This is our second interview recorded during San Francisco beer week - and it happened to be our second interview with someone who works at HenHouse Brewing up in the north bay. When I first contacted Sayre to come on the podcast, I didn’t even know he worked for Henhouse, which becomes part and parcel of the conversation.
Sayre Piotrkowski is a great example of someone who’s hustled their way through a variety of jobs in the beer world, from door man, to bartender to beer buyer and sales rep. The variety of his experiences comes together to form a uniquely complex and interesting take on the implications of today’s beer market - how the biggest players affect communities, and how the smallest movers motivate change.
Sayre’s also been quite vocal about his opinions. He wrote an op-ed outlining his opposition to the Golden Road pub moving into Oakland that garnered a lot of attention - and we’ll talk about that in depth here. But it’s the underlying principles at play that really drive this conversation into interesting territory for me. And at times, Sayre and I sort of wander into the wildness together as we sort through the nuance of our own opinions and the questions we’re asking of each other. So pardon the looseness of this one if you can, and just come along for the ride. Some of the things we discuss are still haunting me a bit, as unresolved as they are. But I enjoyed every minute of it, and I hope you do too.
This is Sayre Piotrkowski of Henhouse brewing, listen in.