Witte, Lauter, Noel, Holl, & Crouch on 2020 Part 1

Beer Edge

Looking back on 2020, one of the things I miss most is getting together with other folks in the beer industry, trading gossip and news, arguing a bit, and laughing over beers. Back in March, right before the long quarantine set in, my partner John Holl and I traveled up to Portland, Maine to speak at a beer conference. On the night before the conference, John and I hit up some of our favorite breweries around Portland, including Allagash where we ran into draft beer genius and longtime industry stalwart, Neil Witte, who was also speaking the next day. We headed back into town, where we met up with fellow beer writer, Carla Jean Lauter, at Novare Res. We debated, argued, and celebrated beer for hours before retiring to a local dive bar for round after round of karaoke. It turned out to the last real night out that any of us have had this year.

In this conversation, John and I get the gang back together, with Neil and Carla joining us. We’ve also invited our buddy Josh Noel of the Chicago Tribune back on the show. Josh is the author of the excellent, Barrel Aged Stout and Selling Out about the sale of Goose Island to Anheuser-Busch InBev. Folks, Christmas is coming up and this book makes a great holiday gift for your loved ones.

Carla is a beer writer based just outside of Portland, Maine, and the creator of the Is This Beer Name Idea Ok?, a flowchart that may save your brewery some serious social media fallout. And Neil is a Master Cicerone, a former Draft Quality Ambassador for the Brewers Association, and independent draft specialist and owner of TapStar.

We'll have part two of this conversation available in our next episode.

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• Host: Andy Crouch
• Guests: Neil Witte, Carla Jean Lauter, Josh Noel, and John Holl
• Tags: beer, craft beer, Portland Beer, Neil Witte, Carla Jean Lauter, Josh Noel
• Sponsor: Arryved - Facebook: @arryved - Instagram: @arryved - Twitter: @arryved_pos