A Brief Interview with BeerMenus.com Creator Will Stephens


Will Stephens is one of the brains behind BeerMenus.com, an interactive website designed to help beer lovers find their favorite beers and good beer bars to reach out to their favorite beer lovers. A friend of mine in high school held fast to the idea that we all have one great, marketable concept in our lifetime. He was concerned that his “Estrada Pinata” was the best he could do. We’ve since lost touch, but if Will’s greatest idea is BeerMenus.com then I’d say at least one of us is doing just fine.

Before Will’s appearance last week on Beer Sessions Radio, he shared some of his thoughts with us about the state of the craft beer industry:

In your opinion, is craft beer reaching its intended market? Is there room to expand this market?

I think craft beer is getting a lot better at reaching consumers.  Breweries are opening up across the country in areas you’d never expect them allowing more people to live close to craft breweries.  Technology is also allowing breweries connect with their audience much more efficiently, making it a smaller risk to open a brewery or expand an existing one.  I hope technology will be the ultimate equalizer between micros and macros the way it has been with so many other things.

Where do you see yourself within the craft beer community? Where would you like to be?

With BeerMenus we strive to improve the quality of information in the beer industry.  We would like to make it as easy to find an Arrogant Bastard as it is to find a Budweiser.

Who, do you think, is doing a good job of promoting craft beer to the general public? What can we learn from them?

To me the educators who have the biggest impact are the bars that really make an effort to teach their customers and get them excited about what they’re pouring.  They are educating people on the ground in the field.

What does the future of craft beer look like?

I think Belgium looks like the future.

Join BeerMenus.com on December 4 at Jimmy’s No. 43 for Battle of the Belgians. Intrigued? Learn more by clicking HERE.


Wandering Foodie

Last week, Hagan Blount joined the panel on Beer Sessions Radio along with Kelly Taylor and Sonya Giaccobe of Kelso, Will Stephens of BeerMenus.com, and our resident beer maven, Jen Schwertman. Hagan took some great pictures during the taping and at dinner after the show. He then put them up on his site, Wandering Foodie, along with a post about his guest experience.

I can’t lie, people show up to be guests on the show but they stay for Roberta’s amazing food and the candid post-show

Dieu du Ciel!

dinner discussion. After an hour of getting to know our guests on the air the friendly conversation and delicious beer continue to flow over communal tables packed with beer-lovers and a ‘Steak for 2’ that could actually feed a small village. We learn a lot about our guests over dinner. We’ve seen many different personalities since starting this show but one thing remains constant; there has not been an equivocator in the bunch! In the coming weeks, look for some interesting extra interview material from our Beer Sessions Radio guests to be printed right here!


Tomorrow night, tune in to Beer Sessions Radio for the Boys from Quebec- that’s right, Dieu du Ciel! will be in the studio before they break out a stellar line up of their beers at Blind Tiger Ale House on Wednesday, December 1. Tune in for the show and don’t miss this chance to head out to the Tiger for some wonderfully nuanced beers crafted by our new, northern friends!

Brooklyn Wort

Beer Sessions Radio is excited to support Brooklyn Wort, a home brew competition set for February 26, 2011. If you are a home brewer, you can sign up for this competition between now and November 31. Check for registration details on BrooklynWort.com and learn how you can get a sample of what our local home brew scene is making!

Brooklyn Wort is created by our friends at Brooklyn Homebrew, a retail store for all your home brewing needs offering the freshest hops, yeast, grain malts, malt extracts, honeys, and spices available. Check out their website, then head out to Park Slope, Brooklyn where Danielle and Benjamin will help you out with all your brewing questions and needs!

Schlenkerla: A German Beer Tradition

American beer drinkers are getting a treat this week as Herr Matthias Trum of Brauerei Heller Trum (aka Schlenkerla) will be in New York City. Schlenkerla Rauchbier has been written about by beer lovers the world over. Michael Jackson famously included Schlenkerla as one of his top ten German beers.

Herr Trum is the 6th generation of Trums to brew this world renowned smoked beer and he has learned the business from malting to brewing and marketing to pairing. While he is in town, he will be visiting some Good Beer Seal Bars with Chef Wolfgang Theil to present a traditional German Beer Dinner with locally sourced ingredients. Please see our calendar for details.

If you don’t have the opportunity to attend one of these dinners, fear not. You can tune in to Beer Sessions Radio tonight at 5:00 PM to hear all about Schlenkerla and the great German tradition it represents.

Climax Brewing Company and Innis & Gunn


Dougal Sharp of Innis & Gunn

Episode 37 of Beer Sessions Radio features two very different brewers, Dougal Sharp from Innis & Gunn and Dave and Kurt Hoffman from Climax Brewing Company. From the secrets of barrel aged beers to the challenges of building and maintaining a brewery from scratch, Jimmy and Ray go for the stories at the heart of craft beer.

Kurt and Dave Hoffman of Climax Brewing Company



Tune in next week when Jimmy and Ray talk to B. United Imports and Matthias Trum from Schlenkerla.



New American Beer



Beer Sessions Radio Episode 36 w/ Jen Schwertman

Jen Schwertman is a tireless advocate for craft beer and a beer lover’s best friend. As one of New York’s favorite bartenders, she’ll give you her honest opinion of what’s what! Jen, Jimmy, Ray and our Roving Reporter, Dave Brodrick discussed the very healthy beer movement in Vermont and what it means to live there, plus what makes a good bartender good and why it helps to love where you bartend. All this plus tips on gluten free beer and a salute to well-balanced beer making.

Tune in now to Beer Sessions Radio Episode 36!


Photographer Nina Fuller Sits In on Beer Sessions Radio



Dave Geary on Beer Sessions Radio Photo by Nina Fuller

A few weeks ago, veteran brewer and industry guru Dave Geary of DL Geary Brewing Company sat down with our roving reporter, Dave Brodrick, and renegade brewers Dann and Martha Paquette of Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project for a lively episode of Beer Sessions Radio. If you have not yet heard Beer Sessions Radio Episode 31, do yourself a favor and take a listen. The studio was overflowing with personality that night and there were surprises a-plenty. Dave Geary told us why we shouldn’t cellar beer, Dann and Martha Paquette told us about their historical beer series for Pretty Things and everyone salivated while thinking about Luke’s Lobster.Dann Paquette Photo by Nina Fuller

One thing you will NOT hear on that episode, however, is Maine photographer Nina Fuller. Nina sat in on the session that night in September, quietly chuckling, sipping her drink and taking pictures.


Jimmy Carbone Photo by Nina Fuller

Nina Fuller is a photographer with the uncanny ability to make you fall for her subjects. She caught all the action in the studio, from Dave Geary’s New England-style pragmatism to Dann Paquette’s thoughtful repose, Jimmy’s energy and Dave Brodrick’s good humor. If you are interested in seeing more of her work, click on the link above to see her website.



Dave Brodrick and Dave Geary Photo by Nina Fuller

The Beer Sessions Radio team would like to thank Nina for the gift of these wonderful photos which we happily share with you. She made the guys look pretty good, right?

Maybe they don’t have faces for radio?

Thanks, Nina,  for making us look so good.