Shennen O’Donnell and Tim Welch, owners of Young and Yonder distillery, join Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell on Brew Ha Ha. Tim found a distillery that was already built and available for sale, so he bought it. It was a distilling facility and event space. They started a live music space due to Shennen’s experience. She grew up at The Mystic Theater which her parents owned and she has worked there all her life. Tim worked as a distiller for Moylan’s and won awards for many distilled products. Tim’s buddy from college was also a distiller who opened a distillery of his own in Mississippi. So he ran the place for “a lot of years.” They focussed on whiskey but also made other distilled products. Young and Yonder is located up in Healdsburg. Shennen describes their location as “Industrial Chic” with a casual fun […]

Dean Biersch, who runs Hopmonk Taverns and co-founded Gordon/Biersch, joins Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell on Brew Ha Ha. This is his first time on the show. Herlinda has invited Dean Biersch whom she ran into at a Hopmonk concert last Saturday. Dean remembers his first job in hospitality was preparing big spreads for the passengers at Hornblower Yachts in San Francisco. “You learn a lot when you work on boats,” says Dean. “Hospitality in general is like 90% planning.” Daedalus remembers covering the opening of Hopmonk for the local press, back when it opened. Dean remembers having to reorganize the physical space in the first location in Novato, to create a beer garden. They developed the first venue as a music venture and beer garden at the same time and he feels that it is a magic combination. They would love to have more […]

Stateline Road Smokehouse co-owner Jeremy Threat is visiting Brew Ha Ha with Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell today. This is his first time on the show. During the show, author Marty Nachel called in to talk about his new book. That portion of the live radio show with Marty Nachel is on this separate podcast episode, so that both guests can have their own separately indexed episode page. Darryl Bell, the chef at Stateline Road Smokehouse, comes from Kansas City. He is also Jeremy’s business partner. After college Jeremy worked in operations management in the restaurant industry. So he went from hotel restaurants to a management position. Working for Thomas Keller, the owner of French Laundry was demanding. In previous restaurant jobs, he learned about the business side of the restaurant business. But at French Laundry, he learned how to create a company culture […]

Author Marty Nachel is back on Brew Ha Ha with Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell, to talk about his new book The Beer Story Project. He has been on BHH before, the last time was this episode last February. Marty also came on this show to talk about one of his other books, Beer for Dummies, on this episode in 2023. (Marty’s phone call came in during the Stateline Road Smokehouse episode, which has its own separate podcast page, right here. This way, both Marty Nachel’s book and Jeremy Threat’s restaurant each get their own online presence for their segment.) Marty Nachel is the founder of the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame and has just published a new book, The Beer Story Project. He started collecting stories in March of this year from as many people in craft brewing as he could find. […]

Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell host another edition of Brew Ha Ha, featuring guests from Anderson Valley Brewing Company. They are the official beer sponsor of the Great Dickens Fair, a Christmas celebration happening at the Cow Palace now through Dec. 21. (During this show, we also got a phone call from Kevin Patterson, manager of the Great Dickens Fair. His portion of this show can be heard over here, on this other podcast episode. This way both guests have their own podcast episode, for their own linking and listener traffic.) Jason O’Connell and Ben Padrone are here from Anderson Valley Brewing Company. Jason is the new owner and Ben is the Lab Manager. They begin by tasting their Salted Caramel Porter, which gets its flavors from the malts that are used, not from any actual caramelized sugars. It is aged for 6 months […]

Kevin Patterson, from the Great Dickens Fair at the Cow Palace through December 21, joins Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell on Brew Ha Ha. Anderson Valley Brewing Company is also in the studio today. They are the official beer sponsor of the Great Dickens Fair. (The AVBC  portion of today’s radio show can be heard over here, at this other podcast page. This way, each guest gets to manage their own web traffic.) The Cow Palace in San Francisco has some great exhibition halls, that they turn into a miniature version of London, including shops, theaters, and six different pubs. Each one has its own style and identity. You enter the Great Dickens Fair through Victoria Station on a train that passes through a magical forest. Then you are “whisked into the 19th century” where the first stop is a pub called The Leather Bottle. […]

Fieldwork Brewing Company co-founder Barry Braden joins Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell on Brew Ha Ha today. Barry Braden and Erin Callahan are here from Fieldwork Brewing Co. They are expanding into Santa Rosa and Erin will manage their restaurant in Montgomery Village. They will open soon, after one last regulatory step. There is a buzz in the neighborhood and people passing by are noticing that it looks like a restaurant already. They will have an extensive beer selection and a full menu including pizza, salad, wings, French fries, fried cauliflower and pickles and lots more. Barry tells about how they serve a rotation of beers, so that fans of different types of beer can keep coming back for their favorites. He also says this is one way to make the brewers’ jobs interesting. They are using a lot of new technologies with their […]

Nick Gislason, co-founder and Head Brewer at Hanabi Lager Co. is our guest on Brew Ha Ha with Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell. Herlinda Heras is just back from Belgium and brought back so much beer that she had to pay for overweight suitcases. Daedalus is also back from his own trip to Paris and London. He gets to reconnect with Herlinda for a few minutes before having to leave for an event later this evening. One of the beers that she brought back is from the Saint Sixtus Monastery in Westvleteren, that she visited, and Daedalus gets to taste it before he has to take off. Hanabi is Japanese for “Fireworks” The labels feature drawings of the patterns that different Japanese fireworks make, up in the air. Nick explains that “hanabi” means fireworks, in Japanese. “Hana” means flower and “bi” means fire, so […]

We open with Herlinda Heras calling from Belgium. Leah Scurto of PizzaLeah and Fairfax Brewing Co’s Dan McGarry talk to Daedalus Howell after that. Herlinda is on a barge on a canal in Belgium, on a beer voyage sponsored by Visit Flanders, the tourist bureau. Herlinda’s tour has taken her near the sites of some important battles of World War One. It included a visit to Flanders Fields. They visited the Saint Sixtus Abbey in Westvleteren, Belgium. The monks who live there and make beer were quite surprised when one of their beers came out Number One on RateBeer dot com. “The poor monks didn’t know what to do with themselves, but now it’s quite the destination.” They went to Rodenbach for a blending class and also to Chimay. Vinny and Natalie from Russian River Brewing Co. are also in Belgium for the Brussels […]

Kenneth Di Alba from Songbird Parlour is our guest today on Brew Ha Ha with Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell. This is his first time on the show. Herlinda says and Daedalus agrees that Songbird Parlour should be the next Michelin starred restaurant in Sonoma County. Daedalus reads from a review he wrote for the Bohemian along with Kary Hess. It sounds delicious. Songbird Parlour is located in the historic Jack London village in Glen Ellen. It was founded in maybe 1832, he thinks. The property has been many things, a creamery, a winery, wine storage, recording studios, even. Now, it is a restaurant for the second time. Upon entering the place, Daedalus says he feels immediately transported. Kenneth has brought some appetizers to taste. They serve wine, beer and spritzer cocktails. Port and tonic is a Portuguese drink. They use a white Port […]