One of the most popular podcast about beer, more commonly referred to as BrewCasts has been going for over two years now. They are CrAzY about beer and brewing beer. BrewCrAzY is the personal project of John Mckissack. John is known worldwide to thousand of beer lovers and beewers as "Johnny Max," or J-Max."



BrewCrAzY has been going strong since July of 2005 and is one of a handful of podcasts that have embarked on a mission to educate the world about the art and craft of brewing beer at home. One of the main traits of most home brewers is the fact that they will go to extraordinary length to help other people learn the craft of brewing beer.

What is hard to believe is the fact that Johnny Max does all this for free. He told me he has spent thousands in equipment, software and advertising to promote home brewing. I spoke with Johnny Max and asked him why he does this for free. He said ?It is not about the money, it's about promoting REAL beer!? He is not alone most other brewcasters out there on a regular schedule put in the time and money to broadcast shows about beer for free.

When Johnny Max starts talking about beer he can entertain you for hours. He knows more about beer than anybody I have ever met. He can go from one topic to another, all about beer, beer history, beer science, beer flavors, beer pairing with food, beer brewing, beer recipes and the list goes on. This guy knows beer and he is definitely "Brew CrAzY!"

Johnny Max started BrewCrAzY after listening to Craft Brewer Radio. Craft Brewer Radio is hosted by Graham Sander, an Aussie know as the Guru of the North, North Australia that is. More specifically North Queens Land. After hearing his show, Johnny sought out help from Graham and Graham was more than willing to help. When Graham mentioned BrewCrAzY on one of his shows, BrewCrAzY instantly picked up thousands of listeners worldwide.

Just like Graham, Johnny encourages and helps other brewers to start their own show about beer and they are popping up everywhere. Home brewers are a friendly bunch and they promote the craft of making beer for free. There are a few companies that have shows and use them as a source of money, but most pay for everything out of their own pockets and they don't charge a penny. The shows with the most listeners are Craft Brewer Radio, BrewCrAzY, the Brew Bubbas and Yeast Slurry. My hat is off to these shows and I think they should be applauded for their contributions to beer!

BrewCrAzY does like the name says, they get a little CrAzY at times, but their main goal is to educate people on making beer, wine, cider & mead. There was one listener who was new to brewing and after listened to BrewCrAzY's first five shows, used what he learned and entered his first homebrew competition. He not only took first place in his category, but won best of show! Best of show is the best beer entered in the whole competition and this was a competition with over 1,000 beers entered. When I asked Johnny Max what he thought about this he responded in a modest way saying ?There is a lot of good information out there, I try to be a part of it. My main goal is to educate the next generation about what real beer is.?

Johnny Max's radio personality may be is loud and a little braggadocios, but in person, or on the phone he is a soft spoken man who is just laid back and enjoying life's ride, while sipping on a home brewed beer. He would give you the shirt off of him back.