Podcast People: Beer Sucks

March 19, 2018, by Guy Southern

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Podcast People: Beer Sucks

Beer Sucks. Twin Peaks doesn’t.

That may be all anyone needs to know about this carbonated trio of podcasters. Drawing from a shared love of beer, day jobs in the beer industry and a natural chemistry, Tim Hoskins, Adam Lesk and Brendan Day have blended quality content and structure with the absurd and laissez faire, an approach that has birthed a podcast quite possibly like no other. 

In typically Lynchian style, what you are about to read may leave you equally enlightened and confused. Which is just how they'd want it.

So, why not grab yourself a nice cup of coffee and settle into another entry in our Podcast People series...


Who are the voices behind Beer Sucks? 

Tim Hoskins (Black Brewing): Three of the biggest jerks in beer. 

Adam Lesk (Cellarbrations Carlisle): I personally hate the term “Jerks”, I’d prefer three hot dudes in tight pants. 

Brendan Day (Cheeky Monkey): Three jerks in tight pants?

 

Your tight-panted trio of jerks (left to right): Brendan Day, Adam Lesk and Tim Hoskins.


What was the motivation for the name and how would you describe the style of the show?

AL: I’m pretty sure the name came from a long stint on the couch eating pretzels off my chest and drinking fizzy whilst in group chat. Surprisingly, that’s very similar to the structure of the podcast: flabby as. 

TH: Super casual, shit talking, orientated around beer. We swear heaps and often get side tracked... we're not sorry. 

BH: All of our best ideas come while eating pretzels off Lesky’s chest, if I’m honest.


Why did you start podcasting about beer? 

TH: Brendo and Lesky are podcast vets, and love some whacked out shit. We really love beer, and just hanging out generally, and we thought we could shed some insight into the beer scene given our jobs are literally all about beer. 

BD: Yeah, I’ve logged a casual 3,500 hours of podcast time and always had ambitions of doing a beer podcast. We were looking for a project to work together on and Adam suggested it and I jumped at the chance. We had audio hardware the next day. 

AL: As the guys have alluded to above, both myself and the Podfather love chewing through podcasts. So, when the opportunity came up to lock down a few hours every week or so to crush hot beers and chat hotter shit with these two, I jumped at the chance. 


Are you authority or inquisitor? 

TH: What? 

BD: Instigators! 

AL: I prefer Twin Peaks season two over the first, even if there was the mid-season slump after the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer was wrapped up. The ending and inclusion of more of the black lodge really made it for me.

Season 3, “The Return”, made for some amazing viewing with episode eight being one of the greater pieces of television of all time.

TH: I’d like to think I know what he is talking about, but, out of spite, I don’t. 


How do you choose your guests? 

BD: People we want to talk to, anyone who has a good insight into brewing or the beer industry and loves some bants. 

TH: Throw a whole bunch of invites out and see who actually wants to come on... We see who may be in town and locally who we think can add their own unique insight. Generally, who we would want to listen too? 

AL: It really is based on who we’d want to listen to if we were to choose. Luckily enough, we’ve been able to coerce some great guests into sitting at my kitchen table and crushing some great sippies with us. 


Does much preparation take place or is it a case of press record and let's see what happens? 


AL: I’m a sucker for structure and show notes, surprisingly, so I spend a bit of time gathering topics for each week only to sit down and spew verbal diarrhoea for an hour. 

TH: Early days, we had heaps of prep, and we should still, but it's a loose structure and we have generally a fair amount of research in the topics, but the form is free. 

BD: Honesty, I feel like we’re hitting a good level of being prepared to interview guests, being prepared with some Beer Shit topics (what we call beer news), but let the conversation happen naturally. Tim and I should probably thank Lesky for organising that, but we won’t. 

TH: Lesky has his one of 18 notepads that he brings when we brainstorm, and Brendo tries to write up an ep list until his Firefox destroys his computer and our podcast.


What's the best question you've ever asked a guest? 

BD: Whatever we said to get Rhys Lopez from Otherside Brewing to tell his Jackson Purser from Indian Ocean Brewing Co story. 

AL: It would easily have to be the first question in the Ash Huntington (Two Metre Tall) interview. Brendan had pulled a 14/15 hour shift the day before at a festival and I’d been at a wedding the day before, so we weren't in the best shape to be interviewing anyone, let alone Ash. 

So, after asking him about how Two Metre Tall came to be, Ash weaved together a fascinating tale of how a winemaker ended up making some of Australia's most unique beers over the course of an hour and we barely had to say boo (laughs). Plus, he’s such an incredible storyteller, so even if we were in good form it would have ended up pretty much the same.

BD: Yeah, then he told me I was interrupting him too much! 

 

Star guest Ashley Huntington, from Two Metre Tall (left), holding court at a beer dinner.

And the best answer anyone has ever given? 

AL: Sticking with Ash on this one. His command of the English language kept the most hungover me captivated over the course of the interview. 

TH: When Rhys showed his level of deceit and pretended to be Jackson after spitting beer in another brewer's face at GABS. But, really, any that teach me something are the ones I value. 

BD: Will Irving from Feral discussing his first day on the job, before his brewing career, as a sales rep and not even making it in the door of his first call was fantastic given the level of success he’s had in the industry.


Who have you most enjoyed having on the show? 

TH: Will was a lot of fun, who is also a big fan of Your Mom's House; Lesky particularly wanted that moment to never end. But, honestly, every one of them has been awesome. Costa [Nikias of La Sirène] was a pretty epic guest with his knowledge of yeast and bacteria. 

BD: Mazen Hajjar from Hawkers Beer was my favourite. I really dig his philosophy and the fact that he’s always upfront about what he thinks. 

AL: Will and Mazen for sure. Incredibly informative and just great people, whilst also being able to slay you with some of the hottest shit talking around at the drop of Tim’s trilby. 

TH: Fuck yeah, Mazen was awesome. I loved his no bullshit approach, which suits us just fine. *tips his trilby*


And who would be your dream guest? 

TH: For Lesky, I'm sure he will say a Twin Peaks character. For me, we've ticked off some epic guests but I think Greg Koch [Stone] could be rad. 

BD: Jean Van Roy from Cantillon (pictured below) would be up there for me. 

L: Jean Van Roy, Armand De Belder, Pierre Tilquin and David Lynch.

 


Do you drink while recording; if so, what's the ideal beer to have while in action? 

TH: Fuck yeah. And bangers at that. 

BD: Haha yeah, we get a bit excited sometimes and crack ridiculous massive beers.

AL: Sometimes = Always. I love opening huge beers when we're together. 


For those of a technical bent, what is your technical setup? Has it evolved over time? 

TH: Brendo can give more information but we literally walked into Concept Music and told them what we wanted to do and we ended up with an epic professional setup. 

BD: Yeah, having a really high audio quality for us was paramount so we invested heavily before we even knew if this was going to work. AKG 5 mics connected to a Steinberg UR44 audio interface that feeds into Cubase on my laptop, which we use to record, edit and master. We also have a Behringer HA400 Microamp for the the Yamaha HPH-50B headphones.


Are there any non-Aussie podcasts you'd recommend? Any non-beer podcasts? 

BD: The guys over at The Brewing Network have been doing a great job for a long time, that’s another dream guest I’d love to have. Do a “collab” podcast haha. Good Beer Hunting is also a great listen for more beery chat. The Joe Rogan Experience and Your Mom’s House for pure silliness is definitely worth a listen. 

TH: I really like how it started from NPR and Sessionable, another Aussie beer podcast. 

AL: Due to my previous incarnation as an office jockey, I used to crush podcasts to help slow MS Excel from melting my mind completely. I’m a big sucker for The Round Table Of Gentlemen, Last Podcast On The Left and The Joe Rogan Experience as well as the king of all podcasts, The Ricky Gervais Show from XFM and Guardian Unlimited.

TH: I am also now entering the Your Mom’s House saga’s because I had no idea what the Podfather and Lesk were talking about for the first two episodes.

 


Where can people find the Beer Sucks podcast? 

AL: At my house every second Thursday from 5pm onwards. 

TH: Soundcloud, iTunes or anywhere you find podcasts. 

BD: And give us a five-star review!


You can read other entries in this series here.

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