Craft Beer Republic · Craft Beer Republic

Have Your Way with a Beer

April 1, 2026·42 min·2 clips

Rogue Beard Beer used yeast harvested from the brewmaster's beard, and beards are full of fecal particles.

1. Craft Beer Republic hosts Greg and Flex are joined by returning co-host Steph of Beer Nerd Radio for a wide-ranging craft beer news and tasting episode. 2. Steph represents the Utah Brewers Guild and hosts Beer Nerd Radio; Flex is returning after a period of not drinking; Greg attended a Milwaukee Brewers opening game. 3. The episode's core hook is framed as 'five reasons to stop drinking' alongside beer origin stories and current craft beer industry news. 4. Greg opens his tasting with Russian River's Road 2 Hill 56 Single Hop Pale Ale, a 5.4% ABV, 65 IBU Simcoe-only beer named for a location in Yakima's experimental hop yard, rated 4.0 stars on Untappd across 34,000 ratings. 5. Greg describes the pale ale as extremely light, crushable, and dry-finishing with light citrus and pine, noting he drank half the bottle before recording. 6. Steph drinks a bottle she saved from 2021 of Red Rock Brewing's Sakali, a rye barrel-aged Doppelbock at 8.5% ABV rated 4.02 on Untappd, which she buys in bulk each year to do vertical tastings. 7. Greg's gross origin story segment this week focuses on Rogue Brewery's Beard Beer, in which yeast was isolated from hairs in the brewmaster's beard and used to ferment the beer. 8. Greg notes that beards are known to harbor fecal particles, which moves Steph from a tentative maybe to a definitive no on whether she would drink Beard Beer. 9. Greg recounts a San Francisco Uber ride during a work trip where the driver delivered an unsolicited five-minute monologue praising the Giants before Greg revealed he is a Dodgers fan. 10. The Uber driver escalated with 'fuck the Dodgers' and claimed to be at 'Kobe's last game,' meaning in Sacramento, which Greg dismissed as far less impressive than being at Staples Center. 11. The driver also turned out to be a Sacramento Kings fan rather than a Warriors fan, which Greg found so absurd he laughed the rest of the ride. 12. Beer Board data showed St. Patrick's Day draft volume rose 35.5% year over year despite falling on a Tuesday, while draft revenue grew 15.5%; the preceding weekend was down 5.1% in volume and 9% in revenue. 13. During March Madness, Busch Light was up 3.9%, Guinness up 15.3%, and Blue Moon up 21.1%, with the Blue Moon figure surprising the hosts given its overlap with an active Colin Jost marketing campaign. 14. Firestone Walker announced it is acquiring full U.S. rights to Trumer Pils from the Gambrinus Brewing Company and will move all U.S. production to Paso Robles; Greg and Steph found the announcement ambiguous about whether it covers distribution rights in addition to production. 15. Anheuser-Busch's Natural Light launched Lawn Brew, a $15 per bag lawn fertilizer made from spent brewing grains, marketed with an age-21 purchase requirement. 16. Steph points out that most craft breweries already donate spent grains to local farms at no charge and that the Brewers Association is lobbying for a tax break to incentivize that practice, making AB's commercial approach a point of contrast. 17. The episode's tone is conversational and adult-humored, blending craft beer tasting notes with news commentary and personal anecdotes, with frequent tangents that include crude jokes. 18. The format is three-host roundtable with Greg driving topic changes; Steph participates remotely and her camera drops out mid-episode due to Wi-Fi issues. 19. Craft beer enthusiasts who enjoy casual tasting commentary, beer industry news, and irreverent humor will find this episode entertaining. 20. Listeners expecting structured beer education, deep tasting methodology, or professional tone will likely find the humor too crude and the discussion too meandering.

As heard by us

Beer talk, baseball chatter, and beard-beer absurdity in a loose, profane hangout.

Craft Beer Republic starts in a loose, conversational register, moving through beer origin stories, the return of Miss Giggly Socks, a California beer shakeup, and a few side roads that keep it from sounding staged.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you like your beer talk messy, funny, and a little disgusting.

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