Books and Brews Podcast Episode # 50: Bjorn Erickson, Brewer
Release Date: 06/07/2023
Books and Brews #74: Sci-fi and More with Bill McSciFi McCormick
Books and Brews Podcast
Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet! Bill McCormick is an award-winning and critically acclaimed author of several novels, graphic novels, and comic book series, and has appeared in numerous anthologies. He began writing professionally in 1986 for the Chicago Rocker Magazine in conjunction with his radio show on Z-95 (ABC-FM) and went on to write for several other magazines and blogs. He wrote a twisted news & science blog at WorldNewsCenter.org. It provided source material for his weekly radio show on WBIG 1280 AM, FOX!, which aired for 12 years. We talked about...
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Books and Brews #73: Monsters & Appalachian Lore Come to Life with Clay Gilbert
Books and Brews Podcast
Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet! Clay Gilbert has always believed in the power of the imagination to dissolve differences and forge connections between people. Since 2013, he has published thirteen novels, from science-fiction and horror to YA dystopia and urban fantasy. His works include the science-fiction series Children of Evohe, which began in 2013 with Annah and the Children of Evohe, as well as the horror novel Dark Road to Paradise and the dark fantasy novel Pearl: A Monster Story. Clay lives and works in Knoxville, Tennessee, where his cat, Rosalind,...
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Episode # 72: Wild Alaska with Mr. November
Books and Brews Podcast
Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet! Michael Modzelewski (Mojo-less-key) grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of a famous NFL football player with the Cleveland Browns, Ed “Big Mo” Modzelewski. Michael graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English Literature. He is the author of five books, including INSIDE PASSAGE, about a two year stay on a wilderness island in the Inside Passage to Alaska. After living “date-less” on the wild island, Michael was chosen a “Bachelor of the Month” by Cosmopolitan Magazine. Mr. November received 5,000 letters from...
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Books and Brews #71: Time Travel, Sci-fi and Woodstock with Beth Duke
Books and Brews Podcast
Bestselling author Beth Duke's Anywhen is the ultimate outsider story—a young woman yearning to belong across time itself. With universal themes of love, jealousy, sacrifice, friendship, joy, loss, and forgiveness, this genre-defying novel is a story like no other...one that will stay with you long after the final page. Beth read from her latest book, Anywhen, that combines sci-fi, time travel, and historical fiction. We talked about Woodstock, the central event of Anywhen, about southern fiction, stereotypes, the good and bad of AI, and Utopias. Is Baezy’s world a Utopia? Did...
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Books and Brews #70: Sherlock Holmes Alive Again! with Richard T. Ryan
Books and Brews Podcast
A lifelong Sherlockian, Richard T. Ryan is the author of nine Sherlock Holmes novels and currently working on his tenth. He’s also written a well-received murder mystery “Deadly Relations which has been produced twice off-Broadway. He pursued graduate studies at Notre Dame where he majored in medieval literature. Our talk ranged from Knights Templar finding Minnesota in the 1300s to the reasons Arthur Conan Doyle killed Sherlock Holmes to the inefficient bombers of the 1880s and the Scarlet Pimpernel and Mark Wahlberg. 00:00 START 06:20 Drink 1: Watson’s Delight 07:20 Reading 1:...
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Books and Brews #69: AI and Aliens with Michael Colon
Books and Brews Podcast
Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet! Michael Colon is a novelist and freelance writer, born and raised in New York City. His author's story is about hard work, perseverance, and believing in the power of imagination. His inspiration comes from various societal abnormalities, the beauty in cultural differences, and his own life experiences. His debut novel, The Gift from Aelius, is about an artificial intelligence’s growing awareness of purpose and life. There is not a science fiction tale as poetic and thought-provoking. In the not-too distant future, A191,...
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Books and Brews #68: High Adventure with John Graham
Books and Brews Podcast
John Graham shipped out on a freighter when he was 16, hitchhiked through the Algerian Revolution at 19 and was on the team that made the first ascent of Denali’s North Wall at 20, a climb so dangerous it’s never been repeated. He hitchhiked around the world at 22, working as a correspondent in every war he came across. A US Foreign Service Officer for 15 years, he was in the middle of the 1969 revolution in Libya and the war in Vietnam. As a global peace builder, post Foreign Service, he contributed to peace efforts in Israel and Palestine. For the last 42 years he’s been a leader of...
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Books and Brews #67: Back to Merry Olde England with JP Reedman
Books and Brews Podcast
J.P. Reedman lives in Wiltshire near to Stonehenge. Born in Canada, she has had a lifelong interest in ancient and medieval history, and is often found lurking around prehistoric sites, ruined castles and abbeys, and interesting churches with camera in hand. She became a full-time writer in 2018. Series include: I, Richard Plantagenet, 5 books chronicling Richard’s life from childhood to Bosworth, and Medieval Babes, a set of standalone novels about lesser-known medieval queens and noblewomen. Her most recent release is Princess in the Police Station, the tale of little Anne Mowbray,...
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Episode #66 From Nomad to Ph.D. with Michael C. Keith
Books and Brews Podcast
Michael C. Keith is the author of an acclaimed memoir––The Next Better Place–a young adult novel––Life is Falling Sideways––and 20 story collections, including, Of Night and Light, Everything is Epic, Sad Boy, And Through the Trembling Air, Hoag’s Object, The Collector of Tears, If Things Were Made To Last Forever, Caricatures, The Near Enough, Bits, Specks, Crumbs, Flecks, Slow Transit, Perspective Drifts Like a Log on a River, Let Us Now Speak of Extinction, Stories in the Key of Me, Insomnia 11, Pieces of Bones and Rags, Quiet Geography,...
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Books and Brews Episode #65: Stephen Downes
Books and Brews Podcast
Steve Downes is a contemporary Irish poet and novelist, currently living and working in Ireland. Educated in N.U.I. Maynooth, he holds a Degree in Classical History and a Masters in Cultural Anthropology. Steve has published poetry; science fiction, including Cosmogonic Marbles, Temporal Tome, Gadzooks Armageddon and Botolf Tales (the Botolf Chronicles), Warworld: Shadows & Dominions (part 1), Murder on the Alpha Centauri Express and The Deaths of Guner Zoon; and four children’s Books: The Upstairs Cat Series (3 books) & An Apprenticeship to Doctor Vantastic. Steve...
info_outlineThis month at Books & Brews, with Michael on sabbatical, Laura and Dr. Chris Powell visit Hoops Brewery in Duluth, MN. We talked with Bjorn Erickson, one of the brewers about brewing...and books. Bjorn had a great story about how he got from earning a degree in German to brewing beer. We talked about the blending of science and artistry, the hard parts of being a brewer, and the reasons Bjorn loves his job, and the numerous books and genres Bjorn reads.
If you're in Duluth, we highly recommend stopping at Hoops Brewery, a family friendly place with lots of games for families and kids. You can bring your own food or get pretzels from Hoops with lots of great sauces.
Hoops Brewery
The Beer We Drank:
- Laura -- 88 Stout
- Chris -- 5050 Hefeweizen
- Bjorn -- 889 Cream Ale
Interview Highlights:
- Lake Superior, granite, and brewing -- 4:07
- The road from a degree in German to brewing -- 8:45
- On becoming a brewer -- 10:00
- Telling a story with beer -- 14:08
- Reading in High Middle German -- 27:34
- The tour begins -- 41:42
COMING NEXT MONTH:
PTL Perrin is a military brat, voracious reader, and now writes books under the name PTL Perrin in her favorite genre, YA sci-fi/ fantasy. P.T.L. Perrin, grew up in Europe and speaks several languages.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
- Gabriel’s Horn is accepting submissions for its anthology NEW THEME: MUSIC
- DTBD: Laura will be giving a Pub Talk at the Kitchi-Gami Club in Duluth, MN Kitchi Gammi Club | Duluth’s Premier Social Club
Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.