In beer, and the wider world, what people love is for you to have the respect to show them what you love.

And in doing so, they have an opportunity to walk through a little door and potentially find something they really enjoy. But if you don’t give people the chance, then they can’t respect you.

Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery, has hosted countless tastings. And he has seen that people can surprise you. With their knowledge, their taste, with their enthusiasm.

At our Brewers Congress in London earlier this month, Garrett delivered the closing address which we present here as the latest episode of The Brewers Journal Podcast.

He tells us that you should never assume that you know more than the person sitting in front of you.

That we all should be more inclusive, and to have the courage to put ourselves in front of people who don’t look like us and maybe haven’t heard about our beer.

And also, he says that if you want to have a really good time, get everybody in the room. Not just the people you know, but everybody because, put simply, everybody loves beer.

Photo: Nic Crilly-Hargrave