Luke Dickinson's guest appearances

Luke Dickinson

Four Brewers: Craft Beer and Homebrew

Good Beer Hunting

Jesse Friedman

Tomme Arthur

Michael Tonsmeire

Mitch Steele

Ray Daniels

Ron Pattinson

Firestone Walker

Robert Keifer

Chris Lohring

Dave Infante

Chris Leonard

Craig Perman

Kim Sturdavant

Yvan de Baets

Keely Landerman

OwlTail

We’re a little over two months since Wicked Weed, one of the nation’s most popular and ambitious sour beer producers, was acquired by AB InBev in a sale that set the beer world on edge. Indeed, it seemed to push many people over the edge, galvanizing craft beer’s hardcore base against AB while others started reconsidering the future of craft beer, from its definitions and divisions to even the future of their own breweries and customers.  Since then, AB InBev itself has seemed to get a bit on edge with the release of the Brewers Association “independence” seal. Despite the fact that the seal was reportedly in the works for more than two years, the timing of its release seemed to add fuel to the fire of an imminent crisis point between BA-defined craft brewers and those who had passed over the threshold into just being brewers of craft beer.  In response, AB's High End group, which is a portfolio populated by those acquired craft brewers, many of whom have maintained their posts, are now part of a strategic and creative leadership team for AB. They created a somewhat impromptu video response to the BA encouraging them to think about the overall health of the beer category, which is indeed shrinking, as a result of increased competition from wine and spirits. Unity was their call, rather than division. And that, depending on your scale, priorities, and opinion of AB InBev, is either prescient or absurd.  Needless to say, it’s been a wild couple of months for craft beer. This barely scratches the surface, really. But relevant to today’s guest, that’s more than enough context for what makes this interview both timely and interesting to me.  Today, I’m talking to Luke Dickinson of Wicked Weed. Luke is the less-exposed, less-publicized brother of Walt Dickinson. This starts as a story of siblings, Luke being the quiet one who was initially inspired to start a brewing career based on his time at Dogfish Head, and Walt being the more entrepreneurial type who saw Luke’s vision for what was meant to be a nano brewery on paper, and consistently found opportunities to finance and scale the concept for Wicked Weed into the force it is now, including the sale to AB InBev, alongside the Guthys, a very successful, Asheville-based business family they’ve known since they were children.  Talking to Luke, the story of Wicked Weed comes to light as a sort of humble concept that created its own vortex of growth and a series of can’t-say-no kind of opportunities. It’s a story of what happens when a single idea gets dispersed amongst four other partners, each with their own skill sets, resources, and ambitions. And if nothing else, it tells a story of how two brothers can challenge and motivate each other into unknown—and what remains still a somewhat-unknown territory.  Before we begin, I wanted to give a couple shoutouts. First to Marco from Craft Commander down in Florida and Artisan &amp; Apprentice, two blogs whose interviews with Luke some time ago served as great primary resources for some of the things we talk about today. It’s amazing how much craft brewing history has been captured by writers all over the country in the last five years, and we appreciate what you do so much.

EP-131 Luke Dickinson of Wicked Weed Brewing

Season 2, Episode 29 – This week, we’re hanging out with Walt and Luke Dickinson from Asheville, North Carolina’s Wicked Weed Brewing. So, this show is pretty rad. We’ve got Walt and Luke Dickinson from Wicked Weed Brewingon the show, at the same time, from two different locations, one of which is a car outside of a bar. Holy. Shit.  Wicked Weed Brewing Canvas SeriesWe’re drinking six different beers from two different series from Wicked Weed. The first set of brews is from their Canvas Series, which are basically smaller batch, experimental brews, and the other three are from their special release series of beers (basically, beers that made it beyond the canvas series). Wicked Weed Brewing – Medora, Black Angel, and GenesisWicked Weed has pretty limited distribution at the moment, but that’s all about to change with the installment of their new 50BBL brewhouse (again, Holy. Shit.). Their popularity among beer geeks has been soaring as of late, and over here in SoCal, it’s hard to get ahold of their brews. Luckily, Wicked Weed was kind enough to send some of their amazing creations to us. There wasn’t a bad beer in the bunch. Seriously, they were all very good, and each beer was better than the next. Hey, Wicked Weed, distro in SoCal soon? Yeah?! Please?! Thanks again to Luke and Walt for hanging out with us! BREW THE SHIT OUT OF IT.  Beers from this week’s episode:Brett BurglarLa Bonte (with Pear)Genesis Blonde SourMedoraRecurrantBlack Angel Cherry Sour Help support Four Brewers!Support the show on Patreon!Donate via PayPal Subscribe to the show:RSSiTunes – While you’re there, leave a review of 4B!Stitcher Thumb us up on Facebook:facebook.com/fourbrewers Follow us on Twitter:twitter.com/fourbrewersshow Got a question? Feedback? Email us:feedback at fourbrewers dot com.

Season 2, Episode 29 – This week, we’re hanging out with Walt and Luke Dickinson from Asheville, North Carolina’s Wicked Weed Brewing. So, this show is pretty rad. We’ve got <a href="https://www.facebook.com/walt.dickinson.3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Walt</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LukeDickinson32" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Luke</a> Dickinson from <a href="http://www.wickedweedbrewing.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wicked Weed Brewing</a>on the show, at the same time, from two different locations, one of which is a car outside of a bar. Holy. Shit.  <a href="https://flic.kr/p/vk4ega" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a>Wicked Weed Brewing Canvas Series We’re drinking six different beers from two different series from Wicked Weed. The first set of brews is from their Canvas Series, which are basically smaller batch, experimental brews, and the other three are from their special release series of beers (basically, beers that made it beyond the canvas series). <a href="https://flic.kr/p/vZiZQm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a>Wicked Weed Brewing – Medora, Black Angel, and Genesis Wicked Weed has pretty limited distribution at the moment, but that’s all about to change with the installment of their new 50BBL brewhouse (again, Holy. Shit.). Their popularity among beer geeks has been soaring as of late, and over here in SoCal, it’s hard to get ahold of their brews. Luckily, Wicked Weed was kind enough to send some of their amazing creations to us. There wasn’t a bad beer in the bunch. Seriously, they were all very good, and each beer was better than the next. Hey, Wicked Weed, distro in SoCal soon? Yeah?! Please?! Thanks again to Luke and Walt for hanging out with us! BREW THE SHIT OUT OF IT.  Beers from this week’s episode:<a href="https://untappd.com/b/wicked-weed-brewing-brett-burglar/1048516" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Brett Burglar</a><a href="https://untappd.com/b/wicked-weed-brewing-la-bonte-with-pear/1110595" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">La Bonte (with Pear)</a><a href="https://untappd.com/b/wicked-weed-brewing-genesis-blonde-sour/286069" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Genesis Blonde Sour</a><a href="https://untappd.com/b/wicked-weed-brewing-medora/673549" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Medora</a><a href="https://untappd.com/b/wicked-weed-brewing-recurrant/1076872" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Recurrant</a><a href="https://untappd.com/b/wicked-weed-brewing-black-angel-cherry-sour/286137" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Black Angel Cherry Sour</a> Help support Four Brewers!<a href="http://www.patreon.com/fourbrewers" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Support the show on Patreon!</a><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&amp;hosted_button_id=QYBX5B4M9ZH3E" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Donate via PayPal</a> Subscribe to the show:<a href="http://fourbrewers.libsyn.com/rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">RSS</a><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/four-brewers/id880840886?mt=2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iTunes</a> – While you’re there, leave a review of 4B!<a href="http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=50294&amp;refid=stpr" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a> Thumb us up on Facebook:<a href="http://facebook.com/fourbrewers" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">facebook.com/fourbrewers</a> Follow us on Twitter:<a href="http://twitter.com/fourbrewersshow" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">twitter.com/fourbrewersshow</a> Got a question? Feedback? Email us:feedback at fourbrewers dot com.

[S2/E29] Walt and Luke Dickinson of Wicked Weed Brewing