Richard Christy

March 18, 2017 by Marco Leyte-Vidal

1. When did you start to find your passion for craft beer?

I discovered craft beer well before the age that I was supposed to be drinking beer haha. I grew up in Southeast Kansas so I've moved Boulevard Beer since the early 90's. Boulevard is still my go to during Kansas City Chiefs, KU Jayhawks, and Kansas City Royals games at my favorite bar in Queens where I live, John Brown Smokehouse. You can't go wrong with Tank 7! I know this is going to sound like I'm doing an advertisement for them, but I'm so lucky that I live a few blocks from the gathering place for all New York City fans of everything Kansas City! This BBQ is incredible too, the burnt ends are delicious! John Brown Smokehouse is like my "Cheers" and they always have amazing craft beers on tap there. I also tried Sam Adams Triple Bock around 1993 and I instantly loved it and wanted to find more beers like it. I've also been a big fan of Belgian beers and Trappist beers since the early 90's. I discovered Samichlaus in the early 90's too and it's still one of my favorite beers - I drink it every year on St. Nicholas Day, December the 6th, the day it is brewed in Europe!

2. You've become an expert at pairing beer and horror movies, even writing an article for Decibel Magazine about it. How can our readers go about learning how to pair the right beer with their favorite horror movie?

Thank you for the kind words! There are so many great beers nowadays that are horror film themed so it's not too hard to find a great beer to pair with your favorite horror movie. Alesmith's Evil Dead Red goes great with any of the Evil Dead fiylms. I recently had it while watching the newest season of Ash vs. Evil Dead, which is one of my favorite TV shows ever! Unibrou's Maudite goes great with Satan themed films like John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness. Great Lakes' Nosferatu obviously goes great with vampire films. Pumpkin beers pretty much go with any horror film because they all remind you of Halloween and come out in the fall. I personally watch John Carpenter's Halloween every year on Halloween with a nice bottle of my favorite pumpkin beer, Southern Tier Pumpking! Elysian's Dark O' The Moon pumpkin stout goes wonderfully with the werewolf masterpiece An American Werewolf in London.

3. What's your funniest/craziest beer related story?

I won't get into graphic details but I've drank beer though an orifice that isn't my mouth where I work on Sirius-XM satellite radio! I also got to drink one of my favorite beers, Ballast Point sculpin, right out of the tank in San Diego, and it sprayed uncontrollably all over my face so we called it brewkakke! I'm also trying to convince my family that when I die I want my body to be put into a barrel full of beer and I want to ferment for a few years and then be released as the first corpse fermented craft beer so that all of my friends and family can drink me. I think it's safe to say that qualifies as a crazy beer story! Richard Christy Barrel Aged Corpse Barleywine, hopefully not coming very soon!

4. What's your favorite beer right now? Why?

Wow that's a tough question because I have MANY favorite beers! If I had to choose one, I've really been digging Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Break on Sunday mornings lately. I LOVE coffee beers, and it is so relaxing to go for an 8 mile Sundaymorning run, come home, shower, pop open a can of Imperial Biscotti Break and sit down to watch a relaxing episode of CBS Sunday Morning! I love the brewery Funky Buddha too because they make tons of amazing breakfast beers like Maple Bacon Coffee Porter, which is like heaven in a glass! Their French Toast beer is unbelievably delicious on a weekend morning too! I also recently traveled to Chicago and brought back some Three Floyd's Zombie Dust Pale Ale, which is my favorite pale ale ever. Also, The Alchemist's Heady Topper is my favorite IPA, see I told you I couldn't pick just one favorite! Spring is here now too so I'll be drinking plenty of my favorite spring beer Pretty Things' Fluffy White Rabbits if I can find some!

5. Ever think about starting a beer review channel where you review beers alongside your dad?

Maybe one day, although my dad is more old fashioned than I am and he just likes a good Coors. I tried to get him to drink an IPA recently and he thought something was wrong with it, although it could be fun to have my dad try some of the crazy beers that I'm into! I'd love to have my dad try Wynkoop's Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout, which I think is delicious, but a lot of people can't get past the fact that bull testicles are involved in the ingredients. My dad would probably love that one though because we grew up on a farm and ate Rocky Mountain Oysters quite often! Trust me, you don't want to see what Rocky Mountain Oysters look like in their raw form, sitting in a pan before getting breaded and fried, I still can't get that image out of my head 30 years later!

6. You can only have one beer for the rest of your life. What is it?

Southern Tier Pumking. I have so many great memories of drinking that beer because October is my favorite time of the year, I love Halloween and horror films, and Pumking reminds me of all of my favorite things every time I drink it. My birthday is April 1st and I always save a bottle of Pumking to drink along with my favorite movie of all time John Carpenter's Halloween. I save that beer and that movie for two special days a year, April 1st and October 31st. I even have some Pumking that I've been aging for several years that I'll be popping open this year, it ages very well, especially the Rum Barrel Aged Pumking that came out a while back. I LOVE the Rum Barrel Aged Pumking after aging it for a year. I didn't just jump on the pumpkin beer bandwagon either, I discovered it in the mid 90's and have loved it every since!

7. We know you like traveling for beer related events/festivals. What's the best trip you've taken so far and what made it so special?

Luckily there are many! My wife is awesome and she loves traveling to fun beer related events like me! We traveled to Belgium a few years back and visited Cantillon in Brussels which was incredible. We got to tour the brewery and drank tons of Cantillon there. We even bought several bottles to bring back in our luggage, we were like rock stars to all of our craft beer friends when we got back haha! Moeder Lambic is an incredible bar in Belgium that has Cantillon on tap, that was definitely a highlight of our Belgium trip too, I had one of the best IPA's ever while I was there, Amiral Benson from Brasserie du Monte Saleve in France. While in Belgium we also visited the most unique and cool bar we've ever been to in Ghent. It's a bar that one of my beer gurus, my friend Robert Hodson, told me about. Called Velootje, and also known as "The Bicycle Bar", it's unlike any other bar I've ever been too and I don't even know if it's still open. It's at a very friendly guy's house and you have to walk a path through his collection of oddities to get to a bench to sit down. He has two types of beer Delirium regular and Delirium dark and it's unlike anything my wife and I have ever witnessed. We stayed there for five hours and even went back the next day. If you google "Velootje Ghent" you'll see what I mean! My wife and I were fortunate enough to travel to Oktoberfest in Munich last year and it was beer HEAVEN! If there is a heaven, I want it to be a mix of two events, Oktoberfest and Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando.

8. Burnt Hickory makes a beer for your band, Charred Walls of the Damned. What is it and how did that come about?

Scott Hedeen, the owner of Burnt Hickory is a big music fan and he contacted me one day about doing a beer for my band Charred Walls of the Damned and I of course said hell yes! It's a Belgian style barleywine and it is so freakin' delicious! I'm so proud to have our band's name on the beer because it is such a well made beer and people love it. I'm so excited for the Decibel Metal and Beer Fest April 22nd and 23rd at The Fillmore in Philadelphia because Scott will be pouring Charred Walls of the Damned there! I've never had it on tap so I'm so excited! One of my beer gurus, Dave Witte, who is the drummer for the band Municipal Waste, is a beer genius and he'll be hanging at the fest and I'm sure bringing some crazy rare beers! We recently were both part of a massive drum jam at Hardywood Brewery in Richmond Virginia which was incredible! I LOVE Hardywood's beers (especially the Farmhouse Pumpkin and Gingerbread Stout) so getting to visit their brewery and play drums there was a dream come true. Dave also took me to a bar he's been telling me about for years that is beer heaven on earth, Mekong in Richmond, VA.

9. Are you buying into the hazy IPA craze?

Yes I LOVE hazy IPA's! The hazier the better in my opinion! I love IPA's that you can almost chew, with things floating in them! There are so many breweries making incredible IPA's these days like Tree House, Grimm, Other Half, The Alchemist, Finback, Lawson's Liquids, Prohibition Pig, and Maine Beer Co. It's a wonderful time to be an IPA lover! My wife and I live right near an amazing brewery in Queens called Rockaway and they make an IPA called Hawaiian Pizza that we're obsessed with! I'm such a beer geek that I have a specific IPA Glass at home that's made to enhance the aroma of IPA's. I pretty much have a glass for every different style of beer which drives my wife crazy cause half our cabinet is beer glasses haha!

10. What beers motivate you and get you ready for that double bass pedal?

The motivation for me is knowing that once I'm done playing that double bass pedal I'll be rewarding myself with a craft beer! I don't drink beer before I play drums, unless I'm playing a goof off gig with my buddies in the bands Pisser or Bung Dizeez haha, because I look at metal drumming as a race that you're running. It's so physical that I couldn't imagine doing it after having a few beers. I'm a runner too, thanks to my wife motivating me to run because she's a marathon runner, and I use beer as my motivation for running, just like drumming. I know after a half marathon that I've earned a nice craft beer and I've burned off enough calories to deserve it! My wife and I run the Brooklyn Half Marathon every year, it's our favorite race of the year and it ends at Coney Island which we love! We go right to Coney Island Brewing Company and have some of their delicious beers like Beermosa, Freaktoberfest, and the Cotton Candy Kolsch. Then we ride the Cyclone and the Ghost Hole! I consider myself lucky because when I toured with the bands Death and Iced Earth I got to drink beer all over the world and discover so many great beers that I still drink today! All this beer talking is making me thirsty, I think I'll go have a beer right now, awesome talking beer with you, Cheers!

Jess Reiser - Owner Burial Beer Co.

July 27, 2015 by Marco Leyte-Vidal

1. Where is your brewery?

Asheville, North Carolina

2. What was the first beer you had that made you realize craft beer was going to be a bigger part of your life?

Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus was one of the first beers that caused me to reflect on the process and begin to truly appreciate beer as a craft.

3. What is your favorite style to brew and why?

Burial Beer Co., finds infinite inspiration from brewing Saisons.

4. If you were stranded on an island (with a working refrigerator that automatically replenished itself) and you could only have one beer for the rest of your life in that fridge, which would it be?

I would say a saison - from there I would crack coconuts, find mangos, pick hibiscus flowers, and other edible to do infusions to keep it interesting. I believe saisons to be one of the best styles for adjunct infusions.

5. What is your favorite music to listen to in the brewery?

Well, I am just one of many people who plays the music at Burial - it ranges from death metal to David Bowie.

6. Which other brewery has inspired you the most? Why?

Truly, most Belgian breweries - De Dolle, Cantillon, Rochefort, Rodenbach - although we also brew American styles, our inspiration and passion lies in Belgian ales and Saisons. The process and the history behind beer in Belgium is fascinating and a constant discovery for us.

7. Single hop beer - which hops are you using?

We love Huell Melon, El dorado, and Mosaic hops.

8. Where is your favorite place to get a beer after work and why?

Burial. For me, its a combination of a place for my kids to feel welcome, a way for me to try the new beers we have on, plus I am just the most comfortable there. It's my home away from home - truly.

9. What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone who thinks they want to get into the craft beer industry?

Owning a brewery or any small business, I imagine, is like having a child. It is a full time, around the clock commitment for a life time - you make a ton of sacrifices, it is stressful and challenging, but at the end of the day, for those willing to rise to the occasion, it makes you a better person and is worth every bit and then some.

10. Dogs or cats?

Kids and beer.

3 Daughters Brewing

June 15, 2015 by Marco Leyte-Vidal

1. Where is your brewery?

3 Daughters is located in St. Petersburg, FL, about five blocks away from Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. Our tasting room is at 222 22nd Street South, but our beers are sold on draught and in cans throughout the state of Florida.

2. What was the first beer you had that made you realize craft beer was going to be a bigger part of your life?

Our owners actually come from the retail side of hospitality with Mike having a long history at Outback Steakhouse and then owning his own Italian restaurant on Beach Drive. With a focus on farm to table recipes, our introduction to craft beer came in the form of a beer battered fish. At that time, our Head Chef, Ty Weaver, was an avid home brewer. When he made the blonde ale that went in our fish recipe, we decided to put the rest on tap under the name "To Be", as in whatever Ty wanted the beer to be. That beer and subsequent others began to outsell our domestic beers on tap. That is when we decided to sell our interest in the restaurant and move full time into the craft industry.

3. What is your favorite style to brew and why?

Just like a parent is not supposed to have favorite children, so we shouldn't (in theory) have a favorite beer. When asked, our head brewer will talk about a lot of beers but his favorite came down to the Stern Line Stout because of the rich aroma during the boil.

4. If you were stranded on an island (with a working refrigerator that automatically replenished itself) and you could only have one beer for the rest of your life in that fridge, which would it be?

We asked around the brewery to see what everyone would say...

Ty (Head Brewer) - Stern Line Stout; Mike (Owner) - Stern Line Stout; Leigh (Owner) - Belgian Dark Strong; John (COO) - Bimini Twist IPA; Chris (Sales) - Rod Bender Red

There really is something for everyone!

5. What is your favorite music to listen to in the brewery?

Depending on what music you hear when entering the brewery, you can guess who got there first to open. If you hear bluegrass, Susan or Tim may have turned the music on. If you hear Rock, Captain Steve (one of our brewers) is in charge of the tunes. That is definitely playing during the day while they are brewing. However, if you hear any country music, it is a good bet that Mike, Ty or Leigh had control of the playlist that day.

6. Which other brewery has inspired you the most? Why?

Everyone has a different answer to this story. At 3 Daughters Brewing lots of breweries have given us inspiration and assistance. We appreciate all the help given by Cigar City who came by before opening and gave very helpful suggestions. They have led the craft beer revolution in Tampa and it is awesome that they are also great people. As we were designing our tasting room in 2013, we went to Asheville, North Carolina, and toured many breweries including Highlands Brewery, Green Man, Wicked Weed, and a few others. They are all great but we were inspired by Wicked Weed who we consider true innovators and leaders in the market.

7. Single hop beer - which hops are you using?

Using Cascade in several of our beers like the Beach Blonde Ale and it works really well.

8. Where is your favorite place to get a beer after work and why?

We love to go to other craft breweries when we have spare time. It is great to support the craft beer industry and taste what others are doing.

9. What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone who thinks they want to get into the craft beer industry?

Ask others for help and advice! Find the breweries that are leading the industry and ask them for assistance. The craft beer community is closely connected and everyone is willing to other breweries. We have given others our business plan and are glad to let others come in and learn from our experience. Biggest advice: ask others who've done it before you.

10. Dogs or cats?

Dogs!

Maria Cabre-Delfino - Head of Treatments J Wakefield Brewing

May 03, 2015 by Marco Leyte-Vidal

1. Where is your brewery?

In Wynwood, on 24th Street between NW 2nd Ave and North Miami Avenue.

2. What was the first beer you had that made you realize craft beer was going to be a bigger part of your life?

As crazy as this may sound, it wasn't a particular beer, but more about what was happening with beer and food and the way that craft beer has evolved. It's become almost as big as wine.

3. What is your favorite style to brew and why?

My favorite style to brew so far has been our Russian Imperial Stout, La Nada. A lot of work gets put into it.

4. If you were stranded on an island (with a working refrigerator that automatically replenished itself) and you could only have one beer for the rest of your life in that fridge, which would it be?

This really isn't a fair question... But it would have to be Stone's Xocoveza Charred.

5. What is your favorite music to listen to in the brewery?

I have no favorite. We listen to everything from 90's alternative to old school hip hop to oldies. I'll jam to anything really.

6. Which other brewery has inspired you the most? Why?

I really love the way Cigar City has set the bar for treatments. Everything I've had of theirs tastes like what it says it will; and that's the way it should be. Don't call it something and have it taste nothing like it.

7. Single hop beer - which hops are you using?

Citra. I love Citra.

8. Where is your favorite place to get a beer after work and why?

KUSH. Always a fantastic variety of beers and they show local breweries love.

9. What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone who thinks they want to get into the craft beer industry?

The same advice I'd give to someone wanting to get into the food industry; you have NO idea what you're getting in to. It's a test of physical and mental strength on a daily basis. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I love what I do.

10. Dogs or cats?

Dogs. But my Bengal cat is pretty awesome.

Jay Goodwin - Co-Founder and Director of Blending & Brewing The Rare Barrel

April 06, 2015 by Marco Leyte-Vidal

1. Where is your brewery?

Berkeley, California.

2. What was the first beer you had that made you realize craft beer was going to be a bigger part of your life?

Natty Ice. Once I had that I realized something had to change.

3. What is your favorite style to brew and why?

IPA. No, but seriously folks. Sour beer of course! Brewing this style means working without a net. By that I mean not a lot of research and best practices are published in this area. That's tough, but it also means we're on the forefront of learning a lot more about what may be the most complex alcoholic beverage fermentation out there.

4. If you were stranded on an island (with a working refrigerator that automatically replenished itself) and you could only have one beer for the rest of your life in that fridge, which would it be?

I guess in this scenario it pretty much has to be a Pilsner. A great island beer! How about an outstanding local option: Faction Pils from Alameda's Faction Brewing? Come to think of it... they're already on an island, so if I get my choice of island, I'd pick that one!

5. What is your favorite music to listen to in the brewery?

Whoever's doing the most monotonous job gets to pick the music, but if it's me, I'll choose The Black Keys... Or 90's boy bands on Fridays.

6. Which other brewery has inspired you the most? Why?

Hard not to pick The Bruery here since I worked there for 4 years. I don't think we'd be making sour beer today without that experience. They continue to make world class beers! I also love my fellow California brewers: Cellarmaker, Societe, Russian River, and Firestone Walker, along with the Belgian Geuze blenders.

7. Single hop beer - which hops are you using?

We do a dry-hopped sour beer called Egregious that has 5 lbs. of Amarillo per 59 gallon oak barrel. The idea of hops in a sour sounds egregious, but dry-hopping doesn't impact much bitterness so the fruit can shine through on top of the acidic beer.

8. Where is your favorite place to get a beer after work and why?

The promotion of one CA ABC permanent license (favorite place to drink beer) by another permanent licensee (Jay of The Rare Barrel), on social media or otherwise, is the giving of "something of value" (i.e., advertising). That is a violation of tied-house restrictions and a technical licensing violation ... according to the law in California. That being said, Berkeley is home to many great food/beer spots people should check out after they visit The Rare Barrel.

9. What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone who thinks they want to get into the craft beer industry?

Getting into the craft beer industry is a great idea if you love beer and hate money. Do it for the love of the game, but just be sure you're really in love. Being an accountant an a homebrewer sounds nice most days, too.

10. Dogs or cats?

I'm reading this question and I don't get it. "Dogs or"? What does that mean? Usually there are two viable options in an either/or question and I'm not seeing that here. Sorry.