Rob Lightner from East Brother Beer Co. joins Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras today on Brew Ha Ha. Mark Carpenter is away this week. East Brother Brewing Co. is named after an island in San Francisco Bay called East Brother Island, near their home city of Richmond, California. They are located in the old shipyards where they built 747 ships during WWII. Rob Lightner and his friend Chris Coomber founded the brewery three years ago. They are also neighbors in Richmond. The brewery has a tap room in Richmond, near where the old Pixar offices were. They have food trucks that come to the tap room. For entertainment and competition they have darts, bocce and ping-pong. Rob is glad that people come there to play and talk with each other, not to stare at their own phones the whole time. Their beer styles are […]

Sean Paxton, The Home Brew Chef, is back on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras today. Mark Carpenter is away on vacation. Sean has several turkey recipes on his website. Each recipe highlights a different set of flavors but they are all for beer brined turkeys. The alcohol in the beer helps tenderize the meat. You can use all kinds of beer. He also suggests tangerines or other types of citrus. Last year he used Bear Republic’s Racer 5 IPA and blood oranges in one recipe. Beers that have rich malts which have a little more sugars in them, work very well too. You can cook it in the oven, or other ways like sous vide, smoking, on the grill, or deep fried. Herlinda Heras mentions that you must follow precautions if you’re deep frying a turkey, and Sean has all […]

Due to holiday season travel schedules, there is no new Brew Ha Ha show today, so here is a repeat of a favorite show from last August featuring Ramon Tamayo, brewer at Russian River Brewing Co, and Mike Gilmore, Paris-based micro-brew shop owner.  Brew Ha Ha today welcomes Ramon Tamayo and Mike Gilmore. Ramon Tamayo is the brewer at Russian River Brewing, working for Vinny Cilurzo. He used to work for Mark Carpenter at Anchor Brewing. Mike Gilmore is a brewer in Paris, France. He runs Brew Unique Paris, a shop in Paris where customers come for home brew classes and learn to make beer.  He grew up in the American northeast but has lived in Paris for 20 years. Mike says that there are some good new breweries in and around Paris. He has friends who organize guided tours to Belgian and French breweries. He […]

The American Brewing History Initiative at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is the subjcet of this week’s Brew Ha Ha podcast. Steve Jaxon talks to Herlinda Heras, on the telephone from Washington DC. She is attending the Smithsonian’s grand opening of the exhibition. The exhibition is a celebration of the most recent generation of American brewers.  They are bestowing honors on Anchor Brewing, Sierra Nevada and New Albion. New Albion was the first brewery in America after Prohibition, located in Sonoma. The American History Museum is hosting this exhibit. Fritz Maytag is there and so is New Albion founder Jack McAuliffe, as well as Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada. Herlinda learned that Jack McAuliffe was stationed at Alameda with the Navy before founding New Albion. There are food events, tastings and talks to celebrate the exhibit. According to the exhibit’s website, “The […]

Our guests on Brew Ha Ha this week talk about how the people of Sonoma County have rallied to help each other through the fires and their aftermath. Please consider making a donation to the Red Cross which has done so much to help Sonoma County again this year. Amy Levin of St. Florian’s Brewery is our guest on Brew Ha Ha this week with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras, while Mark Carpenter is still traveling. St. Florian is the patron saint of firefighters. Amy’s husband Aron is a firefighter and they are the owners of St. Florian’s Brewery. Also in the studio today is Natalie Cilurzo from Russian River Brewing Co. St. Florian’s Brewery and Russian River Brewing Co. are neighbors in Windsor. The Levins founded the brewery about seven years ago and they have always donated 5% of their profits to fire-related and […]

Due to the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County, there is no live Brew Ha Ha show on KSRO today. For this podcast episode, here is a repeat of our July, 2018 visit with Brian Hunt, founder of Moonlight Brewing Co. Please consider making a donation to the Red Cross which has done so much to help Sonoma County again during the fires this year.) Brian Hunt, Moonlight Brewing founder and brewmaster and Shannon Thomas, tasting room and social media manager, are in today with Herlinda Heras and Steve Jaxon. Mark Carpenter is away this week. Brian Hunt started Moonlight Brewing in 1992. He jokes that he needed to support his beer habit and he actually stared home brewing in his bedroom when he was in high school. He had some German friends who helped him too. He graduated from UC Davis brew school in […]

Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon today features Don Barkley and Kevin Lovett. Mark Carpenter and Herlinda Heras are both traveling. Don was last on Brew Ha Ha back in March of this year. Don Barkley tells the story of how he was there the day that Kevin was born, on the 4th of July. Kevin’s dad Michael and Don Barkley have been friends for a long time. They worked together at the New Albion Brewery then they moved to Hopland at the same time to start the Mendocino Brewing Co. and the Hopland Brewery and Kevin Lovett was born soon after that. Kevin was one of Don’s first employees at the Napa Smith Brewery, where he worked for about five years. Then he got an offer from Brian Hunt who owns and operates Moonlight Brewing Co., which also happens to be where Don’s […]

Today we have a home brew expert panel on Brew Ha Ha with Pete Foppiano sitting in for Steve Jaxon, Mark Carpenter and Herlinda Heras. They have several guests, all are experts in home brewing. They are tasting some home brews which Mark says are delicious. There is a dark and a light, they are very dry, nice and thirst quenching. Scott Cradde is a co-producer of the Mendocino Home Brewers’ Festival in Ukaiah in November. (The power is out in the studio today, due to fire danger, so there is no air conditioning and no wi-fi.) There are other things to do around the event, with a farmers’ market before it in the morning and an outdoor fashion show with local boutiques, afterwards. They have a top prize “The Brewer’s Pick” gets to spend a day at Anderson Valley Brewing and brew the […]

Scott Bice from Redwood Hill Farms joins Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha today.  Redwood Hill Farms is known for its fine goat cheese and yogurt and now they are also growing hops, under the name Capracopia. Adriana Basurto works at Lagunitas and is also the Secretary for the NorCal Hop Growers Alliance. There are 15 hop growers in Sonoma County with over 10 acres planted to hops. Shone Farms (at Santa Rosa Junior College) is also planting hops. Adriana was a student in the brewing program at Santa Rosa Junior College where the faculty sponsored the opening of the Shone Farms hop field. They are putting on an event on Oct. 20 to teach about growing hops, at the 4th annual Hop Education Seminar. It is a great place to connect to brewers and learn about growing hops, including zoning […]

[The Brew Ha Ha live show of Sept. 26 is not available due to technical difficulties. This podcast episode was recorded on Oct. 3.] Tara Nurin calls in on today’s Brew Ha Ha. Tara Nurin is the Forbes magazine beer and spirits contributor, a friend and colleague of Herlinda Heras and a frequent guest on Brew Ha Ha. She speaks with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda about threatened tariffs on imported European products like beer, wine, spirits and other consumer goods. European leaders and merchants today (10-3) slammed the Trump administration’s threats to levy import tariffs on European goods. This includes French wines, cheese, whiskey, Scotch whiskey, and more. It seems that the administration is targeting unique specialty foods from Europe for 25% tarrifs. Tara and Herlinda explain that when products are unique to their place of origin, there is no substitute product for it. […]