This week on Beer Sessions Radio™, we’re playing degrees of separation, bringing the disparate worlds of Massachusetts and Alaska together by way of Staten Island and Roberta’s in Brooklyn (where we record). And for good measure, we’re bringing along a wine lover to our beer broadcast!
Host Jimmy Carbone is welcoming Mark Zappasodi – former NYC homebrewer – of The Malt Shed, a Massachusetts farm where he’s growing hops (cascade, centennial, nugget). Mark used to grow hops (on a much smaller scale) when he lived on Staten Island. There, he was close friends with Jason Bullen, Master Brewer of 49th State Brewing Company out on the final frontier: Alaska’s Denali Park (owing to weather, the brewpub is only open eight months of the year).
Continuing on our degrees of separation, we’ve got Amy Zavatto, who writes about wine and spirits for Imbibe Magazine, and who was first introduced to craft beer by Matt. Amy is chatting along with Cory Bonfiglio of Proletariat and Beer Street about the differences between wine and beer drinkers. Plus, Josh Richholt of The Well Brooklyn. chimes in on the importance of finding the vocabulary to talk about beer beyond “beer geeks” (Josh: “Wine people have the vocabulary that beer people don’t have”).
Josh also talks about the challenges involved in trying to open a large beer hall in the old Hiddleman Brewery built in 1875 (it took his team almost three years to bring the building up to code). The Meserole Street beer bar opened last week.
And of course, the group is drinking some great beer, including barley wine (the Alaska Barley Wine festival is in January) and wet hopped beers using hops from Matt’s farm. Catch the full episode here.