We're very excited to present a new-to-us brewery as our May Brewery of the Month: Mondo Brewing Company. Established in early-2015 in an old converted warehouse in Battersea by two Americans, Mondo has been making waves with their straightforward and technically-sound beers. Brewing styles they like to drink and drawing influences from all over the world--err, mondo--this small crew has big plans, big ideas and a bright future.

Head-brewer and Co-Founder, Tom Palmer, was gracious enough to answer some questions posed to him by our Beer Sommelier, Maggie. Have a read of the interview below so you can get a better idea of what you're tasting when you drink their beer:

What should we know about who Mondo Brewing is? What's behind the name?

Mondo, the word itself, has myriad variations in romance languages. It means world. And I think this idea, amongst the notebook pages full of names we came up with, stood out the most. And that’s the idea of brewing styles from all around the world. Todd and I have our roots in American-style homebrewing (which I think is now the global style of homebrewing). It was always my goal as a homebrewer to brew styles and beers that weren’t available to me, or that I wanted to replicate or manipulate. So as we sat discussing names while brewing batches of beer in his backyard in De Beauvoir Town, Mondo jumped out as the one that summed up our particular approach to brewing.

My grandfather, father, and uncle all worked at Anheuser Busch. So I grew up drinking the beer I stole from our carport. Anheuser Busch gets a bad name for making somewhat bland, boring beer. But their standards are a benchmark for the industry. Not only hygienically and technologically speaking, but also the consistency. So that was something imparted to me at an early age. I brewed my first homebrew in St. Louis with a friend. It was in Japan though that I really began to brew in earnest. I was lucky enough to find a group of ex-pat homebrewers in Tokyo that made, categorically, some of the best beers I’d ever tasted. Their passion and willingness to brew every style had a huge impact on how I viewed beer and brewing.

A friend I’d moved from Los Angeles to Spain with in 2003 was visiting me in Tokyo. At the time he was running a pop-up burger grill in a bar in Barcelona. He tasted my homebrew and proceeded to convince me to get involved in helping him create a brewery back in Barcelona (Valldoreix to be exact). The earthquake and ensuing Tsunami hit and so I fled Chiba prefecture and went to visit him in Barcelona to escape the nuclear fallout. We developed some beers and created Cerveceros Krut, which he runs to this day. In Barcelona we wanted to create a light, citrusy pale ale that, in my mind, gave me the same refreshing aftertaste that the local Cava did. We used a lot Citra hops and a blend of ale and champagne yeast. So it was really the sunshine, the local fare, and escaping disaster struck Japan that sort of dominated my sentiment in brewing whilst in Spain.

While in Spain in 2011, I visited London. I’d actually come here for the first time in 1998, and I fell in love with real ale. I tried real ale for the first time in 1998, and I made a point to drink real ale at every pub we stopped in. One beer stands out from the first trip, and from each subsequent trip. Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter is really a great beer and a great example of the style. Discovering real ale broadened my understanding and appreciation of English beer and beer in general. Having moved over here from Japan for good in 2013, I took a job in a brewery in East London where we put 20% of production in cask. This is where I got a real education in cask beer production and packaging.

So tell me, how did a guy from St. Louis end up brewing beer in Battersea?

I knew early on at my previous post that I wanted to do things differently from the way we were doing them in the brewery there. And that’s where Todd and I met and began to formulate a plan for something different, something we were more comfortable with and that we hadn’t seen anything exactly like in London. Finding suitable space for this endeavor in London was an exhausting task. I’ve lived in Southeast London since my permanent move here, and I wanted to be close to home. We both wanted to be in an area that was underrepresented and was away from the area we both worked in. Battersea has always been on my mind musically through Pink Floyd and Bob Marley, and this particular building had the right character we were looking for. Our neighbours are great and the local community has been very accepting of our business and our beers.

With regards to the styles in your range, what do you hope to convey? Are you modernists? Traditionalists? Chucking anything in a bucket and seeing what you get?

We like to drink a lot of different styles, and so the brewing reflects that. We take a unique approach to each style we brew. But having said that, there are parameters that have been fairly well defined for the given styles and that’s what makes that particular beer a part of that style. So we work within the style guidelines set out by the BJCP and add our own take based on our experience with the variety of raw materials out there for use.

That was the one beer Todd and I agreed on from the beginning. I discovered Altbier at a small bottle shop along the Yamanote line in Tokyo. I remember being amazed at the balance and complexity of my first Zum Uerige. I immediately set out to recreate that beer as a homebrewer. Todd discovered Altbier through modern interpretations in the States and from his travels to Germany. Our particular recipe at Mondo is an amalgamation of his and my homebrewed versions.

To that end, there are a glut of pale ales and IPAs on the market and only so many ways to brew one. Are you looking to do anything different with yours to set yourselves apart or, like LL Cool J, are you just doin' it and doin' it and doin' it well?

For brewers, or at least the ones I talk to, making a great Pale Ale or IPA is really a testament to your ability as a brewer. Pale Ales are one of the hardest styles to do really well.

I had a few great recipes as a homebrewer. But like all the beers at Mondo, we wanted to do something original and from scratch. It was tough at first because all the raw materials I wanted (read: hops) weren’t available. So my first incarnations of the brew used a few substitutes. When the varietals I really wanted became available, the beer became what I wanted it to be. For all our beers we’ve always approached them with the philosophy that we wanted them to be balanced and approachable. We’ve always enjoyed beers that aren’t overpowering, but achieve a fine balance and complexity. When you hold an 8% IIPA to your lips and its gentle and quaffable, I find that the mark of a true master.

There's a bit of a formula for opening a brewery these days: great recipes, great kit, great branding, great taproom. And you've got all of that nailed. But--and you know where I'm going with this--what are your thoughts on a canning line? 

My thoughts are that it’s the best small package format for preserving the product in its freshest state. It is in our original business plan to acquire a canning machine and something both Todd and I knew would allow the beer we produce to travel farther and keep longer.

However, minimum can orders and the quality of small canning lines two years ago were slightly different than they are today, so we put that piece of capex on the back burner while we launched the brand. We will be exploring this investment again in the very near future.

Craft Beer, these days, is big business with lots of money flying around. Will mo' money cause mo' problems for the collaborative culture in the industry? How do you see collaborations fitting into your plan?

We’ve done three collaborations to date. I see a lot of collaborative brews being done and from a marketing and sales perspective I see why. They are a great way to enter markets you may not have had access to previously and a chance to work with brewers from around the world.

The collaborations we do are limited to by certain criteria. We don’t just want to do collaborations for the sake of self-promotion, we’ve thus far focused on personal relationships and supporting philanthropic organizations or causes.

The Ozeki American Wheat Ale brew with award-winning homebrewer Simon Clippingdale and our Mundo Diablo American Brown Ale with Devil Craft Brewing Company represent close personal friendships I struck up as a homebrewer in Tokyo.

And our most recent collaboration is with Heretic Brewing Company. This too came about as a result of a friendship I have with a beer distributor in Tokyo. This was also about expressing our respect and admiration for Jamil Zainasheff, founder and head brewer of Heretic. His books, magazine articles, and podcasts have had an immeasurable impact on my brewing, so that played a big part in us reaching out to him, hosting his tap takeover at the brewery, and doing the Global Heresay IPA collaboration.

The profits from that beer will be donated to the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. The Battersea Dogs and Cats Home is a 4-minute walk from the brewery, they do great work, and we love animals.

Are there any emerging markets that you're particularly excited about?

China, India, all of Central America, South America, and Hungary. The key in each case is the implementation of local ingredients. I had a beer in Hungary recently that was aged on Tokaij wine skins. That was delicious. There’s a brewery about to open just southwest of Budapest called Hubris Brewing Company. Three very talented brewers are at the helm of that one.

And finally, you guys have come a long way in a short time and you should be proud. What are you most proud of so far?

Personally, I’m proud of the team here. For the first 9 months there were just 4 of us, pulling 16-hour days, 6 days a week. Andy, our head of sales, and Joe, the assistant brewer, have given their blood, sweat and tears to this project and it shows in the quality, consistency, our brand representation, and that’s made this whole experience that much more enjoyable. We’ve gotten a lot of help from friends and former co-workers in the industry. I think that’s a testament to the culture that is being created around craft brewing. The other 80 odd breweries in London are our competitors, but it doesn’t feel like we’re out there doing battle to win hearts and minds. It feels more like, oh, that’s what you got? That’s really good. Now try ours.

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That's quite a load of insight into one of the men behind the beer. It's really exciting to read about someone who is so passionate and knowledgeable about the drink we love. Thanks so much for your time and thoughtfulness, Tom. Cheers!