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Connections

The Rochester Real Beer Expo and how breweries are adjusting to turbulence in the industry

Four men wearing headphones sit at a table in a radio talk studio: a man at foreground left has short grey hair, a grey beard and is wearing glasses, a navy polo shirt, jeans and sneakers; a man at foreground right has short brown hair, a brown beard and is wearing glasses, a navy hooded sweatshirt and jeans; a man at background left has a brown beard and is wearing glasses, a black baseball cap and black t-shirt; a man at background right has short brown hair, a brown beard and is wearing a grey t-shirt with white letters.
Gary Pudup
/
WXXI News
(foreground) Paul Leone, (background) Rob Richenberg and Zachary Allard with guest host Gino Fanelli on "Connections with Evan Dawson" on Thursday, April 24, 2025
A man with short light brown hair, mustache and beard, wearing glasses and a green jacket
John Schlia
/
WXXI News
Gino Fanelli

The Rochester Real Beer Expo has a new curator this year in Rob Richenberg. Richenberg aims to narrow the focus of the festival to New York breweries.

That move comes at a time when the craft brewing industry has seen some turbulence, with both major players in the local scene and small breweries struggling to keep doors open and taps flowing.

This hour, guest host Gino Fanelli explores it all with his guests:

Gino Fanelli is an investigative reporter who also covers City Hall. He joined the staff in 2019 by way of the Rochester Business Journal, and formerly served as a watchdog reporter for Gannett in Maryland and a stringer for the Associated Press.
Megan Mack is the executive producer of "Connections with Evan Dawson" and live/televised engagement programming.
Veronica Volk is a senior producer and editor for WXXI News.
Julie Williams is an associate producer for "Connections with Evan Dawson" and is also the office administrator for radio, news and technology and operations. She started at WXXI in 2019 and has been working on Connections since 2022.