We are all back in the little bar and we have a New Year’s treat thanks to our good friend Kat Dougan with Founders Brewing! Kat drops by to share all the doings from Founders, and she shares some terrific beers with us! They are the All Day IPA, Azacca IPA, Sumatra Mountain Brown Imperial Brown Ale, and the Breakfast Stout!

Chip returns to the news desk with Paste asking what is "independent" beer worth to you? Next we have Ozy in Thailand revealing that craft beer is illegal there … but rebel brewers are fighting back, followed by The Drinks Business dropping by a Canadian bar that charges $15 for Bud Light to promote craft beer. We close up with MassLive’s list of the 5 craft beer personality types and The Chicago Tribune reporting that Lyft is launching a Chicago craft beer to offer ride discounts!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Happy New Year Tales Fans!  We are ringing in 2018 with a new round up of beers with show regular Connor Desmonds.  He brings us the latest innovations including the latest spring seasonal Hop Bullet and new year round offering Hazy Little Thing. We then jump straight into the latest 12pack 4 way Variety pack containing a twist sure to be greeted with joy if you are a coffee lover.  

You may notice Chip’s absence this week but Tony and Jenn step up to the news desk with some lighthearted stories to start the year.  We learn about barley being grown at the International Space station and follow one man’s journey to survive on nothing but beer for a week.  Many of us donned our beer jackets for New Years Eve but we discover scientific evidence on why this is a bad idea.  We also follow the latest coffee/beer collaboration news as Dunkin Donuts releases a beer to celebrate the winter solstice. 

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked ”Have you ever been to an ax throwing bar or would you go to one?” This week we ask ”What new beer are you most excited to see/try in 2018” 

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us , following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We can’t believe we are 5 this year with our Holiday Spectacular! As always, we have so many of our friends from the year stop by with some of their astounding whales to share for the good cheer of the yuletide! Joining us is a murderer’s row of guests including Jon, Connor, Matt, Thomas, Greg, Dave, Jake, Tim, Nikko, Beth, Marlise, and Wil, plus longtime listeners and contributors Brian and Scott! We had a very special appearance by Hoda! And of course, the two who were there at the beginning, Aubrey and Joe!

We offer up just a wee bit of news this week before the festivities! Forbes reports that passage of the new tax bill brings lower levies to brewers.Then we have (just for Tony) NY Upstate’s exciting spoiler reveal that the next Ommegang/Game of Thrones beer is an epic barleywine!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

And a very Happy Festivus to all our friends!

It’s almost time for our Holiday Spectacular, and while we are getting ready for the festivities we share some spectacular treats from Foothills, Ballast Point, and Lagunitas! They are the Foothills People’s Moravian Porter, Ballast Point High West Victory at Sea, and Lagunitas Willetized Coffee Stout!

Good cheer and good news in the beer world abound this week, beginning with The Boston Globe and the exciting announcement that Sam Adams is the new official beer of the Red Sox! Next up some econ via The Cheat Sheet who show us an historical look at the price of beer, followed by Vice and the sad news that a Beyoncé-inspired beer is no more. We close with KDKA Pittsburgh toasting scientists who have figured out how to turn beer into petrol and Food & Wine visiting a craft beer-focused axe-throwing bar!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked ”do you know any craft cideries near you and if so who are they?” This week we want to know ”would you go (or have you gone) to an axe throwing bar?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It’s been way too long since we went a-cidering, so this week we are very lucky to have Andrew Blake and Aaron Lanctot from Blake’s Hard Ciders in town! We chat with the lads about the explosion in the number of craft cideries, the latest news from their cidery in Armada, MI, and we get to sample both Archimedes and Snapdragon!

Before we get the cider, we have your news starting with Westword’s wry and deceptively titled opinion piece craft beer is dead — your favorite delicious style killed it! Next up, AdWeek (via Frank C!) shares that (no really, this is funny) Bud Light sent a hilarious cease-and-desist scroll to the makers of ‘Dilly Dilly’ Ale, followed by Forbes asking can a South Korean craft beer crack the U.S. market? and then The Motley Fool offering advice on how to invest in the beer industry. In honor of our guests we have NPR revealing that craft hard cider is on a roll and we wind down with CNet (courtesy of @SFringer!) transporting us to a Star Trek-themed Captain's Holiday beer!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked”what beer-related emoji would you like to see?” This week we ask ”do you know any craft cideries near you and if so who are they?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us , following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

You demanded it, and now he’s back in his triumphal return: beer writer Bryan D. Roth! Bryan relates his latest adventures in beer and real life and how they sometimes intersect. Plus he samples some super brews with us: Full Sail 8 Pound Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Alpha Hop Society Barrel-Aged Sour Brown Ale, and Wicked Weed Barrel-Aged Milk and Cookies!

The news keeps on coming, and it begins this week with The Washington Post showing us that more bars are booting corporate beer from their taps and doubling down on craft. Next we have The Denver Post introducing an organization that wants the craft beer community to do more than just drink responsibly, followed by another instance of MegaMergerMania via The Denver Business Journal reporting that a Spanish beer maker is buying 30% of Colorado's Avery Brewing. We close with Food & Wine singing the praises of the news that  The Flaming Lips and Dogfish Head are collaborating on a beer, and Gizmodo revealing that  Google has decided that Android users deserve full beers!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “who your dream brewing collaborators would be and what style of beer would they make?” This week we ask ”what beer-related emoji would you like to see?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

What better time for coming together than Thanksgiving? We have so much to be thankful for, especially the incredible collaboration brew Olde Rabbit’s Foot, brought to us this week by our friends Sara Miller from Olde Hickory, Robert Owen from Duck Rabbit, and Shawn Densmore from Foothills! Plus our guests share more holiday treats: Olde Hickory Christmas, Foothills Craft Happiness Sustenance, Duck Rabbit Wee Heavy, and Duck Rabbit Rabid Duck!

Before the sipping, we have lots of news this week, starting with The Chicago Tribune’s opinion that the boom in sugary pastry stouts shows that the craft beer industry may be forgetting what beer tastes like. Next up Brewbound reports that Left Hand Brewing has filed a lawsuit against White Labs over allegedly contaminated yeast, then Politico shows us that the Senate tax bill would benefit beer and citrus, and Forbes (courtesy of Frank C!) lays out a road map to 15 craft breweries. We climb aboard with Extra Crispy and a cruise ship brewmaster who makes beer with seawater, while The Chicago Tribune takies us to a Wisconsin pub that offers free beer until the Packers score, and we close with KTVT (Dallas) and a beer named after one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen.

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “do you think it’s a little pretentious to use terms like “nil” when talking about soccer in American sports reporting?” This week we want to hear “who your dream brewing collaborators would be and what style of beer would they make?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Thanksgiving is coming early this year, and we have the beers to pair with that turkey, featuring the always spectacular Anchor Christmas Ale courtesy of our friend Brandon Foglio! We get a few minutes with Brandon to talk about the 2017 release, and then we retire to the bar and sample some of the Sierra Nevada Holiday Haze IPA and our very own Savannah Heat Spicy Wheat collaboration brew made with Smith Mathews from Southbound Brewing!

We have a cornucopia of news for you this week, starting with CBS tagging along on Sierra Nevada’s annual pilgrimage to sniff out the country’s best hops! Next up Bloomberg interviews Budweiser’s ex-marketing chief on the world of weed, followed by CNBC prognosticating that craft beer should enjoy 5 to 6 percent growth, and The New York Times offering to pair beer with that Thanksgiving bird. We close with The LA Times showing us that beer for athletes is the post-workout snack you always wanted, and WCPO in Cincinnati (via intrepid newsman Frank C) reporting that a craft brewery will sell Columbus Crew-themed beer to help keep that MLS club from moving to Austin!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “if marijuana were legal in your state (or if it is), do you think it would/does affect your beer consumption?” This week we ask “do you think it’s a little pretentious to use terms like “nil” when talking about soccer in American sports reporting?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

With this cold damp weather here in Mayberry, we are jonesing for the warmth of sunny southern California and our buddy Wil from Coronado Brewing delivers it! Wil shares the news from San Diego and some terrific beers to boot: Salty Cove Gose, Coastwise Session IPA, and Early Bird Cold Brew Milk Stout!

We have a new spin on MegaMergerMania this week via The Motley Fool reporting that megacorp Constellation Brands wants drinkers to get a different buzz (and it’s not beer!). Next is MSN profiling what happens when whiskey meets craft beer, and Inside Science revealing that geneticists have unlocked the secret of rose and honey scents in beer. We close with Design You Trust unveiling cool beer cans that show the Pantone color of the brew inside!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “now that you know the Astros won the World Series, if you were the mayor of Houston, what beer would you have bet with the mayor of LA?” This week we would like to know “If marijuana were legal in your state (or if it is), do you think it would/does affect your beer consumption?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We are always excited when Sierra Nevada brings us a new treat, and this week’s no exception! Jenn checks the warehouse and finds that the all-new Fresh Hop IPA 12-pack cans are here! They feature a Session IPA, IPA, Double IPA, and just in time for the holidays, a fresh hop version of the famous Celebration IPA!

We want to school you this week, beginning with some etymology and The American Heritage Dictionary Blog on the evolution of the words ale and beer! Next we have some history courtesy of intrepid field reporters Steve and Frank with NPR’s examination of the other Reformation or how Martin Luther changed our beer, followed by science from CBS MoneyWatch revealing that climate change is hurting craft breweries. We wind down the week with CBC showing that drinking a beer can help you speak a foreign language and CNBC’s chat with Sam Adams' Jim Koch on the secret to his $200 bottle of beer!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked  “if you were mayor of your fave Major League Baseball city, which beer would you bet with your opposing mayor?” This week we are asking “now that you know the Astros won the World Series, if you were the mayor of Houston, what beer would you have bet with the mayor of LA?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It’s time to fire up the grill this week with those renowned pitmasters Don Chartier & Ethan Boylan from Lagunitas! The lads come to town to cook for our team and serve up some tantalizing brews to pair with the food: Born Yesterday Pale Ale, 12th of Never Ale, and Eroica Flemish Farmhouse Ale!

It’s World Series time and of course it’s intersecting the beer world courtesy of The LA Times’s report that LA Mayor Garcetti's World Series bet is rankling L.A.'s craft brewing community! Next we have guidelive showing how craft beer hopes to brew diversity beyond the stereotypical bearded white guys. We then move to Food Republic asking would you drink Dead Sea salt beer? and we wind up with Chicagoist’s opinion on what Chicagoland craft beer goes best with classic Halloween candies?

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “if the BA crowd-sourced buyout goes through….what should AB-Inbev be renamed?” This week we want to know “if you were mayor of your fave Major League Baseball city, which beer would you bet with your opposing mayor?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It’s double jeopardy in the bar this week courtesy of our friends Jake Taylor and Spencer Kilgore from Ballast Point! The guys share the latest scoop from San Diego and tell us all about the new Virginia brewery, which is now open to the public! Plus we have more BP goodness with the Fathom IPA and the Sour Wench!

Exciting MegaMergerManiaTM news leads us this week from craftbeer.com relating the new tongue-in-cheek effort to crowdsource a purchase of behemoth A-B InBev! Next up VinePair examines the clickbait headlines blaming millennials for killing craft beer. We close with Ozy taking us where farmers are turning into craft beer brewers and Mikkeller announcing its collaboration with filmmaker David Lynch!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which posed the question “have you ever used beer for medicinal purposes and if so what ailment?” This week we want to know “if the BA buyout goes through….What should AB-Inbev be renamed?

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We have a new guest from an Olde friend, as in Sara Miller from Olde Hickory! Sara joins us to reveal all the latest from western NC and has two incredibly delicious treats for us: Wheatwine and the intrepid pioneer Daniel Boone Barrel-Aged Imperial Brown Ale!!

There’s topical news for Tony & Jenn after their trip to Denver! It’s in The Full Pint with some suggestions for an overhaul for the Great American Beer Festival! Next we visit our friends from Chippewa Falls via The New York Times on Leinenkugel, an old brewery learning new tricks. We close with Atlas Obscura (via our buddy Frank C) revealing a craftbeer named by a neural network and WCSH (in Portland ME) asking could a new beer help women going through menopause?

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which posed the question “what airport is your favorite for craft beer?” This week we want to know “have you ever used beer for medicinal purposes and if so what ailment?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We are most definitely southbound this week - as in Savannah’s amazing Southbound Brewing courtesy of our friends Smith Mathews and Carly Wiggins! Carly lets us in on the latest from the brewery while Smith is hard at work helping craft a delicious fall treat with us. And of course he has to tackle the three questions! As a bonus, we try three beers that go well in a flight: Starpoint I Yam What I Yam, Southbound Picture of Nectar, and Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomme!

Real beer life intersects nicely with the news beginning with The Denver Post’s belief that perhaps craft beer is facing an identity crisis as the Great American Beer Festival arrives in Denver. Next we have The USA Today listing the best airports for craft beer lovers (perfect for Tony & Jenn as they travel) followed by Ozy’s cool piece on craft beer and steam trains in the UK! We wind up with NPR delving into the taming of the brew or how sour beer is driving a microbial gold rush and Paste (via intrepid field reporters Steve L & Frank C and Darrell D) ranking 176 of the Best DIPA/Imperial IPAs!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which posed the question “who is the closest craft brewery to your house and how far is it?” This week we want to know “what airport is your favorite for craft beer?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We are traveling through time and space courtesy of the Delorean this week to bring you Eric and Bret Kuhnhenn from Kuhnhenn Brewing! Tony and Jenn fire up the Mr. Fusion and head to Warren, MI to visit Eric and Bret, learn all about the brewery, and bring back the astoundingly delicious whale Raspberry Eisbock!

With Chip back, the newsroom presented him with a plethora of beer business news beginning with Motley Fool asking has AB-InBev finally had its fill of craft beer? Next up Forbes reports that despite slowed growth, craft beer's economic contribution has jumped 20%, and then Visual Capitalist presents cool graphics showing which cities are fueling America’s craft beer boom. We close with Boise State Public Radio revealing that slower growth for craft beer is leaving Northwest hops producers with a surplus and NPR (via our friend Steve L) on the next big thing in beer: a small taproom!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which posed the question “what’s your craft beer name from the Twitter game featuring your grandfather’s job and a word you don’t understand?” This week we want to know “who is the closest craft brewery to your house and how far is it?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Chip is on sabbatical this week so Tony and Jenn track down one of the few Sierra Nevada employees who has yet to be interviewed for Tales!  Connor tells us how he got into the biz and what is new with Sierra, including a fun collaboration with a local celebrity chef!

Since Connor is a known whale hunter we track down a few hard to find beers for him including a Three Floyds Floy Division II IPA, Hardywood’s Cuvee Gold and Barrel Aged Chico-Style Wild Ale.  He also brings us a Rue D’Floyd to try!

Tony jumps behind the news desk to talk about a Beer for Horses, how much beer Wisconsonians really drink and the latest scientific breakthroughs in brewing.  In honor of our guest’s homeland, we also discuss a new signature beer from Purdue!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which posed the question “what’s your craft beer name from the Twitter game?” This week we want to hear more responses so remember the formula: your grandfather’s job and a word you don’t understand!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We return from all our various road trips with new treats this week from Windmill, Sierra Nevada and Ellison Brewing! After catching up on the excursions for work and fun, we try some IPAs: Windmill Exit Buddy IPA, Sierra Pronto IPA, and Ellison OFP IPA!

We got a week off from #MegaMergerMania, and it returns via Beer Street Journal (courtesy of our buddy @sfringer) with a brutal day as A-B InBev lays off hundreds of employees in “The High End”. Then we pivot to more fun news, starting with radio station WAMU (thanks to our friend Frank C!) returning to our recently met obscure local fruit, the Pawpaw, a hipster banana, followed by CNBC on how a three-person NC craft beer brewery surged to national fame in just four years. We then share a cool new game from Twitter in Food & Wine that reveals how to name your own craft beer, techdirt reporting that UK craft beer trademark applications have doubled in ten years  and we close with NPR treating us to kelp finding its niche in the craft beer scene!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which posed the question “What’s the strangest thing you have fished out of a pint of beer?” This week we want to know “what’s your craft beer name from the Twitter game?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We pack up the travel case and head to Broadway(Street) in Durham to visit second time guest Matt Pennisi. This time Matt is fully permitted and up and running as he gives an update on what’s happening all things Durty Bull. We sample Durty Bull Lager, Bourbon Barrel-Aged Blackberry Sour and Bourbon Barrel-Aged Baltic Porter.

In a seemingly rare week without #MegaMergerMania, Jenn and Tony lead us off with some gear you must procure before heading to German Octoberfest celebrations. We discuss a beer to honor late a late Michigan state punter and report on the continuing court case where Kona Brewing finds itself on the defendant’s chair.  We’ve got some big news for NC State fair goers sure to please those in search of a frosty malt beverage this fall. We finish things up with a progressive idea hoping to take hold in Toronto, particularly for those who enjoy a beer in the park.

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked” Have you ever homebrewed? What style was your first?”

This week we’re dying to know ” What’s the strangest thing you have fished out of a pint of beer?” #caskquiz

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It’s contest time in the bar as we host our 2nd annual Homebrew contest! Joining us on our panel of judges are fan faves Aubrey Herbert & Jake Taylor! Here are our results!

1st Place- Chris Nadeau with Trips up North Black IPA

2nd Place- Carl Hoverstad with Syksyn Saison

3rd Place- Heath Perkins with Amber Alert Hoppy Amber Ale

We also are awarding a special jury prize for best label to John Beal II for Purrrgatory Pale Ale!

Before the merriment we have news beginning with The HuffPo reporting BrewDog is now giving its staff a week's paid 'Pawternity' leave! Next we have The Calgary Herald showing that Alberta's craft beer policy is causing collateral damage, followed by Draft Magazine asking why are so many breweries selling their beer in 15-packs? We wind up this week’s news with UPI revealing how scientists turn brewing waste into fresh yeast to make more beer and The Independent telling you how to bathe in brew at the world’s first beer swimming pools!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “how much do you usually pay for a six-pack of beer?” and this week we want to know “have you ever homebrewed and what was your first style?”

It’s also time for our 2nd Tales Homebrew Contest! We want to try your best homebrew and there are two categories: true to style and the wildcard! With our recent travels, we are extending the deadline one week! It’s now August 28, 2017! For more details click here!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

This week we are heading for the hill country of Indiana with our good friends Doug Dayhoff and Dusty Howe from Upland Brewing! The guys talk to us about Upland’s origins, it’s expansion into North Carolina, and then they share some great beers with us: Champagne Velvet, Wheat, Coastbuster, Iridescent and Hopsynth!

The world of craft beer intersects the world of weed in the news via Business Insider revealing a beloved craft-brewer is brewing marijuana beer! Next up The Denver Post shows that craft beer is the new weapon in a New Mexico sports rivalry, followed by Think Progress’s opinion that beer is the greenest beverage. We wind down with Craft Brewing Business rocking out and drinking local beer with the band Foreigner and The HuffPo detailing how a six-pack of craft beer ends up costing $12.

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “what’s the most creative thing you have thought of or done while drinking a pint?” and this week we want to know “how much do you usually pay for a six-pack of beer?”

It’s also time for our 2nd Tales Homebrew Contest! We want to try your best homebrew and there are two categories: true to style and the wildcard! With our recent travels, we are extending the deadline one week! It’s now August 28, 2017! For more details click here!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

That’s right, we are using the Delorean this week to visit with our friend Dave Burrows and we are having a whale of a good time! How so? By Dave regaling us with tales of the sales side of the beer business, and then by the treasure trove of rarities he shares with us from his extensive tour of the midwest including Shorts Soft Parade, Surly Xtra Citra Pale Ale, Three Floyds Apocalypse Cow, and Alaskan 30th Anniversary Perseverance!

Summer sales are hot, and so is MegaMergerMania! Two stories in that vein lead the news, with The Denver Post reporting that New Belgium is leading an effort to rescue a San Francisco beer maker Magnolia Brewing, and The Miami Herald revealing that beer giant Constellation is buying the Funky Buddha Brewery. Next up The Full Pint asks is Colorado’s craft beer scene oversaturated? Then we close with Allpsych on the psychology of beer tasting and Imbibe Magazine exploring mixed-culture fermentation.

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “what’s the most creative thing you have thought of or done while drinking a pint?” and we are extending it another week due to our time travels!

It’s also time for our 2nd Tales Homebrew Contest! We want to try your best homebrew and there are two categories: true to style and the wildcard! With our recent travels, we are extending the deadline one week! It’s now August 28, 2017! For more details click here!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

You know how we love us some tech, so we are fortunate to have at the bar our friend Brent Nolan, a co-founder of the cool app Stealz! Brent tells about how to use the app to check in with all kinds of businesses and get cool swag, and he tries some great beers with us: Schofferhofer GF, Moosehead Radler, Austin Eastciders Blood Orange, and Coronado Beach Break IPA!

Fun news is on tap this week, starting with more MegaMergerMania but in reverse! It’s  via The New York Times reporting that a small Transylvania brewer stood up to a beer giant and survived! Next we have CBC on London, Ontario’s exploding craft beer scene, followed by Mashable telling us to forget Trump's wall because a brewery wants a beer bar on the U.S.-Mexico border. We close with two from the UK: The Coventry Telegraph showing us a craft beer made in Warwickshire has been named best in the UK, and The Sun discovering that drinking beer makes us smart and creative.

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “do you have a favorite iconic beer logo image and if so which one?” and this week we are asking you to share a eureka moment you have had while hoisting a pint!

It’s also time for our 2nd Tales Homebrew Contest! We want to try your best homebrew and there are two categories: true to style and the wildcard! The deadline for entries is Total Solar Eclipse Day in the U.S. which is August 21, 2017! For more details click here!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

This week the Rockies return to the bar with our friend Heath Perkins from Colorado’s Left Hand Brewing! Heath shares the latest from Longmont and has some awesome treats for us: Travelin’ Light Kolsch, Saison au Miel, Saison Aux Baies Amères, and the astonishing 2013 Widdershins Barleywine!

We have numbers in the news this week via Fortune showing that the craft beer boom has gone flat. In spite of this, new breweries continue to open and CNN Money has advice on how to start a successful craft beer brewery. Next up we head overseas where American Craft Beer infiltrates Thailand’s craft beer rebellion, then Travel Market Report brings us beer tourism on tap for travel agents, and we close with out of this world Beer Alien joining punk legends NOFX in invading Stone Brewing (the brewery is still standing)!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “are you using special glassware for your beer and if so what kind?” and this week we are asking “do you have a favorite iconic beer logo image and if so which one?”

It’s also time for our 2nd Tales Homebrew Contest! We want to try your best homebrew and there are two categories: true to style and the wildcard! The deadline for entries is Total Solar Eclipse Day in the U.S. which is August 21, 2017! For more details click here!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

At last Chip returns the DeLorean and we are all together in the bar sharing some new faves from Roak, Coronado, and Olde Hickory! Our taste treats include Roak Creative Tension IPA, Coronado 21st Anniversary IPA, and Olde Hickory Flanders Red!

In the news this week, the beloved saga of MegaMergerManiaTM continues in two stories! First is in The Detroit Free Press revealing that Short's Brewing is selling a 20% stake to Lagunitas, and the second story is via Porch Drinking reporting that Brooklyn Brewery is partnering with 21st Amendment and Funkwerks. Next up is CNBC telling us that Goldman is downgrading beer stocks because millennials like wine better, followed by The Boston Globe showing us beer with a lobster background note, and we close with Gear Patrol asking why beer bars are switching to stemware?

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “would you drink a caffeinated beer and if so what style” and this week we ask “are you using special glassware for your beer and if so what kind?”

It’s also time for our 2nd Tales Homebrew Contest! We want to try your best homebrew and there are two categories: true to style and the wildcard! The deadline for entries is Total Solar Eclipse Day in the U.S., which is August 21, 2017! For more details click here!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We are very excited this week and gracious to chat with the oft-travelling Nick Nunns and Kat Wilkinson who are visiting from young but pioneering Denver mixed culture brewery, TRVE.  We learn how they got started and about their unique process for the acidic side of brewing.  They bring us some hard to find and classic brews to try and we sample Ecate, Ostara, Red Chaos and Revengeance

Tony and Jenn handle the news this week with fun beer stories from around the globe!  We talk about the perfect beer to pair with tacos in Texas, an ambitios project to beautify industrial areas with  hops in Pittsburgh. We let you in on the perfect spot to don a kimono and drink unlimited beer in Japan.  In legal news we report on the unfortunate beer naming dispute between Elvis Presley’s estate and Scottish Brewer Brewdog. 

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “Will you buy beer based on the BA seal?”  and this week we want to know if you would still drink a caffeinated beer if they were legal? And what style of beer should it be?

It is also time for our second Tales Homebrew Contest!  We would love to try your best homebrew and there are great prizes, the deadline for entries is August 21st.  Details can be found here. Good Luck and Good Brewing!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

The western Piedmont takes over the bar this week with our good friends Shawn “Dink” Densmore, Tony Futrell and Scott Mizerak from Winston-Salem’s Foothills Brewing! The lads relay the latest from the brewery and taste us on two incredible IPAs, Move and Clean!

Before the beers we have more news from overseas! First up is The Guardian (UK) revealing why the pub isn’t the only place drinkers should buy craft beers. Next we have Stuff (NZ)’s opinion that there's too much faulted craft beer on the market. Then we share VinePair asking 14 brewers what beer trend needs to die, and we close with Unilad’s interview with an airplane passenger who checked in one can of beer!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “have you tried any of the Beer Camp Across the World Beers yet?  What are your favorites?” and this week we want to know if you think there should be a standard way to tell how fresh your beer is and if so what’s your idea?

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We take the show on the road and make the best use of a brief intermission from the Beer Tent in Downtown Raleigh. With the promise of an air condition and shaded studio we were able to lure several past guests from the dreaded early episodes. Roger MacKay, Josh McCullough and new guest and current team member Brytni Perkins graciously agreed to sample some new brews and help out with the news in Chip’s absence.

NPR Leads off this week with a popular story about America’s affinity for beer and the history behind it, Austin 360 spikes our curiosity with a new ramen flavored beer. The Brewer’s Association made CNN headlines this week with a new indoctrination aimed at helping consumers sort out choices on the shelf. It wouldn’t be summer without a beer list and Mercury News is happy to oblige with their “Red, White and Blue” beer picks for the holiday. The Denver post sheds some light how to get free beer for life with just one catch in this week’s last news item.

We have plenty of new beers to try on the show this week from a fresh shipment from AleSmith!  The team samples the all new Orange X, revisits the Double IPA, and goes all in with a Triple IPA Collaboration with Pizza Port Logical Choice!  We also try a Rum Barrel aged version of Oskar Blues Ten Fidy that was a recent gift to the Tales Cellar.

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “We want to know if you think there should be a standard way to tell how fresh your beer is and if so what’s your idea?” and this week We couldn’t resist asking if you will be making purchases exclusively based on the BA Seal of authenticity.

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We get a visit from Indiana this week with Dusty Howe and Fred Hillenbrand from Upland Brewing! Dusty and Fred tell us the history of the brewery, which is celebrating 20 years in 2017, tease the latest releases, and share some incredible sour ales with us: Sour Reserve,  Cherry, and Cauldron!

In the news we start with a sorta MegaMergerMania item via The Motley Fool reporting that  AB InBev has a clever new marketing strategy in the home-brew market. Next up we head to Tony’s old stomping grounds through The Utica Observer-Dispatch which is asking if a proposed beer museum is golden or flat? We then have The Bulletin (Central Oregon!) positing why it’s so hard to figure out how old that 6-pack of beer is and we go retro with MSN revealing 5 things you didn’t know about Zima, everyone’s favorite ‘90s mistake that's back for 2017!

We have your responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “have you tried any of the Beer Camp Across the World Beers yet?  What are your favorites?” and this week we want to know if you think there should be a standard way to tell how fresh your beer is and if so what’s your idea?

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

What a week with Sierra Nevada and Beer Camp on Tour right here in Raleigh! And with Mr. Brian Grossman to boot! We get a chance to chat with Brian about this year’s version of Beer Camp and the terrific response from brewers and beer lovers. Later we hop in the DeLorean and sample all 12 BCAW beers! In moderation, of course!

We do have fun summer news as well, starting with VinePair answering 7 questions about wheat beer you’re too embarrassed to ask. Next up is Forbes revealing that something's brewing in the craft beer industry -- and it's driving industrial absorption. Finally we have The Sacramento Bee reporting that Pliny the Elder has been knocked from top of American beer heap in new rankings and GQ showing us how to drink beer all summer long without getting a beer gut (according to Science!)

We share responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “have you tried any of the Beer Camp Across the World Beers yet?  What are your favorites?” and we are carrying that one over this week!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Tony and Jenn have been brewing up a storm lately but they take a quick break to talk to Carl Hoverstad about his background as a homebrewer and his award winning ESB.  He gives us the scoop on selecting ingredients and the importance of taking notes on past recipes.  We sample the ESB we brewed with him and later in the show Jenn and Tony get to try Anchor’s Los Gigantes!

Chip is out on assignment this week but Tony manages to fill in at the news desk.   He shares some great findings on the economic impacts of  beer on small towns and we talk about Sierra’s long time brewmaster retiring.  We also learn about the severity of fines for one wholesaler who did not play by the ABC rules and how important it is for beer bars to have a curated draft program.  Finally in some fun news, we hear about a Czech beer train concept coming to Chicago and where the Most Interesting Man has found a new job!

We get responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “what’s your take on this ratebeer.com  controversy?” This week’s #caskquiz asks “Have you tried any of the Beer Camp Across the World Beers Yet?  What are your favorites? ”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It’s been ages since we had our good friend Carly Wiggins in from Southbound Brewing, so we got her to drive on up to share the latest from Savannah! Carly brings us the latest from the brewery, plus she plies us with a couple of awesome beers: Transilience Sour Imperial Berliner Weisse Ale with Pomegranate & Mango and Mystery Ship Brettanomyces Dry Hopped Imperial Red Ale!

More controversial news starts us out this week as Men’s Journal reports that RateBeer.com has announced a partial sale to AB InBev and Dogfish Head has asked to have its beers removed! Then we turn to the fun of beer with The Washington Post revealing that Maine is sending a beer box to Iceland! Next up Billy Penn asks us to party with Dogfish Head and the ‘Indiana Jones of Beer’ and we close with Newsarama on the Steve Dillon memorial beer brewed in his honor by his long-time collaborator Matthew Hollingsworth.

We get responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “what’s your go-to method for quickly chilling your beer?” This week’s #caskquiz asks “what’s your take on this ratebeer.com  controversy?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Thanks to our buddy Dan Bjugstad, we are heading to Wisconsin this week with beers from New Glarus, Wisconsin Brewing, and Central Waters! It’s just the three of us tasting an amazing lineup: New Glarus Strawberry Rhubarb, Wisconsin Brewing Chocolate Lab Porter, and Central Waters Slainte Scottish Ale!

We also have some cool (ice cool) news for you, starting in GQ announcing that it's (finally) time to drink craft beer in Germany! Next is the The Washington Post’s  list of five myths about beer, followed by The New York Times recounting a daring beer run to soldiers in Vietnam. Then we wind up in the lab with Popular Science and the fastest way to chill your beer!

We get responses to last week’s #caskquiz which asked “what’s your fave coffee brew?” This week’s #caskquiz asks “what’s your go-to method for quickly chilling your beer?”

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Two of our fave worlds collide this week: craft beer and coffee thanks to Patrick Woodson from Brewery Bhavana and Jen Hoverstad from Counter Culture Coffee ! Jen gives us the scoop on the latest in the coffee scene, and Patrick talks about his new brewery in downtown Raleigh! Jen and Patrick also discuss the upcoming Uppers and Downers Event with Brewery Bhavana and Counter Culture Coffee in Durham on June 2nd! Plus, we taste some Bhavana coffee craft beers made with Counter Culture Coffee: Coffee Saison Single Origin Version One (using the Japanese flash ice method), Saison Blanc (Sauvignon Blanc barrel-aged with Apricot, Passion Fruit & Mango) and the Grove Double IPA!

There’s an international flavor to the news this week! We start with The Sacramento Bee revealing why Chimay and Belgium remain the benchmark for craft beer followed by Bloomberg showing how God's own brewers help Carlsberg catch up with craft beer. Next FoodBev Media reports from Down Under that Australia’s craft beer body is shunning conglomerates with a rule change, and we wind up with AV Club’s opinion that Kölsch is a refreshing German beer for the sultry days of summer!

This week’s #caskquiz asks “what’s your fave coffee craft beer?” and we are looking for your submissions for this month’s #caskcontest:  send us your best photo featuring Sierra Nevada Pale Ale! All entries are due by May 31st.

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Jennifer returns this week refreshed from vacation to rejoin the crew. We chat beer and life in general with a veteran consulting colleague of Chip, Bill Buxton.  He tells us about his beer evolution from the midwest to NC and we have plenty of beers to share with him including some gifts from Chicago area brewery Metal Monkey!  We try their Simian Pandemic and Death by Metal and rounding out the draft list is the latest from The Hop Concept- Galaxy and Comet IPA.

The news world continues to turn this week as we hear one journalist’s take on the AB craft takeovers, learn what beer to drink during this summer’s total eclipse, and dive into the latest beer tech.  In history news, we hear about the NYC mayor who protested prohibition by drinking a beer! 

This week’s #caskquiz asks “are you able to order beer on the internet and if so, how?” and we are looking for your submissions for this month’s #caskcontest:  send us your best photo featuring Sierra Nevada Pale Ale! All entries are due by May 31st.

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

The testosterone level is high this week as Jenn is on vacation, so we amp it up with our friend Jake Taylor from Ballast Point! Jake tells us how he got into the business, shares the latest from San Diego, and tastes two excellent beers with us: Sea Rose and Unfiltered Sculpin!

You want some more MegaMergerMania? Well, look no further than Seeking Alpha reporting that Heineken just bought the half of Lagunitas it didn’t control. Next up Motley Fool asks what's craft beer's bigger threat? wine, whiskey, weed...or all 3? Then we close with Fox News showing us a  beer made from pee and KIRO uncovering stolen century-old beer bottles being finally returned to a Tacoma brewery!

This week’s #caskquiz asks “what’s the most outrageous ingredient you have had in a beer?” and we are looking for your submissions for this month’s #caskcontest:  send us your best photo featuring Sierra Nevada Pale Ale! All entries are due by May 31st.

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Chip had to travel a long way, and it was totally worth it to do his second interview with Martin Roper, CEO of The Boston Beer Company! Martin talks about the latest with Sam Adams, Angry Orchard and Twisted Tea. Plus he discusses his planned retirement in 2018 and offers his thoughts about where craft beer is headed in the future. Here at home, we sample Sam Adams Fresh as Helles, Rebel IPA Reborn, and Rebel Juiced!

Then the MegaMergerMania  continues via The Asheville Citizen-Times revealing that Wicked Weed is entering a partnership with Anheuser-Busch. Next up Tribunist tells us that a study finds two pints of beer are more effective than OTC pain relievers, Mashable shows us that you can now buy a 1,000 pack of beer in Finland, and we close with Treehugger pouring us a beer made from recycled bread!

This week’s #caskquiz asks “what’s the most craft beer you ever bought at one time?” and we are looking for your submissions for this month’s #caskcontest:  send us your best photo featuring Sierra Nevada Pale Ale! All entries are due by May 31st.

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

The rain is gone and We were going stir crazy at the office so we packed the studio and visited old friend Josh Hamilton, GM of a classic downtown Raleigh craft beer staple.

This week Chip perfectly proportions the news starting with a piece from Eater that questions how beer lines are still a thing? Bloomberg goes very in depth on why you may be seeing a lot more of your favorite local beers becoming available in cans. We have good news for literary leaning craft beer aficionados in the Indianapolis area.  CNN takes us to the far East with news on ancient Chinese secret beer recipes. Do you live in Britain and want to keep your bartender honest? Food and Wine is last up in the news and they will tell you how!

We didn’t have to reach far across the bar for a heaping helping of new and cellared beers. We try the straight out of the brite tank Ballast Point unfiltered Sculpin. Coronado is back with the first installment of the stem to stern series of limited brews. Josh poured us a rare treat with the Great Divide Strawberry Rhubarb. To cap it all off We opened Josh’s autographed bottle of the show favorite Rodenbach Caractere Rouge

This week we announce our latest #caskcontest: Send us your most creative picture of a Sierra Pale Ale and the winner will receive two tickets to the Beer Camp festival in Raleigh June 17th!  Entries are due by May 31st. 

We also have a new #caskquiz: How many beers do you think you’ve tried?

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

CBC was great for Jenn & Tony, all the more so because they got to speak with Dr. Michael Lewis, the legendary trainer of brewers for decades! You get to listen in! Then we try the some of the latest great brews including Southbound Desert Dawn, Foothills Terrain IPA, and Wicked Weed Arcanic!

Plus there’s news! We start off with The New York Times op-ed by Jim Koch asking is it last call for craft beer? Next is The LA Times offering a way to get your non-crafty friends to ease into craft beer via coffee, tea and cocktail-inspired beers in disguise, then Heat Street reports that the Brewers Association has announced that ‘sexist and lewd’ craft Beers can no longer receive their awards, and we wind up with The Daily Meal revealing that an all-female craft beer festival Is coming to Florida!

This week we have our final submissions for this month’s #caskcontest:  Give us your best comic book themed beer name and you could name our next brew!  Entries due by April 19th. And we have a new #caskquiz for this week: what beer did you use to get someone into craft beer?

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We have an amazing San Diego treat this week - AleSmith is in the house thanks to our friend Matt Dakan! Matt joins us to talk up cans! And we are so stoked to test and taste .394, IPA, and the astounding Speedway Stout, all in cans!

Before that deliciousness we have your news! First up is KPIX (CBS San Francisco) shining a light on big beer trying to open a beer garden in Oakland, followed by Forbes’ opinion that  craft beer needs more diversity and growth. Next up is The Federalist describing what green beer from the French Alps tastes like and we wind up with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asking beer with breakfast?

This week we continue accepting submissions for this month’s  #caskcontest:  Give us your best comic book themed beer name and you could name our next brew!  Entries due by April 19th. Plus, inspired by the news item we have a classic #casquiz to return to: what’s the cereal you want to have infused in your beer and what style of brew?

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

The bar is open this week to welcome our friend Brandon Foglio from the pride of San Francisco, Anchor Brewing! Brandon shares the latest news from the brewery while tasting the all-new and delicious Blackberry Daze IPA!

Spanning the globe, we bring you the news and start in China with Fortune on China’s new craftbeer bully, followed by Aol which has found a brewer who names her beers after her awful dates. Next up we have CNN and our continuing coverage of inflight beers, and we close the week with Tasting Table’s take on Cap'n Crunch infused ale!

This week we continue accepting submissions for this month’s  #caskcontest:  Give us your best comic book themed beer name and you could name our next brew!  Entries due by April 19th. Plus, inspired by the news item we have a classic #casquiz to return to: what’s the cereal you want to have infused in your beer!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It’s springtime in the Sunny Lands and Chip, Tony and Jenn take a break from a week off from hosting guests in the bar to enjoy some quality co-host time.  In another exciting news week We discuss Fortune’s take on the potential slowdown in the extraordinary growth of craft.  From MarketWatch We discuss exactly total beer shipments are going for America’s top domestic brewers. Food and Wine prompts Jenn and Tony give a refresher on the Cicerone exam.  Lastly, Brewbound has exciting news for nutrition gurus with a brand new database.

Beer was the guest this week as the Tales crew got a chance to open some anxiously awaited cork and caged treats from The Lost Abbey  in Sunny San Marcos. In this round of Barrel Aged perfection We sample Red Poppy, Track 8 and My Black Parade.

This week we continue accepting submissions for this month’s  #caskcontest:  Give us your best comic book themed beer name and you could name our next brew!  Entries due by April 19th.

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

The whole gang is back together again and we are joined by David Surrency from Full Sail Brewing in Oregon!  We talk about the history of this first generation craft brewer and taste through the portfolio including Full Sail Amber, Cascade Pilsner, Hop Pursuit, IPApaya, and the Session Lager and Black Lager.  Tony also brings us a treat, the 2011 Imperial Porter from one of his trips out west!

We talk food in the news this week as we announce the first brewpub to achieve a Michelin Star!  We also learn about Stone’s new Toilet to Tap Beer and how you can send Alexa on a beer run.  Chip was excited to submit his ideas for the official Comicon beer and we decide to hold our own contest for one of our brews!

This week we announce a new #caskcontest:  Give us your best comic book themed beer name and you could name our next brew!  Entries due by April 19th.

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It is chilly this week in the Sunny Lands but we have plenty of delicious new beers to keep us warm! Chip is back from vacation and Jenny Brinkman joins us as co-host while Tony is out on assignment.  Jenny gives us the latest scoop from Ballast including an update on their new East Coast brewery!  She also brings us the latest innovations in the Ballast Point portfolio, new year round brews Sea Rose and Manta Ray, along with current limited edition Tart Peach Kolsch!

The news has a travel theme this week as we visit San Diego for some budget friendly bars, fly out to Hawaii to check out the emerging craft brew scene, and head all the way to Mars for some Budweiser?  Plus Belgian scientists have named a new space system after their favorite type of beer!

This week we wrap up our Beers in Nature Photo #caskcontest and announce a winner!  Listen in and find out who it is!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It's another beautiful afternoon in the Sunnylands and March Madness is in the air as Tony and Jenn take the reins this week!  We are joined by Randle Hernandez and Houston Shively from Boelter Beverage, who teach us all about proper glassware for enjoying the perfect pint!  We sample the latest Craft Happiness release from Foothills Haven IPA in an IPA Fefa Glass, Tony’s own Milk Stout in a Revival Style Pint, and Wicked Weed Silencio in the Sommelier Chalice.

Tony and Jenn always have a fun time finding news stories when our resident anchor is on vacation but Chip is still on the job, chiming in with an article about the next big beer style from Forbes!  We travel from coast to coast to find out where you can try a Goat Yoga Beer and visit a new American Craft Beer Museum in a casino! We also learn what beers this spring will hold for each astrological sign, and celebrate National Women’s Day with a new beer from Oskar Blues.

We have another #caskcontest  for March! It’s our beers in nature photo contest! Send us a photo of the beer you are enjoying outside and you could win cool Tales Swag!  All entries are due by March 15th! Tweet us, send us an FB message, Instagram or email us!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

To celebrate our 200th episode, we combine our two great passions: beer and music! And we have our friend Aimee Bridges to join the mayhem! Aimee talks about her work as a marketing consultant and her love for music and beer as we sample some awesome brewery/band collaborations including Unibroue Megadeth, Belching Beaver Phantom Bride, and New Belgium Clutch Dark Sour Ale!

News is easy when we have our listeners submitting stories! Chad F shares a cool Kickstarter campaign for the new Growler Chill that keeps 3 growlers cold, fresh & on tap at home, while @treads09 shares Food & Wine reporting that Cathay Pacific Airlines is debuting a beer that tastes better in the air. We find Treehugger revealing that moving beer by ship, not road, is saving 14% of CO2 for Heineken, and then Paste has a story just for Tony stating that waxed beer bottles suck!

We have a new #caskcontest for March! It’s our beers in nature photo contest! Send us a photo of the beer you are enjoying outside and you could win cool Tales Swag!  All entries are due by March 15th! Tweet us, send us an FB message, Instagram or email us!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We take our show on the road once again with an exhilarating ride around downtown Fuquay on the Brewquay Prowler as well as sample a plethora of new and unique beers from DuClaw.

In the news this week we discuss Mardi Gras themed brews, share Asbury Park Press’s picks for beers to pair with Oscar nominated films. Also, NPR explores the ever growing trend of hazy IPAs,IIndiana beer drinkers are the latest to benefit from a distribution expansion from America’s oldest brewery. Lastly, the continuing saga of the famed Celis White gets new life in Austin.

We had a bountiful number of guests this week headed off by Lou Kazman & Donnie Hicks of the Brewquay Prowler, a craft beer focused dune buggy that offers tours to local breweries and beyond. Stepping in right behind Lou and Donnie we were pleasantly interrupted but old friends and previous Tales guests Glen Selby and Adam Eshbaugh who teamed up for the day to put together our largest ever DuClaw tap takeover. We tried new and rare beers which included “ “JD” Barrel aged Serum, Mysterium Spiced Ale, Gingerbread Euforia Toffee Nut Brown, and the all new Farmhouse Style Neon Gypsy.

We have a new #caskcontest  for March! It’s our beers in nature photo contest! Send us a photo of the beer you are enjoying outside and you could win cool Tales Swag!  All entries are due by March 15th! Tweet us, send us an FB message, Instagram or email us!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Days in the 80ºs? In February? Madness! To stay cool we have brews from our friends at Trinity, Pizza Port and Hardywood! The three of us marvel at the incredible weather of late in the sunny lands while sampling Trinity Koelerado, Pizza Port Graveyard’s Pale Ale, and Hardywood Tropication IPA!

Sunny news for the sunny skies this week! We start with some Food & Wine with their list of the 25 most important American craft beers ever brewed, and follow that with a side of VinePair and hipsters who are turning Oaxaca into Mexico’s first craft beer capital! Next up is Paste with the craft beer guide to spring training and we wind up in New Orleans at WGNO  who is asking did you know the Krewe of Muses has their own beer?

We concluded our #caskcontest for February, and now we have a new one for March! It’s our beers in nature photo contest! Send us a photo of the beer you are enjoying outside and you could win cool Tales Swag!  All entries are due by March 15th! Tweet us, send us an FB message, Instagram or email us!

We so love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

This week we slide over to the retail side of the world with future bottle shop owner Julie Paddison! Julie shares her background and talks with us about getting a new retail account going. Then she shares some delectable delights with us: Full Sail Ipapaya IPA, Ballast Point Manta Ray Double IPA and Trve Black Celebration!

There’s a lot of history in brewing, and a lot in the news! We begin with National Geographic on our 9,000-year love affair with booze, followed by Mashable revealing that you can get a free pint of beer in London every time it rains! Next up is The New York Times standing in 11-hour lines for a new ale, and we wind up with The Fresno Bee offering to craft beer forward!

We are continuing the #caskcontest through February 10! Give us the slogan for our all-new t-shirts! Cool Tales swag will follow to the winner!

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us, following our Instagram or friending us on Untappd, posting on and liking our Facebook page, or emailing us! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

More Delorean travel awaits us at the 2017 NC Rare & Vintage Beer Tasting! Tony and Jenn are able to visit with so many friends at the tasting, and you can hear them all this week! Later back at the bar, they reunite with Chip and share two super brews: Ballast Point’s Red Velvet on Nitro and the highly sought-after Foothills 2017 Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout!

In the news this week we start in DC with our friends at Smithsonian who are raising a glass to the Smithsonian's first beer scholar, and then we head to California and the SF Chronicle revealing that Russian River is planning for a new brewery in Windsor. Next up we fly to the UK and The Guardian reporting that Brexit is weakening the pound and threatening the UK craft beer revolution, while Pitchfork is unveiling the new beer and culture-focused website October, and we close by sharing a Superb Owl tip from Lifehacker telling you how many people you need at a party to make a beer keg worthwhile!

We are continuing the #caskcontest through February 8! Give us the slogan for our all-new t-shirts! Cool Tales swag will follow to the winner!

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It’s time for our first roadtrip of the year - to Starpoint Brewing’s new brewery in Durham, NC! Founder Tim Harper and Head Brewer Nikko Carlson join us to give a nice tour, talk about their expansion, and most importantly share some crazy good beers with us! This week we try the collaboration Honeysuckle Tea House Elderberry Braggot, Ginger Barleywine, St. Philibert Hazelnut Stout, and the always delectable DUH! Double IPA!

Newstime! We begin out on The Street in London where brewers are raising British beer prices because of frothy brexit-inflation, then we turn up Loudwire and rock to Anthrax announcing its first-ever signature beer ‘Wardance’. Next we have Bon Appétit demonstrating the beer accessory you didn’t know you desperately needed (of course Jenn already has one!) and we take off with Blastr rocketing a proposed space mission aiming to brew beer on the moon!

We are continuing the #caskcontest through February 8! Give us the slogan for our all-new t-shirts! Cool Tales swag will follow to the winner!

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We are keeping it local this week when we are joined by John Oldendorf from Raleigh’s Clouds Brewing! John tells us all about the brewery and lets us try a terrific lineup of beers: Wolkenbrau, Precipitation, Mission to Marzen, El Hefe, One Eye Pale Ale and Crimea River!

We begin the newstime with excitement from PA via the The Reading Eagle reporting that beer distributors will be able to sell six-packs starting Tuesday, followed by The LA Times’ totally rad travelogue mapping out how to plan a craft beer crawl along the Metro Gold Line, and then Patch reveals that Surly is going to release a new 'Thanks Obama' beer on Inauguration Day. Next up is Bloomberg’s piece on Japan’s rural towns luring tax from Tokyo with beef and beer and we close with The Motley Fool admonishing us no, marijuana legalization isn't crushing craft beer.

Instead of a #caskquiz this week, we are introducing a #caskcontest: help us create a new slogan for our all-new t-shirts! Cool Tales swag will follow to the winner!

 We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We are so lucky to be working with our friends from Sierra Nevada! Why so? Because as always, they are bringing us new treats for a new year! It’s our old buddies Tommy Gannon and Dave Kemper, and with them we are trying three all-new goodies: Sidecar Orange Pale Ale, Tropical Torpedo Tropical IPA, and the delectable Beer Camp Golden IPA!

How about news from the midwest this week? We start with Forbes in Philly telling us if you like your local beer week you're going to love beer year, followed by The Detroit Free Press showing us how top Michigan craft brewers aim to take over the country. Next up is The Chicago Tribune thinking that your next beer may taste like a cocktail, and we wind up with The USA Today teasing that the actual Keurig for beer is coming!

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It’s a Happy New Year from the three of us at the bar this week! We ring in 2017 with some beers from Allagash, Boon, Starpoint, and Foothills that were hidden in Tony & Jenn’s secret stashes! These treats include a 2012 Allagash Interlude, a 2013 Boon Kriek Mariage Parfait, a 2014 Starpoint Whiskeytown, and the amazing 2016 Foothills Simcoe Double IPA Hop of the Month!

New news for 2017 as we begin with Thrillist not Rickrolling by announcing that Rick Astley is launching his own beer, followed by Forbes revealing how your DNA can predict your beer preferences, then The Independent UK goes hunting for foraged beer. Next we have Daily Meal in Denver with brewers who have created a ‘Pussy Riot’ Beer for Inauguration Day, SmartAsset listing the best cities for beer drinkers – 2016 Edition, Business Insider is providing everything you need to know about beer, in one chart, and we close with Mashable showing us Australia's oldest living prime minister who really knows how to chug a beer!

For last week’s #caskquiz which we are continuing this week we want to know what predictions you have for beer in 2017!

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

For the final episode of the year the tales crew is together one last time for some brunch and post revelry pairings. We were joined by guest Mike Burns who oversees several area restaurants with locations throughout the triangle that serve breakfast/brunch with a Louisiana twist. Knowing that Tales is on an endless quest to uncover the most festive food and beer pairings, Mike provided some spectacular fare for us to match with some post-new years celebration beers and ciders to ease you into 2017. We sample Southbound Shakedown Street, Session Lager from Full Sail with some first class Shrimp and Grits. We also got our cider and beignet fix with Blake’s Archimedes cider.

We wind the year in news down with a barrage of stories including a Chicago Tribune  analysis of how rare rare really is? , New Spanish Hops Growers!, We take a look at how Crux Fermentation Project is looking at social media. From there we head north to Eau Claire and discuss two very old breweries collaborating for a momentous anniversary, 21st Amendment let’s us in on the Art of naming beer. The Wall Street Journal takes a look at examples of new regional styles and finally, Vinepair gives us a lesson on bottle conditioning and the real “champagne” of beers.

For last week’s #caskquiz we wanted to know your fave beer-related thing from 2016 and this week we are asking what predictions you have for beer in 2017!

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We survived another Holiday Spectacular, and it took us a week to clean the bar! To celebrate, we have some whales we have been holding from Anchor, Trinity, and Sam Adams! We start with a 2001 (that’s right, 2001!) Magnum of Anchor Christmas Ale, followed by Trinity Hopped Toddy, and then we go deep with the astounding 2011 Sam Adams Utopias!

You would think the news would slow down for the holidays. Nope! We start with The Chicago Tribune reporting that A-B InBev’s Goose Island is going global with pubs and brewhouses in 6 countries (and Philly), followed by The Wall Street Journal listening for  Anglican church bells ringing in beer o’clock, and Forbes telling you how to get a career in beer. Next we have Popular Mechanics showing how any food can be turned into beer, and then Paste has two for us, both the best beer and booze trends of 2016 and a tasting of 3 whiskeys distilled from craft beers, and we close with Thrillist delivering us a craft beer nerd getting owned by a legendary brewer.

For last week’s #caskquiz we wanted to know your favorite historically-themed beer and this week we are asking what your fave beer-related thing was from 2016!

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Is it Santa? Is it? Not quite yet! It’s our 4th annual Holiday Spectacular! We are joined in the bar with love and good cheer by our friends Jenny, Rick, Thomas, Bryan, Glen, Colleen, Brian and Jacque, Scott, Chris, Carl, Mark, and of course the two who started it all with us, Joe & Aubrey!

In a lavish exchange of bottles, some cellared for years, We shared our whales and spread merriment. This years list included:

Carolina Brewing Company Quad

Carolina Brewing Company Imperial Stout

Ballast Point Peppermint VAS

Ballast Point Employee Release BA Stout

DuClaw Retribution 2014

Foothills BBA Sexual Choc 2014

Ommegang BA Three Philosophers

Hardywood BA GBS

Compass Rose Spiced Belgian Pale Ale
Sierra Nevada Brux

Deschutes Black Butte XXVI

Shorts Juicy Tree

Clown Shoes Itasca LoonDragon

Adroit Theory Black IPA

We do a quick look at a few news items before the merriment begins! First up MegaMergerManiaTM continues via The New York Times as Asahi has agreed to buy beer brands from Anheuser-Busch InBev for $7.8 billion! Next up is The Mother Nature Network helpfully suggesting how to pair craft beer with vegetarian fare, followed by DNAInfo giving us a second chance to taste rare beer made from black truffles, then CNN offering the world's best beer-brewing countries, and we close with The HuffPo demonstrating a DIY glow-in-the-dark beer made with a jellyfish gene!

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We are getting ready for our Festivus/Chrismukkah spectacular next week, so we have been decking the halls, trimming the tree, and relaxing with great brews from New Sarum, Sierra Nevada, and Wicked Weed + Jester King! The terrific brews are New Sarum Session IPA, Sierra Nevada Trip to the Woods Bière de Garde, and the Wicked Weed/Jester King Collaboration Red Atrial Barrel Aged Sour with Raspberries!

You know we loves us some history, and this week our friends from New Sarum Brewing in Salisbury NC combine it with terrific beers! Our friends Edward Moscardini, brother Gian Moscardini, and their brewmaster Andy Maben join us at the bar to talk about their brewery, discuss the relation of the two Salisburys, and taste some awesome beers with us! Our lineup includes Hurley Park Blood Orange Wheat, Old Stone House IPA and the fourth quarter seasonal Horchata Milk Stout!

Can you believe it’s been almost a year since we visited Tim Reichert at Fainting Goat Brewing? Neither can we! They just celebrated their one-year anniversary so we head down to join the fun! Tim gives us the latest news from Fuquay-Varina, and we share a terrific sampler of Butthead Brown Ale, Dark Hoof Dunkelweizen, Brewquay Double IPA, and Red Ale with Serrano Habanero and Cacao Nibs!

Thanksgiving is all about traditions, and ours is having our foodie friend Kristen Baughman share awesome Thanksgiving and beer pairings! Kristen discusses her return to the Triangle and her terrific new venture, Tabletop Media Group! Then we get down to business with our pairings, featuring:

We are thankful for the news, well, some of it anyway! First up is the sad news via The New York Times that a Canadian brewery is cutting a retiree perk of free beer for life, followed by The Burlington Free Press featuring Jeff Baker's Thanksgiving beer picks, and then Fortune reporting that the maker of Corona is seeing its stock tumble after Trump’s victory. Next up via our friend Marvin Bahr is a story from Food and Wine revealing that Rodenbach is bringing its oldest and newest beers to America, then VinePair provides us a pair:  a study finding that a beer a day is good for your heart plus a primer on the difference between making beer, wine & spirits, and we wind up with ZDNET’s piece on researchers who claim a quantum computing breakthrough, and explain it using beer!

We score bigtime with the ultimate beer-food pairings this week - we have cheeses from France along with our craftbeers! Joining us are Charles Duke, the Director of the French Dairy Board of the Americas and his friends from some terrific French cheese producers: Dan Akhmetshin from Lactalis, Mathieu Quirin from Isigny Ste Mere, and Charlotte Rousseau from Savencia Fromage and Dairy! We talk about the great cheeses from France that are available in the US and get to pair many of them with outstanding craftbeers!

Coronado Snowy Plover with Le Chatelain Brie

Sierra Nevada Estate President with Sea Salt Butter

AleSmith Private Stock with Madrigal

Bear Republic Double Aught with Mimolette

Trinity One Ear with Brie d’Isigny

La Bonte Pear with Isigny Ste-Mère Butter

Blake’s Flannel Mouth with Île-de-France Brie

Olde Ruby Lager with Saint André Triple Crème

Rodenbach Grand Cru with Saint Agur Bleu

With the election so close, we kind of wish we were somewhere else til the ads stop, like say India, so we go all-IPA this week! We have awesome beers including Lawson’s Finest Liquids Super Session #2 IPA, Wicked Weed Metatropics Brett IPA, and two from Trinity: Passion Swing American Fruited IPA and Passion Red Swingline American Fruited IPA! Plus, Tony and Jenn take the Delorean to Winston-Salem, NC to chat with folks at the NC Craft Brewers’ Conference!

What a great time this week - it’s our first-ever costume party with Wil Cooper from Coronado Brewing! We are dressed up as our favorite hops, and Wil joins the fun - you will have to listen or check out our homepage or Facebook to find out which ones we are! Wil also brings along some special treats only available in San Diego at the Coronado brewpub: High Fideli-Tea Belgian Wit, Waste the Days IPA, Belgian Dark Strong, Rush of Hops IPA,  Snowy Plover Winter IPA, and Stupid Stout Imperial Stout!

Chip has to step out for a moment and Sasha and Mark Gibb, owners of Greensboro-based brewery Gibb’s Hundred stop by to talk to Jenn and Tony.  We learn the history behind the brewery and congratulate them on their recent GABF medal wins!   We are excited to sample the gold medal winning The Guilty Party ESB, and they also bring recent silver medal winner Medley of Moods Wheat.  Rounding out the samples is the taproom favorite Blind Man’s Holiday Greensboro Pale Ale.  

The craft beer news is all over the place this week! We begin with Marketwatch’s provocative opinion that New York cares more about craft beer than Portland, followed by The New York Times’ Monday Briefing featuring some beer history, then NBC reveals that coffee and beer win the Twitter food fight. Next up Treehugger shows us engineers in Colorado tapping beer for energy storage, then Adweek shows us a brewer who made the world's most expensive potato chips , CNBC profiles mad scientist brewers stirring up weird beers and we close with Eater reporting that a beer museum is coming to Pittsburgh!

Last week for the #caskquiz we asked “do you add any flavorings to your beer and if so what?” and for the next 2 weeks we want to see your Halloween/Samhain costume!

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Tony resisted long enough, so Jenn and Chip force the issue by bringing in some terrific fall brews from Fainting Goat, Compass Rose, Two Roads and a spectacular mead from Honeysuckle Meadery & Teahouse! We happily sampled the Fainting Goat Fluffernutter, Compass Rose Munich Masquerade, Two Roads Ok2berfest plus the awesome Honeysuckle Elderberry-Blueberry Blend Mead! And that’s not all: we have exclusive chats with some of our friends who were at GABF last week!

MegaMergerMania once again starts us up with the last story about the ABI takeover of SABMiller courtesy of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, followed by the announcement that Kirin is betting on the future of craft beer with a Brooklyn Brewery stake, via Bloomberg. Next up The Beaver County Times reveals a blood-red beer-special comic book collaboration brewing for Halloween (you knew Chip had to include that one!) then Grub Street reports that Starbucks is introducing a new drink that combines coffee and beer, Munchies believes your liver will thank you for drinking hoppy beers, and we wind up with The Times-Call News’ profile of a ‘beer archaeologist' who balances invention at Boulder's Avery Brewing with teaching at CU Boulder!

Since we recorded early last week we carried over the #caskquiz “how would a lower excise tax affect the #craftbeer industry? And this week we want to know “do you add any flavorings to your beer and if so what?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t

With Chip’s return from overseas, we decided to close the bar and kick back with some awesome taste treats from Anchor, Blake’s, and Alchemist! They are the Dry-Hopped Steam Beer, Apple Lantern, and Focal Banger!

MegaMergerMania leads the newstime via Eater reporting that the biggest beer merger in history gets a thumbs-up from shareholders, followed by a companion piece by OPB lamenting when small beers go big time. Next up The Denver Post discusses  The Great American Beer Festival turning 35, then VinePair asks why bars serve salty snacks with beer, Fast Company reveals that Vice Media is launching its very own beer, and we close with Beer Connoisseur on the art of coopering.

Since we recorded early this week we are carrying over last week’s #caskquiz was “how would a lower excise tax affect the #CraftBeer industry?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Show Notes for Episode 178 recorded on 09-28-16

Episode 178- Beverage Director Miki Bryant and California Beers

With Chip absent We take it on the road again in episode 178. We kick off a well rounded news segment with a shocking story of bipartisan cooperation benefiting the craft beer world. The Germans tell us how they really feel about American Craft beer in a piece from Quartz. Next, we visit The Drinks Business with a story on how a  European grocery chain is attempting to corner the ever changing millennial drinker. A new source, My Central Jersey.com has an interview with an app creater that just might make it easier for your to attain some of your favorite out of state brews!

This week we travelled to Chapel Hill to visit a destination that specializes in West Coast beers exclusively. We were lucky enough to catch an all new lineup of beers from California including Road To Helles from the Lost Abbey, Almanac’s great sour, White Label, and a brand new single hop pale ale from Bear Republic!

Last week’s #caskquiz was “who do you think invented the double IPA?” and this week we want you to tell us “how will a lower excise tax affect the craft beer industry?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

This week Chip finally gets to go on a road trip to Durham and we are joined by our friend Jenny Brinkman to celebrate Ballast Point’s 20th Anniversary with a killer lineup of special brews! Jenny tells us all about the birthday celebrations and her own recent nuptials, and then we share a powerhouse flight of beers: Cherry Wheat, Nitro Copper ESB, Schwarzbier, Commodore w/Raisin, Sour Wench, and a Double IPA!

More fun news is in the cards this week! First up is The BBC reporting that a glass of beer 'makes people more sociable', followed by Gizmodo revealing that now we know how beer foam stops all that sloshing and Science Daily’s story that music makes beer taste better! Next The New York Times show us a two-mile beer pipeline carring Belgium’s lifeblood to be bottled and we wind up with VinePair on the fact that beloved writer Jane Austen brewed beer!

Last week’s #caskquiz was “are you taking any beer-themed trips this fall and if so where?” and this week we want you to tell us “who do you think invented the double IPA?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We are working overtime to get Wicked Weed out there, and our buddy (and former co-worker!) Kyle Pederson is right there with us! Kyle talks about his history with our friends in Asheville, including how he wandered into the brewpub and how he ended up working for the brewery! Plus, he brings a special treat for us to try: Old Fashioned Barrel-Aged Ale!

The news stories are chocked-full of fun this week! Paste rates 55 Oktoberfest/Märzen beers, then The Denver Post relates how the Denver beer scene made a German beer connoisseur realize he didn’t know much after all, and The Federalist believes that pumpkin beer is super gross, just like Tony does! Next VinePair ranks the 7 best craft beer cities to see fall colors, Fast Company demonstrates how one college student got 3,000 strangers to Venmo him beer money, and we wind up with WFTS Tampa FL’s revealing that 'Hootie & the Blowfish' are celebrating their custom craft beer launch with special concert!

Last week’s #caskquiz was “do you think Oprah and Steadman should FINALLY tie the knot and if so what beer should they serve at the reception?” and this week we want you to tell us “are you taking any beer-themed trips this fall and if so where?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, Tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It took us years, and we finally did it - we got Charlie Clement, our VP of Chain Sales, to join the fun at the little bar! Charlie regales us with tales of olden times, when the horses still pulled the beer carts from town to town, and how things have evolved into the 21st Century craft beer world! Plus, we found a few more taste treats from the summer cellar as the season winds down, including Foothills Hop of the Month Azacca Golden Ale, Coronado Guava Islander IPA, and the Wicked Weed/Creature Comforts Collaboration Juiceless IPA!

Election/beer news is our lede this week via Politico asking can a beer keep Trump and Clinton honest? followed by Paste reporting that Brewdog plans to bottle a 55% beer in a taxidermy squirrel. Next up we have two from Thrillist featuring Britain and Ireland’s greatest contributions to beer and craft beer’s dark secrets, and we close up with The HuffPo unveiling the illusion of choice facing America’s craft beer lovers.

Last week’s #caskquiz was “should we have a hops-themed Halloween costume contest?” and this week we want you to tell us “do you think Oprah and Steadman should FINALLY tie the knot and if so what beer should they serve at the reception?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

In Chip’s absence We take this show on the road to the City of Durham to catch up with our old friend Ryan Trask of the newly minted Durty Bull Brewing Company. With our veteran news man away from his desk Jenn and Tony searched high and low to bring you stories about Texas Beer laws and the Constitution, A Bible Belt Beer Revival, Why it’s good to be a chemistry student in Maine. We also take it international with an inspiring story of the man who brought craft beer to Jerusalem. Did you know that San Diego’s own Stone Brewing is getting in the hotel game? We wrap with TWO listener submitted pieces detailing a blatant disregard for city statutes and brewing in Charleston and some more news regarding layoffs at a large NC brewery.

We needed some refreshment after such a robust news segment and Durty Bull was quick to provide just that with samples of their House Lager, Brettanomyces Table Beer and Rhubarb Berliner Weisse.

Last week for our #caskquiz we asked “Do you think Devils Backbone should have been banned from the VA event even though they are still independent for now?” And this week we want to know if you’d like to see a hop themed halloween episode with the tales cast?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Our friends at Lagunitas see all the Oktoberfest beers out right now and they say “summer is still here!” So they have some late-summer brews that we just had to try this week with our buddy Mike O: Stoopid Wit and Wilco Tango Foxtrot! Plus, they FINALLY have introduced a canned beer, 12th of Never! As they say on the can:

“And then at the very moment that the lands beyond the River Styx froze over, as the last pig took flight, as the last winged monkey departed the darkly fragrant netherlands, when wishes become horses and all of the beggars rode, when a moon rose newly blued on the morning of the 12th of never, and the second to last craft brewery in America pressed the green button on their canning line. We wanted be the Last Small Brewer in the U.S. to can their beer and maybe by now we are... “

As usual these days, we open with more MegaMergerManiaTM via The Washington Post reporting that amid its deal with Anheuser-Busch, Devils Backbone has been kicked out of its own festival. We follow with Plastics Today on innovative craft beer concentrate packaged in a thermoformed pack, then Bloomberg believes that American beer ain’t what it used to be thanks to European barley and SFGate goes old school (really old) with the East Bay beer that’s 45 million years old! We wrap up this week with VinePair’s suggestions for the ideal wine for every kind of beer lover and C|Net uses virtual reality to ask is beer better in Scotland?

Last week’s #caskquiz was “if your fave brewery were bought by a super megacorp, would you still drink the beer?” and this week we want you to tell us “do you think Devils Backbone should have been banned from the VA event even though they are still independent for now?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

The heat is really on outside, so our friend Chris Sorey joins us to escape it and we share some sweet relief from Colorado’s Trinity Brewing! Chris talks about the latest in the world of trademarks and beer, plus he has some fun stories of legal shenanigans! Then we have some of the best beers of the summer from Trinity: Elektrick Cukumbahh Saison d'Été, Menacing Strawberry Fresh Harvest Saison, and Red Swingline IPA Primitif!

We have so much craftbeer news this week! We start with The Daily Beast’s sky-is-falling piece on what they call craft beer’s looming crisis, followed by another example of why that might not be the case: yet one more MegaMergerManiaTM deal via The Dallas Observer who asks does it matter who owns Revolver Brewing? Next is Fast Company showing Sam Adams's secret weapon for winning back the American craft drinker, and then The Guardian reveals how the Soviets helped America’s craft beer revolution. With the Olympics going full-throttle, Thrillist tells us why you need to care about Brazil’s craft beer scene and we close with CBS News reporting on what beer has to do with mosquito bites?

Last week’s #caskquiz was “should we get a doorbell for the bar and what sound should it make?” and this week we want you to tell us “if your fave brewery were bought by a super megacorp, would you still drink the beer?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It’s finally here - our homebrew competition! We had 7 submissions from listeners and we sample them with special guest judges Leif Larson from Olde Hickory Brewing and internet craftbeer blogging sensation Bryan D. Roth! Who will come out on top?

Before the judging, we have your news! First up is VinePair listing the five egregious beer habits you need to stop right now, followed by Geek showing us a smart glass that earns you free beer. Next we have a terrific in-depth piece by Paste called Let's Talk Beer Styles: IPA, and we close up with Eater (LA) calling an LA craftbeer hotline that’s both hilarious and informative!

Last week’s #caskquiz was “is craftbeer getting too expensive ?” and this week we want you to tell us “should get a doorbell for the bar and what sound should it make?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We have been hearing a lot from the San Diego area lately!  Chip has returned from a week in the area as well as our very own NC rep Wil Cooper!  They both fill us in on the latest from Coronado Island and we get to try some limited brews along with a new canned beer Easy Up Pale Ale!  Wil tells us the unique story behind Frog’s Breath IPA and we round out the tasting portion with the Hibiscus IPA.

We kick off the news segment with some Mega Merger Mania as MillerCoors has recently gotten into the game acquiring both Terrapin and Hop Valley Brewing in the same week! We continue our calorie counting coverage with the top ten lists for highest and lowest calorie beers.  On the pricing front, we discuss an unfair taxation strategy that was proposed in Canada and ponder if craft beer is becoming too expensive.  We’ve also got the must try list for this summer’s most popular beer style-Gose!

Last week for our #caskquiz we asked:  “What is your Heady Topper Story?  Where were you when you first tried it?”

This week we want to know: “Is craft beer getting too expensive?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing us at talesfromthecask@gmail.com.

Episode 169- Bryan D Roth

With Chip away We visit with old friend and contributor Bryan Roth as he tells us tales of his recent visit to Europe and gives us the latest news from This is Why I’m Drunk.   He brings us a beer from his and Tony’s homeland, Ithaca’s Flower Power, plus we continue our journey with Port Brewing and Lost Abbey as we sample Mongo, Shark Attack, Serpent Stout and Judgement Day.  

The news is running wild this week as we tell our listeners how to apply for a craft beer historian position at the Smithsonian, get some updates on hops research, and get into a malt liquor throwdown! Plus a man who left his clothes to hold his tab at a bar.   We also discuss several breweries’ sustainability practices and throw in a comic con story for Chip!

Last week for our #caskquiz we continued our Tales competition for the best Hoppy Beer Name!  This week we want to know: “What is your Heady Topper Story?  Where were you when you first tried it?”

The summer sun is blazing so we invited our friend John Beal from the snowy north to cool us down with some delicious ciders!  We get the latest scoop on what’s happening at  Blake’s Cider Co. and sample a few new offerings from the orchard.  Wakefire and Aurora are perfect for a hot summer day and we managed to hang on to an El Chapo and Sante to share with our listeners as well!

Our news segment starts off with some sci-fi themed stories including the new Star Trek beer and a line of beers brewed by Robots! We also cover the top health stories of the day and learn how you can use beer for shampoo plus the recommendations for drinking beer with diabetes.  Rounding out the news we hear what the millennials are up to and their tastes in beer.  

Last week for our #caskquiz we announced a Tales competition for the best Hoppy Beer Name!  We are continuing this for another week so send in your submissions!

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing us at talesfromthecask@gmail.com.  

Not every brewer has the patience and talent to lead with lagers, and we lucked out this week with one who does it so well -  Kyle Williams from Brevard Brewing! Kyle talks with us about his background, the founding of his brewery, and has some terrific brews for us: American Premium Lager, flagship Bohemian Pilsner, and Munich Dunkel!

Is all the craftbeer news financial this week or what? Just look at the sources! First up Reuters reports that big brewers see strong potential for weak beer, followed by Fortune shows us big brewers are adding calorie counts to their labels and MarketWatch tells us that craftbeer brewers are copying the tasting-room experience of wineries. Next Forbes reveals the cheapest time to buy beer, wine and everything else and we close with The Wall Street Journal’s piece on craft brewers brawling over catchy names as puns run dry.

Last week’s #caskquiz was “what’s your ice cream and craftbeer pairing?” and this week we want you to create your own catchy craft beer name - there’s a prize for the best one!

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It’s 4th of July week, so we close the bar and open some rare treats from AleSmith and Coronado, plus an incredible collaboration brew from The Lost Abbey & Wicked Weed! AleSmith sent us some of the marvelous San Diego Pale Ale .394, plus we have the audacious Coronado 20th Anniversary Imperial IPA, and for dessert there is the Lost Abbey/Wicked Weed Collaboration Golden Sour Ad Idem!

You might think things would be quiet news-wise for the holiday, and you would be wrong! MegaMergerManiaTM continues via Reuters reporting that China Resources Beer plans a $1.2 billion rights issue to buy SABMiller's JV stake in Snow. We follow that with a cool listing by Thrillist of the best vacation destinations in America for beer lovers and then The Sacramento Bee believes that with craft beer, bottles are more popular, but the future is with cans. Next up The The LA Times has a cool infographic showing the best ways to use beer and ice cream to keep cool this summer, Adweek reveals Singapore's Tiger Beer opened a mysterious store on New York City’s Canal Street, then VinePair shows us a neat chart of the flavors & aromas in craft beer’s popular hops, and we wind down this week with NBC reporting that a bear downed 36 beers and passed out at a campground!

Last week’s #caskquiz was “do you listen to the show at a speed other than 1x and if so which one?” and this week we want to know “what’s your ice cream and craftbeer pairing?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We lucked out with two guests for the price of one this week getting both our friend Thomas Vincent from Compass Rose Brewery and his buddy meadmaker Ben Starr from Starrlight Mead! We hear the latest from Thomas and then learn all about the incredible mead scene in Pittsboro, NC from Ben! Plus we get to try some stellar meads: Traditional Off-Dry, Traditional Semi-Sweet, Sourwood and the really cool Mead-a-Rita. We then have the awesome collaboration Braggot Double Rye Brown, and at the end Thomas lets us try his delicious Tartty!

Once again the news is overwhelming! MegaMergerManiaTM leads us off with two items - Bring Me the News reports that Minnesota Senator Klobuchar continues her push to protect craft beer choices, while The Chicago Tribune reveals that Lagunitas is buying a stake in three smaller brewers and that founder Tony Magee isn't done! Next up Mashable demonstrates BrewArt, an automated brewing system that's like the Nespresso of beer followed by The Lansing State Journal’s piece on MSU’s century-old barley which has been revived to make Michigan beer, then The HuffPo UK shows us men recreating maternity photos in German beer ads, and we close with Science Alert discovering a 5,000-year-old artifact showing ancient workers were paid in beer!

Last week’s #caskquiz was “who will release the first pumpkin/fall beer and when?” and this week we want to know “do you listen to the show at a speed other than 1x and if so which one?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It’s getting to be summertime in the sunny lands, and we have the hottest beers this week from Sand Creek, Lagunitas and AleSmith! It’s just the three of us kicking back, and we are lucky to have Sand Creek Badger Porter (thanks Dan!), Lagunitas Aunt Sally Sweet Tart Sour Mash Ale, and the amazing AleSmith Private Stock Ale!

There is quite an eclectic blend of news this week beginning with The Motley Fool telling you don't believe the hype. craft beer isn't dying, followed by The NY Post reporting that someone stole over 3,000 cases of beer from Sweetwater Brewing, and then NBC offers why the Brexit vote is no small beer for British businesses. Next is The HuffPo asking is British Columbia Canada’s saving grace for craft beer?, then The Harris Poll observes that craft brew drinkers find balance in healthy habits and Adweek proclaims drink beer, save the world! We close up with Isthmus judging a beer by its label, Atlas Obscura revealing that Iowa City is using lasers to map its abandoned beer caves, and finally The Farmington Voice says that a local brewery is creating a CREEM Magazine tribute craft beer!

Last week’s #caskquiz was “do you read our show notes and does it influence whether you listen?” and this week we ask “who will release the first pumpkin/fall beer and when?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We have a thing never seen in North Carolina this week...beers from The Lost Abbey! We begged, borrowed and cajoled all our Southern California contacts and voila! Awesomeness for the palate! This wonderful lineup includes Avant Garde Ale, a Biere de Garde; Carnivale Ale, a Saison; and Lost and Found Abbey Ale, a Dubbel!

What a week for news! We begin with CNBC’s report on a brewer mocking Donald Trump with 'Dumb Donald' beer, followed by Maxim revealing that the world’s perfect beer glass is made of science, and then Fox32 Chicago’s question would Chicago be the city it is today without beer? We close with SFGate’s look at the craft beer revolution brewing in Paris and another story from CNBC on 3 essential business growth lessons from the craft beer boom.

Last week’s #caskquiz was “do you check the freshness of your craft beer?” while this week we get personal and ask “do you read our show notes and does it influence whether you listen?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

The triumphant triumvirate are all back together this week, and just in time for our friends Matt Laibson and Jenny Meyer from Ballast Point! Matt is the brewery’s Field Quality Analyst and he tells us about his job, how he got started with Ballast Point, and what to look for to make sure you get the beer the way brewers want you to experience it! Plus we taste some fine San Diego brews and canned cocktails: from the BP distillery, Old Grove Gin and Tonic and Three Sheets Rum and Cola, and from the brewery Mango Even Keel Session IPA and Pineapple Sculpin IPA!

A wonderful plethora of news goodies awaits this week! We start with Vox revealing edible beer rings that may help protect marine life, followed by Nerdist on the Mortal Kombat-inspired beers coming to the netherrealm of your fridge, and there’s the lastest MegaMergerManiaTM story from Nasdaq answering whether you should invest in the big AB-InBev SABMiller merger. Next up we have VICE Munchies’ opinion on why you should be drinking your beer in season, and then Fortune showing that Belgian brewers have released dozens of beer Emoji, followed by Tulsa World cheering that Oklahoma voters will decide on modernizing alcohol laws, and we wind up with WKYC making Ohioans glad as Governor Kasich has signed a bill eliminating the alcohol limit on craft beer.

Last week’s #caskquiz was “what’s your favorite hometown IPA?” while this week we want to know “do you check the freshness of your craft beer?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It’s unofficially summer and we are set up in Nature’s Living Room in Durham with our good friend Scott Mizerak.  We discuss his new role as the Regional Sales Manager for Foothills Brewing and what it is like to be the boss!  We get the latest scoop on expansion at the brewery and their distribution footprint and of course drink some tasty brews.  This week we have fresh Hop Job, as well as the Polaris Pilsner and Mosaic IPA from the Hop of the Month series.

Our listeners helped us out with some great news items this week!  We got submissions from former guests and our producer.  We announce the top IPAs by state according to ratebeer.com, play an online beer brewing and selling game, and give college grads some new beer options for the real world.  We also learn how you can be part of choosing an officially licensed LSU beer and discuss SodaStream’s latest gadget that brews beer in seconds!

Last week for our #caskquiz we asked “should there be a beer marketed just to women?” And this week we want to know “what’s your favorite hometown IPA?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Jenn took off for a well-earned vacation so Tony and Chip needed two people to fill her shoes - good friend Sami Prentice from Wicked Weed and beer aficionado Scott Richardson! Sami talks about the latest from Asheville and brings four incredible beers for us to try: Tropicmost Passion Fruit Gose, Garcon de Ferme Farmhouse Ale with Peaches, Recurrant American Sour Ale, and Marina American Sour Ale!

Too much news out there to choose from? Not for us! We begin with WTVR reporting that Ballast Point Brewing is joining Va.’s craft beer roster, while in MegaMergerMania news Mother Jones reminds us that corporate beer overlords will soon own 1 out of every 3 beers made on Earth. Next up Food & Wine asks has the craft beer movement finally gone too far? while Seattle Weekly provides a handy drinking dictionary, and Gamespot reveals that Overwatch's Hit Marker sound effect comes from beer. We have two from Fox News: a report that whale vomit beer could be the next big thing and the question of whether women really need a beer made just for them, and we close with The Guardian on a cask from the past: archaeologists have discovered a 5,000-year-old beer recipe.

Last week’s #caskquiz was “what American and what import summer beers are you most looking forward to trying?”  while this week we want to know “do you think that brewers should make beer just for women?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We cannot stay in the little bar lately, and with Tony out selling, Jenn and Chip sneak over to redacted with fan fave co-host Aubrey Herbert from Sierra Nevada! Aubrey brings along a flight of the beers featured in the 2016 Beer Camp Across America: Sweet Sunny South Southern Table Beer, Moxee Moron Imperial Session IPA, Pat-Rye-Ot Revolutionary Pale Ale, West Latitude Session Rye with Hibiscus, Family Values Imperial Brown Ale with Cocoa, and Stout of the Union Robust Stout!

As usual, the beer news is all over the world! We start with VinePair reporting that the Venezuelan president has ordered brewers to make beer or go to jail, followed by Forbes with a cool story about the small brew taking on Budweiser, Miller and Coors, and then Bloomberg offering the 12 best beers for summer. Next up we have Fox News showing a craft brewery trolling Budweiser’s “America” beer with ‘Murica brew, then CNBC asking has craft beer lost its flavor to globalization? while The USA Today showcases the new cruise ship that has its own brewery! We end with The Boston Globe on the rise of the beer snob and finally Mirror talks about the pizza chain launching beer pizzas made from craft ales and lagers - but only in one UK branch!

Last week’s #caskquiz was “what do you think about Budweiser becoming America?” while this week we want to know “what American and what import summer beers are you most looking forward to trying?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Our intrepid travelin’ man Dan B recently stopped by the bar offering delights via the mighty beer state of Wisconsin from New Glarus, Central Waters, and South Shore! The wonderful brews are New Glarus Dancing Man Wheat, Central Waters Glacial Trail IPA, South Shore Rhoades’ Scholar Stout, and we finish up with New Glarus Milk Stout! Thanks Dan!

The beer news isn’t just about craft this week! We start with ‘Merica, and specifically The NY Times as Budweiser rebrands itself ‘America’, and this goes nicely with a companion piece in The Wall Street Journal revealing that German retailers have been fined $103 Million for fixing beer prices with AB-InBev’s help. After that we go electoral with The Atlantic offering politicians and America’s new beer test, followed by Eater reporting a new craft beer will benefit victims of the Paris terror attacks, then 9News shows how a CSU professor is revolutionizing the beer industry, The USA Today says that the Stone Brewing co-founder has announced a new craft beer angel investor, and we close with The Great Falls Tribune’s fungus beer?! No, really.

Last week’s #caskquiz was “what has been your fave beer festival?” while this week we want to know “what do you think about Budweiser becoming America?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Everyone returns to the bar to meet our good friend Glen Selby who brings tons of laughs and the latest from DuClaw Brewing! Glen fills us in on all the doings in Baltimore, expansion plans for the brewery, and has some tasty brews for us to try: Morgazm Grapefruit Blonde Ale, Funk Blueberry Citrus Wheat Ale, and the astounding Blood Orange Neon Gypsy IPA!

Newstime presents a feast of craft beer news! First up is The Daily Meal with what’s sure to be a controversial list of the most popular beer by state, followed by The Wall Street Journal reporting that beer has become the latest scarcity in Venezuela, and Discovery News on turning fog into beer in the world's driest desert. Next UPI show us an Australian brewery that is creating beer using yeast from belly button lint, then Forbes follows breweries taking their shows on the road and we wind up with The Boston Globe’s profile of the venture capital firm that has become a big player in the craft beer business.

Last week’s #caskquiz was “what’s your favorite hop name?” while this week we want to know “what has been your fave beer festival?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We enjoyed the road so much last week, we decided hit it again and found ourselves with our friend Thomas Vincent, the founder of Compass Rose Brewery! With Tony away Thomas agreed to both co-host the show and share outstanding taste treats as well! We talk about the brewery and sample five brews including Wheelhouse IPA, Agave Cream Ale, Hefeweizen, Irish Lager, and Coffee Porter!

Newstime was filled with craft beer goodies! In the UK The Guardian asks is it closing time for the Campaign for Real Ale? while Bon Appetit tried the weirdest new beers out there. Next we finally read you the Reinheitsgebot and report from The LA Times how the law has kept German beers pure for 500 years but that might not be enough to save them, while  Fortune reveals how that law still controls the global beer industry. We follow with Men’s Journal’s question is Guinness craft beer? and another MegaMergerMania! exclusive from MarketWatch observing that the deal that shook craft beer five years ago is still reverberating, and we close with LA Eater on a hoax craft beer newcomer serving up insults online.

Since we recorded so early this week we are continuing last week’s #caskquiz was “What’s your fave hop name?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

Crank Arm Brewing Company - bikes, rickshaws, and beer! Sign us up! This week we head to downtown Raleigh and share some great brews with Adam Eckhardt, the co-owner and co-founder of Crank Arm! He shares the story of the brewery’s origins and how he decided to get into the beer biz. Then we get to sample awesome beers: Uphill Climb Belgian Blonde, Unicycle Single Hop Pale Ale, and the deliciously decadent Trail Bandit Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout!

Once again we had mega beer news to choose from! The Chicago Sun-Times interviews Sam Adams creator Jim Koch on his new book, followed by The San Diego Reader reporting that Mikkeller is now bringing a world of craft beer to San Diego, and then Breaking Israel News shows us a beer from the time of Jesus. It wouldn’t be a news week without MegaMergerMania!TM and Bloomberg delivers AB InBev accepting Asahi’s offer to buy the Grolsch, Peroni and Meantime Beer Brands, then Bloomberg reveals why German craft brewers won't play by Germany's 500-year-old rules, Medical News Today shows us that a beer compound decreases weight gain and lowers cholesterol, and we wind up with Oddity Central on a Russian man’s beer pipeline that runs straight to a his kitchen!

Last week’s #caskquiz was “How likely are you to buy a pint and shop in grocery stores with growler stations?” This week we want to know “What’s your fave hop name?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It took weeks of cajoling and some pregame beering, and it worked to get our friend Travis “Trevor” Hardee to join us! He talks about his career in the beer world, what his job entails, and how many stores set up their beer sections. Then we try classic brews from Starpoint, Wicked Weed, and Lagunitas: Hipster Hobo, Labonte Pear, and Waldo!

A plethora of beer newsness awaits this week, starting with yet another installment of our ongoing series MegaMergerMania! The Richmond Times-Dispatch brings news that the sale of Devils Backbone Brewing Company to AB InBev elicits praise and sadness. Then, the weather via The Weather Channel forecasting last year’s heat wave may drive up craft beer prices, followed by Forbes Asia on the frontier of beer in Vietnam, and in the UK The Publican’s Morning Advertiser says that craft beer must gain better access to pubs to see US-style success. Finally, we head into Space.com with a heads up for beer lovers revealing that Mars tech could brew better bubbles and then Deutsche Welle tells us why Jews replaced wine with beer in Bavaria.

Last week’s #caskquiz was “Is it a ‘cop-out’ for a brewery to brew a year-round beer but change hops per batch depending on what is available?” This week we want to know “How likely are you to buy a pint and shop in grocery stores with growler stations?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

It’s a relaxy week at the bar, and so we are going to the West Coast for our beers! Well, not technically going there, but you know what we mean! It’s an all-A week too, with Anchor Mango Wheat, Almanac Citra Sour and the amazing Alaskan Smoked Porter!

The news is global from craft beer! First of all we have rankings: The BA released their 2015 Brewery Rankings! Then we follow with The Indianapolis Business Journal’s story on a an IU biochemist helping craft brewers overcome costly challenges, then Crux’s revelation that Benedictine brewer-monks say beer, like God, just makes life better, and The LA Times reporting Carnival's largest cruise ship will brew its own on-board craft beers. Then The Guardian tells us that Wales and London's craft beer scenes continue to thrive, while the  CBC shows that 'Stout' friendships exist between craft brewing rivals, and Herald Scotland says that a Scottish craft brewer is launching the 'world's first spreadable beer'. Finally we have The San Diego Union-Tribune on the fact that Ballast Point Sculpin is leading San Diego craft beers to a robust year and The Economic Times India about Mango lager and India's thirst for craft beer.

Last week’s #caskquiz was “where do you buy your ingredients for home brewing?” And this week we are asking (via our friend @choverstad) “Is it a ‘cop-out’ for a brewery to brew a year-round beer but change hops per batch depending on what is available?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

This week we chat with Dan Gridley, the owner of Farm Boy Farms in Pittsboro, NC about growing the hops, barley, rye, etc. that are used to create beer. Local is huge now, and that goes for beer ingredients too! Dan sells to NC breweries so that they can source their raw materials close by. We also try Starpoint Top Knot, Wicked Weed Dark Age, and a very special beer: Tony made an IPA!

Culling the news was a challenge for sure! Good news starts off for craft beer sales via The Pittsburgh Tribune reporting that craft beer continues to grow, while The Morning Advertiser (UK) notes UK imports of US craft beer are up. Next Forbes posits that private equity in the craft beer market spells upheaval within a decade, followed by Quartz revealing why startup beer brewers are skipping stores and selling directly to locals and Munchies with a shocking story about a Nazi-themed German beer. We wind up with MassLive comparing the craft beer community to early indie rock and The Cincinnati Business Courier showing Cincinnati’s newest bar will price beer like stocks.

We extended the #caskquiz where we asked “what signs have you seen someone show that they are a craft beer bore?” while this week we want to ask all homebrewers “where to you buy your ingredients for brewing?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram or friending on Untappd @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

After all the draft system fun last week, we decided to unwind with some new fave brews from some old fave breweries! This week we have Olde Hickory Weizenbock, Lagunitas Undercover Shutdown, and the astounding collaboration from Coronado/Bear Republic called Merbear Rye IPA!

Craft beer news is all over the place this week! First up is The Denver Post on craft beer competitors who collaborate, followed by Medical Daily revealing that hops may soon be a key ingredient in antibacterial medications, and then YouGov Brand Index naming St Patrick's Day’s top beer for 2016. We finish up with 2 from Fortune: the surprising inspiration behind Dogfish Head beer and the 5 most loved beers for St. Patrick's Day!

We recorded early this week so we are extending last week’s #caskquiz where we asked “what signs have you seen someone show that they are a craft beer bore?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Untappd or Instagram @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We turn 150 this week and celebrate with Jennifer Hauke, Principal of DraftLine Technologies! We had a really great time talking about Jennifer’s family history in Detroit with draft line cleaning, the evolution of her company, and the development of its great new system for tracking draft line cleanliness called SmartSystem! And since no party is complete without sampling taste treats, we go Californian and sample Anchor Meyer Lemon Lager, Ballast Point Watermelon Dorado, and Coronado Barrel Aged Stupid Stout!

We really had to cull the beer news for you! We lead with another installment of MegaMergerManiaTM courtesy of The Tampa Bay Times reporting that Tampa's Cigar City Brewing sold to a venture capital firm, followed by Market Watch positing that craft beer is now drowning in brands and products, and then Chemical & Engineering News revealing both that alcohol-free beer may boost breast milk supply and that a new enzyme strips brews of buttery notes. We finish up with Metro offering 14 signs you’re becoming a craft beer bore and The Guardian on the Californian craft beer brewed from wastewater.

Last week for our #caskquiz we asked “what quaffling tricks have you practiced? in moderation!!” And this week we want to know what signs have you seen someone show that they are a craft beer bore?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

March Madness is here along with Springtime weather so Jenn and Tony take the show on the road in another action packed episode!  We manage to report on quite a bit of news while enjoying some tournament basketball and discuss another take on hemp seed beer, report the latest on small batch malt farms and learn about our new favorite pastime: gelande quaffing!  The year is well under way but there are still Top 10 lists being released, plus we go back to Harvard to see how MBA students run a virtual brewery and hear about another beer spa!

While we are out at an undisclosed location we meet up with Keith Klemp, All About Beer contributor and longtime supporter of the craft beer movement.  Keith has been a part of the beer scene in several states and we learn all about his adventures!  Of course we enjoy some great brews and this week we have a brand new offering from Wicked Weed and Jester King, Parking Lot! Rounding out the mix Keith contributes New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red and we enjoy the latest from Foothills Hop of the Month Series, Topaz American Pale Ale.

Last week for our #caskquiz we asked “what’s your take on using sexuality in craft beer?” while this week we want to know “what quaffing tricks have you practiced?  In moderation of course!”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We have a crowd in the bar this week, and they are ready to taste stupendous beers from Creature Comforts Brewing out of Athens, GA! We were able to get ahold of three brews: Athena Berliner Weisse, Tropicalia IPA, and the Koko Buni Milk Porter!

Some weeks there’s way too much news, and this is one of them! First up is The New York Times reporting that a Chinese brewer has made an offer to buy SABMiller’s stake in CR Snow, followed by The Boston Globe revealing that a Massachusetts beer distributor will pay a $2.6 million fine in a pay-to-play case, and then Quora asking why were some styles of beer called dry beer when all beer contains a lot of water? Next we have The Daily Star (UK) spotlighting a beer with as much protein as a sirloin steak, Eater’s tale of how sweet, boozy root beer found an audience among men, and Reuters on German beer purity being in question after an environmental group finds weed-killer traces. We close up with another from The New York Times showing that in Singapore there is craft beer where you’d least expect it and Paste with a provocative piece on sexuality in craft beer.

Last week for our #caskquiz we asked “what distillery would you like to see use beer barrels?” while this week we want to know “what’s your take on using sexuality to sell craft beer?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We have such a special treat this week - Wicked Weed is in the house, and Justin Crouch is tasting with us! Justin tells us about the brewery’s origins, how he got into the beer business, and brings along some super beers for us to sample: El Paraiso Imperial Coffee Stout, Pernicious IPA, Freak of Nature Double IPA and La Bonte with Plum.

Next up is the news! Fortune starts us off telling us how big beer is trying to take over San Diego, followed by The Washington Post’s opinion that the ‘Mad Men’ era of drinking is upon us and then The Wall Street Journal reports on expats stirring up the Vietnamese beer scene. Next The Daily Beast shows us that when a specialty craft beer is released, beer geeks can go crazy, and Los Angeles Magazine reveals Jameson whiskey wants to be craft beer.

Last week for our #caskquiz we asked “what’s your favorite animal-named beer?” while this week we want to know “what distillery would you like to see use beer barrels?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

After being cooped up in our icy prison for the past few weeks, the sun returned and we high-tailed it to Durham for a tasty time with Keil Jansen the brewmaster from Ponysaurus Brewing! We had a blast talking with him about the brewery and he shared two of their amazing brews: the Belgian Pale Ale and the India Pale Ale!

There was so much news this week we could barely squeeze it all in! We begin with Paste on Peyton Manning’s (hypothetical) evolution into craft beer, followed by the Washington Beer Blog offering advice to help if you want to work at a brewery and then Masslive’s Beer Nut reveals 5 fallacies about craft beer. Next up is Quartz via our friend @sfringer reporting that a new McDonald’s in South Korea will serve draft beer and we finish up with AOL telling us that  a town in Slovenia is getting its own building public beer fountain!

Last week for our #caskquiz we asked “should we still keep calling it craft beer now that there are so many definitions of the term?” And this week we want to know “what’s your favorite animal-named beer?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!

We couldn’t get enough of each other again this week so we’re without a guest but sticking to the original recipe with Chip, Tony and Jenn. In one of the most robust news segments of all time We couldn’t resist giving ourselves a pat on the back for being named one of the Top 50 Disruptors in Beverage World Magazine!  As expected, the Super Bowl had another controversial Budweiser Ad  and the designation of Craft Beer is again questioned.  We enter the future with a computer generated beer recipe and discuss the latest trends in hops with female industry leaders.  We can’t forget to include the latest in Mega Merger Mania with new player Asahi eyeing a couple of  brands belonging to  SABMiller.  Want to sound like a beer nerd?  We discuss the terms you need to know. If you are planning a beer related vacation there is a must visit destination near Dogfish Head!  Untapped is upping its game with new features catered towards the craft beer drinker and we explore another beer and health piece on why you should be drinking beer after your workout.  

We are never short of new and exciting beers to sample on the show and this week we have a real treat with Foothills latest Hop of the Month, Anchor’s Barrel Ale and Peppermint Victory at Sea!

Last week for our #caskquiz we asked “What’s your NC vs. CO beer matchup and who wins?”” and this week we are asking “Should we keep calling it craft beer now that there are so many definitions of the term?”

We love hearing from you! Please send in feedback and beer suggestions by calling us at (919) 502-0280, tweeting us @talescask, following our Instagram @talesfromthecask, posting on and liking our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheCask or emailing written or audio messages to talesfromthecask@gmail.com! And please rate & review us in iTunes or Stitcher if you haven’t done so!