Episode 31 - Nothing's Left Brewing

Say you've been homebrewing for a while with your good friend and you finally want to give it a try on a professional level. My guests this episode are Aaron and Travis of Nothing's Left Brewing. The name may be a bit odd but appropriate in the right vernacular which could probably spawn some rather clever beer names down the road. They are just coming online with their first festival appearance in Broken Arrow's Red, White and Brew that I later learned they had a great reception and gave out every drop of their beer. We go through the ins and outs of why they think this venture in a state with heavy restrictions can prosper as we share their low point strawberry blonde beer.

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 30 - 2015 Red White and Brew Festival

I had the honor talking to Debra of BA Buzz and Kevin of Soldiers Wish about the July 18th Red, White and Brew beer festival in Broken Arrow.

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 27 - Wild Brew Launch Party

One of the largest craft beer festivals will be taking place this August 22 and chances are you probably haven't heard about it. Now granted this isn't your typical beer festival that has all kinds of food from 50+ restaurants, over 185 beers to sample and live music. No, it has ALL of this plus a live wild birds soaring over your head at the Cox Business Center in Tulsa.



Welcome to Wild Brew, as they say, "The Greatest Party Ever Hatched." You may not have heard about it possibly because it is a fundraiser for the George M. Sutton Avian Research Center, their biggest of the year in fact. On June 4th I hung out with the Co-chairs and organizers at the launch party at Leon's in Tulsa while we sampled the FOAM/Anthem Brewing collaboration beer, a Belgian Tripel. Patrick, the head brewer at Anthem gave us an insight into the process.

So look forward to the Wild Brew Belgian Tripel (on tap now at Leon's) and get your tickets at wildbrew.org/tickets for 4 hours of the wildest party ever. If that doesn't convince you, maybe these guys will...

Episode 26: Ladies of the Craft-Haley Dennis

Lately I've noticed quite a few craft beer bars filled with great bartenders and wait staff. Most are quite knowledgeable in the local craft beer scene and the proper ways of serving these unique beers. A multitude of these people are women. Unfortunately, I have seen the stereotype uttered that these girls are just another pretty face to help sell beer and they don't know half of what they are talking about. Well, they couldn't be more wrong. 

Haley enjoying a Anthem Gose outside Oak & Ore.

I know for a fact many bars around Tulsa, OKC and craft bars popping up all around this state are training their staff to be Beer Server Certified from the Cicerone program. This includes the plethora of women that take pride in their craft skills. Haley Dennis is one of them. On a sunny Sunday afternoon, with the rain finally subsiding, I had the honor of picking the brain of one of Oklahoma's finest bartender and craft beer geek. We recorded on the patio of Oak and Ore where Hayley calls home and we picked up quite a bit from our neighbors of Roxy's ice cream parlor, which is highly recommended by the way. So please ignore the chatting in the background for the first 15 minutes if you can.

Episode 25 - Prairie Boys

You certainly can find a lot to do around Tulsa when you're looking for a new career. For the past couple of months I've had the pleasure of bottling beers at the Prairie brewery in Tulsa. It's been a rewarding experience to say the least and getting to hear the dialogue between Chase and Jake about brewing tidbits or Wes and Collin joke about new beer names and labels. It's a small, tight-knit family that comes together and builds this massive movement in the craft beer industry. As we joked in the episode sometimes you get down to 2 people running the bottling line because the phone never stops ringing and the e-mail inbox is always full.

The perks of a long hard day are worth it but you have to be on your feet all day, eventually covered in water and sticky beer and lift heavy cases. As always most see it as a labor of love for a well hand-crafted product. It's a great feeling to know something I helped bottle will be shared around the country and more importantly is putting Oklahoma on the craft beer map.