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!