Grit & Grain Podcast

We’re keeping it Tacoma this week with a fresh face to the show and one of the newer faces in the local beer industry. Odd Otter Brewing sales rep/general manager/all-around hype machine Max Beckstrom joins us this week to talk everything from his Army days to kitchen management to jumping over to the sales side of the craft beer world — representing Odd Otter all over Western Washington. This is a perfect episode to get to know one of the friendliest beer industry folks we know, and one you’re definitely gonna see around town pretty often. Plus, get the scoop on some new Odd Otter beers and even some business development news! Odd Otter has some pretty big plans in the works. We love seeing a small local beer business grow. Support your local beer folks and make sure to say hi when you see them in the wild. Cheers, y’all! Tap, tap, tap Alright, Grit & Grainers! Please email us at cheers@gritandgrainpodcast.com with your comments, opinions, favorite Odd Otter beer. You can subscribe to GGP on YouTube, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and iHeartRadio, and please leave us a review. Be sure to also follow us on Facebook and Instagram . If this podcast is not what you expected, please alter your expectations. No such thing as a bad time to visit Tacoma. No such thing as too much barleywine. Tune in next Friday for more sweet chatter. Cheers! The post Episode 206: Food Prep to Beer Rep with Max Beckstrom appeared first on Grit & Grain Podcast .

This week’s episode will be a little different than usual. As many of you may know, this has been a complicated few weeks for our friends at E9 Brewing . Since the reveal of some rather unsavory political contributions by members of the ownership team, we’ve heard quite a bit from local politicians, upset community members, and wealthy property owners. But, we haven’t had the opportunity to hear much from the actual employees — the people making the beer, pouring your pints, and delivering your kegs; people who are, undoubtedly, the most affected by this entire situation. This week our best buddy and Grit & Grain co-founder Sean Jackson and long-time beer industry professional Grace Zigweid sat down for a beer and walked us through their experience these last few weeks as employees of E9. Tune in to get an extra perspective from inside E9’s walls from members of the team that have worked for years to make that space as welcoming and inclusive as possible, which begs the question: Who does a brewery really belong to? This is a real conversation with folks still processing a heartbreaking incident that has turned their world’s upside down. Please keep comments respectful. Vote with your wallets. Support trans rights. ‘Stand with ALL community members who might be negatively affected by business owner’s actions. The post Episode 205: Let’s Talk About E9 appeared first on Grit & Grain Podcast .

Its September! Which means it’s time for Oktoberfest, right? We’re pretty sure that’s how that works. … Either way, among all the fresh hops and pumpkin ales gracing the doorway to fall, sits the most historical seasonal style, and we wanted to dedicate an hour to it! This week the team sat down talk all the ins and outs of Oktoberfest . From where and why it started, to historical versions of the styles, the permeation of pale festbiers, and some dos and don’ts if you’re attending the real deal festival in Munich. Tune in for the regular scheduled silliness, some fun facts about the annual beer festival, and get a snapshot of the local Oktoberfest calendar courtesy of Ron! Tap, tap, tap Alright, Grit & Grainers! Please email us at cheers@gritandgrainpodcast.com with your comments, opinions, and how many lager-filled liter mugs you can carry at once. You can subscribe to GGP on YouTube, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and iHeartRadio, and please leave us a review. Be sure to also follow us on Facebook and Instagram . If this podcast is not what you expected, please alter your expectations. No such thing as a bad time to visit Tacoma. No such thing as too much barleywine. Tune in next Friday for more sweet chatter. Cheers! The post Grit And Grain Episode 204: What Month is Oktoberfest? appeared first on Grit & Grain Podcast .

Kings & Daughters co-founder and brewmaster Kyle Larsen joins Grit & Grain on the eve of his brewery’s fifth-anniversary Tacoma celebration to trace the wonderfully indirect route that eventually became Kings & Daughters. Larsen’s brewing life winds from Full Sail and his formative years at Double Mountain through brewing science at Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University , a family move to England and the head brewer job at Siren Craft Brew , then finally back home to Hood River — just in time for a pandemic to rearrange nearly everything. Along the way, British pubs, cask beer, lower-alcohol drinking culture, four children and his creative partnership with wife Kacie McMackin all found their way into the brewery they eventually built. The conversation explores what makes a Kings & Daughters beer taste like Kings & Daughters: softness, balance, technical precision and the increasingly radical notion that flavor doesn’t need to shout. It also follows Kyle and Kacie from launching without a traditional brewery of their own to finally opening The Walled Garden , their intimate Hood River public house inspired by the gardens and pubs they loved in England. Then we turn toward five years and three anniversary collaborations — Free Dive with Jake Watt , Face to the Sun with Breakside ’s Ben Edmunds and Deeply Rooted with Kyle’s old Double Mountain family — beers that function less like birthday presents than liquid thank-you notes to people who helped shape the brewer Kyle became. Listen to Episode 203 to hear how a lesson from one brewer, a pint from another, a garden from England, science from Scotland, a name from your children and an idea from your wife can eventually become something unmistakably your own — and how, somewhere along the way, all those borrowed pieces stop looking borrowed and start looking like you. Tap, tap, tap Alright, Grit & Grainers! Please email us at cheers@gritandgrainpodcast.com with your comments, opinions, and favorite Kings & Daughters’ beer. You can subscribe to GGP on YouTube, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and iHeartRadio, and please leave us a review. Be sure to also follow us on Facebook and Instagram . If this podcast is not what you expected, please alter your expectations. No such thing as a bad time to visit Tacoma. No such thing as too much barleywine. Tune in next Friday for more sweet chatter. Cheers! The post Grit & Grain Podcast Episode 203: Kyle Larsen Takes the Long Way Home appeared first on Grit & Grain Podcast .

Washington Wild Brewshed Alliance Director Chris Chappell returns to Grit & Grain to explain what happens when the forests, rivers and public lands that make great beer possible suddenly need the beer industry to return the favor. The conversation moves from efforts to sell federal public lands and weaken the Roadless Rule to the nearly 90 breweries and beer businesses using their collective voice for conservation, including the Public Lands Pub Ale, No Boat Brewing’s massive Lagerhead festival and Watershed Pub’s wonderfully civic-minded Convergence series. at Watershed Pub . Along the way, Chris makes the case that conservation doesn’t always need to feel like homework. Sometimes advocacy looks like a brewer signing a letter. Sometimes it’s a neighborhood pub gathering people around a cause. Sometimes it’s breweries pouring lager to protect clean water. And sometimes the most effective doorway into complicated public-land policy might simply be a pint and the question of where its water came from. Because beer begins long before the mash tun — upstream in forests, snowpack and watersheds — and protecting those places ultimately means protecting what eventually winds up in our glasses. Tap, tap, tap Alright, Grit & Grainers! Please email us at cheers@gritandgrainpodcast.com with your comments, opinions, and what you think is the most underrated watershed in Washington. You can subscribe to GGP on YouTube, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and iHeartRadio, and please leave us a review. Be sure to also follow us on Facebook and Instagram . If this podcast is not what you expected, please alter your expectations. No such thing as a bad time to visit Tacoma. No such thing as too much barleywine. Tune in next Friday for more sweet chatter. Cheers! The post Episode 202: WA Wild Brewshed Alliance Director Chris Chappell appeared first on Grit & Grain Podcast .

Last weekend, we packed up the cars and made the trek over to Spokane for the amazing Grainmaker Fes t — the annual celebration of specialty malt with more than 50 participating breweries and 25 special collaboration beers on tap. We were lucky to be joined by our best buddies Brian Estes from LINC Malt and Leslie Shore from Cold Stream Malt & Grain for a tag team episode where we talked about everything from festival planning, collab curation, and of course the last-minute adaptations to the wildfires that broke out in the beginning of the week. Tune for all the details on the festival, some beer highlights, and to hear how the beer industry came together to help the community in Spokane as much as possible during a very difficult time. Drink good beer and, if you can, drink it for a good cause. Tap, tap, tap Alright, Grit & Grainers! Please email us at cheers@gritandgrainpodcast.com with your comments, opinions, and favorite milling style. You can subscribe to GGP on YouTube, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and iHeartRadio, and please leave us a review. Be sure to also follow us on Facebook and Instagram . If this podcast is not what you expected, please alter your expectations. No such thing as a bad time to visit Tacoma. No such thing as too much barleywine. Tune in next Friday for more sweet chatter. Cheers! The post Grit & Grain Episode 201: Grainmaker 2026 appeared first on Grit & Grain Podcast .

We made it fam! Two-hundred episodes officially in the book. We continue our special double-header with Georgetown Brewing Research & Development Brewer Matt Edwards and tagging in for Part 2 is co-founder, Roger Bialous. Georgetown has been in the news lately with the announcement of their brand-new production, packaging, and storage space across from their current state-of-the-art-facility. Roger updated us and the plans for the future of the ever-evolving brewery, which include Matt’s attempts to push their low ABV IPA to its limits with full flavored sub 3% hoppy bangers. Tune in for brewery updates and details on secret new beers. And make sure to go all the way back to Episode 9 and 10 to catch Georgetown’s first appearance on the Grit & Grain Podcast. To this day, they are still some of our favorite conversations. Cheers to 200 and here’s to 200 more! Tap, tap, tap Alright, Grit & Grainers! Please email us at cheers@gritandgrainpodcast.com with your comments, opinions, and favorite Georgetown beer. You can subscribe to GGP on YouTube, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and iHeartRadio, and please leave us a review. Be sure to also follow us on Facebook and Instagram . If this podcast is not what you expected, please alter your expectations. No such thing as a bad time to visit Tacoma. No such thing as too much barleywine. Tune in next Friday for more sweet chatter. Cheers! The post Grit & Grain Episode 200 Special Edition: Matt and Roger from Georgetown appeared first on Grit & Grain Podcast .

It’s crazy to think we are one episode away from 200! To celebrate the occasion, we got together with The Pink Boots Society and Georgetown Brewing , put together a special collab beer, and released it for this special doubleheader episode. Long-time Georgetown brewer and Research and Development Brewer Matt Edwards and Pink Boots Society Seattle Chapter Leader Ali Himmel-Smith came to hang on the mic and drink a few pints of our beer, “More Me, Less You.” Tune in to hear about Matt’s origin story in the beer world, Ali’s move over to draft line cleaning and her venture into the wine world, and the dangers of being a farm hand. Tap, tap, tap Alright, Grit & Grainers! Please email us at cheers@gritandgrainpodcast.com with your comments, opinions, and favorite Georgetown beer. You can subscribe to GGP on YouTube, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and iHeartRadio, and please leave us a review. Be sure to also follow us on Facebook and Instagram . If this podcast is not what you expected, please alter your expectations. No such thing as a bad time to visit Tacoma. No such thing as too much barleywine. Tune in next Friday for more sweet chatter. Cheers! The post Episode 199: A Georgetown Brewing and Pinks Boots Special appeared first on Grit & Grain Podcast .

We are rounding the corner to Episode 200, which is insane! We definitely didn’t want to hit the next milestone without spending a Sunday morning goofing around with our previous co-host and best buddy, Sean Jackson. We pulled him out of bed, shoved barleywine and lambic in his face for breakfast, and caught up on everything we could squeeze into an episode. Tune in to find out why Sean and Ron were fashionably late, some highlights of the past 100 or so episodes, and for further proof that Sean Jackson is a long, lost Looney Tunes character. Tap, tap, tap Alright, Grit & Grainers! Please email us at cheers@gritandgrainpodcast.com with your comments, opinions, and favorite missing tooth. You can subscribe to GGP on YouTube, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and iHeartRadio, and please leave us a review. Be sure to also follow us on Facebook and Instagram . If this podcast is not what you expected, please alter your expectations. No such thing as a bad time to visit Tacoma. No such thing as too much barleywine. Tune in next Friday for more sweet chatter. Cheers! The post Episode 198: Secret Sunday Episode with Sean Jackson appeared first on Grit & Grain Podcast .

This weekend has some of the best annual events we know of — all happening at once! On that list is the insanely popular Lagerhead Festival at No Boat Brewing in Snoqualmie . The 3rd annual celebration of all things cold-crashed has seen the number of attending breweries triple since it started, including many you might not be as familiar with. This week, our best buddy, fellow lager lover, and Rainier Growlers bar manager, Ben Chase, took a break from planning their own 12th annual Christmas in July Barrel Aged tap takeover event to hang with us to go over a few of the attending breweries, talk about a few favorite lager makers, and tell you all who to look for at Lagerhead. Hey, speaking of festivals… Don’t forget to grab your tickets to Grainmaker in Spokane on Aug. 7. Tap, tap, tap Alright, Grit & Grainers! Please email us at cheers@gritandgrainpodcast.com with your comments, opinions, and favorite lagers. You can subscribe to GGP on YouTube, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and iHeartRadio, and please leave us a review. Be sure to also follow us on Facebook, Instagram , and YouTube . If this podcast is not what you expected, please alter your expectations. No such thing as a bad time to visit Tacoma. No such thing as too much barleywine. Tune in next Friday for more sweet chatter. Cheers! The post Episode 197: It’s Lagerhead Weekend! appeared first on Grit & Grain Podcast .

<p>We’re back, baby! The team took a week off for the holiday and some travel, and we’re pumped to be back on the mic to catch up on what everyone has been doing. Bethany was...</p> <p>The post <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com/episode-196-all-around-the-world-for-the-4th/">Episode 196: All Around the World for the 4th</a> appeared first on <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com">Grit & Grain Podcast</a>.</p>

<p>We know many of our listeners have tried their hand off-flavor tasting. Whether you’re studying for certification exams or just leveling up your brewing game, off-flavor identification is a must. But many of the options for...</p> <p>The post <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com/episode-195-turning-the-off-flavor-industry-on-its-head/">Episode 195: Turning the Off-Flavor Industry on Its Head</a> appeared first on <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com">Grit & Grain Podcast</a>.</p>

<p>This week, we’re on location at Washington Brewers Fest. Held each year smack dab in the middle of Seattle Center, with dozens of Washington breweries and cideries, local food, and all the funk music you...</p> <p>The post <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com/episode-194-washington-brewers-fest-2026/">Episode 194: Washington Brewers Fest 2026</a> appeared first on <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com">Grit & Grain Podcast</a>.</p>

<p>A little over a year ago, we had the fantastic folks behind Burien’s own Logan Brewing on the podcast to celebrate our amazing collab with them and Lander Coffee for Tacoma Beer Week 2025. Since...</p> <p>The post <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com/episode-193-checking-in-with-logan-brewing/">Episode 193: Checking In with Logan Brewing</a> appeared first on <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com">Grit & Grain Podcast</a>.</p>

<p>The 2026 Firestone Invitational Beerfest was amazing. Matt, Ron, and Phaedra had all planned to meet up for the festival, but Ron had to rain check this one as he had a staff emergency and...</p> <p>The post <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com/episode-192-firestone-invitational-recap-with-melissa-urquhart/">Episode 192: Firestone Invitational Recap with Melissa Urquhart</a> appeared first on <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com">Grit & Grain Podcast</a>.</p>

<p>The World Beer Cup added a “Rice Lager” category for the first time in 2026, and two Northwest breweries promptly earned medals in it — which is pretty amazing. Much like Mexican lager, rice lager,...</p> <p>The post <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com/episode-191-whats-so-japanese-about-rice-lagers/">Episode 191: What’s so Japanese About Rice Lagers?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com">Grit & Grain Podcast</a>.</p>

<p>Way back when our episodes were still in the double digits, the stellar brewing talent Mike Hunsaker sat down to tell us about his journey setting up shop in Washington and winning every award in...</p> <p>The post <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com/episode-190-shouldering-the-weight-of-limitless-talent-with-grains-of-wrath/">Episode 190: Shouldering the Weight of Limitless Talent with Grains of Wrath</a> appeared first on <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com">Grit & Grain Podcast</a>.</p>

<p>Happy Seattle Beer Week! A bunch of amazing brewers and beer folks have converged on Seattle this week to celebrate all things beer. We took advantage and dragged Michael Messenie down for a quick pod...</p> <p>The post <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com/episode-189-real-ale-with-michael-messenie-from-dutchess-ales/">Episode 189: Real Ale with Michael Messenie from Dutchess Ales </a> appeared first on <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com">Grit & Grain Podcast</a>.</p>

<p>Happy Cinco de Mayo / May the 4th week! Owners and operators of Vice Beer, Michael and Bria Perozzo are in the house! We are flush with Star Wars-themed beers, and we just couldn’t wait...</p> <p>The post <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com/episode-188-may-the-4th-be-with-you-a-new-vice/">Episode 188: May the 4th Be With You: A New Vice </a> appeared first on <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com">Grit & Grain Podcast</a>.</p>

<p>Matt’s back from Berlin! He was gone so long and missed so much that we figured we might as well just crack a few beers and catch up a bit. Ron’s been busy traveling all...</p> <p>The post <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com/episode-187-berlin-rons-road-trip-and-american-beer-economics/">Episode 187: Berlin, Ron’s Road Trip, and American Beer Economics</a> appeared first on <a href="https://gritandgrainpodcast.com">Grit & Grain Podcast</a>.</p>