Season 4

PSA: For the time being, BL will be posted every 2 weeks The Beer ladies are back in your ears and on your screens! We've missed you all and yet enjoyed our summers - hope you did too. This week we’re catching up on all things summer, festivals, what we drank, where we visited, as well as giving you all a sneak peek into Season 4. It’s good to be back!

Katie, Christina and Thandi are taking on an array of sober adjacent topics this week just in time for Sober October. What is the sobercurious movement? How do you evaluate alcohol's role in your life? And what needs to be done to make non-alc just as normal as drinking? We chat about the state of alcohol on mental and physical health (shout out to those who work in the alcohol biz!) and ruminate on generational gaps when it comes to booze and labels.

Lisa and Christina are embracing spooky season and going ghost hunting! Our guest this week is Jo Hart from The Ghost Trail which is a spooky series exploring haunted sites, abandoned & forgotten places, strange phenomena and people's weird experiences around the UK & beyond. Follow Jo’s series in the links below. Thanks so much to https://www.craftbeersdelivered.com for sponsoring this video!

Have you ever thought about pairing Horror Movies? We have! Join resident horror movie buffs Christina and Lisa convince Thandi that horror movies can be cool, especially when there’s a delicious brew to go with it. Let us know your favourite pairings in the comments. Thanks so much to https://www.craftbeersdelivered.com for sponsoring this video!

It’s official - Ireland has a dedicated Craft Beer magazine! This week we chat to Radka, a Slovakian native who’s been in Ireland for a good few years, and has bounced all over the beer scene culminating in Hop Glossy - a digital magazine dedicated to sharing the news and brews of the craft beer scene. The story is awesome, and so is Radka - let’s show her some support!

This week we’re talking to Dr Susan Flavin, a food historian who recently has been part of an epic project to recreate a 16th century brewhouse and brew a beer of the time. In this fascinating project - link below - the team used a recipe based on a beer once served in Dublin Castle, in order to not only taste it, but to learn more about the role beer played in the early modern period. This one will tickle the beer history nerds and casual beer fans alike!

It’s the most wonderful time for a beer! Yes yes, we are cheesy sometimes, but hey - it’s Christmas; it’s allowed! This week we’re back with our Christmas Gift guide - so if you’ve left it til the last minute to buy your beer-loving pals a gift, we’ve got you covered.

We’re kicking off 2024 with a not-so-deep dive into the world of British Bitters; what they are, why they’re different (or not…) to adjacent styles and we tackle perceptions of them. Sadly, they’re not widely available in Ireland. We talk about how different the beer and pub culture are between us and our neighbours, the UK, and this includes Bitter and cask beers in general. 

It’s St Brigid’s Day in Ireland and we’ve covered her before (S1E14) -but this week we thought we’d give a nod to the other monastic women in brewing, by honouring the nuns that brewed like (and with!) monks. Particularly, we focus on Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century German Abbess who is responsible for many things, including the first (surviving) written history of the use of hops in beer. She sits alongside St Brigid (albeit unofficially) as the patron saint of beer!

Also, listen to what Christina and Lisa have been up to. Books! Blogs! All the things! 

On 1 February 2024, Ireland launched the new return deposit scheme called Re-Turn. It’s essentially a recycling initiative, where you pay a bit extra on your cans (and some plastics) and then get it back when you return them to the Re-Turn “vending machines”. Sounds good right? Well… the beer industry has a lot to say about it, as do customers. This week we chat to Caoimhe from TheCru.ie and Leah from Whiplash Beer to get the inside scoop. 

This week Lisa and Christina chat with Lars Marius Garshol, a Norwegian beer history writer. He has a special interest and has written several books on Farmhouse brewing in Europe. Listen as we learn about how Farmhouse brewing was done, the way it evolved, and why it’s still current and relevant; a few myths are busted along the way.

This week Lisa and Christina chat with Barry Masterson; an Irish-born, German-based cider and perry maker. Listen to Barry’s journey to Perry through the world of homebrewing and farming. We chat about what Perry tastes like, the challenges with making it, and why it may have the most interesting history of all the alcohols!

Friends, the long-awaited and much-anticipated arrival of Christina’s book is here! It’s officially being launched on 7 March but is available already (see below). In this episode, we turn Christina from host into guest and grill her on what the book is about, the process of writing it, and what to look forward to from her. Do support her, this is important work that tells the stories of women and their role in beer brewing from Medieval times until now in the UK. 

This week we’re replaying one of our favourite episodes for you: beer and chocolate pairing with Joanne Love. It’s Women’s Month and while we have a bunch of new episodes coming, it felt only right to do a throwback to a wonderful beer lady. 

If you’re new here or haven’t listened to the whole back catalogue, we’ve gotcha covered. Enjoy! 

Continuing our theme of Women's Month replays - we’re going back all the way to Season 1 (with Covid references even!) where we chatted with Aine from Connemara Brewing. Aine has a rich history in brewing that’s taken her all over the world and has vast experience in both small and macro breweries. She now runs Connemara Brewing (with a great team!) and is employing some very interesting techniques. We loved having Aine on the pod and hope you appreciate the replay!

Welcome back to another Women’s Month replay - and this week we’re rebroadcasting our chat with Apiwe Nxusani-Mawela, one of South Africa’s best known brewers. Apiwe was the first black woman in South Africa to own a brewery, and boasts a CV that would make almost any brewer look like an amateur. She’s had a very interesting journey into and through the beer world, with loads of ups and downs - today we talk about her brand Tolokazi, her NPO Brew4Change as well as her personal adventures all over the world judging and talking about beer. 

We’re rounding off our Women’s Month special replays with Ulrike from Schneeeule in Germany. Did you know that the style of Berliner Weisse nearly died out? Meet one of the brewers who are keeping it - in its most historically accurate form -alive: Ulrike Genz from Schneeeule brewery in Berlin. She tells Lisa, Katie, and Thandi all about how Berliner Weisse should actually contain Brettanomyces, why kettle souring isn’t “the way” and takes us through her own fascinating journey from Civil Engineering to brewing.

After a short catchup on what’s been keeping us busy, we’re chatting about beer competitions! Especially as our Irish National Competition is coming up on 18 May - and beyond giving you all a taste of what a competition looks like, how it's put together, this is also a big ol’ shout out to the homebrewers, judges and volunteers near and far to come and join us for Nationals. If you’d like to sponsor any sort of prize, get in touch with Thandi on Instagram at @craftgeeeksa 

This week we’re delving into the mish-mash of cultures: beer and running. Turns out they’re not far removed from each other, with all sorts of events incorporating both and the rise of isotonic beers. Listen as Lisa, Katie and Christina share their own running (and walking!) journeys and views on how the two cultures marry or collide.

This week we’re talking about all the weird and whacky beers out there! Are they gimmicky or marketing genius? What sort of novelties do we all fall for? From the punny, to the pure nasty, we have examples for you of the strangest beers out there.