EP-102 Thomas Larsen of Ska Brewing + Stephen Mance of Half Acre Beer Co.
This week\u2019s episode is devoted to an entirely different collaboration. This one is between Thomas Larsen of Ska Brewing from Durango Colorado, and Stephan Mance from Half Acre right here in Chicago.\xa0 This collaboration, like most, is largely for fun and a trip to Chicago, which Ska founder Dave Thiboldeaux is fond of making. But there\u2019s a special reason that these two breweries are tied together and that\u2019s through the little-known history of some hardware. You\u2019ll often hear people talk about lineage and pedigree in brewing, the influence that a single brewer can have as he or she makes their way through the world working at a variety of breweries all over the country. It\u2019d be one helluva genealogy protect to map out. But long before people were forced to buy new steel to open a brewery, there was a healthy secondary market for used equipment \u2014 and many of those brewhouses have lived a journeyman\u2019s life of their own.\xa0 So with that in mind, we got together at the studio to chat about the collaboration, but also some of the experiences that have shaped each brewery, and how they\u2019re adapting to the future, each according to their own evolution.