Flora Luna Apothecary founder and chief mixer Phaedra Achor is our guest on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras today. Herlinda is back from Poland, where she was a judge again at the Polish national beer competition. We hear about the beers she judged and some smoked cheeses she tasted. Phaedra Achor has been making bitters for a long time. Her line is on sale at Bottle Barn and other locations but she has also finally opened her own lounge which serves mocktails. She began as Monarch Bitters but she rebranded as Flora Luna Apothecary after the pandemic and she has also added syrups to her product line. She makes all her products, which are botanically based, in Petaluma, in small batches, hand crafted. Aside from the sugar and water base for the syrups or the spirit base for the bitters, […]

Third Street Aleworks News with Tyler Laverty leads off today’s show. He is back on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras after appearing here just one month ago. He is here to deliver the news that after 26 years in the same location, they have decided not to renew the lease at the downtown pub location. However, they will continue to produce and distribute beer. They have been building a production facility already for about a year. They will self-distribute locally and have established local distributors in other counties. Tuesday, March 14 will be the last day of operations. They will also continue to participate in San Francisco Beer Week and Santa Rosa’s own Beer Passport in “Feb-Brew-ary” and they eventually plan to have a new taproom. Third Street Aleworks is iconic. It was the first brew pub where both Harry […]

Jenny Ogston and Wes Skelton from Victory House and Poppy Bank Epicenter are in studio with Harry Duke today on Brew Ha Ha. They are also expecting a phone call from Herlinda Heras who is in Krakow, Poland, where she is judging a big beer competition. Jenny Ogston is the GM of Poppy Bank Epicenter and Wes Skelton is the front-of-house food and beverage manager of Victory House. Poppy Bank Epicenter has several areas devoted to different kinds of sports and recreation. There are all these different attractions: Sports City, an entertainment arcade with bowling, pool and darts; Victory House, AnyTime Fitness and Sky Zone, a trampoline park. Victory House is a restaurant and sports bar full of big screens with a great menu of food and beverages. Wes describes Victory House as a giant sports bar. Tamarind Mango Mule They taste a cocktail […]

James Claus, co-owner and brewmaster of 3 Disciples Brewing is here, and so is Casey Williams of Barrel Proof Comedy, to join Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha today. Casey Williams has been doing comedy shows at 3 Disciples and still does shows at Barrel Proof Comedy. He spent fifteen years in the carting business and was doing comedy shows on the side. “Beer is our religion.” 3 Disciples Brewing is located in Santa Rosa (next to the Tipsy Taco). They celebrate their fifth anniversary next year. Matt, Luke and James are the three disciples and their mottos is, “Beer is our religion.” Sally Tomatoes is still an event center, even if the restaurant is closed. James describes how they turned their location into one of the best music and comedy venues in Sonoma County. They moved brewing operations from Sebastopol […]

Anchor Brewing historian Dave Burkhart and former Anchor brewing chief Mark Carpenter join Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha today. Mark Carpenter is the former co-host of this show who began working at Anchor in 1971. Author Dave Burkhart has been with Anchor Brewing Co. for thirty-one and a half years. Very early in his tenure began collecting historical documentation of the brewery. His book, The Anchor Brewing Story, has just been published. Mark and Dave agree that Anchor has a bright future since the new owners (Sapporo) are investing heavily in the company. Dave started at Anchor on a Monday and by the following Saturday, he started researching the company. In 2010, he took the title Anchor Historian. He describes finding out about the original owner Gottfried Breckle, who first went from Germany in 1852 to Valdivia, Chile. It was […]

Mindscape Fermentations co-owner and brewer Lauren Price and Home Brew Chef Sean Paxton are our guests today on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras. Sean Paxton has been a guest on Brew Ha Ha thrice since this first appearance in April of 2018. He was back in November of that year in time for this episode. His last time on the show was this show in November of 2019 which was all about turkey. Lauren Price is the co-owner and brewer at Mindscape Fermentations, whih does all things fermented so that means Kombucha, Kimchee, Sauerkraut and more. Sean Paxton the Home Brew Chef is in to talk about cooking with beer again. He has had the number one Beer Brine Turkey recipe online. Mindscape Fermentations The Mindscape Fermentations mission of uniting fermentation across all cultures, including foods and beverages that are […]

Ed McGrath from Ace Cider and Adam Ray, founder of Beer City are both guests on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras. We have had Ed McGrath on Brew Ha Ha most recently on this July 2020 episode. Brew’s News with Herlinda is sponsored by the Beer City Festival, which was going to be in Calistoga in November this year but instead will be held Easter weekend, April 16th, 2023. Also, Santa Rosa will have a Beer City festival on February 25th, 2023, downtown in Old Courthouse Square. They begin the show by christening the new KSRO studio with an heirloom cider. It’s a dry cider that tastes a bit different every year. It is 9% ABV, Herlinda calls it “sneaky.” Gravensteins! This is an heirloom cider made from local Gravenstein apples. The French ciders have less alcohol and uses more […]

Tyler Laverty, Vinnie Cilurzo and Brian Hunt are all guests today on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras. Tyler Laverty is brewmaster at Third Street Aleworks. Vinnie Cilurzo is brewmaster and a co-founder of Russian River Brewing Company. Brian Hunt is the founder, co-owner and brewmaster at Moonlight Brewing Company. This is a powerful bunch of beer guys AND they all just won medals at the Great American Beer Festival. They can’t resist joking about playing fast and loose with the “official” brew descriptions of the BJCP, which are online here. Listen to these beer heavyweights, check out the BJCP descriptions they’re referencing, taste some of the beer, and then see what you think. That’s the scientific method as applied to this show. This kind of audience involvement shows the power of radio and beer together. Taste and see. And tell […]

Brendan Moylan, founder of Moylan’s Brewery & Restaurant, Moylan’s Distilling and the now-closed Marin Brewing joins Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha. Peter Lopez is sitting in for Harry Duke today. Mother Road Brewing Co. of Flagstaff, AZ Harry Duke, finishing his interstate tour this week, is calling in from Flagstaff, Arizona with Dylan Prater on the line, who is the manager of Mother Road Brewing Company in Flagstaff. John Steinbeck called Route 66 The Mother Road in The Grapes of Wrath. In November Mother Road Brewing Co. will celebrate their 11th anniversary. Their two core beers are the Tower Station IPA, the number one selling independently owned IPA in the state, and the other is Conserve and Protect Golden Ale. A portion of its proceeds go to the Arizona Game and Fish Dept. The taproom in Flagstaff is also the original brewery, although […]

Susan Boyle, the Irish Spirits Ambassador is the guest of Herlinda Heras with Peter Lopez who is sitting in for Harry Duke on Brew Ha Ha today. First, Harry Duke is calling in from a roadside attraction on Route 66 in Oklahoma, on his road trip. Oklahoma City has a thriving craft beer scene, and he’s “not in the land of IPAs anymore.” If he sees one or two on the board, it’s a surprise. The Pilsners and Lagers are more popular there among the craft brewers. They are going from their Fall beers to their Winter beers. Ireland’s Bord Bia Bord Bia is the Irish Food Board, that oversees food and drink exports from Ireland. There is a renaissance going on in Irish distilling. After the low point of the 1960s there has been a great revival. Herlinda points out that Bourbon and […]