Beer Busters

Our favorite hometown beer fest is back again! Continuing a long-standing Beer Busters tradition, we set up at Brewphoria 15 at Canal Street Restaurant and Pub in Reading, PA to sip some brews and chat with the peeps pouring beers for the various breweries in attendance. As usual, we caught up with some old friends and met some new ones. The buffet was killer, the beer was bangin’ and the fest was a general hoot. We did, however, sorely miss our good friend and Brewphoria founder, Dusty, who has since moved on to embark on an exciting new endeavor. But Canal Street remains an awesome spot and Brewphoria remains a can’t-miss beer fest we are so glad to be a part of.

On this episode we packed up for Malvern, PA to sit down with co-owners Tom and Jason at Locust Lane Craft Brewery. The guys told us how the brewery came to be, growing from a longstanding friendship. We also chatted about their brewing experience, distribution, and some exciting news regarding packaging (begins with a “c” and ends with “ans”). Plus, we got a brief cameo from the brewery’s live musician for the evening, Mike Muli. Dan got us up to speed with news, we played There’s Weird in My Beer in Happy Fun Time and Steph answered the age-old question, what’s the difference between a Stout and a Porter? in Know Your Beers. The evening was accompanied by an array of samplings of Locust Lane’s finest craft offerings.

This episode we set up at a beer fest we’ve never recorded at before, Hop Rods and Hops at Neshaminy Creek Brewing. This annual event features several local breweries, food trucks, live music from Soul Custody and, of course, lots of cool cars. We sat down with Neshaminy Creek brewer and co-owner Jeremy Myers to talk about the event and kick off the day with some stellar (and award-winning) beers. Then, we ran down the lineup of visiting breweries, chatting with some new friends and old, and sampling many of the concoctions on offer. This event was a blast, and always benefits a good cause – this year, proceeds went to the Croydon VFW.

This episode finds us in Bethlehem, PA for a stop at Bonn Place Brewing where we sat down with owner/brewer Sam Masotto. We discussed the history of Bonn Place – including how Sam lived on a cot in the empty brewery for three months, their recently acquired GABF medals, starving artists, what exactly a podcast is, and more. Dan reported on the latest news including the Brewers Association’s Take Craft Beer Back crowdfunding campaign/PR stunt, we played The Beer Seller in Happy Fun Time and Steph continued a holiday tradition with recommended Thanksgiving dinner beer pairings in Know Your Beer. All this merriment commenced over an array of samples of Bonn Place quaffs.

  Back at Stickman Brews again, and once again New England IPAs feature prominently in our discussion. This time, it’s because they brewed one…what?! I know, we were a bit shocked too. Ethan wasn’t event there to defend himself. Scandalous. But, seriously, it was pretty tasty, and it was a collaboration with our good friends at Hop Hedz. It’s called Double Deuce, and this evening was the release party. Kate Sorrento returned to the show along with Jim Buckman, who took up the mantle from Ethan on awesome beer discussion. Founder of Hop Hedz, Bart Kaminski, was also on hand to defend why he chose this particularly trendy (and contentious) beer style for the collab. As usual, Dan talked about the latest in brew news, we played a Stickman-inspired version of Libation or Fabrication, and Steph – continuing the theme of divisive beer styles – discussed Pumpkin Beers in Know Your Beers. Luckily, there was plenty of delicious liquid on hand.

In this episode we visited South County Brewing in Fawn Grove, PA to sit down with Owner and Brewer JR Heaps, who first appeared on the podcast back in Episode 30. We talked about what’s new at South County including their awesome Gelato series, new brewing tech, love for lagers, canning plans, expansion plans and more. Dan got us up to speed in beer news, we played Band or Beer in Happy Fun Time and Steph talked about brewing with ancient grains in Know Your Beers. All amongst samples of South County’s truly top-notch offerings.

With Nate Kresge and Sara Bozich at GK Visual This episode took us to GK Visual, an award-winning video production and design company in Harrisburg, PA ,to talk about their upcoming craft beer documentary Poured in Pennsylvania. We sat down with GK Visual Co-Owner and Executive Producer Nate Kresge and Writer/Producer Sara Bozich over samples of PA beers from breweries featured in the film. After producing the Harrisburg craft beer documentary, Brewed in the Burg, for the first Harrisburg Beer Week in 2015, GK Visual has set their sites on the beer community throughout the state with their latest project. Dan reported on the latest news, we played “Libation or Fabrication Goes Hollywood” in Happy Fun Time, and Steph talked about brewing with corn in Know Your Beers.

With The One and Only Joe Man Back in the Beer Busters Podcast Basement we welcomed one of our oldest and biggest fans (those being descriptors of his fandom, not his physical person), the one-and-only-that’s-no-baloney Joe Man, aka Joe Mansell. The recording turned into essentially a bottle share, with several Patrons in attendance and many, many bottles of beer – including those from Joe’s hometown of Richmond, VA and some of his homebrews – passed around all night. Dan reported on the latest news including new beer and puke resistant shoes from Adidas and Millennials’ declining interest in craft beer (they ruin everything). In Happy Fun Time we played “Alternative Facts” and Steph talked about Mead in Know Your…Mead, I guess. We drank a lot of beer during what was one of the most fun episodes we’ve recorded.

With Tim Patton, Andrew Foss, Anthony Masciantonio, Meredith Megan Williams, Josh Caputo & Tommy Kijak at Saint Benjamin Brewing Company We return to Saint Benjamin Brewing in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia for the first time since way back in Episode 65, to sit down with owner Tim Patton and many members of the growing St. Ben family. There was a lot to catch up on from the addition of the tap room to new ventures in packaging, distribution, and more. News stories this episode include a Fried Chicken IPA from Veil and Evil Twin and a Cinnamon Bun brew from Southern Tier. We played Top Tappd Brews in Happy Fun Time and learned about the New Zealand Pilsner in Know Your Beers. All this, and more, among many samples of St. Ben brews including brand-new liter glasses of Oktoberfest. Prost!

With Bruce Tanner at Ever Grain Brewing Company Central PA boasts a bounty of bangin’ breweries. Harrisburg-bound once again, we stopped by Ever Grain Brewing in Camp Hill, PA to sit down and chat with brewmaster Bruce Tanner. We talked about the story of this soon-to-be one-year-old brewery and what’s in store for the future. Dan presented the news including yet another brewery buyout, and the slowing growth of the craft beer industry. In Happy Fun Time, we played the bizarre brew game There’s Weird in My Beer and Steph talked about the Cumberland Valley Beer Trail (a collab among several cool spots including Ever Grain) in Know Your Beers. And – you’d never guess it, but – we drank some beer!

With Brendan Hartranft and Sarah Fuller at Local 44 Plus Jason Stewart from Grainfather & Ethan Tripp from Fermentery Form West Philly bound for this episode, where we sat down at the bottle shop at Local 44 Beer Bar with owner Brendan Hartranft and manager Sarah Fuller. Also joining us were Jason Stewart, representative for The Grainfather all grain homebrewing systems and Ethan Tripp, founder of the new Fermentery Form – a new farmhouse style brewery in the West Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. Dan reported on the Brewers Association’s new independent beer seal and a (obviously misguided) “beer for women” from the Czech Republic. We played a Belgian Beer edition of Libation or Fabrication in Happy fun Time and sampled an array of Belgian beers in honor of Belgian Beer Week and some offeringd from Fermentery Form.

Kate Sorrento and Ethan Buckman at Stickman Brews We return to Stickman Brews in Royersford, PA once again to chat with brewer and returning guest Ethan, as well as newcomer to the podcast Kate. Topics include the development of the Stickman brand, the expansion of their barrel program and a lengthy and in-depth discussion about the state of craft beer consumer-hood. Ethan certainly had a ton of insightful things to say and this episode is worth a listen for that conversation alone. We played The Beer Seller in Happy Fun Time and Steph talked about the Helles Bock style in Know Your Beers. And there was beer…and we drank it…and it was good. Want more Beer Busters? Support the podcast on Patreon and get access to our bonus podcast “minisode” series, Last Call. Episode 2 from our time at Stickman is available now!

Live at the Ninja, Cowboy, Bear Scavenger Hunt at Evil Genius Featuring Trevor Hayward and Gordon Brennan We’re back at Evil Genius again! This time we broadcasted live for the final stop of the Evil Genius Philly Beer Week Scavenger Hunt that lead participants from bar to bar throughout the Fishtown neighborhood. To kick things off we sat down with Trevor and Gordon to chat about the event and its inspiration. At The Lab, the Evil Genius tap room, scavenger hunt teams braved their penultimate task: participating in lighting rounds of Happy Fun Time Games live on the Beer Busters Podcast. After their brief brush with internet fame, the teams participated in a tournament of Ninja, Cowboy, Bear (like Rock, Paper, Scissors but with full-body involvement) to vie to be crowned the winners of the Hunt. Live play-by-play commentary was provided by Dan and Wayne during the tense battle.

With Luke Bowen, Trevor Hayward, Garrett Williams & Kevin Keller at The Lab at Evil Genius Beer Company Way back in July of 2013, Luke and Trevor journeyed to the Beer Busters Podcast Basement to join us for Episode 7 of our then fledgling podcast. The founders and owners of Evil Genius Beer Company were our first “real” beer industry guests. They, and many others from Evil Genius, have appeared on the podcast several times – but Evil Genius never had their own location…until now. We’ve finally had the honor of recording a podcast at The Lab, the tasting room at the newly opened Evil Genius Brewery in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia. As wells as catching up with Evil Genius, in this episode we discussed at length the AB-InBev acquisition of Wicked Weed, played Years of Beers in Happy Fun Times, and Rich took over Know Your Beers again to talk about beer “muling”. And we drank, obviously.

Harrisburg Beer Week Little Big Beer Fest 2017 at Appalachian Brewing For the third year running, we took the stage at Harrisburg Beer Week’s premiere fest event, Little Big Beer Fest at Appalachian Brewing Company. This fest features a limited number of high ABV beers from some of Central PA’s top breweries and caps off the weeklong celebration of craft beer in the state capitol. The brainchild of the Stouts and Stilettos crew and Sara Bozich, Harrisburg Beer Week has continued to grow in scope and success in its third year. We caught up with several old friends of the show as well as welcoming some new-comers. As usual, delicious brews and awesome people abounded at one of our favorite beer fests of the year.

Imminent Liquidation VII Bottle Share at Grain + Verse Bottlehouse This year at the seventh annual Imminent Liquidation bottle share event, we got our podcast on and chatted with a laundry list of the dopest peeps in attendance. The long-running event is the brainchild of Tröegs Brewing Company Marketer Ffej Herb and is central PA’s premiere bottle share event. Every year, guests dust off their rarest, yummiest brews to share and raise money for charity. The event has recently been added to the roster of Harrisburg Beer Week happenings and this year donations and raffle proceeds went to Goats of Anarchy, a charity that rescues and rehabilitates baby goats with special needs. Old friends and new joined us to talk about the event, the benefitting charity and, of course, beer.

With Brian O’Reilly & Peter Giannopoulos at Sly Fox Brewing We set up shop at Sly Fox’s Pottstown location to sit down with Brewmaster Brian O’Reilly and Assistant Operations Manager Peter Giannopoulos. Over brews we chatted about the Schuylkill River Trail Ale Earth Day release, learned the ins and outs of “Can Jam” and got the scoop on the origin story of Sly Fox’s famous Annual Bock Festival and Goat Races. Dan reported on the Brewers Association “crack-down” on offensive beer names and a collaboration between Alesmith and the band Sublime. In Happy Fun Time we played Band or Beer and Steph explored the Doppelbock style in Know Your Beers. And guess what? We drank beer too.   www.slyfoxbeer.com

With Chuck Golder & Dan Popernack at La Cabra Brewing In this episode we headed to Berwyn, PA to sit down with Chuck and Dan at La Cabra Brewing. We talked about the philosophy behind the brewpub, the story of how La Cabra came to be and much more.  Dan reported on an upcoming collaboration between Cape May Brewing and Weyerbacher – an India Pale Lager called Paradise 160, and the continued growth of craft brewing with 2016 reports from the Brewers Association. We played Top Tappd Brews in Happy Fun Time , a game in which Wayne challenged everyone to guess the top rated beers on Untappd in various style categories, and Steph beerducated us about common beer faults in Know Your Beers. And, as always, we sampled an impressive roster of La Cabra brews.   www.lacabrabrewing.com

With Glen Gabriel and Matt Kozar from Breweries in PA Back again in the Beer Busters Podcast Basement, we sat down with Glen and Matt from Breweries in PA, an online resource for exploring the world of craft beer in Pennsylvania. We talked about the impetus for creating Breweries in PA, how it’s changed and grown and where it’s headed in the future. Dan delivered the news, including the much-anticipated annual list of the top 50 breweries of 2016 in the US from the Brewers Association. In Happy Fun Time we invoked the spirit of Bob Barker in The Beer Seller, and Steph handed over the reigns to Rich in a very special edition of Know Your Beers all about how to keep your DD happy. Through it all, we drank a not insignificant amount of beers from across the great state of Pennsylvania.

With Jared Barnes & Ben Beddia at Collusion Tap Works We packed up for York, PA to sit down with Jared and Ben at Collusion Tap Works. Listeners may remember Jared, who appeared on the podcast at Little Big Beer Fest representing Wyndridge Farms. He’s since struck out on his own to do awesome things at Collusion. We were also joined by Derek Markel, a longtime homebrewer who is now brewing up concoctions for the newly opened “boutique brewery” at The Vegetable Hunter, a vegetarian restaurant in Harrisburg. As usual, Dan delivered some brew news, we played Libation or Fabrication in Happy Fun Time, and Steph taught us about evaluating beer in Know Your Beers. And, of course, we drank.