Is that right? It’d be easy to say “and the rest is history” given the explosive growth craft beer has seen across the U.S. and the rest of the world in the decades since, but it’s never that easy. I was around during the opening of Stone Berlin and it felt like a really positive time. Small businesses in just about every category are being challenged right up to, and past, the breaking point. 482 0. The film also touches on a moment in time when the perception of craft beer changed dramatically across Europe and became a little more mainstream, in many ways thanks to the work Koch and his team put into the region. What do you think is the best thing a beer lover can do right now to support local craft? Back in ’96, Koch and brewer Steve Wagner opened up Stone Brewing in San Marcos, California with the now-retired but still iconic Stone Pale Ale. (The film’s name was derived from local Berlin tabloid headline that mocked Koch’s long beard and hair.) What changes have you had to make to deal with the pandemic in the short term compared to the long term? Greg Koch: Das habe ich auch nie gemacht. You still find that in the States too. In 1996 Greg Koch left L.A.’s music industry and sunk his life savings into co-founding a brewery making strange, bold beers almost nobody wanted. Greg has literally played THOUSANDS of guitars in the last 5 years alone. And that’s how beer is looked at too. It’s something they just do. We made Stone Smoked Porter in 1996. There you go, that’s back to the movie again. The weird paradox of that is that it had been extremely successful. It takes me on a rollercoaster every time. It feels like craft is always growing and yet on the edge. Just like, “Okay, I’m done with this.” It’s like feeling this well of tightness around your neck and shoulders. So here’s the thing, if some famous person proselytizes about a smoked beer, then it’s entirely possible. Not only what it symbolized, but just the day itself and the people that came out. And then the story arc breaks and the clouds began to part and the sun begins to shine a bit. Greg Koch Interview. And it surprised me — for the beer country that Germany is — how disinterested the average population is with the conversation of beer. Well, I could feel a tremendous amount. I think our changes aren’t so very different from all the stories out there. So how are you dealing with this pandemic now that months have passed and it’s touched every part of the world? Let’s shift back to beer for one last question. I was also there when Brewdog reopened the doors with all new branding, menu, and beers a few months later, a fascinating story all its own.). But I find it interesting that it really takes me on that emotional journey every time, even though, not only do I know the story well, I lived the story. Yeah. Milwaukee, WI: home of beer, the Brewers, beer, insane weather, beer, and most recently, Greg Koch. But COVID-19 has just delivered such a sucker punch. It was already starting to slowly transform when we arrived. So it continues to look up. I know this is a cliche, but you’ve got to get up and keep going, right? In the US, we broke through the conditioning. Stone Brewing's co-founder Greg Koch talks about expanding around the world and the pandemic's impact on craft beer. It is really a combination of a lot of things. Das ist schon heftig, wenn sie mich im Betrieb wieder fragen: ‚Greg, was hast Du getan?‘ Dann kommt raus, dass ich etwas gar nicht so gesagt habe. It’s really interesting watching it. First off, any relation to Jim Koch of Sam Adams glory? So, yeah, you’re right. You can stream ‘The Beer Jesus From America’ on Amazon Prime for $1.99. We caught up with Koch recently to talk about a documentary that was made about the push to open Stone Berlin back in 2016. Because overnight, it went from all men wearing undershirts underneath their dress shirts to all men not wearing undershirts underneath their dress shirts. Brewpublic met up with Koch at The BeerMongers for an exclusive two-part interview. We hit on everything from the documentary to beer trends to the realities of a world shaped by COVID-19. Posted on September 15, 2011 at September 15, 2011 by Adam Jazairi. How he went from studying to become a lawyer, to becoming a musician. He reveals the most under-rated and over-rated guitars he’s seen during this time. The documentary feels resonant now, since it shows that you can get through hard times. People were conditioned to expect a beer to be that industrial, fizzy yellow stuff of the MillerCoors and Budweiser corps, and that was it. I think that the conditioning in Germany was stronger. I remember hearing this likely apocryphal story when I was younger that Clark Gable tanked the t-shirt industry in the 1930s. It’s more a commodity. I have a stoic philosophy and try to understand what things you can and cannot control. Beer is not something that they talk about. Greg Koch. I can’t tell you how many people still tell me, flat out, they don’t like beer. We made it up until about six years ago but the sales just weren’t … enough. Beer Jesus — which is available to stream on Amazon Prime — does a good job handling the trial and errors of an American trying to open a massive beer-related project in a very-regulated German city. COVID is especially unique in that it’s a giant curveball that we’re all getting at the same time. Then you wait for the next wave. What I find interesting though is that you did survive through a partnership with BrewDog. The importance of his wife and children in his life, the one thing most people will be surprised to hear about Greg, and much more. Since we’re a year out from the sale and this film stops at a precarious point, how do you feel about watching the film now? 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