Bean to Barstool Podcast | Mushrooms in Beer and Chocolate

Mushrooms aren’t the first ingredient we usually think of for flavoring beer or chocolate, but many craft brewers and craft chocolate makers are using different species to create unique flavor experiences and, in some cases, provide unexpected health benefits. In today’s episode, we talk all about using mushrooms in beer and chocolate.

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Hops & Bacteria | How Brewers Use the Antibacterial Properties of Hops

“It’s been known for a long time the addition of hops will control the growth of bacteria in beer,” says Matt McCarroll, professor of chemistry and biochemistry and director of the Fermentation Science Institute at Southern Illinois University. While these antibacterial qualities aren’t usually needed in modern brewing, the rise in popularity of mixed-fermentation beers has reawakened interest in this poorly understood property of hops.

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What We’re Drinking | April 9, 2021

Spring is in the air. Shots are going in arms. Beer is going in bellies. Join us to see what we’re drinking this week.

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Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. | Camp Light

People heavily involved with craft beer have been saying for quite some time that lagers were going to make a comeback and see gains in popularity. If you were one of those people, you were spot on and I applaud you. Lagers have been killing it in 2019 and it shows no signs of slowing down. Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. isn’t new to the lager game, but they’ve been ramping up their lagering efforts lately. One of their more recent releases was a light lager called Camp Light. Read More

Book Review & Interview | Marika Josephson on Farmhouse Beer

A new chapbook by Scratch Brewing co-founder and brewer Marika Josephson lays out a blueprint for what it means to run a true farmhouse brewery in the 21st century.

“There is an ironic disconnect in craft beer in which drinkers care a lot about beer being made locally but don’t know or don’t care about where the ingredients themselves are from,” said Josephson when I interviewed her for a story for Civil Eats in November 2017.

The quote could serve as a thesis statement for her new chapbook Keeping the “Farm” in “Farmhouse Beer”, published by Good Beer Hunting in 2018.

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Book Review & Interview | The Homebrewer’s Almanac

The Homebrewer’s Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to Making Your Own Beer from Scratch (Countryman Press, 2016) by Marika Josephson, Aaron Kleidon and Ryan Tockstein

The folks at Scratch Brewing Co. are connected to the land around their brewery in ways few other brewers can boast. Secluded in the woods near Ava in southern Illinois, the Scratch gang doesn’t just use local malt and hops, they pull the ingredients that make their beers so unique from the terrain of the surrounding forest. Tree bark, leaves, mushrooms, berries, nuts, flowers, even plants many of us have been trained to think of as weeds—it’s all fair game for brewers Aaron Kleidon and Marika Josephson. Consequently, their beers have a quality of place—terroir, to use the fancy parlance—few other brews have.

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Ultimate 6er | The Cinematic Films of Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola emerged from the shadow of her family name in 1999 when her directorial debut The Virgin Suicides—an adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel—hit screens. From the beginning, Coppola’s films have melded scene-perfect rock music with evocative visuals to explore the inner lives of her (usually) female main characters. Coppola’s sixth film, The Beguiled, came out last month, and while the movie has faced some controversy since its release, what is not controversial is that the director has an eye for great shots and an ear for great tunes.

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