graychapman

Welcome to the Good Beer Hunting Collective podcast, the show where members of our team interview each other to get a behind-the-scenes look at some of our favorite articles. I’m Ashley Rodriguez, and I produce Good Beer Hunting's podcast.

I live in Chicago, and there’s this liquor—maybe some of you have heard of it—called Malört, which is made from wormwood. If you ask anyone in Chicago what their local spirit is, they’d point to Malört; they might even trick their out-of-town friends to take a straight shot of it when they come to visit. And everyone knows how hard it is to drink Malört. The bottle’s label quotes creator Carl Jeppson as saying: “My Malört is produced for that unique group of drinkers who disdain light flavor or neutral spirits.” It goes on: “It is not possible to forget our two-fisted liquor. The taste just lingers and lasts—seemingly forever. The first shot is hard to swallow! Perservere [sic]. Make it past two 'shock-glasses' and with the third you could be ours... forever.”

Some would say that this sentiment is a perfect encapsulation of the people of Chicago. Perhaps not for everyone on the first sip, but they grow on you with time. Others might find that comparison silly, but it’s interesting to figure out what a city’s chosen liquor says about its history and spirit (no pun intended).

In this episode of the GBH Collective, I interview Gray Chapman, a freelance writer and frequent GBH contributor. She’s launching a new series for us called Beer and a Shot, which will profile the relationship between bartenders, spirits, and their relationships to the cities they inhabit. In this ongoing series, made in partnership with Miller High Life, Gray will write about a different city and a different bartender every month and will show how a place’s personality can be discerned through its choice of spirit—a couple ounces at a time.

This is Gray Chapman, GBH contributor. Listen in.

Welcome to the Good Beer Hunting Collective podcast, the show where members of our team interview each other to get a behind-the-scenes look at some of our favorite articles. I’m Bryan Roth, and I’m the Sightlines editor for Good Beer Hunting. 

For generations, a lot about the story of beer has been filtered through advertising or experiences geared toward men. This is rapidly changing, and for the better.

In today’s GBH Collective, we’re talking with Gray Chapman about some of the ways beer lovers are finding new connections in settings that can enhance the camaraderie of something as simple as sharing a collection of beer. Gray recently published a piece for GBH in which she tells the story of a female-only bottle share and why its members find that setting to be welcoming, exciting, and comforting in different ways than similar, mixed-gender events.

This conversation is part of our special series of interviews to dive deeper with Good Beer Hunting contributors and friends on topics of writing, beer and the stories you read and hear from GBH. With Gray, it’s a great reason to get some background on how she experienced this event—her first time participating in a bottle-share—and what she learned from the women surrounding her. Her story and this conversation make it clear that one way to approach such an event isn’t bad and another good, but rather they can complement each other in ways that build a love and appreciation for beer differently.

This is Good Beer Hunting contributor Gray Chapman. Listen in.