Despite alarming headlines and loud proclamations that “craft beer is dead,” that’s only part of the story—and not a particularly accurate one, at that.

Industry insiders can get bogged down in the depressing details (even we’ve been guilty of it at one time or another). But reporters Kate Bernot and Beth Demmon decided to see how and where the heart of craft beer still beat, and went to the 2024 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival in Paso Robles to find out.

It turns out, the craft beer industry can’t just be measured by Circana numbers or market share. Websites and social media don’t paint a full picture, and after talking to a bunch of festival attendees, they realized there’s a whole lot of love and life still left to consumers passionate about the beverage, the people, and the community. Craft beer loves to talk about how it brings people together, and based on their observations, it still can.

In this episode, you’ll hear from both Beth and Kate, as well as a number of attendees interviewed at the festival, on why they decided to spend their time and hard-earned money on an afternoon under the California sun. The beer itself plays a part of it, sure. But there’s so much more that keeps people coming back. This is finding joy in beer.

Beer is having a hard time these days. Category-wide, sales are down and interest just isn’t the same it used to be. But what if the enthusiasm that got us to this point—excitement that helped lead to almost 10,000 small and independent breweries scattered across the country—is still just as palpable now as it was one, two, or 10 years ago? It’s just a matter of looking.

In this special episode of the Good Beer Hunting podcast, beer enthusiasts from around the country explain why for them craft beer still means friendships, new experiences, and most of all, something cool at a time when there’s a feeling that it might be anything but.

Brewing is famously a science and an art. There are loads of technical aspects a skilled brewer should nail down to create something special, but there’s also a point where you just have to give up some autonomy. Or, at least accept it’s OK to play a little for some R&D. One of the most important things people in American craft beer have learned in recent years is how this also applies to their customers. A diverse menu that may expand beyond just beer is becoming table stakes and creativity in what kind of styles and flavor experiences you offer—in or outside of beer—can matter more than ever. You can control your taplist, but you also have to be flexible to what you hear and learn from people sitting at your bar.

In this episode, we explore this idea and what it means to grow a business and expectations with Kevin and Britt Templin of Salt Lake City, Utah’s Templin Family Brewing, also known simply as TF Brewing. Since opening in 2018, TF Brewing has become known for its lager program, including its award-winning flagship, Granary kellerbier. The brewery has also earned recognition at the World Beer Cup, where in 2024 it won gold medals for its coconut-guava berliner weisse and Squirrel Juicy IPA. There are other medals from the Great American Beer Festival and WBC, but that hasn’t stopped Britt, Kevin, and their team from expanding their menu and listening to what customers are telling them they’re interested in drinking. The science of their beers has been stellar and the art of refining what that means for drinkers continues to evolve.

You’ll hear us talk about what it takes to feel OK about making these changes—which for TF Brewing has included a new wine program and successful cocktail menu—along with what it means to be a growing brewery in 2024. The value the Templins place on their staff and how those people help the brewery succeed is high. By the time this conversation wraps, you’ll have an understanding of how “family” isn’t just in the name of the business, but how they want to make people feel. Even in that, there’s a science to running a brewery that’s a business, but an art to creating a space that promotes imagination, community, and closeness.

It’s a classic question asked first in a novel, then in music, and often as a half-joke pop culture reference: Can you go home again? People change over time, but of course, places do, too. What we’ve previously experienced in our hometowns and where we grew up can feel distant for a very good reason. Time and experience changes us all, whether we like it or not. But in this episode, we’re going to explore what it means to lean into this question and ask instead, “what does it feel like to be home, again?”

Working through this with me is Trace and Eeva Redmond, a couple who in recent years took years of experience working in beer and returned to Eeva’s home town of Petoskey, Michigan where they’ve opened Elder Piper, a brewery and cidery located along the shores of Little Traverse Bay on the upper portion of the state’s mitten shape. As brewer, Trace brings brewing experience that includes stops at Michigan’s Founders and Roak Brewing, as well as North Carolina’s Highland Brewing. Eeva has worked in a collection of hospitality and communication roles in beer as well, including positions at Roak Brewing, Sierra Nevada, and Highland.

Why open a brewery now, at a time when we hear about so many closing? That’s where we start our conversation, but it leads us to many other ideas and reflections about what it means to start a business in a city of 6,000, especially when it’s the place where you grew up. As you’ll hear, community connection has been pivotal to Eeva and Trace, and their story offers something of a roadmap of what it takes to launch a new, neighborhood-focused brewery in today’s market.

West Virginians take a lot of pride in their state. As well they should—it’s one of the most stunningly gorgeous destinations in the United States, albeit one that can be hard to get to, thanks to the same mountainous spectacle that draws people there in the first place.

Matt Kwasniewski is a West Virginia native, as well as the owner and head brewer of Big Timber Brewing in Elkins, West Virginia. It’s the largest craft brewery in the state, with an annual output of around 6,000 barrels last year, positioning them solidly in the “microbrewery” category. He says that West Virginia’s rural location, small population, and generally blue collar workforce makes it an unlikely place for craft beer to thrive. But the state is much more than how it’s defined by outsiders. Kwasniewski has seen the craft beer industry grow from 10 to around 32 breweries in the past 10 years, and for residents, that’s a lot.

In this episode, Kwasniewski walks us through the state of West Virginia, both as a local and as a brewer, and what he wishes more people knew about the relatively undiscovered Mountain State. For instance, they have some of the purest water anywhere in the country—ideal for brewing Big Timber beers like lagers, IPAs, and their award-winning porter that took gold at the 2024 World Beer Cup. He’s not interested in expanding much further than his home state, and why should he? He wants to be the beer of West Virginia, and you can hear him explain why and how he plans to do that.

The definition of “local” can be quite different when the nearest urban regions are hundreds of miles away. That’s certainly the case in Jackson, Wyoming, where (quote-unquote) neighboring cities like Boise, Idaho; Denver, Colorado; and Bozeman, Montana all require a few hours in the car, if not on a plane, to get there.

But it’s precisely that sense of remote grandeur that attracts millions of visitors to the Jackson Hole region every year. Where do they go when they want a good, local, craft brew? To Snake River Brewing Company, of course, which is the oldest operating brewery in the state and celebrates 30 years in business in 2024. In this episode, Snake River’s director of sales and marketing, Luke Bauer, describes what brought him to Wyoming nearly 20 years ago, and what kept him coming back after working in Texas, Alaska, and Colorado. In addition to his role at Snake River, he’s also on the board of the Wyoming Craft Brewers Guild, and shares a first-hand account of how the state’s craft beer industry has grown, changed, and evolved, especially post-pandemic.

By his account, Wyoming is a unique place, but also one that’s full of surprises. He believes there’s a lot more experimentation than outsiders might initially expect from the local beer scene, and explains the big differences in style from one side of the state to the other. (Hint: one side sticks more to traditional or maltier beers, while the other embraces trendier styles like IPAs.) Snake River Brewing has managed to rack up awards at the World Beer Cup, including their most recent Bronze medal for Zonker Stout, as well as at the Great American Beer Festival, and many more over its 30-year tenure. It goes back to their mission statement: “The world doesn’t need another beer, but a better beer.” Let’s hear about the beer and beyond.

We’re squarely in the midst of political season—presidential debates have begun, campaigning has kicked into high gear, and November elections are closer than we think. Amongst it all, there’s an adage this episode’s guest once shared that likely sounds true, whether your a deep-in-the-weeds politico or fair-weather voter: If you want to make the biggest impact in politics, you go into business.

Well over a decade ago, Jon Renthrope did just that, opening up Cajun Fire Brewing in his hometown of New Orleans. Enticed by what he found in the world of homebrewing, Jon took a degree in politics from the University of Florida and spun it into a career in beer, which led to the launch of his brewery 12 years ago. And it’s through his company he’s working to marry the ideas of community impact with work through local organizations like The 100 Black Men of Metro New Orleans, as a cultural ambassador, and by working with the National Black Brewers Association.

In this conversation, you’ll hear Jon talk about what it means to start Cajun Fire in the place he grew up and deepen already strong roots. He’ll share how he’s been influenced by family—notably his grandmother—and how that history lingers today. We also discuss his brewery’s lineup of beer and why you won’t find an IPA leading the way among Cajun Fire customers. Jon didn’t go into politics, exactly, but he is using his business in all kinds of ways to connect and impact people around him.