Local beer radio with a taproom pulse.
AG Craft Beer Cast follows the craft beer world from a New York and New Jersey vantage point. Episodes mix brewery conversations, event previews, beer-business news, music references, and plainspoken support for local businesses.
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AG Craft Beer Cast is a craft beer program rooted in the New York and New Jersey beer circuit. It feels like local radio because it is built around that rhythm: a greeting, a quick scene-setter, news, interviews, and a signoff with the next thing already on the calendar. The show spends serious time with the people behind breweries. Chuck Aaron appears in connection with Jersey Girl Brewing and its 10 years in Mount Olive, along with his work as a councilman in town. Tim Puitt comes on around Wet Ticket Brewing's ninth anniversary. Brian Kubacki is framed through Departed Soles in Jersey City and the brewery's pop-culture beer releases. Ann Riley brings the New York City Brewers Guild and New York City Brewed into view. The show also reaches beyond individual taprooms into the broader business of beer. Firestone Walker taking over U.S. production of Trumer Pils, the future of 21st Amendment, alcohol health surveys, and changing bar habits all become part of the conversation. It is not a slow tasting-table show. It moves. A holiday aside, a Van Halen or Judas Priest reference, a memory of the Staten Island Ferry, or a note about March Madness can sit right next to barrel counts, festival tickets, and brewery layoffs. That looseness is part of the identity. The craft beer scene here is not presented as an abstract industry; it is a network of specific places, commutes, bars, anniversaries, food trucks, city views, and people trying to keep doors open. Local support is a recurring argument, sometimes stated plainly enough to sound like a warning. Buy from the places that matter, because they may not be there next time. The show is also comfortable acknowledging change. Younger drinkers may not treat alcohol the way older bar regulars did, breweries can struggle after only a few years, and familiar segments can be retired when interviews become more useful. That gives the program a practical edge. It celebrates beer culture without pretending the business is easy. For listeners who track regional breweries, festivals, taproom openings, business moves, and the personalities behind the beer, AG Craft Beer Cast offers a steady, conversational survey of the scene.
Made for: For craft beer fans who care about regional breweries, festival calendars, taproom culture, and the business pressures behind the pint. It especially fits listeners following New York and New Jersey beer scenes.
What sets it apart: The show combines AM-radio pacing with granular local beer coverage, giving brewery anniversaries, business moves, ferry memories, music cues, and small-business advocacy the same conversational space.
Podcast by AG Craft Beer Cast
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A relaxed beer-culture dispatch connecting March Madness, the Staten Island Ferry, and Stone Brewing's Petco Park tap room.
AG Craft Beer Cast follows beer through ordinary places rather than polished tasting rooms. A March Madness opening rolls into the Staten Island Ferry serving coffee and snacks again, then on to Stone Brewing's tap room at Petco Park.
A Labor Day beer chat becomes a relaxed, grounded look at changing drinking habits and bar culture.
A Labor Day beer with friends leads Al Gattulo into a relaxed discussion of who drinks, who opts out, and what those choices could mean for bars.
Bourbon talk, barrel stories, messy good pours.
Bourbon reviews with memory, candor, and community.
Everyday life, thought through together.
Al Gattulo interviews Tim Puitt, co-owner of Wet Ticket Brewing, discussing their ninth anniversary and potential collaboration.
Al Gattullo hosts the Labor Day edition of the AG Craft Beer Cast on AM 970 The Answer.
The host discusses his weekend, the weather, and a Spyro Gyro concert before promoting the upcoming Atlantic City Beer and Music Fest with John Henderson.
Host discusses Judas Priest concert and upcoming interview with Brian Kubacki of Departed Soles brewery, plus news about 21st Amendment brewery closure.
Host plays Van Halen's debut album and previews an upcoming interview with Ann Riley about the NYC Brewed festival.
Al Gatulo's all-news episode covers brewery closures, including Stone's Escondido shutdown that eliminates 272 jobs and Triple Rock's closing after 40 years.
Al Gattulo previews an interview with Chuck Aaron of Jersey Girl Brewing, celebrating 10 years in business, and discusses New Jersey Pint Day.
This episode covers craft beer news, an interview with Sam Calagione about a Record Store Day event, and a conversation with John Henderson about the final Atlantic City Beer and Music Fest.
Al Gattulo spends much of this episode on New York and New Jersey beer news, from the 28th annual Legendary Beer Fest on Saturday, May 2 to the Staten Island Ferry selling canned cocktails, beers, and hard seltzers again.
The host discusses supporting local breweries and promotes upcoming events at Jersey Girl Brewing's 10th anniversary celebration.
Russ Heisner explains why Barrel House Z closed after nine years amid shrinking demand and rising operating costs.
John Hall discusses Breakside Brewery’s Nature Calls, a beer marketed around bear-pooped water without putting bear waste in the fermenter.
Al Gattulo marks the 10th anniversary of the AG Craft Beer Cast with news that Columbia and Breakside released the bear-dropping-infused lager "Nature Calls" and that Samuel Adams launched the 9% ABV "Cherry Bomb." He reads Reddit replies from a thread with 11,000 views and 40+ responses on why festivals like Big Brew and the Atlantic City Beer Music Fest are ending or struggling.
Al Gattulo opens with news that BrewDog USA closed two Ohio taprooms and that New Jersey's Big Brew Fest, set for March 7 at the Morristown Armory, was canceled over low ticket sales.
Al Gattulo's AM 970 The Answer show pairs a beer-news roundup, including New Jersey ABC rules that raise the brewery-ownership cap from two to 10, with an interview of new Lion's Roar Brewing owner Maddie Bowen.