Gabriel Magliaro brought Half Acre Beer Company to life in a spare Chicago bedroom in 2006. After originally utilizing a contract brewer in Wisconsin, he worked his way up to his own building, which houses their brewery in addition to a taproom where they “can host the people who want to hoist our beers.” Located in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood, they now count themselves as one of Chicago’s most popular breweries

Firestone Walker began as a small brewery with roots in the wine country on California’s Central Coast.  They are now an internationally acclaimed, award-winning craft brewery with a singular purpose – to craft the world’s best beers.  Firestone Walker was founded in 1996 by Adam Firestone and his brother-in-law David Walker. Mr. Walker kindly agreed to let us interview him and we repaid his kindness by asking him…5 STUPID QUESTIONS.

There are two things that I really love (aside from family, blah blah blah): beer and sports. And the one thing that has always made me happy during baseball season is drinking a wonderfully flavor-filled hoppy beverage at the stadium. So, when I heard that the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Class-A team was moving to Hillsboro, Oregon and being renamed “Hops”, I had to reach out.

Popping up in the Braddock neighborhood of Pittsburgh is the Steel City’s newest brewery, The Brew Gentlemen Beer Company. Recently I took the short trip to Braddock to check out the operation and was a little surprised by what I found.

Back at the Washington Brewer’s Festival, we ran into Kevin Johnson and his crew at Growler on Board, one of the most innovative ideas we had come across since jalapeño flavored Pringles.  After chatting for a few minutes, it became paramount that we get him to do a 5 Stupid Questions for us. And he definitely followed through. 

Beerdog is the latest app to join the mobile community. It's an image recognition app that tells you what you're drinking. Not only does it do that, but it also collects all your beers and where you drank them, and it gives you points too. Beerdog wants to be your new digital beer journal. This beer affinity network is the brainchild of CEO Kevin Bradshaw. He saw a simple idea and applied his genius to it. This guy's good, and he doesn't make a lot of mistakes . . . but he did agree to speak with us.

Recently we met up with Tim Dery, the President of the Board of Directors for Flying Bike Cooperative Brewery. Our conversation took many forms: beer, music, Bo Jackson, rhubarb pie, drinking games, being a rockstar. It was when it turned to relationships we needed to call it a night. Tim was awesome enough to deal with some of our more inane discussion as well as to give us a hard time when we just couldn't get a good question.

But enough about that, you want to see what kind of weird crap we talked about.

Tai Lee is a genius: a man that works for The Arthritis Foundation and loves to ride bikes. Why a genius? Well, he somehow worked his way into organizing The Amgen People's Coast Classic, a 6-day ride down the Oregon Coast. Why do we want to tell you about Tai? Because one of the proud sponsors of the ride is Rogue Ales, and Tai can tell you all about it . . .

Brewed Awakening is a hipster's take on the emerging American craft beer scene. Beautifully designed and wonderfully written, this book is the ultimate beer geek's companion. From the movement's players to craft beer's events and festivals, Joshua Bernstein covers the landscape with immediacy and passion!

If you’re familiar with the Washington, DC area and you’re serious about  beer,  you are no stranger to Pizzeria Paradiso…This regional favorite, which sports three locations in some of the area’s hipper neighborhoods, has emerged as a powerhouse in Washington’s Craft Beer & Cuisine Scene.  And those who know Pizzeria Paradiso, know Greg Jasgur , the face and agent provocateur of much that happens here….