Beervana Podcast

Today we do something we swore we never would--sit around drinking beer. But wait!--there's a method to our madness. A Boston listener sent us some very special beer from New England, and we taste a Maine-grown Cascade fresh-hop saison. Also, Patrick and Jeff encounter East Coast juice tarts from Trillium.

In May, Pelican Brewery turns 25. For the whole of its life, it has reflected the vision of its longtime brewer, Darron Welch. Yet unlike so many legacy breweries, Pelican is growing and thriving. There’s an important lesson here.

Every now and again, an explorer will follow a path deep into a thicket before finally tracing their way back out. The Sherpa has lately been following American-brewed Czech tmavés deep into the underbrush, and today’s edition reveals what he found.

They’re fruity, expressive, and fun to drink, yet thanks to poor style-branding, people avoid them. A modest proposal: just call saisons IPAs. Okay, maybe “farmhouse” IPAs.

As everyone knows, the three great lager-brewing regions are Bavaria, Bohemia, and Austria. Wait, Austria? Sure it was famous in the last century for Vienna lager, but what has it done lately? We have Franz Hofer on the show today to answer this very question. Franz splits his year between Oklahoma and Vienna and writes about the lager-lands on his website, Tempest in a Tankard. Austria is, no kidding, a truly special place where one of the world’s major styles whets the whistles of a nation—while somehow staying hidden from the rest of the world. Find Franz at his website: https://tempestinatankard.com/ Music: Herbert von Karajan, "Austria: Land der Berge, Land am Strome"