sample, many people and breweries especially focus on the awards on Saturday morning. Winning a bronze, silver and/or gold medal at GABF is quite prestigious to say the least. The panel of judges at the festival is comprised of the best brewers, beer drinkers, beer writers, and beer enthusiasts from all over the country. Winning a medal at GABF can really catapult a brewery into the stratosphere.  Southern California is no stranger to winning metal in Denver. Breweries like Pizza Port, Societe Brewing Company, Beachwood BBQ & Brewing, and countless others from SoCal have dominate

Season 2, Episode 39 – Matt snuck into John’s cellar and helped himself to some great, and not-so-great cellar-aged beers. If you’re a beer geek with a cellar, you’ve either been here, or will be here one day. You know what I’m talking about. You’re new to craft beer and you want to be able to break out a beer on a second’s notice to pair with food, bring to a bottle share, or simply enjoy with a friend while you Netflix and chill. Then it becomes more and more apparent that you either have a problem, are on to something awesome, or both. Cellar Worthy? Perhaps… This is where John’s cellar is at this very moment. While most of his cellar is comprised of beers that could easily trade for some of the best midwest whalez, there are those few outliers that look like they don’t quite belong. On the other hand, there are beers that look ripe for the picking. That’s what we’re doing today—invading John’s cellar. It’s for his own good. We’re kicking off the show with three beers that in their prime, were pretty great

Season 2, Episode 38 – This week, we’re still high on hops, but low on ABV. Hoppy pale ales are on deck. While we all love IPA and their juicy hoppiness, drinking more than a couple can really take a toll on your soberness. Luckily, breweries everywhere are making hoppier-than-usual versions of pale ale, which by style are lower in alcohol than IPA. This week, we’re drinking some of the best hoppy pale ales we could get our hands on. Off Color Brewing – Troublesome To break in our palates, we’re starting with a wheat gose from Off Color Brewing called Troublesome. We’re big fans of the artwork for this beer, as well as the contents inside. We were able to pick this up locally in Costa Mesa, California, which is rad because this beer is great! The salt presence is very much subdued while the beer is crisp and clean. Good stuff. Now to the pales. First up is Pseudo Sue from Toppling Goliath Brewery. This beer has a lot of hype behind it, and for good reason. This beer divided the room, mostly because of the hop

Season 2, Episode 37 – This week, we’re drinking a hell-of-a-lot of Oktoberfest and Märzen style beers. Prost! It’s that time of year again…Oktoberfest! This year, we’re not fucking around. While there are many, many interpretations of “Octoberfest” beers out there, we decided to find as many as locally possible and just go for it. Oktoberfest Beers This week, we’re drinking 14 different Oktoberfest and Märzen-style beers from around the country and from Germany itself. While not all of them can be considered official “Oktoberfest” labeled beers, they all are brewed to celebrate than annual German tradition that is Oktoberfest. This year, Oktoberfest runs from September 19 thru October 4 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. We’re not going to spend any time on this post…there are 14 friggin’ beers on the show this week. Grab your dimpled mug and drink along. BREW THE SHIT OUT OF IT. Beers from this week’s episode:Gordon Biersch Brewing: MärzenStaatliches Hofbräuhaus München: Hofbräu OktoberfestbierPaulaner Gruppe: Ok

Season 2, Episode 36 – This week on the show, a plethora of IPA, and some tasty beers from our buddy, Phil. This week, were drinking the OC Brew HAHA South County IPA, as well as IPA from SoCal and Athens, Georgia. And just for the fun of it, we’re throwing in a Berliner Weisse as well. We kick off the show with with two beers from friend of the show and Patreoneer, Phil Lorezini. Phil is currently living in Florida, and was kind enough to send us some beer from Creature Comforts Brewing Company out of Athens, Georgia. To get things going, we open Athena, a delicious and spot-on Berliner Weisse. It’s tart and refreshing with just enough of that acidic bite to take it over the top. Berliner Weisse can be a complicated beer to make, even though it’s quite delicate and simple. Achieving the proper level of tart and funk is the sign of a great Berliner Weisse. Athena doesn’t disappoint.  IPA and a Berliner Weisse. Now to the IPA! Keeping with Creature Comforts, we open the Tropicália IPA. Creature Comforts aptly

Season 2, Episode 35 – This week, we’re drinking three vintages of the Stone Brewing Co. collaboration beer, w00tstout. This week on the show, we’re drinking three vintages of the Drew Curtis/Wil Wheaton/Greg Koch Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout, or as it’s generally known, w00tstout. It’s origins were inspired by the touring variety show known as w00tstock, which was created by Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage, and the group Paul and Storm. w00tstout is a collaboration between Stone Brewing Co. CEO Greg Koch, Wil Wheaton, and Fark.com creator, Drew Curtis. Stone Brewing Co. – w00tstout Stone Brewing Co. releases the beer annually during Hop-Con, an event held during the San Diego International Comic-Con. Two of the three vintages were designed by the collaborators mentioned above, with the exception of Stone w00tstout 2.0, which was a collaboration between Wil Wheaton, Drew Curtis, and Aisha Tyler. All three vintages of w00tstout were partially bourbon barrel-aged and made with pecans, flaked rye malt, and wheat mal

Season 2, Episode 34 – Natalie DeNicholas joins us for another round as we drink a variety of beers for the great state of Colorado. This week, we’re going full Colorado. Six beers from four great CO breweries. It’s no secret that Colorado is a mecca of craft beer, and this week we’re honing in on some of our favorites.  Colorado Beers We kick off the show with a couple of beers brought to us by friend of the show Enrique Leyva. He recently visited Colorado and brought some beers back for Matt. First up is Prost Brewing Company. Prost has only been on the scene for a few years, but their authentic German brews are spot on and delicious. If you’re ever in Denver for the Great American Beer Festival, you’re sure to see some beer celebs throwing back Pils at Prost. Next up is a Life’s Trade from TRVE Brewing Company, “the most metal fucking brewery ever,” according to Matt. It’s a saison fermented in Puncheons, and it’s awesome. TRVE is a very small operation and they’ve recently announced plans for expansion. G

Season 2, Episode 33 – This week, homebrew from Nagel and special guest Natalie DeNicholas. Friend and fellow homebrewer, Natalie DeNicholas, joins us on the show this week with homebrew in hand. She’s been brewing for a few years now, and is a member of the famous southern California homebrew club, Maltose Falcons.  Natalie DeNicholas (via Instagram) First up are two saisons that Natalie brewed early in her homebrewing career. While she doesn’t remember the details of the recipes, she does remember the basics of each of the beers. The first saison we try poured brilliantly clear in the glass and smelled wonderful. This beer was pretty basic as saison recipes go, and was fermented with a French farmhouse yeast strain (assumably Wyeast 3711). The carbonation and flavor on this beer was great and served as a perfect opener for the show. The second saison was more in line with a tradition Belgian saison, made with belgian malts and fermented with a Belgian White Labs yeast strain (WLP565, more than likely). Next

Season 2, Episode 32 – This week we find out if Green Flash Brewing Company’s versions of Alpine Beer Company beers are up to snuff with Alpine’s authentic brews. These days, brewery buy-outs and partnerships are becoming more and more commonplace, not only in terms of macro breweries buying out smaller craft breweries, but also larger craft breweries partnering and purchasing smaller, well known craft breweries. One example as of late is the purchase of Alpine Beer Company by Green Flash Brewing Company. Whether a brewery is purchased by a macro or a fellow craft brewery, there is one question that most craft beer consumers and aficionados ask: What’s going to happen to the quality of the beer? Will it remain the same? Will it be brewed at the same brewery, or will it be shipped off to a massive brewhouse somewhere on the east coast, only to become a watered down, boring version of its former self? Alpine Beer Company – Nelson and Duet When it came to the purchase of Alpine Beer Company by Green Flash, most

Season 2, Episode 31 – This week, we’re drinking a variety of Belgian-style ales because why the hell not. It truly is a great time in craft beer. The beers are this week’s show exemplify it. Crooked Stave, Jester King, Highland Park Brewery…damn.  We kick off the show with two beers from one of Los Angeles’ newest breweries, Highland Park Brewery. Highland Park is a local favorite of ours, and rightly so. They’re located near Eagle Rock Brewing and Golden Road Brewing Company, so making a trip so the somewhat out of the way brewery and tasting room at HP is well worthwhile.  Assorted Dope-Ass Brews Next up is the 2015 LA Beer Week collaboration beer, Unity. Unity was brewed at Smog City Brewing in Torrance, CA in collaboration with other local Los Angeles breweries. We also spend a bit of time talking about LA Beer Week’s Kickoff Celebration that Jason and Matt attended back in June. The final beer is a collaboration between Crooked Stave, Jester King, and Swiss brewery Brasserie Trois Dames. Matt randomly f

Season 2, Episode 30 – This week’s episode is all about homebrew, more specifically, homebrew from 4B super-fan Kyle Wells! Homebrew, homebrew, and more homebrew. This week it’s all about homebrew. We’ve got four on the show this week, three of which are from 4B Patron and super-fan Kyle Wells, and the from our very own Greg Nagel. Kyle gave us these brews a couple of months ago with the expectation that we’d try them on the show and give him some feedback. Spoiler alert: Kyle is a great brewer. Kyle Wells’ Homebrew Not too long ago, Greg brewed a batch of saison that was split up with the intent of making different beers from the same ten gallon batch. With this beer, he added some Anaheim chilies to the mix. Greg’s wife is a fan of chili beers, and this one was made just for her. Chili beers can be difficult to make. Getting the right balance of heat, chili aroma, and chili flavor is tricky. Getting it right takes a bit of trial and error. We all agree that this brew turned out well.  Thanks for the brews,

Season 2, Episode 29 – This week, we’re hanging out with Walt and Luke Dickinson from Asheville, North Carolina’s Wicked Weed Brewing. So, this show is pretty rad. We’ve got Walt and Luke Dickinson from Wicked Weed Brewingon the show, at the same time, from two different locations, one of which is a car outside of a bar. Holy. Shit.  Wicked Weed Brewing Canvas Series We’re drinking six different beers from two different series from Wicked Weed. The first set of brews is from their Canvas Series, which are basically smaller batch, experimental brews, and the other three are from their special release series of beers (basically, beers that made it beyond the canvas series). Wicked Weed Brewing – Medora, Black Angel, and Genesis Wicked Weed has pretty limited distribution at the moment, but that’s all about to change with the installment of their new 50BBL brewhouse (again, Holy. Shit.). Their popularity among beer geeks has been soaring as of late, and over here in SoCal, it’s hard to get ahold of their brews.

Season 2, Episode 28 – This week we’re drinking Nagel’s vacation beers! Before I (John) start this post, The guys and I just want to say thank you to everyone who came to our first anniversary party at Hamilton Family Brewery. It was really fun catching up with our friends and fans, and seeing some new faces. Josh (brewer and co-owner of HamFam) did an excellent job with the collaboration saison, and everyone seemed to be really impressed with it. Four Brewers with Joshua Hamilton Big, BIG thanks to Josh and Crysten for having us at their place and for being so accommodating. We can only hope 4B anniversary parties to follow are just as epic. Now, to this week’s show! We’re back with our first 4B-only in-studio show in quite a while, and we’re drinking some beers that Greg brought back from his recent trip to Oregon.  Fort George and The Commons Brewery – Plazm We kick off the show with a beer from Fort George Brewing, Plazm, a collaboration with The Commons Brewery. We’ve had Fort George on the show before,

Season 2, Episode 27 – This week we’re hanging out with author Emma Christensen and we’re drinking homebrew. We’re back in the studio! While the on-locations shows are quite a hoot for us to do, it sure is nice to be back on our home turf. We’re joined this week by Emma Christensen via Google Hangouts. She wears variety of different hats, two of which are author and homebrewer. She’s also an editor at The Kitchn, which according many people (and more specifically Matt) is a super-rad web-based food magazine.  Brew Better Beer – Emma Christensen Emma is the author of the home brewing how-to book, Brew Better Beer. She was kind enough to send us each a copy of the book, as well as four bottles of homebrew that she made from actually recipes in the book! Holy shit, how cool is that?! We talk to Emma about the book, what inspired her to write it, and how it’s different from other home brewing books. It should be said that it’s a beautiful book with a large variety of homebrew recipes, and was written for both the

Season 2, Episode 26 – This week, we’re back in Dr. Bill’s cellar, and talking about the business side of beer. This week we’re back in Dr. Bill’s epic cellar, and we’re discussing the beer industry. We kick off the discussion with a beer that falls right in line with the discussion, Stone Brewing Co.’s Enjoy By 07.04.15 IPA. Stone is a big advocate of enjoying beer fresh, and really has led the way in bottle dating and stressing the importance of checking the freshness of beers before they’re purchased and consumed. Enjoy By literally tells you when to drink the beer. Drink it fresh! Stone Brewing Co. – Enjoy By 07.04.15 IPA The next beer up is Cantillon’s Grand Cru Bruocsella, vintage 2011. This beer kicks off a really important discussion about beer quality, in regards to localized nano breweries. Craft beer is booming right now, and there are a lot of great breweries opening (which is totally awesome), but it does come with its caveats. Brewing beer on such a small scale leaves a lot of room for mistakes