Episode 29 - Celebrating 6 years of Mustang Brewing Co.

Tim Schoelen of Mustang has a natural business mentality. Something that is sacred when trying to grow a brewery in a state full of alcohol restrictions. Throw in a tornado that destroys your primary operation and now you have an evangelist that could have easily packed it in but instead built a bigger brewery and developed the OKCity Co-Op brewery for a second time. It's no wonder Mustang has been around for 6 years, now located in the outskirts of downtown.

Tim graciously took some time with me to discuss the beginning of the idea to build a brewery to moving away from canned craft beer while so many others are only canning. Tim knows what he likes and has the confidence in his staff which now includes collaborations with Choc Beer in Krebs to experiment and create the best craft beer for Oklahomans.

Settle in with some Tractor Therapy Session IPA and listen in as we discuss the evolution of Mustang Brewing Co.

Episode 28 - S#@!ShowQualls

Welcome back to the Oklahoma Craft Beer podcast where we are cultivating the craft of our local beer culture. We've been on a small hiatus due to the release of our new magazine which you can find digitally on the website/app Issuu.com. Just head over to Oklahomacraftbeer.com and click on the magazine page. Be sure to follow us and share as often as you can on Issuu.com. We'll be updating our website as well so be on the look out for that soon. Finally, I'm looking for a few good sponsors that share the same vision on promoting the local craft culture. Email me: brian@beerisok.com for advertising in the magazine and podcast.

Business aside, my wife and I made a day trip to OKC to visit Mustang Brewing and celebrate their 6th year Anniversary. One of our cover girls for our inaugural magazine, Ashley Qualls, came by to discuss how life at Tapwerks is treating her and how craft beer has influenced her life. This is a continuation in our "Ladies of the Craft" feature. We've got a quite a few podcasts lined up in the coming weeks so you'll have plenty to listen to on your road trips and beer-cations this summer.

Episode 21: 2015 FOAM Iron Brewer

I can't wait to take part in sampling those at the FOAM meeting. If you're interested in joining FOAM they are always taking new members. Don't be like me and wait until this past year to join. Just visit https://www.alemakers.org/news.php Don't live in Tulsa? Red Earth Brewers are out of OKC, visit their website http://www.redearthbrewers.com/, also catch on facebook the Stillwater Brewers' League or High Plains Draughters. There's no excuse not to be a part of the local craft beer culture.

Coming up in our next episode we are going to hopefully wrangle together the organizers of this years Tulsa Craft Beer Week. Check out their website at tulsacraftbeerweek.com. All events are listed so make sure to add them to your calendar and purchase tickets soon for the Firkin Friday and Finale. They will sell out and you will be sorry. May is shaping up to be a good month with several festivals from the Red Earth Brewers May 10, Oklahoma Craft Beer Festival at Tapwerks in OKC on May 16 and Hop Jam in Tulsa on May 17th.

That's going to do it for us this week. Please rate us on Stitcher and leave a review, those help other beer geeks like yourself find us. We have some new items for sale, the hop earrings are a big hit and keeping the ladies in mind we have new tank tops for the summer to be available at the Okie Crowe booth at the Tulsa Craft Beer Week Finale. New podcast shirts and stickers will be there as well as our famous Oklahoma shaped bottle openers. As always you an find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Untappd as BeerisOK. We'll catch you next time and remember to continue cultivating the craft!

Episode 15 - Good Things Happening in OK Craft Beer

Episode 15 - Good Things Happening in Oklahoma Craft Beer

Musician, craft beer lover, home brewer. Noah T and I had a great sit down to discuss his method from coming up with melodic background music that is now featured in our podcast! We go through the finer details of how he lays down a track like he did in "Home, James", a local Tulsa movie. His affinity for Marshall Brewing tours and growler fills and the joys of having fresh, flavorful low point beer made in Oklahoma is encouraging for the local culture.

Noah is exposed to Roughtail IPA for the first time and has a holistic experience. Noah explains the finer points of how the Beach Boys changed music and just may have changed my mind on the whole can't stand listening to them. Finally he enlightens us about Hoot Owl coffee and using it with rye malts in his home brewed porter.

Find Noah's music at: noahtmusic.com
Follow: @noahtmusic

Episode 11 - Harvesting a Craft

EPISODE 11

It was yet another amazing day for McNellie's Harvest Beer Festival with 2 sessions offering some unique one-offs like Chocs Chai Choc Witbier. We interview FOAM, Marshall Brewing Co, Mustang, Anthem and fellow craft beer fans like yourself. Crack open some brand new Elk Valley Pale Ale and enjoy!

Episode 7 - Tulsa Craft Beer Week in Review

Episode 7

D'Wain and Brian reminisce about Tulsa Craft Beer Week and all it's glory. We spoke to a bunch of brewers at the final event held at Biergarten in Jenks. Hunker down on your trip to OKC for their craft beer week and listen in on all the upcoming events and news from TCBW.

As always check out Etsy to pick up our new bottle openers or Okie Crowe in downtown Tulsa.

Little Brewery on the Prairie

Episode 3

Brian and Ethan  Buckman tuck into Choc's Spring release, India Pale Ale, in hopes of a quick Spring. Meanwhile we discuss Ethan's endeavors in his personal gypsy project while brewing for Mustang full time. Also we get interviews from Wes and Chase of Prairie Artisan Ales at their latest brewery tour in February. Crack a beer and take a listen while we Cultivate the Craft!

Twitter handles to watch for:

@DocBuckmans

@WhiteFlag

@CavemanCBrew

@ReddRhenBrewin

The "Doctor" Is In

While perusing Twitter one day I stumbled upon a re-tweet about a gypsy brewer coming to Oklahoma. Naturally intrigued by new beers being brewed in our state I dug through Twitter to find out @DocBuckmans. He hails from the Yuengling state of Pennsylvania with professional brewing experience at The Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh. He certainly has a passion and you can get his full story by reading his blog: Doc Buckman's Beer. There you will get his line up of beers like Snake Oil IPA and Lazy Bully Lager.

Ethan works his craft. (Photo by D'Wain Carthen)

In the meantime Ethan has taken a job with Mustang providing sales support for the Tulsa area and developing recipes. Sounds pretty amazing for someone that's only 22. I had a big passion for drinking quality beer but Ethan certainly took it to a whole new level at that age. After meeting through Twitter we met several times to enjoy local craft beer like Prairie Standard at R Bar over poutine and at home with an eclectic beer collection while dining on Andolini's pizza. (Do you see a trend forming?) We went through a bit of our reserves that day so we decided why not do a home brew to replenish our stock.

With three extract brews under my belt I was chomping at the bit to brew again. We brought in fellow blog contributor D'Wain Carthen as well and commandeered his home in the process. (Thanks Jess!) D'Wain was new to the whole brewing process and this time so was I as we used the brew-in-a-bag method. 

But what did you brew you may ask? Well the Fall season is upon us so we kicked around the idea of a pumpkin ale. While pumpkins are highly favored; what was once unusual and unheard of seemed mainstream, so Ethan suggested a sweet potato porter. It sounds complex but it couldn't be simpler by adding sweet potato to your wort and boil up those starches and create a dark and malty porter.

Brew day went well thanks to High Gravity always having an amazing stock of grains, hops and yeast to choose from. The brew-in-a-bag method was a mystery but after witnessing first hand and squeezing out the wort I think I found a new method. Naturally we imbibed on Oklahoma Craft beer like Marshall's 5, Prairie Puncheon and Choc's Gratzer and consumed Siegi's fine German food. Awww Schnitzel! 

After imbibing and catching up on TV shows we need to watch Ethan made note of the new Unbridled Series that Mustang Brewery will soon release. "They will all be very hop forward for the styles and the hops we'll be using wont just be the typical west coast citra and cascade combo," Ethan said. They are developing a Tripple, India Red Ale and a Black Lager for some time this winter.

This is just part one of the home brew saga so stay tuned to hear how it turns out and you may even be able to sample our first Beer Is OK beer!