To kick off the season, and the year, we are celebrating diversity in beer, community, and firsts. Beer historian and author, Micheal Stein, is welcomed back on the show to talk about DC brewery firsts - including DC's first female-owned brewery, first 100% gay-owned brewery, and first African American-owned brewery. Thankfully, diversity is growing in craft beer, let's keep it going.

In October we got the chance to cover this small, but mighty beer festival in Denver. Shelton Brothers Importers throws this festival every year, and in their words: "You’d have to spend months and countless dollars for a chance to meet this many world-class brewers." Listen in to hear a collection of interviews with brewers from Scotland, Canada, US, Tasmania, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, England, Switzerland, and Jordan.

Sarah Jane gathers some of her favorite people to drink beer and talk beer. Abit of a departure from our normal show, but we manage to cover growth in the industry, local beer, beer with adjuncts, collecting beer, contract brewing, and sample some pretty great brews.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. recently brewed Resilience ""Butte County Proud"" IPA, all profits from this beer will go to assist the victims of the Camp Fire in Northern California. Sierra Nevada put out a call for breweries around the country to do the same, making donated ingredients and the recipe available.

Over 1,200 breweries around the U.S. answered the call, including Atlas Brew Works in DC. Justin Cox (Founder & CEO) returns to the show to talk about the execution of the project. Bill Debaun (Co-Editor of dcbeer.com) also returns to discuss why so many brewers are compelled to give back to their communities.

It's a feel-good kind of day.

Beer journalist, John Holl is in town for a beer panel at Solid State Books tonight! He stopped by the studio to talk about his new book, "Think Beer, Drink Beer." While sipping Sierra Nevada Pale Ale we manage to cover beer trends, nerds, the ever-changing beer world, and fit in a few rants.

The practice of homebrewing was federally legalized in 1978 and from there, the world of independent craft beer was born. In an effort to spread the joy of homebrewing and in turn craft beer, John Moorhead (American Homebrewers Association National Homebrew Competition Director) and Katie Marisic (Federal Affairs Manager for the Brewers Association) come by to explain the exciting competition they have just completed on Capitol Hill. That's right, for the third year now there is a Capitol Hill Staff Homebrew Competition, where anyone who is employed on the Hill can enter. Check out this week's episode to hear why they do it, how it went, and other beer ramblings.

Opening anything is like giving birth: painful, surprising, and messy. Brett Robison and Christian Layke come by to chat about their final push in opening their brewery in Silver Spring Maryland: Silver Branch Brewing Co. We also talk about some winter homebrew tips, dreamy beer experiences, and how to get involved in their brewery opening.

Chef Kyle Bailey (Chef Owner of The Salt Line) and Mike McGarvey (Co-Founder & Head Brewer of 3 Stars Brewing Company) come by to chat beer and food pairings, specifically Thanksgiving. We go through the whole meal, giving you suggestions throughout. We start with what to drink while everyone stands around awkwardly, making small talk, and carry you right on through to when people dip into politics and you need something to balance the fattiness of the sides and the rampant racism of your uncle. We get into some food as well! Eels (veal eels), Caul fat (fat cape), and apple pie sandos (with cheese). Happy Thanksgiving folks!

Sustainability, producing local beer, yeast wrangling, and wild ponies all get tackled in today's episode. Josh Chapman, co-founder and head brewer of Black Narrows Brewing Co. comes by to chat about opening a brewery in Chincoteague, Virginia; among other beer musings.

Today we talk about a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Li Liu, a professor of Chinese archaeology at Stanford University, and her team analyzed traces from stone mortars dating back some 13,000 years from a cave in Israel. They certainly made some interesting discoveries. Nick "The Baltimore Beer Trekker" Nichols, who teaches beer history & appreciation enrichment classes at Johns Hopkins University and Howard Community College comes by to chat about the beer in the ancient world and Sarah Jane shares a Finnish beer appreciation poem. If you take away anything from this episode: there is so much about beer history that is being updated, generalizations are being specified, and myths are getting separated from facts. Stay current with your beer history knowledge!