State of Craft Beer

Go inside the craft beer industry with Brooklyn Brewery chairman and co-founder Steve Hindy as your guide at a live podcast recording featuring the brewers on the front lines of the craft beer revolution. Steve will be moderating a discussion between Sam Calagione, founder and president of Dogfish Head Brewery; Bill Covaleski, co-founder and co-brewmaster of Victory Brewing Company and president of Brewers of Pennsylvania; Christina Burris, co-owner, brewer and operations manager at St. Benjamin Brewing Company; Tim Patton, co-owner and brewer at St. Benjamin Brewing Company; and John Holl, editor of All About Beer Magazine, covering the controversies and opportunities facing brewers today and what's coming up next.

The podcast recording of the night is brought to you by the James Beard Award-winning food site First We Feast. They'll be releasing every State of Craft Beer as a podcast on their site and through iTunes so you can learn more about the modern craft industry wherever you go.

Sam Calagione is the founder and president of Dogfish Head Brewery. Sam got the brewing bug back in the early 1990s while working at a bar in New York City that featured microbrewed beer. After a number of homebrew batches, Sam put his English degree to the test while writing his brewpub business plan. Sam is the brainchild behind all the wacky things that happen at Dogfish Head. He's often on the road promoting Dogfish Head through beer, song, dance and words, and has become one of the most recognizable faces of American craft beer in the world.

Bill Covaleski is the co-founder and co-brewmaster of Victory Brewing Company and president of Brewers of Pennsylvania. Bill and co-founder (and childhood friend) Ron Barchet discovered their passion for beer shortly after college, when they combined a love of beer itself with experiments in homebrewing. The two men worked their way through several apprenticeships with an eye to developing their skill in brewing German-inspired beers. They opened Victory in 1996 as a small restaurant and brewery and have grown rapidly since. As a part of the Brewers of Pennsylvania, Bill also works to protect burgeoning brewers and encourage craft beer statewide.

Christina Burris is the co-owner, brewer, and operations manager of St. Benjamin Brewing Company. Along with fellow co-owner and brewer Tim Patton, Christina dedicates her time to pursuing innovative spins on classical styles, including popular offerings like an India Cream Ale and a Lavender Saison. The pair worked tirelessly for years to open the small facility, finally cutting through all of the red tape to open in historic Kensington in early 2014. Christina and her team continues to push for excellent beer in small, high-quality batches, guided by the example of "spiritual guide" Benjamin Franklin.

Tim Patton is the co-owner and brewer of St. Benjamin Brewing Company. With co-owner and brewer Christina Burris, he has pushed to grow St. Benjamin Brewing Company to supply beer to more than one hundred bars and restaurants, which is no small feat for a brewery with no canning or bottling facilities. He is also the co-founder of deals website Dealcatcher.com, which has spawned several successful sister sites between him and co-founder Dan Baxter. He is also on the board for Philly Beer Week, a week-long beer festival that has become famous nationwide. (Photo by Matt Godfrey, Philly.com)

John Holl is the editor of All About Beer Magazine and the author of the American Craft Beer Cookbook. An award winning journalist, he has visited more than 950 breweries around the world, conducting research for his beer-and-travel books as well as articles for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wine Enthusiast, the Washington Post, and many other publications. He has judged beer competitions around the world, regularly lectures on the culture of beer, and appears often on NBC’s Weekend Today in New York. Follow him @John_Holl on Twitter.

All About Beer Magazine is America’s leading beer magazine, dedicated to covering the people, places, news, trends, and events that define the beer community. For 35 years, it has been our mission to celebrate the world of beer culture and enrich the lives of beer lovers through education, enjoyment and events like the World Beer Festivals. Click here to sign up for a free trial.

Steve Hindy (co-Founder and Chairman of The Brooklyn Brewery) founded one of America’s top 25 breweries. A former journalist, he became interested in home-brewing while serving as a Beirut-based Middle East Correspondent for The Associated Press. Back in the states as Newsday’s assistant foreign editor in 1988, he began brewing his own beer and persuaded his neighbor, banker Tom Potter,to start a brewery. Hindy is a member of the Board of Directors of the Beer Institute and The Brewers Association. He is a director of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Alliance, chairman of the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn, former chair of Brooklyn’s Tourism Consortium and a former member of Community Board 1. Hindy also serves on the Board of Transportation Alternatives and the Alcohol Beverage Manufacturer’s Research Foundation. With Potter, Hindy co-authored Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery, Forward by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, published by John Wiley & Sons. His second book, The Craft Beer Revolution: How A Band Of Microbrewers Are Transforming The World’s Favorite Drink was released in the spring of 2014. You can follow Steve @SteveKHindy on Twitter.

We'll be pouring:
Defender IPA
Sorachi Ace

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