Randy doesn’t know this, but the first time I saw him I was sitting at the bar at Goose Island’s Clybourn brewpub when a white-haired man walked in and sat down across from me and ordered a beer. I flipped back to the cover of the book I was reading, Tasting Beer, and there he was in miniature. That’s when I discovered that Randy Mosher lived in my new hometown of Chicago, and yeah, we drank beer at the same place. It was one of my nerdier fanboy moments in beer, and I was hooked.
Eight years later, I would have the opportunity to work alongside Randy Mosher, helping develop new beer brands like Forbidden Root and 5 Rabbit, putting my brand strategy experience to work behind his creative abilities. It’s been rewarding to find my niche in the beer world, or rather niches plural, and the more I got to know Randy over the years, the more I realized that his career in beer was similarly diverse. He’s an author, a homebrewer, a recipe consultant, and a graphic artist.
Randy has two new books coming out, Beer for All Seasons, which is a sort of 101 on what and when to drink certain styles. and Mastering Homebrew, a beautifully designed, encyclopedic approach to the flavors, ingredients, and recipes of brewing on a personal scale.
So I asked Randy to visit the studio, open a few beers he's helped develop, and have a conversation about his life in beer, which is the stuff of legend for us Chicagoans. And I’m excited to share him with you all. But mostly, I want to ask him, "why didn’t you start a brewery?" Let’s find out.