Dreaming Of Beer ft Kelly Ryan

The Crafty Pint Podcast · Apr 22, 2026 · 1h 9m

“I do still wake up at night and think of beer recipes and beer names and what I could do with certain hops.”

Time for the last of the interviews recorded while we were in New Zealand for hop harvest in March. And, while Kelly Ryan works for Freestyle Hops, the reason we were keen to chat with him wasn’t so much to pick his brains about his current role as to enjoy time in the company of one of the beer world’s most gracious and charismatic figures.

Prior to swapping the mash tun for the hop bine, Kelly enjoyed a fine career in brewing. It started out at DB Breweries – one of New Zealand’s…