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b'This week\'s guest was recently part of an Uppers & Downers dinner we did in Grand Rapids at the Sovengard.\\xa0It was spectacular. But more recently, I\\u2019ve gotten to know Nathan Walser from his latest project, which is his own brewery, Greyline. In a city like Grand Rapids, it\\u2019s easy to get carried away with thinking of it as Beer City, USA, and there\\u2019s good reason for that. There are a ton of breweries in this midwestern town. It\\u2019s partially defined by its breweries. And the national success of a place like Founders really sets the tone there. But I\\u2019ll be honest:\\xa0I tend to go to the same few places every time I visit. That is, until recently, when I went out of my way to the far-north side of the city to visit Greyline. I\\u2019d heard it was a bit small and some people thought the service was a bit severe (at least according to Yelp), and all that made me want to go. I figured, if that\\u2019s what the locals liked, who are more accustomed to gigantic restaurants and malty, hoppy beers from the \'90s, then this was probably my kind of place. And it was. I was really taken with the beer. And as I started asking questions of the bartender, they started making nervous eye contact with the guy to my right. \\u201cYou work here?"\\xa0I asked. \\u201cYeah," he said with his head down. \\u201cYou brew here?\\u201d \\u201cYeah,\\u201d he said again. \\u201cYou own the place, or what?\\u201d \\u201cYeah, I do,\\u201d he said, and finally started opening up. That was all I needed to dive headlong into what made Greyline tick. Since then, I\\u2019ve had multiple run-ins with Nathan, talked about his beer to a level of detail rarely captured on the mics, and have been enamored ever since. And to top it all off,\\xa0Nathan\\u2019s career as a journeyman Michigan brewer weaves its way through everything that makes Grand Rapids Beer City, USA\\u2014a title it sometimes deserves, and sometimes falls short of. We\\u2019ll talk about why that is, too.'