The Spirit World

Oregon beer writer, Fred Eckhardt says you should listen to your beer. With an Internet connection it’s possible to take listening to your beer to the next level by listening to beer podcasts.

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been listening to about half a dozen different beer podcasts. While all the podcasts are aimed at people who love beer, each has its own special audience. Basic Brewing Radio, Craft Beer Radio, and Pacific Brew News speak to the true beer aficionados (sometimes called “beer geeks”). The Good Beer Show and Big Foamy Head are multi-format podcasts that combine beer with music and barbecue respectively. There are several other beer podcasts that appear to have gone dormant or I haven’t listened to enough episodes to write anything about them. (One bears mention though, Podbeer. There were only a few episodes produced of Podbeer. The recordings were ultra-low fidelity, but the content was good. The interview with Lisa Morrison is worth listening to.)

Basic Brewing Radio, hosted by James Spencer, is a professional quality radio show. Spencer’s show could easily be on NPR. Almost every week Spencer interviews a guest who is an expert brewer. Spencer’s guest list is impressive: Stan Hieronymus, Ray Daniels, John Palmer, Gary Glass, Tess and Mark Szamatulski, etc. If you are homebrewer, you’ll recognize all of these names.

The general focus of Basic Brewing Radio is brewing beer at home. Don’t let the words “Basic” or “Brewing” in the show’s title put you off; there’s plenty of interesting content each week for both beginning and experienced brewers and for the curious beer drinker who just wants to know a little more about how their favorite beverage is made. Even if you don’t brew beer at all, you still might find Spencer’s interviews stimulating; he’s covered general topics such as: the science of taste, the hop growing industry, and yeast cultivation.

Each week Jeff Bearer and Greg Weiss of Craft Beer Radio sit down with a flight of beers and we, the listeners, get to hear them talk about the beer they drink. Sound exciting? Maybe this show isn’t for everyone, but I’ve grown to like it over the last couple of weeks. I suppose the show is best enjoyed if you drink along with Jeff and Greg, but their lively conversation about the beer’s flavor and aroma profile somehow draws the listener in.

Jeff and Greg start each show by dipping into their mailbag and reading comments from listeners. There are a few running gags: Jeff and Greg seem unable to pronounce certain foreign beer names and beer styles to every listener’s satisfaction. In one episode Greg pronounces the French word for brewery, la brasserie, as “la brazier”—that had me laughing. Once you get to know Jeff and Greg, they have high entertainment value as characters.

So if you are tired of listening to the same old talk radio, put your iPod to good use and download a few episodes of these shows and give them a listen. You’ll either learn something or have a good laugh, either way these shows keep you coming back.