Mare Island Brewing Company co-founders Ryan Gibbons and Kent Fortner join Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha today. Mare Island was a naval shipyard since the earliest days of California and Herlinda was actually born there, since her father was in the US Navy. It was the oldest naval base west of the Mississippi, and also has the oldest golf course and one of the oldest Tiffany stained glass windows in the west, in its local church. Read about the history of Mare Island here. Kent and Ryan founded Mare Island Brewing Co. after they met in the wine business. They are both professional wine makers. It is near the city of Vallejo and the city fathers asked him if he could move his winemaking operation there. The topography wasn’t right for that option, but when they met each other again […]

Ron Holt from Civilization Brewing Company is our guest on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras. Olompali Lager is named after the closest state park to their Petaluma brewing facility. They have also brought their signature Pilsner. The brewery is brand new. They just opened their taproom on Oct. 31. They got started as North Bay Brewery Tours. Ron talks about how he got to know a lot of people in the business and gained a lot of knowledge about beer during that time. He got to see inside and outside of a lot of breweries. The Civilization Brewing Co. Taproom The taproom is located at 490 Mendocino Ave. at Ross St, in Santa Rosa, across the street from Three Disciples. “If your grandma’s living room was cool…” is how Ron describes it. There are food purveyors nearby and they sell […]

Bell’s Beer is now available in California and John Mallett from Bell’s Brewery calls in to Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras on Brew Ha Ha to tell about it. He is an old friend of Vinny and Natalie Cilurzo. They have a history of working together, including founding the Hops Quality Group. Bell’s Beer has not been available in California, until now. John is very pleased to be able to get into the northern California market. The brewery has won some of the same awards that Russian River Brewing Co. has won. The brewery has grown steadily since its founding in the 1980s. He has been at Bell’s since 2001. Their website tells the whole story of their beers available today, as well as their entire history. They also do a lot of community support and outreach. The Beer Finder on the Bell’s website […]

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 […]