492: Building Better Gateways into Brewing, Produced in Partnership with Pinter

The vast majority of brewers we talk to for this podcast—and for the magazine—start out as homebrewers. And anyone who’s listened to more than a few episodes knows how common it is to hear about how an influential brewer’s journey started with a simple extract-based brewing kit. Making it easy for people to brew and enjoy beer at home is an important part of the craft-beer story—that’s where the story begins for so many—and that’s what this special episode produced in partnership with Pinter is about. Those old-school kits serve a purpose, but today there’s a better way to open the brewing door for the next generation of enthusiasts. That’s where Pinter comes in: The partnerships they’ve built allow fledgling homebrewers to make familiar recipes from breweries such as Lagunitas, Great Lakes, Chicago’s Hopewell, Adnams in England, and more, thus creating even more connections between drinking craft and making craft. Executive editor (and our resident homebrewer) Joe Stange hosts this episode. Joe received a unit and brewed a test batch of Pinter’s Lagunitas Sumpin’ Easy recipe on it to get a feel; he was impressed with the results. Through the episode, Joe, Pinter U.S. CEO Paul Benner, and Pinter head brewer Will Kirkham discuss the need for pathways into brewing along with functional insights and ways that professional brewers can work with Pinter to build a more active customer experience.