Salud! — Barry Labendz, Kent Falls Brewing

This episode is part of a series of interviews recorded in December at Salud Sourfest, an annual beer festival hosted in Charlotte, North Carolina. The event attracts a curated selection of skilled, sour-making breweries from around the country, with a heavy presence from the Mid-Atlantic region. Sourfest represents a kind of festival that's rapidly growing in popularity, where attending breweries often run in the same circles or share a like-minded ethos, making for a special occasion for attendees instead of an event with any and every brewery that would care to send a keg. As drinkers sipped on a variety of wild and sour beers, I was able to pull a collection of brewers and business owners aside for brief conversations about their companies, specialties and what's catching their eye in the industry. This episode and others run about 20 to 25 minutes, so we had time to dig in a little bit, but the interviews are a bit more focused than the free-ranging talks you hear most weeks here on the podcast.