BierTalk English 30 – Talk with Bill Owens, founder of Buffalo Bill's Brewery from Hayward, California, USA

Bill Owens established Buffalo Bill’s Brewery as the first brewpub in America since Prohibition on August 2, 1983. His book How to Build a Small Brewery (1993) opened the door to the brewpub movement and he kind of reinvented Pumpkin Ale. Owens sold Buffalo Bill’s in 1994 continuing to publish American Brewer Magazine which he sold in 2001. Owens used the proceeds from the magazine’s sale to photograph America and this journey planted the seeds for his next venture, the American Distilling Institute, and Distiller Magazine. ADI was established in 2003 as a professional membership organization and publishing house to promote the art of craft distilling. Artifacts from Buffalo Bill’s Brew Pub were acquired by the Smithsonian Institute and sit alongside Owens’ photographs previously collected by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts grants. Bill’s current book is The Delco Years, a dystopian novel of life after a pandemic kills everyone but people who drink unpasteurized beer. He is also working on his memoir and a book of his collected poetry...