Beer Busters

Dean Pierce, founder of the up and coming Pierce Brewing Company in Wyomissing, PA, joined us in studio with his dad and brand enthusiast Tom. Dean has only been homebrewing for a little over a year but has receieved a number of accolades and awards for his beers. Every single one is well-deserved and more; the tasting segment this episode was long and heavenly. Oh, yeah…we also did some news, played Call My Beer Bluff and got our beerducation on in a Know Your Beers all about SMaSH Beers. Plus bonus audience member/guest John Gillespie, author of Beer Country. John will be an official guest in the near future.

Appalachian Marketing Manager Mike Parker and Head Brewer Jay Kendig joined us on-location at theABC brewpub in Collegeville. As patrons dined and enjoyed brews, we chatted about the history and current goings-on at Appalachian Brewing. Dan’s news included stories about dung, bacon, stolen beer and an emotional roller-coaster involving w00tstout 2.0. In Happy Fun Time, Wayne debuted the new game Beer by Numbers and Steph’s school of brewology focused on weizenbocks in Know Your Beers.

On this episode we recorded with Justin and Kaelin Mast at one of the most awesom locations we’ve ever been lucky enough to visit, French Creek Organics, an organic hop and produce farm in rural St. Peters, Pennsylvania. We set up in the barn with the doors wide open and sipped beers and chatted while overlooking the beautiful farmland (and the hops!) Justin and Kaelin chatted about the joys and frustrations of hop farming and organic farming in general as well as their homebrewing history and much more. Dan did the usual news thing, we played the brand new Hopscotch game in Happy Fun Time, Steph talked about fresh hopping in Know Your Beers and we enjoyed an array of fresh hopped beers from various breweries.

Ken Averbukh and Paul Lahm are a homebrewing duo who have combined forces to create Dabbler Brewing Company, which they hope to open in South Philly in 2015. Paul is an avid Flyers fan and has brewed beers inspired by Flyers players and even had the chance to share the brews with some of them. Ken is the “Chief Fermentation Officer” of Dabbler and is currently “being awesome” at Lancaster Brewing Company. The pair joined us in the Beer Busters Podcast basement to chat about their brewing history and plans for Dabbler. Dan brought the news, we played Libation or Fabrication in Happy Fun Time and Steph beerducated us on American and German Rye beers. Then we dove into sampling some our guests’ homebrews.

JR Heaps is not only the founder of South County Brewing, he is also a musician and the mastermind of Second Order Sound. The home studio has seen several local acts of varying genres and we were lucky enough to record this episode there with JR’s equipment an expertise. After gawking at his awesome audio equipment we got down to business and talked about the young brewing company, JR’s brewing history and were awash in his extensive and sagacious knowledge of the craft. A true Renaissance Man. As usual, Dan brought the brew news, Happy Fun Time featured another round of There’s Weird in My Beer, Steph beerducated us on ESBs and we sampled several of South County’s stellar beers.

Co-owner Kirby Powell and Brewer Vaughn Quinter from Saucony Creek Brewing Company in Kutztown, PA stop by the Beer Busters basement. We chat about the brewery and their beers, including the break-out success of Maple Mistress. News gets nerdy with a new Game of Thrones beer and the 2014 Denver Comic Con beer. Steph beerducates us on Maibocks in Know Your Beer and Wayne serves up another addition of Years of Beers in this episode’s Happy Fun Time Game. And, of course, we sample an array of Saucony Creek brews.

We recorded on-location at ShawneeCraft Brewing in Shawnee on Deleware among the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Our gaggle of guests included General Manager Jason Startari, Head Brewer Devin Vogel, "Evangelist" Tim Meyers and Executive Chef Rodney Tallada. News included a brew inspired by the most honorable warriors in the universe, Libation or Fabrication returned in Happy Fun Time and we sampled a wide array of ShawneeCraft brews.

The Beer Busters welcome Chris Harvey on this episode, a talented homebrewer from Harrisburg, PA. We talk about Sons of Alchemy, his homebrew club, and taste a wide range of his awesome brews. Wayne and Steph reminisce about hanging out with Joe Man, we play a rousing game of Brew or False, Dan delivers some news including advice on how not to get drunk from Jim Koch and Steph beerducates us about her favorite thing… chilies in beer!

The explicitly evil jovial geniuses, Luke and Trevor from Evil Genius Beer, return to the podcast on this episode that is not, for once, divisible by seven. We caught up with the lads on what's happening with Evil Genius, including the break out success of their recent release Purple Monkey Dishwasher Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter. Dan delivered the deets on news including a brew made with an ancient fossil, the debut of "evercans" from Red Hare and some sobering facts on trademark enforcement from Dogfish Head. Happy Fun Time saw the return of the Jingle Beers game and we skipped Know Your Beers this time around, knowing that when Luke and Trevor are in the Beer Busters Podcast basement mirth and merriment will be in abundance and we wanted to devote as much time to that as possible.

A homebrewer and Limoncello enthusiast was going to join us in studio, but things don’t always go as planned. Steph educated us about this lemony Italian liqueur in Know Your Beers, or Know Your… Booze? We tasted Limoncello from Campania, Italy in frozen shot glasses. But fear not, we had beer, too. We tasted beers from ShawneeCraft (future Beer Busters recording location) and Jolly Pumpkin (one brewed exclusively for the Rare Beer Club). We also indulged in the latest in the line of Game of Thrones beers from Brewery Ommegang. Wayne put more weird in our beer during Happy Fun Time Games, and Dan talked sports and beer… and traffic and weather…

Due to some schedule changes amongst us, this episode was recorded on very short notice and we went guest-less for the first time since Episode 4. But fear not, precious listeners! The beerducation and fermented entertainment flow as copiously as ever, even with an empty chair in the studio. We ran down news of a glass-size-scam lawsuit, the return of Dogfish Head 120 Minute and a new Yuengling seasonal. Wayne tested Dan and Steph's memories with a hodge-podge of recycled Happy Fun Time queries from your favorite classic games, some stretching back to the dawn of the Beer Busters era. Steph brought the knowledge in a Know Your Beers segment all about American Wild Ales and we sampled some of those crazy mother- shut yo' mouth! I'm just talkin' 'bout wild ales...

On this episode we were joined in studio by homebrewing couple the Littlefieds. Peter and Veronica, a software engineer and nurse by day, not only homebrew but also build their own awesome tap handles. We chatted about their different approaches to brewing, their German dancing (sh..sch...shcu...schuhplattler), Peter's recent trip to India and more.Dan reported on a groovy new Dogfish Head art collab project and Funky Buddha partnering with Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza. The episode's Happy Fun Time Game was a short and sweet Brew or False and we got our beerducation on all about Lambics in Know Your Beers.

For episode 22, the Beer Busters traveled to Lebanon, PA to the newly opened Snitz Creek Brewery. We learned about owners Patrick and Adam, who happen to be brothers-in-law and homebrew buddies. A tragically painful new game called Spelling Bee'r was played and we were beerducated about Irish Dry Stouts. And we tasted a lot of beers. They were Sooooochi good.

For this Valentine's episode, we were joined by Greg Orth of Craft Tastings, LLC., who introduced us to the magically taste-gasmic world of chocolate and beer pairing. Greg founded Craft Tastings, which specializes in hosting beer and chocolate pairing events, after years of enjoying and homebrewing great beers and nearly a decade and a half of working at Hershey's Chocolate. Besides having one of the most eye-opening tasting experiences in the universe, we also ran down the usual news, debuted a brand new Happy Fun Time Game all about beers with exotic ingredients, and got our dose of beerducation on beer and food pairing in Know Your Beers.

For this episode, we were joined by two guests...but not at the same time: Colin Presby from Stoudt's returned, and we had an interview with Natalie DeChico from Weyerbacher.  Wayne debuted a new Happy Fun Time Game, and we drank several delicious Weyerbacher beers.

Bockman himself has returned to the Beer Busters Podcast basement!  Colin Presby, now of Stoudt's Brewing Company, stopped by to fill us in on his bid to run for the American Homebrewers Association's governing board.  He also brought some deliicious treats from Stoudt's for us to try.

Christian Mosebach, head brewer for Golden Avalanche Brewing Company, stopped by to be our fourth Beer Buster for this episode.  He braved snow-covered roads to deliver us some of his delicous brews, as well as help us run down the usual: news, Happy Fun Time Games, and Know Your Beers - this time being beerducated on barleywine.

For this installment of Beer Busters, we were joined by Steve Amrstrong of Armstrong Ales. Having happily accepted his duties as our fourth Beer Buster, Steve helped us with the news, and play another rendition of Happy Fun Time Games.  Along with Steph, Steve helped to beerducate us on nanobreweries...and then we drank some of his current offerings from Armstrong Ales. Happy holidays!

Ryan DeLutis of the Brewery at Hershey joined us this time around. Combined with his forces, we read the news, had to call a few Beer Bluffs in another rendition of Happy Fun Time Games, got beerducated on porters in Know Your Beers, and drank some of Ryan's beers. 

In today's episode, we were joined by Nick Johnson from Tröegs Brewery out of Hershey, PA. After we covered some news and got to know Nick, we played an updated version of Years of Beers, got beerducated on a Biere de Garde, and sampled some tasty Tröegs brews. Cheers!