As we unwind after our Thanksgiving feasts, we kick back and relax in the bar with some wonderful seasonal cheer courtesy of our friends from Anchor, Foothills, and Lagunitas! We sample three taste treats: Anchor Christmas 2018, Foothills BA Sexual Chocolate with Coffee, and Lagunitas Willetized Coffee Stout!

The news begins this week with a cool piece from Business Insider featuring our friends (and previous guests) Jen and Wendy Yuengling, who share an inside joke that completely explains their business philosophy! Next up is CNBC sharing an invention that keeps bottled beer cold, did $1M in sales in 10 days, and scored a million-dollar deal on 'Shark Tank', followed by The St. Louis Business Journal reporting that Phyllis Schlafly's heirs have lost their trademark appeal over a St. Louis craft brewery's name. We wind down with artsy showing craft breweries who are tapping artists to turn labels into works of art and The USA Today revealing that more than 1,000 breweries have answered Sierra Nevada's call for Camp Fire relief beer! Wow!

Last week’s news about cannabis drove the #caskquiz asking “does seeing a politician drinking a beer make you like them more? Or do you think he or she is just trying to get drinkers’ votes?” This week we want to know “are you going to try to find some of the Sierra Nevada 1000+ brewery collaboration brew Resilience Butte County Proud IPA? How about brewing some?”

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 great year we are having with our friends from Wicked Weed! Our buddy (and brewery sales guru) Justin Crouch stops in to chat, and he brings along a large group of friends to dish on all the lastest from Asheville! Plus he has a couple of timely treats: Dark Age with Coffee and a mystery beer that will be coming out early in 2019!

For Thanksgiving week we have more fun news than we have seen in quite some time! We begin with Extra Crispy revealing why so many brands are getting into beer now, followed by WTOP spotlighting a new exhibit at Heurich House that taps into DC’s history through beer. Next up is a terrific announcement on Facebook (thanks sfringer & evanrnhall!) by Sierra Nevada about their special Resilience Butte County Proud IPA, which has 100% of sales proceeds going to help victims of the Camp Fire conflagration in northern California. Then we go south to Los Angeles Magazine’s musical piece on how a local brewery created a beer worthy of the L.A. Phil’s centennial season, and we close the week with Denver Westword reporting that Colorado Governor Hickenlooper may be leaving office, but the Governor's Mansion beer taps will stay!

Last week’s news about cannabis drove the #caskquiz asking “are you interested in trying a non-alcohol cannabis “beer”? Would you make it part of your rotation? How about alcohol/cannabis beer?” This week we want to know “does seeing a politician drinking a beer make you like them more? Or do you think he or she is just trying to get drinkers’ votes?”

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 got a mead tease from the folks at Honeysuckle Meadery way back in Episode 180 (!), and now mead masters William Costen and Erik Lensch invite us over for a visit and a sampling! The guys share the story of the meadery’s journey thus far, and then we have six incredible meads to try: Elderberry and Elderflower, Blueberry Jam, PawPaw Patch, Midnight Bramble, Raspberry Jam, and the astounding Peanut Butter and Jelly!

As he often does, Chip starts the news out slow and low and builds to a final crescendo! He begins with Bloomberg and the global climate change-related news that your craft beer is about to get more expensive. Next The Twin Cities Pioneer Press reveals the sad news that Great Waters Brewing Co. in St. Paul is closing. Then VinePair (thanks sfringer!) has specious “news” claiming that ​​​​​​​a new AB-InBev video says that ‘craft beer’ will be gone in two years (here come the trolls!), followed by Colorado Public Radio’s opinions that craft beer is finding it harder to stay king of the mountain in Colorado. We close the week with The USA Today’s profile of Blue Moon's founding brewer who is popping the top on a pot-infused beer and Paste’s terrific news that the economic impact of San Diego craft beer has passed the $1 billion threshold!

Apparently everyone was sick of the U.S. election cycle, so we had limited responses to last week’s #caskquiz asking if you were celebrating the election results or drowning your sorrows. This week we are curious to hear if you interested in trying a non-alcohol cannabis “beer”? Would you make it part of your rotation? How about alcohol/cannabis 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 can’t believe it’s been so long since our buddy Wil Cooper from Coronado Brewing joined us in the bar! Wil tells us what he has been up to, and lets us know about the latest and greatest from southern California! And as always he brings along terrific brews: Weekend Vibes IPA, Never Better DIPA, Early Bird Cold Brew Milk Stout, and Coronado’s classic first collaboration (with Libertine Brewing) Shared Waters Sour Blonde Ale!

It’s a financial set of news sources, but don’t worry - there isn’t much finance to worry with! We begin with a couple of stories from Forbes - first up we learn that American craft beer is being inspired by Japanese sake, and then we pivot to find that a new Denver brewery is the world's first devoted to grapes and oenobeers! Next The Chicago Tribune reveals that ​as craft beer sales slow, Two Brothers and other brewers are launching into spirits, while Fortune reports that the BA’s definition of craft brewing may change. Again! We close up the newstime via the dictionary and Merriam-Webster’s list from 'ale' to 'zymurgy' or 8 words about beer!

For last week’s #caskquiz we wanted to know your preference for bottle tops: screw-cap or pop-top? This week we are curious if you were celebrating the election results or drowning your sorrows, and what were you drinking?

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 Halloween and we are on the road to celebrate Samhain with our friends Patrick Woodson and Roxanne Bellamy at a wonderful place to trick or treat: Brewery Bhavana! Patrick tells us all about the awesome brews he is concocting, and Roxanne lets us in on all the latest buzz-worthy news and events at the brewery! Then we share some astonishingly great treats including Pulp IPA, Cart IPA, Bounty 2018, Patina Dark, and Cellar Door No. 3!

Repudiating the thread from last week’s news, we begin this week with a wonderful profile via VinePair on Carol Stoudt from Stoudt’s Brewing, aka ‘The Mother Of Craft Beer’, showing that women in beer are a powerful force. Next we have The Takeout asking Kate “why don’t all beer bottles have screw caps?” We follow that with Food & WIne (thanks @foolintherain!) with what seems like a weekly appearance by BrewDog, and their announcement of the ‘World’s First Craft Beer Airline’. We close the week out with The Growler detailing the evolution of brewing tech and innovations that have redefined beer in the modern age, and local news about Red Hat, IBM and craft beer from ZDNet, who talks software and beer and what open source and craft brewing have in common.

For last week’s #caskquiz we wanted to hear your take on the lead news story regarding the shutdown of the women-only beer forum: was it justified and should they have had to pay? This week we want to know your preference for bottle tops: screw-cap or pop-top?

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!