EP-100 Ria Neri of Four letter Word Coffee + Whiner Beer Co.
Today\u2019s guest has been working in Chicago beer for a long time now, but her journey is anything but typical, and it doesn\u2019t follow a straight line at all.\xa0 Yes, she\u2019s a home brewer who now has her own brewery. But here\u2019s how the dots actually connect.\xa0 She started as a homebrewer, and was certainly thinking about opening a brewery some day. But her next step was the role of a beer buyer for Bangers & Lace, and Trenchermen, both favorite bars of mine in the city with great lists. Then she started her own coffee roaster and cafe, called 4 Letter Word\u2026in Istanbul. As in, Turkey, bringing third wave origin coffees to a city with it\u2019s own unique history in coffee. Then she returned to Chicago part-time to start a Chicago-based version of the coffee brand. And during all that, she was working on a brewery concept. Like, the whole time. And just this past week, the taproom for that brewery opened to the public, following her first cans getting on to the shelf.\xa0 The brewery is called Whiner Beer Co. ad it\u2019s a partnership between herself and brewer Brian Taylor on Chicago\u2019s southside. Their first beers, six pack of 12oz cans, are called Le Tub - a mixed fermentation, barrel-aged and blended sour saison for about twelve bucks. It\u2019s a brave new world folks.\xa0 So between her coffee roaster and now getting Whiner off the ground, we wanted to catch up with Ria before she left for Kenya this week for a coffee sourcing trip. We have a great relationship with Whiner \u2014 we helped them workshop some things with the team back when the brewery was just a sparkle in her eye \u2014 some brand strategy elements that helped focus the concept. But more importantly, their first beer served was a coffee saison for Uppers & Downers this past February, which you can hear more about from our hangover party recording, episode number 72. And at the SCAA expo in Atlanta this past spring, her and I already started talking about this year\u2019s Uppers & Downers as we tasted through some lactic fermentation coffees. Wacky stuff.