I recently had the brilliant idea of spending a few weeks listening to as many craft beer podcasts as I could find and ranking the best ones. Well, turns out there are eleventy thousand craft beer podcasts out there. To further complicate things many of them specialize in topics in addition to craft beer: various regions, brewing, homebrewing, movies, etc.. So, instead here are a few craft beer podcasts that I enjoyed, without trying to rank them or be even remotely exhaustive. I listened to at least three episodes of each of these.
The Session (Brewing Network)
The Brewing Network has been around for a long time and they produce very professional and entertaining podcasts. If you want the most polished podcast covering craft beer and brewing skip the rest of this article and just go subscribe to The Brewing Network’s podcasts. The Session is the original Brewing Network show. Their top notch hosts interview beer industry professionals and the best homebrewers. The Session is a great mix of entertainment and great craft beer and brewing information.
Fresh Hop Cinema
Max and Jonny are local to me in Chico, California but I’ve yet to meet them. They stick to a formula of reviewing two beers and a movie in each episode. They review a variety of beers, but usually at least one of them is local(ish). The movies are recently viewed in the theater and they’re not shy about spoilers. Max and Jonny are charming guys and their banter is entertaining. Conversational, on the spot, reviews like theirs are of course subjective, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to disagree with at least one of them about one of the beers and/or the movie, which is part of the charm of the podcast for me. The hosts are both musicians so there is also some great music included in their podcast.
What Ales Ya
Hosts Brian Quain and Jeff Brennan travel Florida chatting with brewers across the state. I don’t think I’ve actually had beer from any of the breweries they visited in the episodes I listened to, but their interviews are so entertaining I still enjoyed the podcast. You get a lot of insight about the local beer scene and brewing from their chats.
Beers and other Shit (BAOS)
Another regional podcast, BAOS is mostly focused on the Canadian brewing scene. In the episodes I listened to they has some insightful conversions with some really interesting brewers.
Beer Smith
This podcast is definitely geared towards brewers. The host is Brad Smith, author of BeerSmith software. Each episode includes a knowledgeable guest. Recent guests include a Grandmaster beer judgde, a brewery owner/brewer, brewery Director of Operations, and author Stan Hieronymus. Brad does not shy away from the technical details of brewing, which is a bit dry at times, but probably the most informative of all of these podcasts.
I know you checked out a bunch of podcasts, but another worth a mention would be “Brulosophy”. It is geared more toward the home brewer, but you can also learn a lot about what may or may not impart certain things in the beer you are drinking. It also has hilarious beer reviews from his neighbor buddies.
Thanks, I’ll check it out!