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Beer Sessions Radio™ was thrilled to welcome back frequent co-host Jen Schwertman fresh off her return from Belgium and an extensive tour of the Brasserie Cantillon Brouwerij in Brussels. This being the time of year when we bring out the sours, Saisons, yeasty beers and Lambics, Jen’s travels unveil the processes the Belgians use to make these unique brews.

From Belgium to the northeastern US, Tim Stendhal of Union Beer, Will Stephens from BeerMenus.com, and Carolyn Pincus from The Stag’s Head in New York City discuss wild beers, sour beers and beer classes from New York to Montreal.

Finally, it’s a phone in with Win Bassett, Executive Director at North Carolina Brewers Guild, who catches us up on beer culture in the Carolinas and the craft beer movement that is taking fire in the south. The full episode can be heard here.

If you want to know how the beer scene has changed in Chicago over the past couple decades, you need go no further than Hopleaf Bar on North Clark Street in the city’s Andersonville neighborhood. Proprietor Michael Roper is celebrating his 20th year in business by expanding; he’s bought the building adjacent to Hopleaf, which will allow for an additional 100 spaces to a bar that already boasts some of the best beer offerings the city has to offer.

“When I opened 20 years ago there were very few craft beer options in Chicago,” Roper explained while showing off his impressive establishment. “There were 3 or 4 bars that carried American craft beers and a half a dozen that carried a lot of imports, mostly German. Now there is a craft beer bar on every corner! Even the ‘old man’ bars in Polish neighborhoods feel that they have to carry some better beers. Nice restaurants with big wine lists are paying attention to their beer menus now.”

There is an explosion of local brewing, too. On any given night, you can find taps pretty much unavailable outside the Windy City’s boundaries: Goose Island, Metropolitan, Half Acre, 5 Rabbit, Revolution, Finch’s, Three Floyds, Two Brothers, and—soon to come—New Chicago. Among the beers offered recently were Three Floyd’s Zombie Dust (a surprising mild taste and low ABV belies the Warrenville, IN, beer’s name), 5 Rabbit Viday Muerte Muertzenbier, and Finch’s Cut Throat American Pale Ale.

Hopleaf embodies what all the Good Beer Seal bars do: a sense of giving back to the community. In addition to sourcing locally for its menu (or hyper-locally—Roper grows herbs and veggies in a back courtyard that offers outdoor seating  in nice weather), Hopleaf hosts fundraisers for its community neighbors. When lack of funding threatened to cut off the art & music program at the local elementary school, Roper spearheaded an effort called “Kegs for Kids” that netted $44,000 and fully underwrote the arts program for the school.

Of course, with the 20th Anniversary expansion, Hopleaf will have even more room for beer dinners, tasting and pairing events, and brewmaster meet & greets. Along with great craft beer options you simply cannot find anywhere else.

As Roper sums it up, “We have quite a great beer scene in Chicago now. I am glad to be in the middle of it.”

What’s more fun than drinking local beer? Traveling to drink beer locally! The Great American Ale Trail author Christian DeBenedetti joined Jimmy Carbone and Blind Tiger’s Dave Brodrick this week on Beer Sessions Radio™ to talk about a career of travel-based beer writings, including his favorites from around the country. This segued nicely into a discussion of the Portland (OR) homebrew beer scene as compared with what is happening across Brooklyn these days. That led to tasting some homebrew courtesy of Danielle Cefaro and Benjamin Stutz of Brooklyn Homebrew. Their homebrew competition, The Brooklyn Wort, takes place on April 28th.

Finally, if you’re trying to decide between a great craft beer to go or dropping by the flower shop to pick up something for your special someone (or just to beautify the apartment), worry no more! At Sycamore Flower Shop and Bar, you can do both. Meet Justin Israelson, who talks about his unique shop in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. You can listen to the full episode here.

Back before craft beer was “the next big thing”… heck, back before Manhattan rents went the way of the one percent, there was Blind Tiger. Take a walk back in time with Brew York, New York’s Chris O’Leary, as he reminds us that a great beer bar takes a great deal of craft to make.

“This week, Blind Tiger Ale House (281 Bleecker St., at Jones St., West Village) celebrated its 15th anniversary. Since 1997, they’ve been pouring great craft beer in the West Village. Anyone who’s new to the craft beer scene or new to New York may take for granted that when they saddle up to the bar there, they’ll have the choice of some excellent craft beers.” Click here for full article.

A nice write up by Chris Kopanek over at Huffington Post about last week’s HRN benefit party celebrating Beer Session Radio’s 100th episode:  “There was no shortage of awesome things to eat at the Heritage Radio Network Fundraiser at Santos Wednesday night. Celebrating the 100th episode of Beer Sessions Radio™, the event pulled out all the stops serving a “sugar shack pig” cooked by chef Brendan Corr. He roasted the whole pig in maple syrup before pulling it apart and stewing it in large pot.” For the full article, click here.

It was another great episode on  Beer Sessions Radio™ when we welcomed back author Joshua Bernstein who has been exploring midwest beers and brought some Ohio beers to taste. Other guests included Justin Phillips, who talked about his new “table beer” collaboration with Brian Strumke of Stillwater Brewing, and Jeff Cioletti from Beverage World.

Beer-centric media are making their mark on the airwaves, on television and in film. Seth Wright talks about his Beer Nation TV, and for those of us who would be waking up early on Sundays to attend services at “The Church of Beer,” Jeff talks about his new film Beerituality, which will be shown at Jimmy’s No. 43 on April 25th at 7 p.m. You can check out the Beerituality trailer below.

 

 

Leading up to the Heritage Radio Network celebration at Santos Party House (get your tickets here), Beer Sessions Radio™ was profiled in the February issue of Beverage World. The “Beer Hear” article summed up 100 episodes (two-year’s worth) of the Tuesday afternoon radio program featuring Jimmy Carbone and various guest co-hosts, namely Dave Brodrick (Blind Tiger), Jen Schwertman, Ron Lindenbusch (Lagunitas), Shaun Hill (Hill Farmstead), Rob Todd (Alagash), David Geary, and Garrett Oliver. Of course, Beer Sessions Radio™ wouldn’t be where it is today if it weren’t for early efforts by Sam Merritt and the late Ray Deter.

We hope you’ll join the radio team at next week’s March 21st Heritage Radio Network Awards Party, and in the meantime, you can read the entire Beverage World article here.

It was one year ago today that the earthquake and tsunami devastated much of northeastern Japan. A year later, Beer Sessions Radio™ welcomed Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver to discuss the rise in Japanese brewing and how the country’s brewers are set to take the States by storm. While most of us think of Sake as the traditional drink of Japan, in fact it is beer that is the preferred libation. Garrett predicts that Japanese beer will be the “next cool wave” of beer imports (Brooklyn’s Sorachi Ace is a Japanese-style beer, using sorachi hops).

And since even Japanese beer needs to be paired with something, the latter third of episode 104 Japanese Beer, Aged Beer & Cheese Pairings, brings in some of our favorite cheese to pair with beer, including Saxelby, American Farmstand, and Murray’s.  Be sure to tune in every week or sign up for the Beer Sessions Radio™ podcast on iTunes.

It’s a reason to celebrate and you’re invited! Heritage Radio Network™ will join with HRN founder Patrick Martins to fete the many hosts of radio shows that have hit the century mark at a fundraiser being held Wednesday, March 21, from 7-10 p.m. at Santos Party House (96 Lafayette Street). Join radio personalities you’ve come to love over the past two years, including:

• Beer Sessions Radio (Jimmy Carbone),
• The Main Course (Patrick Martins),
• Snacky Tunes (Finger on the Pulse),
• Hot Grease (Nicole Taylor),
• Let’s Eat In (Cathy Erway),
• The Farm Report (Erin Fairbanks),
• Unfiltered (Erin Fitzpatrick and Brian DiMarco),
• Plus, shows on the cusp of 100 episodes: Cutting the Curd (Anne Saxelby), The Food Seen (Michael Harlan Turkell), A Taste of the Past (Linda Pelaccio), Burning Down The House (Curtis B. Wayne), Greenhorn Radio (Severine von Tscharner Fleming), We Dig Plants (Carmen Devito and Alice Marcus Krieg), The Naturalist (Bernie Wides and Carol A. Butler), Cooking Issues (Dave Arnold), and The Speakeasy (Damon Boelte).

We had a great time talking beer and chocolate with Discovering Chocolate‘s Clay Gordon. Clay, whose blog is the go-to site for everything cacao, has a brilliant summary of the day here. For more on chocolate and beer, check out Beer Sessions Radio™ episode #103.