Brewbound Live 2025 is in the books! Podcast co-hosts Zoe Licata and Jessica Infante recap this year’s conference.
Then, Karl Strauss Brewing (San Diego, CA) co-founder and CEO Chris Cramer joins Brewbound editor Justin Kendall for this week’s featured interview. The conversation was recorded at the California Craft Beer Summit last month in Irvine, CA, hosted by the California Craft Brewers Association.
Cramer brought his signature sunny disposition to the chat, and discussed Karl Strauss’s current trends, brewpub traffic and long-running partnership with Disneyland’s California Adventure.
“In general, our industry seems to be outperforming the rest of beverage-alcohol, which is not part of the current narrative,” Cramer said. “For each of us as craft brewers here in this state, our greatest opportunity is looking into ourselves and seeing what we can authentically own as a brand and communicating that to our consumers and our fans and then helping them share that joy with others.”
He urged California craft brewers to take pride in the significance they have in the state’s culture and economy, which is a cornerstone for the nation’s craft brewing industry.
Before the interview, Zoe and Jess highlight panel discussions they moderated during Brewbound Live, including a conversation about the bev-alc segments still drawing interest from the investment community.
They also discuss recent beer industry news, including Anheuser-Busch InBev’s plan to sell one brewery and close two more, November Circana off-premise data and the North Carolina community’s reaction to the arrest of Sycamore Brewing’s co-founder.
Programming note: the Brewbound Podcast will not publish an episode on December 24, but will return on December 31.
Listen to the episode here or on your preferred podcast platform: