In this episode we turn a spotlight on non alcoholic beers, defined as beers with &lt; 0.5% abv.  We discuss the science behind various approaches to making NA beers and sample a bakers dozen examples representing styles that include lagers, wheat beers, stouts, pale ales and IPAs both traditional and hazy/juicy.

Non Alcoholic Beers

Fall is the time for beers made with freshly picked whole cone hops and no brewery in Ohio does fresh/wet hop beers like Columbus Brewing Company. In this episode Tony Corder tells us how the hop wizards at CBC conjure up a whopping 10 different fresh/wet hop beers, featuring hops from Washington, Oregon, Ohio, and Michigan.

Fresh Hop Beers at Columbus Brewing Co

Ever wonder what makes up a perfect Pilsner beer? Do you prefer a Czech Pilsner, German Pils, New Zealand Pilsner, or maybe an Italian Pilsner?
In this episode we explore these beer styles and are joined by fellow Pilsner lovers Jamie Gentry and Hans Gorsuch to determine what makes a great Pilsner-style beer. In a blind tasting session, beer steward Ralph Wolfe helps our 4 judge panel navigate through 10 domestic pilsners ranging from local, regional, and national. In the final round we compare our favorites side by side and pick a winner. We hope you enjoy this listen as we find out what makes the perfect Pilsner.

The Great Pilsner Taste Off

Held every two years the World Beer Cup is arguably the most prestigious and competitive beer competition on the planet. In 2022, breweries from the Buckeye state took home a total of 14 medals.  In this episode we drink and discuss the medal winners from Central Ohio breweries including Wolf’s Ridge Brewing (Daybreak Coffee Cream Ale), Gemüt Biergarten (Woden’s Hunt Dunkel), and Columbus Brewing Company (Lager and Crocodile Tongue).

Ohio and the World Beer Cup

With a malt bill more poetic than it's name may suggest, Pat and Mark are joined by Barley’s Homebrew Competition winner Jim Sudduth to explore this classic beer style from the origins of the modern Brown Ale to modern day interpretations brewed here in Ohio. Along the way Jim shares some tips for what it takes to make an award winning Brown Ale. 

Brown Ales

The invention and rise of the American IPA is one of those rare moments in the history of brewing that forever changes the rules of making beer. In this episode we turn our attention to this ubiquitous and hugely influential style by sampling six year-round American IPAs from our home base here in Columbus.  We are thrilled to be joined on our journey by Dan Shaffer, head brewer at Land Grant Brewing Co. Dan has a gift for finding hop combinations with flavor profiles that evoke almost any kind of fruit you can imagine, and in this episode he graciously shares his deep knowledge of hops.  

The Columbus Six Pack (American IPAs)

March is a month that takes us to Ireland as we celebrate St. Patrick's Day and wrap up the third installment of our three part Stout series. On this podcast, Mark and Pat talk all things Irish with Irish dancer, Guinness enthusiast, and good friend Madeleine Bogard. Join us at St. James Gate as we taste through Draught, Extra, and Foreign Extra Stouts and explore the unique culture surrounding them.

Irish Stouts

In a continuation of our exploration of stouts, join us as we dive into three more styles - Milk, Oatmeal, and Oyster! We get into a bit of the history on the styles, taste a three time GABF gold medal winning Milk Stout from Cincinnati's Brink Brewing, take a road trip to Bellefontaine where we find a wonderful small town and an outstanding Ohio Brewers Cup medalling Oatmeal Stout at the Roundhouse Depot with proprietors Ron and Kathy Troyer, and come back to our home base in Columbus to share an Oyster Stout at The Pearl restaurant with North High Brewing's Gavin Meyers.  

MOO! Milk, Oatmeal, and Oyster Stouts

Dark days call for dark beers, and in that spirit we kick off a series of three podcasts on stouts with an episode on Imperial Stouts. We start by reaching out to our friend Nick Smith, co-founder and head brewer at Steam Machine Brewing in the UK, for a fascinating discussion on the historical origins of the style.  We then jump across the pond and see how American brewers in the 1990’s reimagined and reinvigorated imperial stouts. In the second half of the show, Bill Koeppen joins us as we trace the path that these big decadent beers have taken in the 21st century – from barrel aging to adjuncts to the modern pastry stouts. Along the way, Bill shares some of his experiences homebrewing imperial stouts.

Imperial Stouts

Just in time for the holidays we offer up a fascinating conversation with Jason McKibben of North High Brewing. Listeners in Central Ohio know Jason as the Brewmaster and Co-owner of North High Brewing, but his career in the brewing industry also includes stops at Anchor Brewing, where he was the Production Director, and Budweiser, where he spent 12 years in a variety of positions including a stint as manager of the research pilot brewery in St. Louis. In this wide ranging conversation, we cover topics as varied as medalling at the World Beer Cup, brewing with local ingredients, North High’s embrace of the brewpub model, studying with Charlie Bamforth at UC Davis, a behind the scenes look at the iconic Anchor Christmas Ale, and an insider’s perspective on Budweiser. Along the way we find out what they do at Bud’s Research Pilot Brewery, and sample a vintage bottle of White Christmas, a white dog whisky distilled from the 2012 batch of Anchor Christmas Ale.

A White Christmas with Jason McKibben

Our friend Johnny Clift from Jackie O’s on 4th joins us for a special Halloween-themed episode. Johnny shares stories, past and present, on one of Ohio’s most beloved breweries, and we take a closer look at his vision for their new Columbus outpost, Jackie O’s on 4th. Along the way we savor a vertical flight of the iconic black walnut infused imperial stout, Oil of Aphrodite, starting with the base beer and working through various barrel-aged variants. In keeping with the Halloween theme we discuss haunted places in Athens, the annual Athens Halloween blowout, Frank Zappa, and the best monster inspired rock songs of all time.

Halloween at Jackie O‘s on 4th

After a summer break the All Things Beer podcast is back with an episode devoted to homebrews. We welcome back recurring guests Hans Gorsuch and Chris Mercerhill to discuss and dissect the fruits of our labor, including a hefeweizen, two different saisons, a biere de garde, and a wet hop harvest ale. Our conversation touches on topics like decoction mashing, the use of herbs and teas in brewing, aquaponic farming, mixed fermentation, the Great American Beer Festival, new yeast varieties, and brewing with home grown hops.

Summer Homebrews

In this episode we take a deep dive on strong German lagers from the bock family (doppelbock, maibock, weizenbock, eisbock). We trace the history of this style back through the mists of time to the city of Einbeck and it's reinvention as a lager in 17th century Munich. Then we head out to Edison Brewing in Gahana, where they are pouring a bock, a doppelbock and a maibock, for a conversation with owner Wil Schulze and brewmaster Victor Ecimovich. Victor shares some of his wisdom learned in brewing traditional beers over many years at breweries including Millstream (Iowa), Goose Island (Chicago) and Hosters (Columbus). The final segment features friend and award winning homebrewer Jamie Gentry for a discussion on homebrewing  bocks. 

All Things Bock

In a follow up to Episode 18 (Going for the Gueuze) we welcome back Dan Reeve for more discussion of Belgian Lambics. In this episode we explore Lambic variants beyond gueuze, with a focus on lambics conditioned on fruit. Along the way we enjoy and describe Krieks from both Cantillon and Drie Fonteinen, as well as Cantillon's Rose de Gambrinus (featuring raspberries). We discuss the microbiology behind Lambic fermentation and Dan discusses his successes and failures at homebrewing Belgian-style sours. 

Fruit Lambics with Dan Reeve

Matt Cunningham from Rustic Brew Farms in Marysville, Ohio joins us to talk about the malting process. A fourth generation farmer, Matt got into the malting business in 2014 as a way to diversify the crops grown on the family farm, at a time when there was no malting and very little barley being grown in Ohio. In this episode we discuss details of the malting process, agronomics, European vs North American strains of barley, the challenges of running a small business, Czech Tmaves and Metallica.

Craft Malting

Does the prospect of crisscrossing a foreign country in search of one of the world’s most sought after beers sound enticing? If so join us on a virtual tour of the Trappist Breweries of the Low Countries in search of the rare Westvleteren XII. Along the way we do our best to sample the best Quads and Belgian Dark Strong Ales that Europe has to offer. To finish things out we share a homebrewed Belgian Dark Strong Ale, featuring foraged black walnuts. 

Westvleteren or Bust...In Search of the Ultimate Quad

We are joined by Land Grant brewer Justin Reik and Canadian connoisseur Chris Mercerhill for an informative, irreverent journey through the land of beer glassware. Couched in a gameshow format each of us brings a mystery beer to the show that highlights the characteristics of a specific glass. If that isn’t enough we each pick a song that sonically exemplifies our chosen beer-glass pairing. Sit back for an extended romp through the world of glassware, with frequent tangents into the realms of music, science and travel.

Glassware Gameshow

‘Tis the season to be jolly, and in this episode we do our best to spread some holiday cheer. We look at the evolution of the Winter Warmers and other winter seasonal offerings stretching from the dark ages to the modern day. We are joined by Barley’s brewmaster Angelo Signorino, who has been at forefront of the Ohio craft beer scene for nearly three decades. Angelo shares the history of the much beloved Barley’s Christmas Ale and surprises us with a delicious double oatmeal stout aged in maple bourbon barrels. Along the way we sample holiday beers from Samuel Smiths, Anchor, Land-Grant, and Columbus Brewing Company.

Winter Warmers and Festive Holiday Ales

In this episode we are joined by homebrewer and Pat’s Pints Podcast veteran Hans Gorsuch for an in depth discussion of saisons. We discuss the history of the style going back to its farmhouse roots, and dissect one of the world’s truly iconic beers, Saison Dupont. We explore variations on the style that go beyond Dupont, including brett saisons and mixed fermentation ales. Along the way we highlight excellent saisons from Ohio breweries including Rockmill, Branch and Bone and Jackie O’s. We finish with tips for homebrewing saisons.

Saisons

Given the unfortunate cancellation of 2020 Oktoberfest we asked Jamie Gentry and Chris Davison of Wolf’s Ridge Brewing to join us for a celebration of the glorious German beers of fall, märzen and festbier, paired with a generous helping of 20th century German metal music. We go deep on the history and characteristics of these beers, and Chris shares a cornucopia of tips for brewing German lagers. We finish with a bonus chapter on Rauchbier, featuring Wolf’s Ridge’s excellent Buchenrauch.

All Things Beer

All Things Beer

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