Today’s guest is one of those serendipitous run-ins I sometimes have with a fellow writer, in this case someone I’ve followed for some time, but never had the chance to meet in person. Pete Brown, who lives in London, has written numerous books over the years, including Three Sheets To The Wind: One Man's Quest For The Meaning Of Beer. And lately his writing has taken him into both the history and contemporary culture of cider making in the UK. And that’s what brought him to Chicago, which was the host of CiderCon this year.
I met up with Pete at the Map Room over some Alpha Kings where he quickly got sucked into some roiling debate about cask ales with the locals (at their behest, not his) and after calling it a night, we met up at GBH Studio the next morning to record a conversation about English craft beer, cider, and Pete’s larger realm of work, which much like mine stretches across beer writing as well as consulting with breweries, as he stitches together a career using the skills he has as a former advertising writer and a beer expert.
He’s chock full of insight and a joy to chat with.
Thanks to Matthew Curtis for the portrait.