The Brewing Network Presents - The Session

The Session returns to Downtown Joe's, our favorite Napa destination, this week as we continue our tradition of live beer radio from Brewmaster Colin Kaminski's home turf. This time around Jamil Zainasheff joins the program to help talk about evaluating beer. We discuss tasting for flaws and where they come from, as well as finding things we like in beer to accentuate. Also, Beer Jeopardy returns to the program at long last.

The last time Drake's was featured on The BN Roger Davis was the head brewer, now of Triple Rock fame. Well there's a new kid in town and his name is Josh Miner. Josh used to work with Pizza Port and The Lost Abbey and started as head brewer over a year ago at Drake's. Also, the entire brewery is under new ownership and doing some great things with beer. Tune in as we talk about cohumulone in hops, meet a wonderful listener who survived cancer and hear about what Rate Beer has planned for the Bay Area!

The Session crew is back in the studio this week after 2 weeks on the road and we talk about two of the best things on earth; chocolate and beer. Tune in as the folks from San Francisco's newest chocolate pioneers, TCHO, join the show to talk about their chocolates being used in beer. The Homebrew Chef Sean Paxton also joins in to talk about how he has used it in food and beer and, of course, we have absolutely no fun at all...because that would be wrong and inappropriate. After all, this is beer we are talking about...sort of.

This week on The Session we do a show that would have been pointless only a short time ago. But with the rise of homebrewing and craft beer around the world in recent years, there is nary a place on the map without a beer scene and France is no exception. This week we sample French craft beer and speak to the newest startup in Paris; it's first American influenced Micro Brewery. Photos of the topics and places discussed are available at facebook.com/brewingnetwork as we showcase some the breweries and beer shops, as well as some pretty unique homebrew that prove how necessity sparks invention.

The Session is back this week and broadcasting from our brand new studio! Tune in to hear the "soft opening" of studio B and welcome a great brewery from across the pond, Brew Dog! Director James Watt and Brewer Martin Dickie join us live from Scotland to talk about their European brewery that is making waves with creatively inspired beers, and a passion for the extreme. We talk about their 200 year old IPA recipe, brewing non-traditional European beers, sending beer on a boat for 8 weeks and collaborating with Stone. And Mitch Steele from Stone joins in to talk about it too! Good stuff for a long awaited UK show.

This is our Session from the National Homebrewers Conference Club Night. As we have done for the last few years, we get to talk to AHA founder Charlie Papazian about how this year shaped up, and he even tries Brewcaster J's beer!! Tune in to hear what Charlie thought and also from other great guests like Mead champion Byron Burch and orgainc brewing pioneer Amelia Slayton from Seven Bridges Cooperative. Not to mention all the great festival goers at the 2009 Club Night!

After a long week of homebrewing, partying, bus touring, speaking and, well...drinking, the Brewcasters are back in Pacheco this week and we'll wrap up all the events surrounding NHC and BNA4. We'll also be discussing the award winning beers of our Brewcasters and what tips they have that got them there. Also, 2-time Ninkasi winner Gordon Strong will join the show to talk about his repeat and how he did it! Tune in to hear from the best, how to be the best.

In our fourth year of attendance at the National Homebrewers Conference in Oakland CA., The BN brings it strong with several shows from the conference. In this special episode of The Session from the Northern Brewer Hospitality Suite at NHC, we speak to keynote address speaker and founder of Sierra Nevada, Ken Grossman about his brewing history, Colin K. from Downtown Joe's about his NHC water talk, and new DOZE president Erik Beer, among others. This was our first live show for the week, so please excuse some audio problems in the beginning with Ken. Rest assured it drove J more nuts than you.

The BN streams the National Homebrewers Conference awards ceremony live from Oakland! Tune in and find out if you've won one of the most prestigious awards in homebrewing, or cheer on The Brewing Network Club as we see how our brothers have faired in this years competition! You'll also hear from AHA conference organizers Gary Glass, Jamil Zainasheff and Chris Graham as well as supporters like John Maier from Rogue.

With the National Homebrewers Competition finals just around the corner, two of the most award winning brewers ever join The Session live in studio this week to talk about what it takes to make award winning beer and how you can do it too. Take advantage of having two winners of the prestigious Ninkasi award together in one room and get tips from the best. Also, as it sometimes happens, we have some good times with Jamil on tangents, extra NHC guests in studio and some great DOTW calls.

Ok, so it's not exactly a Sunday Session...it's a Saturday Session. The BN broadcasts live from the Monterey Beer Festival Saturday from 2pm to 4pm. We do our thing with brewer interviews from the festival grounds and bring the action of a great summer day in Monterey with over 50 breweries home to you.

This week The Session returns to one of our favorite breweries in California, Downtown Joe's, for a live broadcast from the brewery. Brewmaster Colin "The Mad Scientist" Kaminski joins us for the show and helps cover the topic of balance in your beer and brewing practices. We also begin the June MoreBeer! Donation Raffle of a B3 1000 Brew Sculpture!

This week's episode of The Session features Rob Tod from Allagash Brewing Co. We've been big fans of Allagash for years and we're all excited to talk to Rob about their barrel aged beers, brett beers, cool ships, and the all new Gargamel we keep hearing so much about. We learn about their rich Belgian inspired history, tips on getting the most out of our Belgian style beers, and what makes the beers of Allagash so enjoyable.

On this week's Session we welcome Adam Lamoreaux from the newly opened Linden Street Brewery in Oakland to talk about being the first production brewery in Oakland in many years. Adam talks to us about the long road they had to pave to get the brewery up and running (over 4 years in the making), and also about their flagship beer, Urban Peoples Common Lager. We'll learn about what it takes to start a brewery, what goes in a great California Common, how to brew a black lager and what it means to be a true community brewery.

A question that always comes up over the past few years of BN shows is how to properly maintain our precious home breweries that we've invested so much time, effort and money into. This week the Brewcasters will explain what they do each year to keep things in top shape and ready to brew at a moments notice. We also be cover judging and score sheets from the first round of Nationals (some Brewcasters are not too happy). And to say that this show is revealing about the Brewcasters personal lives would be an understatement. If you're a fan...download twice!! Just sayin.