After an early stint at Cleveland staple Fat Head’s, and a brief foray into brewery operation with the now-defunct Platform, Shaun Yasaki set out in 2016 to create a brewpub that reflected his interests as a brewer—well-made beers that don’t chase trends but earn repeat business for both flavor and drinkability. To achieve that goal, he designed a 10-barrel brewhouse that could brew any style of beer without compromise, thanks to its dedicated cereal cooker and decoction vessel. Now, with Noble Beast (https://www.noblebeastbeer.com), he squeezes more beer from every batch using high-gravity brewing methods, and the results have garnered notice—two GABF medals for Baltic-style porter Murder Ballads, plus a number of high scores (https://beerandbrewing.com/search/?search=noble+beast&category=beerReview) from our blind-judging panel at Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine®. In this episode, Yasaki discusses: designing a 10-barrel brewhouse with flexibility for cereal mashes, decoction, parti-gyle brewing, and more exploring “weird” mash regimes to optimize flavor and fermentation performance finding space for expression within traditional lager styles maintaining foam-positive proteins through mashing and decoction finding complementary esters in specific lager yeast strains milling and cooking raw rice to create “negative space” in beer for other flavors to fill decocting and cereal mashing IPA using non-diacetyl-producing yeast in IPA fermentation high-gravity brewing on a small pub system And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) “ProBrew is excited to now offer 2-4 week lead times on all in-stock ProFill Rotary Can Filler and Seamers. This special lead time is only while supplies last, so send us an email at contactus@probrew.com or call us at 262-278-4945. ProBrew, Brew YOUR Beer.” Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at info@omegayeast.com. RSS Maclin (https://rssmaclin.com) offers audits and repairs for can seamers and can integrity training. We provide solutions for can damage, seam training, and help your facility become self-sufficient without relying on OEMs. Questions about your can line? Call us at (330) 299-8210 or email at service@rssmaclin.com Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com) breeds new hop varieties to help brewers captivate beer lovers. Brewers worldwide trust Indie’s unique varieties — Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, Meridian and Audacia — to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Visit indiehops.com/podcast to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Superbloom strains make classic hops flavor; Fresh strains keep diacetyl low even with large hop additions; Tropics strains make a tropical bouquet reminiscent of the finest southern hemisphere hops. Mention this podcast for 20% off your first order. Brewery & Distillery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com): If you’re a brewery or distillery in planning, or interested in adding a brewery or distillery to your existing craft beverage business, visit breweryworkshop.com now and secure your spot in our upcoming Brewery and Distillery Workshop, this September.

Over the past 15 years of Fat Head’s (https://fatheads.com) existence, they’ve won 27 GABF medals (14 gold) and a dozen World Beer Cup medals (seven gold), but brewmaster Matt Cole takes it all in stride with typically Midwestern humility. They love to win, but they do it for the sake of making great beer. There’s a modern sensibility to their flagship American IPA, Head Hunter—one of our Best 20 Beers in 2023 (https://beerandbrewing.com/the-best-20-beers-in-2023/)—which feels West Coast–driven but with an almost analog-like warmth that makes it accessible and refined without sacrificing any of its urgency and presence. And their approach to open fermentation of German-style weissbier is a master class in controlling ester and phenol production for flavorful yet balanced beers. Ask Cole, however, and he’ll chalk it up to quality ingredients and sound process. “Good product in, good product out.” In this episode, Cole discusses: soft fining to protect bitterness and aroma brewing American IPA with a strong West Coast vibe evaluating new-crop-year hops in the brewhouse after selection selecting hops at the brewery with input from the entire brewing team tagging hops from different selected lots for different usages in a brew maximizing natural hop flavor and aroma with whole-cone hops in the hopback the stylistic overlap of West Coast and American IPA dialing in packaging for competition fermenting weissbier in an open fermentor using a flotation tank to clean up brews the importance of process over recipe And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) “ProBrew is excited to now offer 2-4 week lead times on all in-stock ProFill Rotary Can Filler and Seamers. This special lead time is only while supplies last, so send us an email at contactus@probrew.com or call us at 262-278-4945. ProBrew, Brew YOUR Beer.” Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at info@omegayeast.com. RSS Maclin (https://rssmaclin.com) offers audits and repairs for can seamers and can integrity training. We provide solutions for can damage, seam training, and help your facility become self-sufficient without relying on OEMs. Questions about your can line? Call us at (330) 299-8210 or email at service@rssmaclin.com Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com) breeds new hop varieties to help brewers captivate beer lovers. Brewers worldwide trust Indie’s unique varieties — Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, Meridian and Audacia — to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Visit indiehops.com/podcast to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Superbloom strains make classic hops flavor; Fresh strains keep diacetyl low even with large hop additions; Tropics strains make a tropical bouquet reminiscent of the finest southern hemisphere hops. Mention this podcast for 20% off your first order. Brewery & Distillery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com): If you’re a brewery or distillery in planning, or interested in adding a brewery or distillery to your existing craft beverage business, visit breweryworkshop.com now and secure your spot in our upcoming Brewery and Distillery Workshop, this September.

Murphy Johnson of BlackStack (https://www.blackstackbrewing.com) in St. Paul, Minnesota, is an enthusiastic brewer with a big personality. Despite many brewers’ strong opinions on hazy IPA, he’s not afraid to go against the grain and embrace the murky style in all its fruit-forward hop glory. In this almost entirely haze-focused episode, Johnson discusses how they continue to learn while developing beers—often via collabs with other brewers—as they deploy unusual techniques and focus on ingredients that don’t break the bank. In this episode, Johnson touches on: altering hazy IPA grain bills for aesthetic reasons feeding voracious dry hops with additional fermentables, such as Belgian candi sugar using thiol-boosting products with thiol-optimizing yeast for intensely fruit expressions how Sabro at low percentages helps to bring out beautiful notes from other hops building creaminess and mouthfeel with Cashmere and similar hops achieving modern hop flavors with traditional (and less expensive) American hops utilizing American Noble hop products in the mash to boost thiols temperature control and spunding when fermenting hazy IPAs And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) “ProBrew is excited to now offer 2-4 week lead times on all in-stock ProFill Rotary Can Filler and Seamers. This special lead time is only while supplies last, so send us an email at contactus@probrew.com or call us at 262-278-4945. ProBrew, Brew YOUR Beer.” Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at info@omegayeast.com. RSS Maclin (https://rssmaclin.com) offers audits and repairs for can seamers and can integrity training. We provide solutions for can damage, seam training, and help your facility become self-sufficient without relying on OEMs. Questions about your can line? Call us at (330) 299-8210 or email at service@rssmaclin.com Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com) breeds new hop varieties to help brewers captivate beer lovers. Brewers worldwide trust Indie’s unique varieties — Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, Meridian and Audacia — to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Visit indiehops.com/podcast to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Superbloom strains make classic hops flavor; Fresh strains keep diacetyl low even with large hop additions; Tropics strains make a tropical bouquet reminiscent of the finest southern hemisphere hops. Mention this podcast for 20% off your first order. Brewery & Distillery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com): If you’re a brewery or distillery in planning, or interested in adding a brewery or distillery to your existing craft beverage business, visit breweryworkshop.com now and secure your spot in our upcoming Brewery and Distillery Workshop, this September.

Fair State Brewing Collective (https://fairstate.coop) head brewer Joe Wells has a deep love of tradition but no fear of the future, and the brewer’s multiple focuses on everything from pale lager and modern IPA to sparking hemp-derived THC beverages is evidence of such. The point is matching flavor and experience to occasion, and Wells thinks about the entirety of that engagement when designing beers and beverages. In this episode, recorded on the eve of the World Brewing Congress in Minneapolis, Wells talks about: brewing classic lager with American grains and ingredients embracing the cereal mash with corn grits and rice flour for lighter beers that don’t sacrifice character lager brewing with American Noble hops using Columbus cryo in lager and IPA dialing in Tetra for foam retention in adjunct lagers using the cheapest ingredients as expensively as possible triple decoction and its place in the certain beers debunking conical versus horizontal lager fermentation dank and sticky West coast IPA layering aromas like perfumers designing and making interesting hemp-derived THC beverages And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) “ProBrew is excited to now offer 2-4 week lead times on all in-stock ProFill Rotary Can Filler and Seamers. This special lead time is only while supplies last, so send us an email at contactus@probrew.com or call us at 262-278-4945. ProBrew, Brew YOUR Beer.” Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at info@omegayeast.com. RSS Maclin (https://rssmaclin.com) offers audits and repairs for can seamers and can integrity training. We provide solutions for can damage, seam training, and help your facility become self-sufficient without relying on OEMs. Questions about your can line? Call us at (330) 299-8210 or email at service@rssmaclin.com Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com) breeds new hop varieties to help brewers captivate beer lovers. Brewers worldwide trust Indie’s unique varieties — Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, Meridian and Audacia — to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Visit indiehops.com/podcast to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Superbloom strains make classic hops flavor; Fresh strains keep diacetyl low even with large hop additions; Tropics strains make a tropical bouquet reminiscent of the finest southern hemisphere hops. Mention this podcast for 20% off your first order. Brewery & Distillery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com): If you’re a brewery or distillery in planning, or interested in adding a brewery or distillery to your existing craft beverage business, visit breweryworkshop.com now and secure your spot in our upcoming Brewery and Distillery Workshop, this September.

Lager yeast and the evolution of expression is the subject of this spotlight podcast, brought to you interruption-free by Fermentis, (https://fermentis.com) the experts in fermentation for more than 160 years. Brewers everywhere depend on Fermentis for yeast that’s consistent, controllable, and high quality—whether you’re brewing an ester-forward Belgian-style beer, your favorite IPA, or a clean lager. This episode focuses on an evolving subject—using lager yeast for character beyond “cleanliness,” and joining for the conversation are Urs Wellhoener, technical director and brewing R&D for Boston Beer, Grant Lawrence, former professional brewer, active homebrewer, and Southwestern sales rep for Fermentis, and Bob Kunz, founder of Highland Park Brewing in Los Angeles. Through the podcast, we focus on the why, the what, and the how of using lager yeast to achieve not just neutral, but characterful fermentations, especially as it pertains to hop-forward lager styles. Along the way, the panelists discuss: the interaction of sulfur compounds derived from hops with the sulfur compounds created through lager fermentation lager strains’ beta-lyase activity and biotransformation leaning into hop creep and using it to your advantage reducing acetaldehyde production by changing diacetyl rest timing cone angle’s impact on mercaptan formation testing tried-and-true beers such as Highland Park’s Timbo Pils with alternate yeast strains And more. Fermentis, (https://fermentis.com) is a worldwide leader in brewing yeast, and brewers everywhere depend on Fermentis for successful, predictable, and controllable beer fermentation. They’re the obvious choice for beverage fermentation. To learn more about their range of dried brewing yeast and the work they’re doing to help brewers understand how to use them, visit Fermentis.com, (https://fermentis.com)

With his new brewery, Ism (https://www.ism.beer), Ian McCall is back in the brewery and taproom that once housed Beachwood in Long Beach, California—a brewery where he was once lead brewer—although he’s in a different position now as founder and owner. Despite the very young age of this new brewery, McCall and team have already made a big splash, landing three World Beer Cup medals earlier this year, two of them gold, and one in the prized West Coast IPA category for their IPA Western Standard Time. The conversation, of course, turns to West Coast IPA, and stays there, as McCall walks through his award-winning IPA. Along the way, McCall covers: optimizing the beer lineup to eliminate lower performers driving leaner malt in West Coast IPA using group hop selection to his advantage brewing with wheat to boost body without affecting dryness moderating chloride levels in West Coast IPA shaping bitterness to hit strongly and quickly then disappear using active fermentation dry hopping to push fruitier hop notes building complexity with hot side hop additions constantly evolving even award-winning recipes And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at info@omegayeast.com. RSS Maclin (https://rssmaclin.com) offers audits and repairs for can seamers and can integrity training. We provide solutions for can damage, seam training, and help your facility become self-sufficient without relying on OEMs. Questions about your can line? Call us at (330) 299-8210 or email at service@rssmaclin.com Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com) breeds new hop varieties to help brewers captivate beer lovers. Brewers worldwide trust Indie’s unique varieties — Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, Meridian and Audacia — to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Visit indiehops.com/podcast to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Superbloom strains make classic hops flavor; Fresh strains keep diacetyl low even with large hop additions; Tropics strains make a tropical bouquet reminiscent of the finest southern hemisphere hops. Mention this podcast for 20% off your first order. Brewery & Distillery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com): If you’re a brewery or distillery in planning, or interested in adding a brewery or distillery to your existing craft beverage business, visit breweryworkshop.com now and secure your spot in our upcoming Brewery and Distillery Workshop, this September.

Victor Novak has been racking up medals at major competitions for decades now. Through stints at significant Philadelphia and southern California breweries, he’s made his mark on the development of contemporary beer styles while also working with a number of younger brewers who’ve done significant work themselves. Now, as director of innovation for Figueroa Mountain (https://www.figmtnbrew.com) in Westlake Village, California, he’s blending the many beer avenues he loves—lager, fruit, and more—to build a robust program with beers that even non-beer-lovers can enjoy. In this episode, Novak covers: adjusting chloride-to-sulfate ratios in dark lagers building easy-drinking dark beers with pilsner malt, rice, and small amounts of roasted malts limiting Munich malt to avoid astringency single-infusion mashing with modern malts managing sulfur production with Augustiner lager yeast the differentiating factors in award-winning lagers dialing in pH in either pale and dark lagers to optimize hop or malt expression biotransformation with lager yeast in West Coast pils creating a perception of sweetness (without actual sweetness) in tart fruit beers Choosing Lactobacillus strains for the intended level of acidity adding top-notes to fruit flavors for aromatic punch working terpenes into hop-forward and nonalcoholic beers And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at info@omegayeast.com. RSS Maclin (https://rssmaclin.com) offers audits and repairs for can seamers and can integrity training. We provide solutions for can damage, seam training, and help your facility become self-sufficient without relying on OEMs. Questions about your can line? Call us at (330) 299-8210 or email at service@rssmaclin.com Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com) breeds new hop varieties to help brewers captivate beer lovers. Brewers worldwide trust Indie’s unique varieties — Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, Meridian and Audacia — to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Visit indiehops.com/podcast to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Superbloom strains make classic hops flavor; Fresh strains keep diacetyl low even with large hop additions; Tropics strains make a tropical bouquet reminiscent of the finest southern hemisphere hops. Mention this podcast for 20% off your first order. Brewery & Distillery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com): If you’re a brewery or distillery in planning, or interested in adding a brewery or distillery to your existing craft beverage business, visit breweryworkshop.com now and secure your spot in our upcoming Brewery and Distillery Workshop, this September.

The Williams family has been farming apples and stone fruit on Colorado’s Western slope for over 100 years, and today their Snow Capped Cider (https://snowcappedcider.com) is one of the winningest American cideries, notching big honors at GLINTCAP, the world’s premier cider competition, while cleaning up again at the annual Cidercraft awards. The secret, says owner, creative force, and cider maker Kari Williams, is the quality of their fruit. Growing apples for cider on their own estate isn’t novel, but doing so at an elevation over 6000’ certainly is, and the extreme growing conditions produce apples with more vivid contours as well as more sugar, which provides Williams a saturated palette to paint with. In this episode, Williams discusses: the multigenerational family approach to farming and now cider making the benefits and challenges of growing apples at high elevation maintaining tight farming control for perfect apples, while benefitting from the luxury of time an apple-driven creative process inspired by flavors in that year’s crop terroir and flavor expression in apples, and the impact of different farming locations extensive trialing with 200 fermentation tests in any given year building a perception of sweetness in dry ciders aging certain apple varieties before juicing balancing acidity, astringency, and sweetness in fine ciders And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at info@omegayeast.com. RSS Maclin (https://rssmaclin.com) offers audits and repairs for can seamers and can integrity training. We provide solutions for can damage, seam training, and help your facility become self-sufficient without relying on OEMs. Questions about your can line? Call us at (330) 299-8210 or email at service@rssmaclin.com Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com) breeds new hop varieties to help brewers captivate beer lovers. Brewers worldwide trust Indie’s unique varieties — Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, Meridian and Audacia — to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Visit indiehops.com/podcast to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Superbloom strains make classic hops flavor; Fresh strains keep diacetyl low even with large hop additions; Tropics strains make a tropical bouquet reminiscent of the finest southern hemisphere hops. Mention this podcast for 20% off your first order. Brewery & Distillery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com): If you’re a brewery or distillery in planning, or interested in adding a brewery or distillery to your existing craft beverage business, visit breweryworkshop.com now and secure your spot in our upcoming Brewery and Distillery Workshop, this September.

Both Yvan De Baets, cofounder of Brasserie de la Senne (https://www.brasseriedelasenne.be) in Brussels, and Eric Toft, brewmaster at Private Landbrauerei Schönram (https://www.schoenramer.de) in Schönram, Germany, have appeared on the podcast in the past (episodes 162 (https://beerandbrewing.com/podcast-episode-162-yvan-de-baets-of-brasserie-de-la-senne/) and 244 (https://beerandbrewing.com/podcast-episode-244-eric-toft-of-schoenramer-is-fixated-on-consistency/)). However, for this special panel discussion—recorded live at the Senne brewery—we’ve brought them back to discuss a topic that’s increasingly front-of-mind for brewers around the world: the present and future of European hops. Extreme heat and severe weather events have increased in frequency, often affecting the aroma and alpha-acid content of classic European-grown varieties and making it more difficult to source those of highest quality. Yet both De Baets and Toft have developed and deployed strategies not just to evaluate growers and track the progress of the crop each year, but also to understand the benefits and drawbacks of each new crop while hedging against risks. In this episode, they discuss: shifts in European drinking habits declining contracted hops and hedging with overstock from previous harvest years positive and negative traits when evaluating hops still on the bine building deeper relationships directly with growers avoiding the trap of negotiating on hop price evaluating irrigation methods and field structure harvest timing and its increasing impact on certain Noble varieties testing and sensory for new-harvest hops maintaining the cold chain from baling and storage through pelletizing the biggest challenges and the biggest opportunities for European hops in the near term And more! This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at info@omegayeast.com. RSS Maclin (https://rssmaclin.com) offers audits and repairs for can seamers and can integrity training. We provide solutions for can damage, seam training, and help your facility become self-sufficient without relying on OEMs. Questions about your can line? Call us at (330) 299-8210 or email at service@rssmaclin.com Brewery & Distillery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com): If you’re a brewery or distillery in planning, or interested in adding a brewery or distillery to your existing craft beverage business, visit breweryworkshop.com now and secure your spot in our upcoming Brewery and Distillery Workshop, this September. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Superbloom strains make classic hops flavor; Fresh strains keep diacetyl low even with large hop additions; Tropics strains make a tropical bouquet reminiscent of the finest southern hemisphere hops. Mention this podcast for 20% off your first order.

Beers such as Oerbier, Arabier, and Stille Nacht may not be as familiar to today’s avid beer consumer, but for decades these unusual strong ales have been staples on the menus and cellars of more adventurous beer bars around the world. De Dolle Brouwers (https://www.oerbier.be) got its start in 1980, among the vanguard in a new wave of Belgian brewers who rejected the consolidation and cynical corner-cutting that had come to define the industry there. Cofounder Kris Herteleer was committed to a more natural approach to brewing, using real malt, whole hops, healthy yeast, spring water, and the highly manual mechanical tools of the decades-old brewhouse they purchased in the village of Esen, just outside of Diksmuide, in West Flanders. Oerbier was, and still is, hard to classify. It limns the space between an overtly acid-forward oud bruin and a strong Belgian dark ale, borrowing from both where and when it needs to. Yet this ambiguity fits Herteleer’s approach; De Dolle isn’t concerned at all about adherence to styles. Herteleer would much rather get you asking questions than provide you with easy answers. In this episode, recorded at the brewery as we sipped beers from their cellar more than 20 years old, Herteleer discusses: switching from Rodenbach yeast in 2000, and the five-year process of getting Oerbier back to its intended expression the prevalence of coloring and backsweeting in 1970s and ’80s Belgian ale balancing acidity and sweetness in higher-gravity beer using a coolship, Baudelot cooler, open fermentors, a Lactobacillus reactor, and French wine barrels to produce complex, flavorful beer that’s more than just “sour” using relatively high IBUs to limit Lactobacillus and Pediococcus activity in mixed-culture fermentation avoiding the crutch of spices in Belgian ale barrel-aging in wine barrels rather than spirits barrels, to avoid “dead” barrels And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at info@omegayeast.com. RSS Maclin (https://rssmaclin.com) offers audits and repairs for can seamers and can integrity training. We provide solutions for can damage, seam training, and help your facility become self-sufficient without relying on OEMs. Questions about your can line? Call us at (330) 299-8210 or email at service@rssmaclin.com Brewery & Distillery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com): If you’re a brewery or distillery in planning, or interested in adding a brewery or distillery to your existing craft beverage business, visit breweryworkshop.com now and secure your spot in our upcoming Brewery and Distillery Workshop, this September. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com/podcast): Brewers worldwide trust Indie’s unique varieties — Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, Meridian, and Audacia — to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Visit indiehops.com/podcast to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Superbloom strains make classic hops flavor; Fresh strains keep diacetyl low even with large hop additions; Tropics strains make a tropical bouquet reminiscent of the finest southern hemisphere hops. Mention this podcast for 20% off your first order. Craft Spirits & Distilling Podcast (https://spiritsanddistilling.com/podcasts/): If you’re a distiller or curious about it, check out the Craft Spirits & Distilling podcast. Click on the link and subscribe from your favorite podcast platform.

The Humble Sea (https://humblesea.com) origin story told by cofounder and brewmaster Nick Pavlina is a common one: Avid homebrewer turns pro at the urging of family and friends. Yet that early experience with brewing, brewing, and brewing some more—on a one-barrel system—instilled a discipline for testing, evaluating, and adapting that stays with Humble Sea to this day. A 2022 World Beer Cup silver medal for Munich-style helles gave them the validation they sought for the nascent lager program—but rather than anchor them in place, that success put more wind in their experimental sails. They continue to tinker with that beer, testing mash-step times and temperatures as well as fermentation parameters, in an ongoing quest to make it as perfect as possible. Meanwhile, they’ve hitched a ride on the swift current of hazy IPA—or, in their lingo, “foggy IPA”—but they’ve done so in ways inspired by their West Coast locale. The result has been significant growth, and the brewery now has five different ports they call home. In this episode, Pavlina and brewing operations director Nate Chesser discuss: developing a house lager style by assembling pieces of various traditions and the practices of brewer peers changing and adjusting their medal-winning helles despite its success embracing decoction for both its tangible and intangible benefits choosing and sourcing Noble hops for helles and pilsner fermenting lagers with a less common yeast strain building their initial “foggy” IPA out of a Pliny the Elder–inspired recipe leaning into their unique water profile spunding IPA for natural carbonation And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at info@omegayeast.com. RSS Maclin (https://rssmaclin.com) offers audits and repairs for can seamers and can integrity training. We provide solutions for can damage, seam training, and help your facility become self-sufficient without relying on OEMs. Questions about your can line? Call us at (330) 299-8210 or email at service@rssmaclin.com Brewery & Distillery Workshop (https://breweryworkshop.com): If you’re a brewery or distillery in planning, or interested in adding a brewery or distillery to your existing craft beverage business, visit breweryworkshop.com now and secure your spot in our upcoming Brewery and Distillery Workshop, this September. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com/podcast): Brewers worldwide trust Indie’s unique varieties — Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, Meridian, and Audacia — to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Visit indiehops.com/podcast to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Superbloom strains make classic hops flavor; Fresh strains keep diacetyl low even with large hop additions; Tropics strains make a tropical bouquet reminiscent of the finest southern hemisphere hops. Mention this podcast for 20% off your first order. Craft Spirits & Distilling Podcast (https://spiritsanddistilling.com/podcasts/): If you’re a distiller or curious about it, check out the Craft Spirits & Distilling podcast. Click on the link and subscribe from your favorite podcast platform.

Carrying the weight of history and expectation poses a particular challenge for some European brewers, but nowhere is that more apparent than in the world of Belgian brewing. How, in the face of changing technology and consistently variable ingredients, does a brewer stay true to the ideas behind the classic recipes that underpin the core beers that their brewery produces? Over the past two decades, these are exactly the questions that St. Bernardus (https://www.sintbernardus.be) brewmaster Wouter Dely and sales and marketing manager Marco Passarella have had to face. In this episode, they discuss: Adjusting classic recipes to today’s modern brewhouse reality Working with barley that varies year-to-year by adjusting step mash times and temperatures Using Belgian candi sugar in brewing abbey-style beers Maintaining healthy fermentations using techniques like drauflassen (https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/KU8vZ0OyWJ/) Fostering ester production by limiting head pressure in cylindroconical tanks Using different temperature glycol in fermenter jackets through the course of the fermentation Time as an ingredient in brewing The mechanics of bottle conditioning And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at info@omegayeast.com. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com). ABS Commercial are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and preventative maintenance parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact them today at sales@abs-commercial.com to discuss your customized brewery needs. Yakima Chief Hops (https://hopandbrewschool.com). The 7th Annual Veterans Blend from Yakima Chief Hops will be available for pre-order June 24th! $3 from every pound sold of Veterans Blend will be donated to this year’s non-profit Stop Soldier Suicide. Plan ahead and pre-order on June 24th! Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Superbloom strains make classic hops flavor; Fresh strains keep diacetyl low even with large hop additions; Tropics strains make a tropical bouquet reminiscent of the finest southern hemisphere hops. Mention this podcast for 20% off your first order. Craft Spirits & Distilling Podcast (https://spiritsanddistilling.com/podcasts/): If you’re a distiller or curious about it, check out the Craft Spirits & Distilling podcast. Click on the link and subscribe from your favorite podcast platform.

In Anzegem, Belgium, about 20 miles southwest of Ghent, Brouwerij ’t Verzet (https://brouwerijtverzet.be) is no cover band. Sure, they could make some local waves by brewing up Citra-Mosaic hazy IPAs, but what would that mean to the strong brewing traditions in their corner of Flanders? Rather than play someone else’s tunes, could they instead take the familiar, culturally significant notes that everyone around them knows, and play them with a swagger and attitude that helps people see them in a new light? Or, as cofounder Alex Lippens muses, could they drink these innovative hazy IPAs from the United States, learn from them, and inject that knowledge back into classic Belgian styles, to help move those traditions forward? Couldn’t they develop their own take on a classic Flemish style such as oud bruin—but instead of making it taste like Rodenbach, make it feel cool and relevant for a younger generation of drinkers? These are among the questions that Lippens asks throughout this episode. While the answers are still in progress—check back with the Verzet team in 40 years, maybe, when their brewing careers are complete—he also touches on: pushing the borders of drinkability and excitement rethinking Michael Jackson’s categorization of oud bruin and Flemish red ale brewing with a heavy caramel-malt load and 20 percent unmalted barley using techniques such as cereal mashes and extremely long boils to build flavor and texture blending parts of seven different barrel-aged base beers into Verzet Oud Bruin maintaining and using a wild-caught mixed culture promoting quicker Lactobacillus action by restricting hops and pitching on fully fermented wort building an impression of fruit flavor without using actual fruit blending to a total acidity goal And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at info@omegayeast.com. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com). ABS Commercial are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and preventative maintenance parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact them today at sales@abs-commercial.com to discuss your customized brewery needs. Yakima Chief Hops (https://hopandbrewschool.com). The 7th Annual Veterans Blend from Yakima Chief Hops will be available for pre-order June 24th! $3 from every pound sold of Veterans Blend will be donated to this year’s non-profit Stop Soldier Suicide. Plan ahead and pre-order on June 24th! Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Superbloom strains make classic hops flavor; Fresh strains keep diacetyl low even with large hop additions; Tropics strains make a tropical bouquet reminiscent of the finest southern hemisphere hops. Mention this podcast for 20% off your first order. Craft Spirits & Distilling Podcast (https://spiritsanddistilling.com/podcasts/): If you’re a distiller or curious about it, check out the Craft Spirits & Distilling podcast. Click on the link and subscribe from your favorite podcast platform.

Mythmaking and superstition may play a role in others brewers’ approaches to making lambic, but for Thomas Vandelanotte—brewmaster for Belgian breweries Timmermans (https://brtimmermans.be), Bourgogne de Flandres (https://www.bourgognedesflandres.be), and Waterloo (https://waterloo-beer.com)—science is a far better tool for achieving great-tasting beer that people want to drink over and over again. “I think it’s important, first of all, to not talk about lambic as a wonder of nature, but it’s something that can be completely scientifically followed-up,” Vandelanotte says. To that end, he and his team have engaged in deep study of their own brewery environment, the dynamics at play through fermentation and aging, and every barrel or foeder that finds its way into an oude gueuze blend. Their goal is balanced beer—flavorful, citric, not too acidic—and they’re intentional in both adhering to the historical parameters of lambic brewing while also using all the modern abalyticak tools at their disposal. In this episode, Vandelanotte discusses: the 118 different yeasts they’ve found in their environment and fermenting beer growth dynamics over time of different yeasts in lambic the similarity of young fermenting lambic to New England IPA using oxidized hop pellets without destroying what’s good about the hops themselves, because “lambic is not the [trash] bin of the hops industry” avoiding low-oil hop varieties and embracing hops of various origins, including U.S. hops the origin of barnyard character in lambic using a variety of barrel sizes and foeders for different fermentation and wood impacts analysis of foeders and barrels to build statistical basis for a theoretical blend that’s confirmed or adjusted through sensory flavor differences in types of acid that don’t track to titrations open fermentation at Bourgogne de Flandres to drive ester production fermentation dynamics in oud bruin And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at info@omegayeast.com. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com). ABS Commercial are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and preventative maintenance parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact them today at sales@abs-commercial.com to discuss your customized brewery needs. Yakima Chief Hops (https://hopandbrewschool.com). The 7th Annual Veterans Blend from Yakima Chief Hops will be available for pre-order June 24th! $3 from every pound sold of Veterans Blend will be donated to this year’s non-profit Stop Soldier Suicide. Plan ahead and pre-order on June 24th! Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com). Superbloom strains make classic hops flavor; Fresh strains keep diacetyl low even with large hop additions; Tropics strains make a tropical bouquet reminiscent of the finest southern hemisphere hops. Mention this podcast for 20% off your first order. Craft Spirits & Distilling Podcast (https://spiritsanddistilling.com/podcasts/): If you’re a distiller or curious about it, check out the Craft Spirits & Distilling podcast. Click on the link and subscribe from your favorite podcast platform.

At last year’s Festival of Barrel-Aged Beers in Chicago, a relative newcomer grabbed both the silver and bronze medals in the Wild Beer Mixed Culture with Fruit category, immediately sending the crowd to flood the pouring table with requests for tastes. The brewery brand—Idyll Forest Artisan Ales—is the wild, mixed-culture passion project of Pryes Brewing (https://www.pryesbrewing.com) cofounder Jeremy Pryes. The small production facility he’s built about 20 minutes from the main brewery is his culture and flavor laboratory. Despite founding the brewery over a decade ago, Pryes still spends time on the production brew deck and then makes time for his acid-forward labors of love, but the long days are worth it for Pryes. There are too many ideas to try, too many experiments to work out, and too much to learn to slow down now. In this episode, Pryes discusses both their classic approach to “Midwest IPA” as well as the wild path he’s forging with Idyll Forest. Along the way, he touches on: their slow and intentional growth from alternating proprietorship to large beer hall the fundamental tenets of classic Midwest IPA challenges in selecting Simcoe with a more classic flavor profile how drinkers’ palates have evolved over the past decade changing yeast strains, making drier beers with no caramel malt, and finding balance through lower bitterness differentiating West Coast–style IPAs from Midwest IPAs through hop choices building common lanes for Idyll Forest’s wild, spontaneous, and mixed-culture beers the narrow IBU window between bacterial party time and lockdown pre-acidifying or not, depending on flavor intentions decisions and process around fruit additions using carbonic maceration of grapes to improve flavor expression articulating beer-blending goals through writing avoiding vanilla in certain fruited mixed-culture beers And more. Note: After we recorded this episode, Pryes went on to win a World Beer Cup bronze for Soirée, which had also won bronze at FOBAB. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Streamline efficiency with Omega Yeast’s Diacetyl Knock Out series. The DKO series is comprised of 8 familiar yeast strains engineered to knock out the formation of diacetyl before it starts. The strains you know, now better. Contact Omega Yeast today at omegayeast.com. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com). ABS Commercial are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and preventative maintenance parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact them today at sales@abs-commercial.com to discuss your customized brewery needs. Yakima Chief Hops (https://hopandbrewschool.com). Interested in all things hops and beer? Join Yakima Chief Hops on Aug. 28-20th for Hop & Brew School, a one-of-a-kind educational experience in Yakima, Washington, the heart of hop country. Register at hopandbrewschool.com. Use code CBB10 for a 10% discount off your tickets. Craft Spirits & Distilling Podcast (https://spiritsanddistilling.com/podcasts/): If you’re a distiller or curious about it, check out the Craft Spirits & Distilling podcast. Click on the link and subscribe from your favorite podcast platform.

Tim Johnson of Barrel Theory (https://barreltheory.com) in St. Paul, Minnesota, started brewing progressive styles of beer—hazy IPA, fruit beers, barrel-aged stouts, and more—out of necessity. As a beer lover and beer trader, it made sense to try his hand at these things he would trade for, both for the creative thrill of pursuing excellence in these styles, but also for more pragmatic reasons—to have things to trade. Today, Johnson still loves tasting the wide breadth of beer out there, and he remains active in trading beer with brewer friends. Now, however, he’s more focused on his own brewing—mastering hazy IPA, tart fruit beers, and barrel-aged stouts—and he’s not afraid to let you know that he loves those styles. In this episode, he discusses: blending and co-pitching yeast in hazy IPAs designing double and triple hazy IPAs to taste great at a variety of temperatures balancing base malts for flavor and color adjusting water for the perfect hazy IPA profile using advanced hop products alongside T-90 pellets choosing the right time and place for certain hop additions building hazy IPAs that make you want to take another sip taking advantage of the “Infinity Gauntlet” of hops pushing hop saturation while still controlling hop burn using coconut cream to build richness in fruited sours And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Streamline efficiency with Omega Yeast’s Diacetyl Knock Out series. The DKO series is comprised of 8 familiar yeast strains engineered to knock out the formation of diacetyl before it starts. The strains you know, now better. Contact Omega Yeast today at omegayeast.com. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com). ABS Commercial are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and preventative maintenance parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact them today at sales@abs-commercial.com to discuss your customized brewery needs. Yakima Chief Hops (https://hopandbrewschool.com). Interested in all things hops and beer? Join Yakima Chief Hops on Aug. 28-20th for Hop & Brew School, a one-of-a-kind educational experience in Yakima, Washington, the heart of hop country. Register at hopandbrewschool.com. Use code CBB10 for a 10% discount off your tickets. Craft Spirits & Distilling Podcast (https://spiritsanddistilling.com/podcasts/): If you’re a distiller or curious about it, check out the Craft Spirits & Distilling podcast. Click on the link and subscribe from your favorite podcast platform.

The world may know Austin’s Meanwhile (https://www.meanwhilebeer.com) for the GABF and World Beer Cup medals they’ve won, including golds for Helles and Pilsner, and silver for Secret Beach IPA. But the locals know it as a great beer garden with a playground for kids, an outdoor concert stage, a wide array of food trucks, and tasty beer that can be either dissected or just digested. It’s a beautiful place to spend time with friends over beer, with beer that’s worth talking about (if that’s your thing). In this episode, Director of Brewing Operations Robert Fulwiler, himself an alum of Seattle’s Fremont, discusses some of the keys behind Meanwhile’s successful lagers and IPAs, including: Blending pilsner malts for color and character Managing mash thickness with a slightly high-gravity brew Adjusting for the low alpha of the 2022 German hop harvest Building a range of hop flavor with addition timing and a variety of hops and formats Using Augustiner yeast and embracing the best side of sulfur Slow carbonation for more delicate lagers “San Diego-style IPA” and what it means Managing hop creep with ALDC Controlling the expression of funkier hop characteristics through temperature And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Streamline efficiency with Omega Yeast’s Diacetyl Knock Out series. The DKO series is comprised of 8 familiar yeast strains engineered to knock out the formation of diacetyl before it starts. The strains you know, now better. Contact Omega Yeast today at omegayeast.com. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com). ABS Commercial are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and preventative maintenance parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact them today at sales@abs-commercial.com to discuss your customized brewery needs. Yakima Chief Hops (https://yakimachief.com). YCH 702 is a flowable extract designed to maximize aroma and increase whirlpool yield. YCH 702 is flowable at room temperature, standardized to 20% total oil, and contains high concentration of survivable hop compounds. Contact your Yakima Chief hops rep for more information! Craft Spirits & Distilling Podcast (https://spiritsanddistilling.com/podcasts/): If you’re a distiller or curious about it, check out the Craft Spirits & Distilling podcast. Click on the link and subscribe from your favorite podcast platform.

For Joe Lemnah, going to work at a brewery was no reason to stop homebrewing. The same need to explore and understand that drove him to brew at home every week still informs his process of testing and learning, even a decade after opening Burlington Beer (https://www.burlingtonbeercompany.com) in Burlington, Vermont. In this episode, Lemnah focuses on the evolution and processes behind the style for which they’re best-known—hazy IPA—but their approach differs from other New England stalwarts. From unconventional (yet classic) hop choices such as Simcoe and Chinook, to high-adjunct grists in which each grain serves a specific purpose, the choices that Lemnah and Burlington team make are based on a continuous process of testing, confirmation, revision, and tweaking. During this conversation, he touches on: exploring the impact of different grains in hazy IPA both embracing and avoiding “cheat code” hops pushing high-adjunct loads of 30 to 40 percent to maximize soft texture building middle notes through hop blends and process using less traditional hops for aroma maximizing various ways to achieve interesting hop flavors and aromas learning the mechanics of fermentation and yeast harvesting with London Ale III building character in pub-focused lagers with rye and other grains And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Streamline efficiency with Omega Yeast’s Diacetyl Knock Out series. The DKO series is comprised of 8 familiar yeast strains engineered to knock out the formation of diacetyl before it starts. The strains you know, now better. Contact Omega Yeast today at omegayeast.com. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com). ABS Commercial are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and preventative maintenance parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact them today at sales@abs-commercial.com to discuss your customized brewery needs. Yakima Chief Hops (https://yakimachief.com). YCH 702 is a flowable extract designed to maximize aroma and increase whirlpool yield. YCH 702 is flowable at room temperature, standardized to 20% total oil, and contains high concentration of survivable hop compounds. Contact your Yakima Chief hops rep for more information! OPA Design Studio (https://designopa.com): The architects at OPA Design Studio are your partners in developing the unique design you need. With over a decade of experience designing breweries, the folks at OPA are here to serve as your trusted experts from start to finish. Visit designopa.com to set up your no obligation introductory consultation today. Craft Spirits & Distilling Podcast (https://spiritsanddistilling.com/podcasts/): If you’re a distiller or curious about it, check out the Craft Spirits & Distilling podcast. Click on the link and subscribe from your favorite podcast platform.

Ryan Miller and Lillian MacNamara—both experienced brewers and cofounders of Freak Folk Bier (https://www.freakfolkbier.com)—are partners in business and life, making the brewery, as Miller says, “a love story interwoven with brewing.” Both share a love of saison, and Freak Folk began with a focus on special-release saisons that has since expanded into a broad selection of styles to fill the tap lines of their Waterbury, Vermont taproom. But even the other styles they brew exhibit the same kind of delicate balance and nuanced structure that they honed in saison experimentation. In this episode, Miller discusses both their approach to saison and hazy IPA, touching on: - Building and maintaining mixed cultures - Brewing attenuated saison with a single infusion mash and controlled primary and secondary fermentations - Controlling acidity in saison through the mash - Using unusual ingredients in unusual ways in saison - Building a compelling grain bill in hazy IPA - Blending base malts for the right balance of flavor and color - Copitching yeast strains - Adjusting gravity based on ABV - Using advanced hop products And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Streamline efficiency with Omega Yeast’s Diacetyl Knock Out series. The DKO series is comprised of 8 familiar yeast strains engineered to knock out the formation of diacetyl before it starts. The strains you know, now better. Contact Omega Yeast today at omegayeast.com. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com). ABS Commercial are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and preventative maintenance parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact them today at sales@abs-commercial.com to discuss your customized brewery needs. Yakima Chief Hops (https://yakimachief.com). YCH 702 is a flowable extract designed to maximize aroma and increase whirlpool yield. YCH 702 is flowable at room temperature, standardized to 20% total oil, and contains high concentration of survivable hop compounds. Contact your Yakima Chief hops rep for more information! OPA Design Studio (https://designopa.com): The architects at OPA Design Studio are your partners in developing the unique design you need. With over a decade of experience designing breweries, the folks at OPA are here to serve as your trusted experts from start to finish. Visit designopa.com to set up your no obligation introductory consultation today. Craft Spirits & Distilling Podcast (https://spiritsanddistilling.com/podcasts/): If you’re a distiller or curious about it, check out the Craft Spirits & Distilling podcast. Click on the link and subscribe from your favorite podcast platform.

Innovation in beer has been accelerating for the past decade as breweries—excited by new styles and techniques, and feeding a culture of newness incentivized by social apps—churn out a relentless quantity of new beers in new formats with new labels. However, to hear Bill Cherry tell it, the choices he’s made at Switchback (https://www.switchbackvt.com) over the past two decades have been driven more by slowness than speed. Packaging in 22-ounce bombers so they could dial in packaging before moving to more popular formats, or pursuing innovation in smoked beer because demand (and competition) in that niche are small, have afforded the brewery time and space to figure it out and build demand organically, always focusing first on the beer and its quality. The results have paid off over recent years, with 2022 gold and 2023 bronze medals at the World Beer Cup for Katie’s Love Poem, their grodziskie. But that’s just the kindling, as their broader Flynn on Fire series has seen them tackle and learn from a vast array of different smoked beers. Cherry loves smoked beer because they’re harder to sell to consumers—there isn’t a built-in market for them, so they have to create one, and he loves that challenge as well as the runway for lower-stakes experimentation. In this episode, he talks through that counterintuitive strategy and how it relates to their approach to innovation, including: designing Switchback Ale based on pieces of other inspirational beers growing slowly to make sure beer quality is always top priority packaging draft only for the first 10 years of the brewery until they could afford a quality bottling line homing in on smoked because because “nobody likes smoked beers, but they should” creating the smoke-o-meter scale for conveying smokiness to consumers step-mashing for flavor, not just attenuation maintaining a living yeast pitch that’s going on 2,000-plus generations balancing hop flavor and smoke aroma in smoked IPA And more. “if you can get people to drink something that they don’t know they want, that’s true craft,” says Cherry. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at contactus@probrew.com. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Streamline efficiency with Omega Yeast’s Diacetyl Knock Out series. The DKO series is comprised of 8 familiar yeast strains engineered to knock out the formation of diacetyl before it starts. The strains you know, now better. Contact Omega Yeast today at omegayeast.com. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com). ABS Commercial are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and preventative maintenance parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact them today at sales@abs-commercial.com to discuss your customized brewery needs. Yakima Chief Hops Varietees (https://varietees.com). VarieTees Supply Co. offers hop apparel inspired by hop varieties, art, and community. Shop designs from various artists inspired by your favorite varieties including Citra, Simcoe, Sabro, and Mosaic! Shop VarieTees and use promo code CBB20 for 20% off at varietees.com. OPA Design Studio (https://designopa.com): The architects at OPA Design Studio are your partners in developing the unique design you need. With over a decade of experience designing breweries, the folks at OPA are here to serve as your trusted experts from start to finish. Visit designopa.com to set up your no obligation introductory consultation today. Craft Spirits & Distilling Podcast (https://spiritsanddistilling.com/podcasts/): If you’re a distiller or curious about it, check out the Craft Spirits & Distilling podcast. Click on the link and subscribe from your favorite podcast platform.