Better on Draft | Craft Beer Podcast · Better On Draft Podcast

Better on Draft 372 | Eric Bean of Columbus Brewing Company

·1 hr 11 min·4 clips

Breweries can make incredible beer and still go under when marketing, branding, and debt do not line up.

Rob opens with the familiar beer check-in. Wendy is drinking We're Wolves of Michigan from City Built Brewing Company, a West Coast IPA, while Rob finishes an Upland Polar Bear Kisses growler and talks about an early drive to Madison for Great Taste of the Midwest. Eric joins with Ohio Light. He says it is Columbus Brewing Company's newest beer this year, just put out in package, and a light, easy-drinking release that fits the season. The episode settles into the usual table talk. Rob, Wendy, and Eric move easily from greetings to beer talk, with quick confirmations, small side comments, and enough room for the guest to answer at length. Columbus, Ohio gets the local-identity treatment. Rob even notes that listeners from Indiana may need the city specified, which sets the episode's practical, regional tone right away. Buildouts come up next. Eric and the hosts talk about how long brewery projects take, why a buildout can stretch for 18 months, and how those timelines shape what a brewery can actually do. Zoning is part of the same story. The conversation turns to effluent, sewer bills, and the way some cities still have to be convinced that a brewery is not sending something mysterious or dangerous down the drain. That leads to some blunt beer-world reality. They note that breweries have learned to neutralize waste, avoid dumping beer straight down the sewer, and work within rules that used to be looser and are not anymore. Smaller towns get their own mention. The episode points out that the hardest part is often not the beer itself but getting a city to understand water use, discharge, and the scale of a modern brewery. Eric also talks about room to experiment. He mentions a 5,000-square-foot space in the back side of the brewery, with fooders and other tanks, plus the freedom to keep working on lagers, light beers, and other techniques without locking the brewery into one lane. The tone stays loose. That looseness suits a show that likes brewery operations, regional beer culture, and the messy middle as much as the final pint.

As heard by us

A relaxed brewery chat that gets useful once the effluent and sewer talk starts.

Eric Bean's visit to Better On Draft is a brewery conversation that stays close to the work itself. It opens with Columbus Brewing's Ohio Light, then moves into lighter styles, buildouts, and the practical realities that sit under brewery life, from zoning to effluent to sewer…

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Why you'd press play

You want a beer-world chat that starts with Ohio Light and ends with sewer bills.

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