Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

This week’s episode is a panel discussion on lager brewing, recorded in front of a live audience late one night on the patio of Cerveza Fauna after a full day of judging for the Copa Baja beer festival in Mexicali, Mexico, in late 2023. Joining the discussion are three prominent lager brewers—Ashleigh Carter of Denver’s Bierstadt Lagerhaus, Ryan Brooks of San Diego’s SouthNorte, and Jeff Bagby (who, earlier this week announced that he was joining Green Cheek Beer as they acquire Bagby’s brewery in Oceanside, California). The location in Mexico provides the perfect backdrop for diving into Mexican, Mexican-style, and adjunct lagers, and the discussion also focuses on dark lagers. Along the way, they cover creative and technical points such as: the challenge of brewing great lager in smaller batch sizes understanding other brewers’ commercial approaches through lab analysis priorities for gear and process techniques for brewing better lager on systems designed for single-infusion ale understanding the impact of water on lager brewing selecting yeast for Mexican-style lager approaches to natural carbonation brewing with corn via cereal mash versus pre-gelatinized products making specialty beer with popcorn clever approaches to building color without intense dark malt flavor 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) Turnkey brewery systems. Production line design services. Retro-fitting processing systems. ProBrew™ can do all this and more with any brewery, old or new, small or large. For more information, fill out our contact form on www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard has supplied flavored craft juice concentrate blends to over 46 states for the production of fruit-forward beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, and more. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to 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 [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. Ss Brewtech (https://SsBrewtech.com). "Ss Brewtech was founded by a group of home and craft beer brewers, dedicated to bringing an engineering-first approach to brewery equipment. Ss brewhouses are used to formulate new beer recipes at some of the world's greatest breweries. To learn more, head over to SsBrewtech.com" Christian Hansen (https://www.chr-hansen.com/en/legal-notice): Christian Hansen are the fermentation experts with over 100 years experience in dairy and wine, and are now bringing that knowledge of microbes to brewers with their SmartBev range of frozen liquid yeast and freeze-dried bacteria.Go to Chr-Hansen.com to learn more. California Craft Beer Summit (https://cacraftbeersummit.com). Everyone’s talking about 2024 California Craft Beer Summit, March 12-14 in Sacramento. Kicking off the Summit as the Keynote speaker is Rob Tod, the pioneer who built Allagash Brewing. Check out the full schedule at the website cacraftbeersummit.com.

Lean is all the rage in hop-forward West Coast–style beers, from pilsner to IPA, and paring beers back to their bare necessities has been a significant focus for Burgeon’s Anthony Tallman. Yet the quest for crisp-and-drinkable doesn’t mean sacrificing flavor, and recent experimentation has given Tallman a fresh perspective on the ultra-minimal approach. In this episode—which is focused especially on Carlsbad Crush, winner of multuple GABF medials in the International-Style Pale Ale category—Tallman discusses what has and has not worked with their clear hop-forward beers, including: the impacts of various pilsner malts on pale ales, IPAs, and lagers shortening and lengthening boil times for certain beers achieving significant measured IBUs in a beer with no hot-side hops inadvertently making a would-be hazy IPA drop clear via knockout dry hopping watering back to lower whirlpool temperatures varying techniques based on the hops in a recipe focusing on hot-side hops for increased package longevity finding balance in lower-ABV West Coast pils 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) Turnkey brewery systems. Production line design services. Retro-fitting processing systems. ProBrew™ can do all this and more with any brewery, old or new, small or large. For more information, fill out our contact form on www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): You might have heard of Old Orchard, but have you heard of their newest flavors? Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to their lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to 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 [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. Ss Brewtech (https://SsBrewtech.com). "Ss Brewtech was founded by a group of home and craft beer brewers, dedicated to bringing an engineering-first approach to brewery equipment. Ss brewhouses are used to formulate new beer recipes at some of the world's greatest breweries. To learn more, head over to SsBrewtech.com" Christian Hansen (https://www.chr-hansen.com/en/legal-notice): Christian Hansen are the fermentation experts with over 100 years experience in dairy and wine, and are now bringing that knowledge of microbes to brewers with their SmartBev range of frozen liquid yeast and freeze-dried bacteria.Go to Chr-Hansen.com to learn more. California Craft Beer Summit (https://cacraftbeersummit.com). Everyone’s talking about 2024 California Craft Beer Summit, March 12-14 in Sacramento. Kicking off the Summit as the Keynote speaker is Rob Tod, the pioneer who built Allagash Brewing. Check out the full schedule at the website cacraftbeersummit.com.

The final episode of the year is our chance to look back on the year of brewing conversations and highlight those episodes that struck the biggest chords with you, our listeners. Joining Jamie in the co-host chair is Khris Johnson of Green Bench in St. Petersburg, Florida, and together they count down the ten most-listened-to episodes while sharing excerpts from each. The top ten include: Averie Swanson of Keeping Together on farmhouse ale Mattias Trum of Schlenkerla on the history of rauchbier in Bamberg Joran Van Ginderachter and Shawn Bainbridge of Halfway Crooks on German hops in lager brewing Joe Mohrfeld of Pinthouse, Steve Luke of Cloudburst, and Zach Turner of Single Hill on evolving products for fresh hop brewing Travis Fritts of Old Nation on the similarities and differences in lager and hazy IPA brewing Doug Velicky of Revolution on extending brands in a crowded craft beer marketplace Henry Nguyen of Monkish, J.C. Tetreault of Trillium, and Neil Fisher of Weldwerks on brewing hazy IPA Brian and Mary Rooney of BKS Artisan Ales on softening the edges of hazy IPA Justin Burdt of Ghost Town on selecting hops for pungency and, Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River, Evan Price of Green Cheek, and Kelsey McNair of North Park on brewing West Coast IPA Now! This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): Looking for a sustainable way to increase fermenter capacity? Try FermCap™ Eco from Kerry, a plant-based alternative to traditional silicon-based products. FermCap™ Eco increases fermenter capacity by reducing foam height to improve beer foam stability and enhance hop utilization. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. California Craft Beer Summit (https://cacraftbeersummit.com). Everyone’s talking about 2024 California Craft Beer Summit, March 12-14 in Sacramento. Kicking off the Summit as the Keynote speaker is Rob Tod, the pioneer who built Allagash Brewing. Check out the full schedule at the website cacraftbeersummit.com. The American Homebrewers Association (https://HomebrewersAssociation.org/cbbpod): Join the American Homebrewers Association to unlock the 2023 National Homebrew Competition medal-winning recipes! Learn more at HomebrewersAssociation.org/cbbpod Lotus Beverage Alliance (https://lotusbevalliance.com): Building a brewery requires coordination: equipment, supplies, funding, and more. Lotus Beverage Alliance simplifies the process, offering all the elements for your business in one place. Their team of engineers, brewery consultants, and financial advisors are here to help.

The Kernel founder Evan O’Riordain embodies a few interesting contrasts—he’s an Irishman in London committed to shining a light on the city’s own dark beer past, and he’s a brewer in Britain who caught the craft bug after experiencing hop-forward beers in the United States—but it’s this dynamic range that drives and defines Kernel today. History is important, yet no modern techniques or ingredients are off the table, as the beers they make respect and reference the past without dogmatically recreating them. There’s no such thing as textual accuracy when ingredients have changed so much over the past 100 years. Every act of recreating an old recipe from original text is an act of interpretation, and what matters most now is connecting that past to where drinkers are today. Over the past decade and a half, O’Riordain has focused particular energy on stout and porter, and we focus on that in this episode. Along the way, he covers: embracing hops as a defining creative angle helping rekindle London’s dark beer lineage interpreting historical stout and porter recipes using brown malt as a main signifier of “London flavor” debunking the idea that British beers are less bitter the history of East India porter using whole-leaf hops for texture in dark and pale beers fermenting historical styles with London and California ale yeast strains And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): BSG and HVG bring you Amira, the latest from their hop Breeding Program. With its classic hoppy, slightly herbal, and zesty lemon aromas it’s the ideal hop for those looking to capture the traditional flavor of a classic German lager. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. The American Homebrewers Association (https://HomebrewersAssociation.org/cbbpod): Join the American Homebrewers Association to unlock the 2023 National Homebrew Competition medal-winning recipes! Learn more at HomebrewersAssociation.org/cbbpod Lotus Beverage Alliance (https://lotusbevalliance.com): Building a brewery requires coordination: equipment, supplies, funding, and more. Lotus Beverage Alliance simplifies the process, offering all the elements for your business in one place. Their team of engineers, brewery consultants, and financial advisors are here to help.

Past isn’t necessarily prologue for today’s lager brewers, but it certainly is at Goldfinger Brewing in Downers Grove, Illinois. A family history of brewing lager and manufacturing equipment for brewers in Poland and Czechia was just the kick that Tom Beckmann needed to pursue his dream of building a small, contemporary, lager-focused brewery. Now, as the brewery undertakes its next expansion, Beckmann is committed to widening the lager discourse, to showcasing the potential of both European and domestic ingredients in lager brewing, and to embracing flavor and character across a range of different lager styles. In this episode, Beckmann discusses: building on his family brewing history in Poland and Czechia designing and constructing a brewhouse for lager brewing step-mashing and decoction strategies for various pale lagers using sterile air rather than pure oxygen to reduce yeast stress cereal cooking vs. gelatinized adjuncts for certain lagers blending domestic and imported pils malt for the best flavor, performance, and price the tactile experience of different malts selecting Tettnanger hops for pils and Hallertauer Mittlefrüh for helles the fundamentals of Polish pils the American Zoigl project in conjunction with Live Oak, Urban Chestnut, and others And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): HS Grove boasts incredible biotransformation qualities, giving you the power to transform your next IPA into a stone fruit powerhouse. Choose HS Grove™ for West Coast IPA, New England IPA, Double IPA, American pale ale, or any beer style where delicious fresh fruit aromatics are desired. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. The American Homebrewers Association (https://HomebrewersAssociation.org/cbbpod): Join the American Homebrewers Association to unlock the 2023 National Homebrew Competition medal-winning recipes! Learn more at HomebrewersAssociation.org/cbbpod GW Kent (https://gwkent.com): GW Kent are expanding their product range to include many varieties of Ardagh cans, can handles, cleaning chemicals, and quality malts. Now you can shop spare parts for the cellar, ingredients for the brewhouse, and canning supplies for the packaging team all in one convenient location. Start saving today at gwkent.com!

Five years into cold IPA, the arguments still aren’t settled, but one thing is certain—strategic brewers have embraced the style for the unique counterpoint it can provide to more ester-driven IPAs, and the focus on light body has struck a chord with beer drinkers who increasingly want strong hop notes in ever-paler beers. We thought it was time to revisit the subject with three brewers who are no stranger to the podcast, and who each have contributed to the evolution of the style in their own way. Sam Tierney of the Firestone Walker Propagator in Venice, California has helped develop some pioneering cold IPAs for the California brewery, like core brand Hopnosis. Jude La Rose of Chicago’s Hop Butcher brews plenty of hazy IPAs, but continues to explore what hops can also do within the context of clear and light-bodied cold IPA. And Kevin Davey of McMinnville, Oregon’s Heater Allen and Gold Dot created the cold IPA style while at Wayfinder, but today is just starting to brew them again after focusing on lager for most of the past year. In this episode, the three brewers look at where IPA has come since those earliest days and what it looks like now, with topics that include: creating the counter-trend to hazy IPA by pushing bitterness alongside low finishing gravity finding cleaner, more “crystalline” hop expression by fermenting with lager yeast achieving additional package stability in cold IPA through lower FAN varying dry hopping temperatures and techniques managing sulfur production in cold IPA fermentations blending modern, classic, and Southern hemisphere hops in cold IPA pushing the lightest of color through ultra-pale malts and adjuncts controlling oxygenation to avoid overstimulating the lager yeast why they continue to focus on the style now And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): Gambrinus Malting️ combines European-influenced malting practices with the finest barley, wheat, and rye to produce some of the finest Canadian malts available. Visit BSGCraftBrewing.com/Gambrinus to explore their full line of traditionally crafted malts. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. California Craft Beer Summit (https://cacraftbeersummit.com) Don’t miss Keynote Speaker Rob Tod from Allagash Brewing Co. at the 2024 California Craft Beer Summit in Sacramento March 12-14. Buy tickets today and receive the lowest prices. The American Homebrewers Association (https://HomebrewersAssociation.org/cbbpod): Join the American Homebrewers Association to unlock the 2023 National Homebrew Competition medal-winning recipes! Learn more at HomebrewersAssociation.org/cbbpod Alpha Brewing Operations (https://alphabrewops.com): When you work with Alpha Brewing Operations, you get unwavering commitment to quality, innovation, and service. Now, Alpha Brewing Operations is offering a wider selection of equipment, faster shipping, quality ingredients, and advanced financial tools. Alpha Brewing Operation (https://alphabrewops.com)

This special business-focused edition of the podcast is brought to you interruption-free by the transformational beverage-industry technologists at Encompass. As we head into 2024, the brewing industry is facing serious headwinds that have limited growth for many breweries and accelerated the closure of others. Consumer patterns are changing, product preferences continue to evolve, drinking occasions shift as our rhythms of work and life find different beats, and the playbook on which many businesses relied on no longer produces the same results. However, necessity has always been the mother of invention for craft brewers, and today’s challenges feel a bit familiar to those who experienced a similar contraction in the late ’90s or massive price increases due to the hop shortage of the late ’00s. To explore how brewers are facing these challenges head-on today—and working to “future-proof” their breweries—we tapped three industry pros to share their viewpoints—Patrick Tickle, CEO of Encompass, Cole Hackbarth, VP of brewing operations for Cincinnati’s Rhinegeist, and Dave Thibodeau, president and cofounder of Ska Brewing in Durango, Colorado. Through the conversation, they discuss: major challenges for breweries today, such as increasing COGS, lower consumer-pricing thresholds, and the diminishing returns from innovation strategizing around today’s generational shift in drinkers developing organic and authentic innovation within the beer space differences between craft beer and flavored malt beverage (FMB) consumers focusing innovation around brand strengths rather than untested categories supporting innovation while maintaining profitability through blended margins the increasing impact of cash flow on business decision making changing hospitality habits developed by customers during the pandemic managing labor costs through cross-training and active owner-operators And more. This special industry spotlight episode is brought to you by Encompass The Encompass digital platform is designed to connect everyone across the supply chain, from producers to distributors and retailers, so that you have clear real-time visibility into your brewing business with powerful analytics to support your decision making. Collaborate to maximize sales, minimize empty shelves, and eliminate product waste. Visit Encompasstech.com to learn more about how they can help future-proof your business with modern technology.

Chicago’s Dovetail has earned a reputation for its refined yet flavorful lagers, but the team’s dogged approach to traditional methods is less about religion and more about expression—these techniques and processes allow them to imbue their beers with attributes they want while minimizing those they want to avoid or keep in the background. Each beer they make is like a musical score—a recipe designed to hit the right notes with the orchestra of instruments they’ve assembled. Whether that’s multiple decoctions, dropping temperatures in the coolship before adding whole-cone hops to a hop-forward lager, or how often they skim the open fermentors, they’ve considered the cumulative impact of each of the intermediate notes. In this episode, cofounder Hagen Dost, production manager Brittany Gedwill, and sales director Dan Modica outline their reverent and rigorous approach to making helles, pilsner, and Kölsch-style ale. Along the way, they also touch on: creating slushies with aged spontaneous beer defining parameters around “traditional methods” for lager brewing the benefits of direct-fire decoction coolshipping lagers with whole-cone hops for “harmony and cohesion” the varying impacts of step mashing, single decoction, and triple decoction with thick and thin mashes the necessity of sulfur and malt character in helles walking the fine line in timing of Kölsch fermentation brewing rauchbier with 95 percent smoked malt And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): For over 140 years Weyermann® Specialty Malts has been helping brewers around the world bring authentic German flavor to their brewhouses. Bring a taste of Bavaria to your brewhouse and explore Weyermann’s complete portfolio at BSGCraftBrewing.com/Weyermann Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. The American Homebrewers Association (https://HomebrewersAssociation.org/cbbpod): Join the American Homebrewers Association to unlock the 2023 National Homebrew Competition medal-winning recipes! Learn more at HomebrewersAssociation.org/cbbpod Lotus Beverage Alliance (https://lotusbevalliance.com): Need an ally for your brewing venture? Lotus Beverage Alliance simplifies the process. Their team of engineers, brewery consultants, and financial advisors are here to help. Lotus Beverage Alliance.

Jacob Sembrano loves ingredients, and his background as a chef instilled in him a deep love of connecting ingredients and their stories with the dishes he presented to customers. Now, at the helm of the brewhouse at Chicago’s Cruz Blanca, he’s forged a similar identity for his beers—connecting through ingredients with stories, and making beers with unusual methods. Their customers may not realize the technical prowess it takes to brew a 100 percent malted-corn grisette with French saison yeast, Brettanomyces, and a Lactobacillus strain cultured from the corn itself ... but they don’t have to—Cruz Blanca’s reverence for corn as an ingredient is apparent and welcome. In this episode, Sembrano discusses how they brew a range of beers. Along the way, he covers: making your own luck in the food and brewing worlds applying a minimal-intervention yet highly technical approach to making a 100 percent corn grisette pushing fermentation temperatures to reduce esters brewing a red corn lager with 70 percent corn malt using significant amounts of black and heavily roasted malts in barrel-aged stouts building body without excessive sweetness working with partner breweries to grow the brand matching brewing profiles between locations across states And more. “I want my stout to fight me back a bit,” Sembrano says. “I want to feel it when I drink it.” This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): Want a natural and economical clarification aid? Then you need Kerry Biofine™ Eco—a plant-based fining agent that improves beer clarification by instant flocculation of yeast and trub. Available exclusively from BSG, visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. The American Homebrewers Association (https://HomebrewersAssociation.org/cbbpod): Join the American Homebrewers Association to unlock the 2023 National Homebrew Competition medal-winning recipes! Learn more at HomebrewersAssociation.org/cbbpod Lotus Beverage Alliance (https://lotusbevalliance.com): Need an ally for your brewing venture? Lotus Beverage Alliance simplifies the process. Their team of engineers, brewery consultants, and financial advisors are here to help. Lotus Beverage Alliance.

As always, our annual Best in Beer issue includes different perspectives. Our subscribers and listeners—that’s you!—have spoken, and we’ve compiled your votes for the Reader’s Choice lists, including your Top 25 Beers. Plus, our Craft Beer & Brewing Best 20 Beers in 2023 are the culmination of a year of blind tasting by our review panel and then by our editors, achieving an internal consensus on beers of the greatest character and technical excellence. However, this issue also is a chance for some of our writers and editors to sound off a bit, as we share our favorite beers and highlights of the past year. No blind tasting here—for these hedonistic picks, we fully embrace the contexts in which we enjoyed these beers. That’s the idea behind our Best in Beer Critic’s Lists, and those are what we explore in this special, once-per-year episode. Featuring thoughtful (and at times heartfelt) takes from Alex Kidd, Kate Bernot, Stan Hieronymus, Courtney Iseman, and Joe Stange—for Jamie’s, be sure to read the print edition—these lists give us the chance to spotlight many more of the most enjoyable beers and drinking experiences of 2023, as well as some thoughts on the state of the brewing industry and beer culture today. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): BSG and HVG bring you Amira. With its classic hoppy, slightly herbal, and zesty lemon aromas it’s the ideal hop for those looking to capture the traditional flavor of a classic German lager. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Colorado Craft Beer Summit (https://cacraftbeersummit.com). Join the craft beer community in Sacramento March 12-14 for the California Craft Beer Summit. Bring your entire team from production to marketing to hospitality–there’s something for everyone. Early bird registration on sale now through Dec 22 at cacraftbeersummit.com The Perfect Purée (https://perfectpuree.com/beer): The Perfect Purée is offering a free sample box of their frozen fruit purees, concentrates and blends to professional brewers. Choose from 40 plus flavors and build a free sample box at perfectpuree.com/beer. Complimentary to professionals only. Yakima Chief Hops (https://www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blend): The 7th Annual Pink Boots Blend is now available for pre-order! $3 of every pound of the Pink Boots Blend purchased will be donated to the Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit organization that support women and non-binary individuals in the fermented and alcoholic industry through education. Learn more at www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blend

It’s been another year of great beers—and we’ve tasted thousands—but they can’t all be “the Best.” What sets certain beers apart, to not only light up our palates and our senses, but also our brains and our conversations? Winnowed down by a year of our review panel’s blind judging, and then selected by more blind judging among our editors and top writers, our Best 20 Beers in 2023 represent the highest levels of excellence, character, and drinkability. In this special once-per-year episode, Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® cofounder and editorial director Jamie Bogner convenes with managing editor Joe Stange to share results of the annual Readers’ Choice poll—including your Top 25 beers and favorite breweries—as well as their Best 20 Beers in 2023, discussing each beer in turn and what made them shine at the table and in the glass. And, as they do every year, these results represent a snapshot of the best of the craft today—whether we’re brewing them, drinking them, or some of both. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): FermCap™ Eco from Kerry increases fermenter capacity by reducing foam height to improve beer foam stability and enhance hop utilization. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com or contact your BSG Sales Rep to get started. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. The Perfect Purée (https://perfectpuree.com/beer): The Perfect Purée is offering a free sample box of their frozen fruit purees, concentrates and blends to professional brewers. Choose from 40 plus flavors and build a free sample box at perfectpuree.com/beer. Complimentary to professionals only. Yakima Chief Hops (https://www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blend): The 7th Annual Pink Boots Blend is now available for pre-order! $3 of every pound of the Pink Boots Blend purchased will be donated to the Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit organization that support women and non-binary individuals in the fermented and alcoholic industry through education. Learn more at www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blend

In Geneva, Illinois, Art History Brewing doesn’t want to be everything to everyone, but they’re committed to brewing traditional styles well, while also making them relevant to today’s drinkers. That message has resonated in the broader Chicago beer world, winning them fans among some of the most influential bars and retailers in the city. For head brewer Greg Browne, it’s the logical outcome of a career spent brewing these beers in smaller ways at other breweries. And for co-owner Tom Rau, it’s a way to focus on beers about which they’re personally passionate, meanwhile offering something different and beer-focused to the broad community of Chicago drinkers. In this episode, they discuss: innovation through focusing on traditional styles achieving the flavor results of decoction through other brewing means building color in Czech-style pale lager using the Hochkurz mash and an oversized lauter tun ingredient selection for Northern German-style pils and Czech-style dark lager designing and brewing smoked lagers choosing yeasts for specific, regionally-inspired English-style ales And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): BSG and their partners HVG bring you the very best in German hops, including Amira. With its classic hoppy, slightly herbal, and zesty lemon aromas it’s the ideal hop for those looking to capture the traditional flavor of a classic German lager. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. ZBiotics (https://zbiotics.com/pages/beerandbrewing) We all have busy lives these days and can’t afford to waste a day stuck on the couch because of a few drinks the night before. ZBiotics is the answer we’ve all been looking for. ZBiotics is the world’s first genetically engineered probiotic invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Give ZBiotics a try for yourself. Go to zbiotics.com/BEERANDBREWING to get 15% off your first order when you use BEERANDBREWING at checkout. ZBiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. The Perfect Purée (https://perfectpuree.com/beer): The Perfect Purée is offering a free sample box of their frozen fruit purees, concentrates and blends to professional brewers. Choose from 40 plus flavors and build a free sample box at perfectpuree.com/beer. Complimentary to professionals only. Yakima Chief Hops (https://www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blend): The 7th Annual Pink Boots Blend is now available for pre-order! $3 of every pound of the Pink Boots Blend purchased will be donated to the Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit organization that support women and non-binary individuals in the fermented and alcoholic industry through education. Learn more at www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blend

In this GABF Gold! edition of the podcast, the last of our 2023 focus on GABF gold medal winners, Jamie is joined by Rob Malad, director of brewing operations for Metazoa in Indianapolis, Indiana. Metazoa recently won gold for William Walrus, a Scottish-style ale and product of necessity, that employed brewing techniques to overcome ingredient challenges while staying true to the spirit of the style. In this episode, he touches on: brewing beers meant to be consumed more than once using double decoction to build malt character in lieu of a broad range of speciality malt building a recipe with pale malt, Munich malt, and small amounts of low-Lovibond speciality malts but no English malts using English ale yeast typically employed in their hazy IPA brewing with minimal hops but balancing with carbonation their medal-winning approach to saison the mouthfeel impression of high Saaz loads elements that set beers apart in competition And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): BSG invites you to experience one of the newest hops from their Hop Solutions line, HS Grove™. Developed for hop-forward beer styles, HS Grove boasts incredible biotransformation qualities, giving you the power to transform your next IPA into a stone fruit powerhouse. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. ZBiotics (https://zbiotics.com/pages/beerandbrewing) We all have busy lives these days and can’t afford to waste a day stuck on the couch because of a few drinks the night before. ZBiotics is the answer we’ve all been looking for. ZBiotics is the world’s first genetically engineered probiotic invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Give ZBiotics a try for yourself. Go to zbiotics.com/BEERANDBREWING to get 15% off your first order when you use BEERANDBREWING at checkout. ZBiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. The Perfect Purée (https://perfectpuree.com/beer): The Perfect Purée is offering a free sample box of their frozen fruit purees, concentrates and blends to professional brewers. Choose from 40 plus flavors and build a free sample box at perfectpuree.com/beer. Complimentary to professionals only. Yakima Chief Hops (https://www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blend): The 7th Annual Pink Boots Blend is now available for pre-order! $3 of every pound of the Pink Boots Blend purchased will be donated to the Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit organization that support women and non-binary individuals in the fermented and alcoholic industry through education. Learn more at www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blend

In this GABF Gold! episode, we dive into the saison category. First up is Jason zumBrunnen, cofounder of Denver's Ratio Beerworks, recent gold medal winner for their King of Carrot Flowers carrot saison (and 2020 silver medal winner in American-Belgo style ale for their Dear You saison dry hopped with Citra, upon which King of Carrot Flowers is based). He dives into saison standards, like building body despite fermenting with diastaticus saison yeast, single infusion mashing in saison, before drilling down on the particulars of using carrot juice—processing, addition timing, maintaining color and haze, and even the secret ingredient that helps promote the idea of sweetness in the very dry beer. Next is Jeremy Claeys, head brewer for Charlotte's Protagonist Beer, recent gold medal winner for the Kal-El classic saison (and 2022 gold medal winner in American-Belgo style ale for the dry hopped saison Bizarro, as well as 2021 gold medal winner in Specialty Saison for Air is Beautiful). He talks through their philosophy of brewing classic styles with small twists that make traditional beers their own, building character through grain, simplified step mashing, the benefits of high temperature fermentation, blending saison yeasts, bottle conditioning, and lagering both bottled and kegged saison for a cleaner and smoother beer. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): BSG are distributors of Gambrinus Malting, Canada’s original small-batch, artisanal malthouse. They combine European-influenced malting practices with the finest barley, wheat, and rye to produce some of the finest Canadian malts available. Visit BSGCraftBrewing.com/Gambrinus to explore their full line. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. The Perfect Purée (https://perfectpuree.com/beer): The Perfect Purée is offering a free sample box of their frozen fruit purees, concentrates and blends to professional brewers. Choose from 40 plus flavors and build a free sample box at perfectpuree.com/beer. Complimentary to professionals only. Yakima Chief Hops (https://www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blend): This episode is brought to you by Yakima Chief Hops. The 7th Annual Pink Boots Blend is now available for pre-order! $3 of every pound of the Pink Boots Blend purchased will be donated to the Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit organization that support women and non-binary individuals in the fermented and alcoholic industry through education. Learn more at www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blend

e recorded this episode of the podcast live from Odell Brewing on Sloan’s Lake as part of our recent Brewery Workshop: New Brewery Accelerator event in Denver. The three panel guests—Jake Gardner, director of brewing operations at Westbound & Down; Marni Wahlquist, head brewer at Odell Sloan’s Lake; and Sean Buchan, owner and head brewer at Cerebral—represent a compelling cross-section of IPA from Denver and the Rocky Mountain region. All three are Great American Beer Festival medal winners, and Westbound & Down is fresh off GABF 2023 gold in West Coast–Style IPA and silver in New Zealand IPA (not to mention a bronze for their Coloradan Mexican-style lager). In this episode, these three panelists cover the gamut of IPA, from hazy to clear, as they discuss the ingredients, techniques, and general approaches that define their IPA brewing programs. Over the course of the discussion, they touch on: the impact of hazy IPA on West Coast IPA selecting hop lots to span different IPA styles maximizing hop saturation with modern hop products designing malt support in contemporary IPA drying out West Coast IPA without sacrificing body avoiding the trap of sweet-on-sweet in hazy IPA choosing bittering hops for smoothness maximizing hop quality without participating in hop selection the reversion to the mean of drinkability in hop-forward styles And more. While brewing cutting-edge IPA might not be the most profitable thing for a brewery to do, it speaks to why so many brewers and consumers are attracted to craft beer in general. As Gardner says, “Westbound & Down’s history is not a good one to show how hop product can make you more money. They’re just a way we light money on fire to have tons of fun. But that being said, there’s a business strategy in that too. Our customer base is along for the ride.” This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/):BSG is North America’s exclusive distributor of Weyermann® Specialty Malts. For over 140 years Weyermann® Specialty Malts has been helping brewers around the world bring authentic German flavor to their brewhouses. Bring a taste of Bavaria to your brewhouse and explore Weyermann’s complete portfolio at BSGCraftBrewing.com/Weyermann Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. The Perfect Purée (https://perfectpuree.com/beer): The Perfect Purée is offering a free sample box of their frozen fruit purees, concentrates and blends to professional brewers. Choose from 40 plus flavors and build a free sample box at perfectpuree.com/beer. Complimentary to professionals only. Yakima Chief Hops Varietees (https://varietees.com): Yakima Chief Hops launched VarieTees Supply Co, their own brand of 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! **Use promo code CBB20 **for 20% off at varietees.com

In this special episode, two 2023 gold-medal-winning breweries discuss their methods and approaches to making wood-aged sour beer. First up is Kyle Vetter, founder of 1840 Brewing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, whose kriek-inspired "I Don't Want To Wait" won gold in the fruited wood- and barrel-aged sour beer category. He hits on the details behind how the beer was made, including: using oak as an ingredient not just a vessel building body with alternative brewing grains selecting barrel stock to best support fruit preparing fruit and aging over six months selecting Brettanomyces strains And more. Then, we're joined by Joel Stickrod and Spencer Longhurst of Nashville's Barrique, who talk through the methods behind their gold-winning Wet Hop Strata 2023, including: open-top fermentation in wooden barrels building a blending library with four schools of wood-aged beer using high loads of unmalted Tennessee wheat brewing with aged Cascade hops long-term aging on wet hops building compelling blends of old and young beer And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): BSG and their partners HVG bring you the very best in German hops, including Amira. With its classic hoppy, slightly herbal, and zesty lemon aromas it’s the ideal hop for those looking to capture the traditional flavor of a classic German lager. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Roberts PolyPro (https://go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod): Try Roberts PolyPro's multipack can handles, designed for sustainability and cost savings. Grip-Pak rings are biodegradable and average $0.05 cents per unit. Craft-Pak carriers are recyclable and designed with 30% less plastic. Visit go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod to request free samples and start saving today!) ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

Over the course of his decade-and-a-half, bicoastal brewing career, Vasili Gletsos has brewed a wide range of beer styles on an equal wide range of brewing systems. But after launching Wunderkammer as a personal brand while serving as head brewer for Hill Farmstead, he ultimately decided to make it his focus, building out a simple brewery with an old dairy tank mash tun and a wood-fired copper kettle to make mixed culture beers that tell stories. Through foraging and engaging with the landscape around him, he continues to make beer that feels not just rooted and local, but thoughtfully considered and artful. He’s particular about ingredients and fermentation, searching for mixed culture expressions that don’t simply lean on clichés of the genre. “Part of the power of mixed culture beer is that I find it very transportive,” he says. “It brings you to a time and place—but I don’t always want that time and place to be a barnyard.” In this episode, Gletsos discusses his mixed culture process, including: differentiating Wunderkammer from Hill Farmstead’s mixed culture program choosing Brettanomyces strains for more favorable flavors brewing on a very simple wood-fired brewhouse working in layers blending stainless fermentation and wood puncheon aging using foraged ingredients like yarrow cold side versus hot side additions of foraged ingredients And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): Developed as a part of part of Kerry’s Eco Brewing range, FermCap™ Eco is a plant-based alternative to traditional silicon-based products. FermCap™ Eco increases fermenter capacity by reducing foam height to improve beer foam stability and enhance hop utilization. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com or contact your BSG Sales Rep to get started. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Roberts PolyPro (https://go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod): Try Roberts PolyPro's multipack can handles, designed for sustainability and cost savings. Grip-Pak rings are biodegradable and average $0.05 cents per unit. Craft-Pak carriers are recyclable and designed with 30% less plastic. Visit go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod to request free samples and start saving today!) Yakima Chief Hops (https://yakimachief.com/return-growers): Yakima Chief Hops is proud to have an established Return-To-Grower program, which redistributes an average of 75% of their business earnings back to the family farms who grow the hops in your beer. Where you buy your ingredients matters and with Yakima Chief Hops, it’s more than a box of hops. Learn more at YAKIMACHIEF.COM/RETURN-GROWERS

Reverend Nat’s Cider has helped change peoples’ assumptions about craft cider in the Pacific Northwest, over their past 12 years of operation. The iconoclastic cider maker has adopted a flavor-forward, reverential-but-forward-looking approach to cider making that has ruffled some feathers and changed default narratives, but one thing it’s never been is boring or cautious. A few weeks ago, West announced that he was winding down operations of Reverend Nat’s Cider. Rather than let that experience and perspective fade into the ether, we engaged with Nat to capture his creative approach to cider making in a way that could be preserved for perpetuity. In this episode, West discusses: his beer-centric approach to cider making flavor and innovation within the very locally-focused cider sector making cider with beer yeast and selecting yeasts that work with the flavors of cider using hazy IPA yeast in cider making filtration and stability in cider achievements and regrets after a dozen years of making cider commercially approaching the closure with intention and passion And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): Developed as a part of part of Kerry’s Eco Brewing range, FermCap™ Eco is a plant-based alternative to traditional silicon-based products. FermCap™ Eco increases fermenter capacity by reducing foam height to improve beer foam stability and enhance hop utilization. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com or contact your BSG Sales Rep to get started. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Roberts PolyPro (https://go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod): Try Roberts PolyPro's multipack can handles, designed for sustainability and cost savings. Grip-Pak rings are biodegradable and average $0.05 cents per unit. Craft-Pak carriers are recyclable and designed with 30% less plastic. Visit go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod to request free samples and start saving today!) ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

When you live and work in Yakima Valley, hops become a way of life. They’re second nature, omnipresent, and a constant topic of conversation—after all, many of the patrons of craft breweries in the Yakima Valley are the same folks who grow, process, study, and sell them. As such, Varietal Beer’s focus on brewing with hops has picked up momentum as fans flock to their taproom—about 30 minutes south of the city of Yakima—to drink their subtle, nuanced, and beautiful IPAs and fresh hop beers. The industry has noticed, too, with two recent GABF silver medals in juicy strong pale and fresh hop categories circa ’21 and ’22. In this episode, Baum discusses: designing hoppy beers that aren’t confrontational brewing IPA with 100% craft malt, and barley varieties that complement certain styles balancing and achieving bitterness and structure in IPA manipulating pH to soften bitterness balancing cryo hops with “American Noble” low-alpha hops the beauty of Comet hops differences in brewing with fresh-kilned hops and pelletized T-90’s fresh hop brewing process And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): BSG and their partners HVG bring you the very best in German hops, including Amira, with its classic hoppy, slightly herbal, and zesty lemon aromas. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. RMS Roller-Grinder (https://rmsroller-grinder.com): Our industry leading mills deliver optimal grind consistency, unlocking the full potential of your grain. Say goodbye to uneven grinds and hello to exceptional flavor extraction. Visit rmsroller-grinder.com to discover how RMS can transform your brewing experience. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Roberts PolyPro (https://go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod): Try Roberts PolyPro's multipack can handles, designed for sustainability and cost savings. Grip-Pak rings are biodegradable and average $0.05 cents per unit. Craft-Pak carriers are recyclable and designed with 30% less plastic. Visit go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod to request free samples and start saving today!) ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

Based in Portland, Oregon, Sam Zermeño is the brewer behind Brujos—a nomadic brand that’s given him the opportunity to make some intensely flavored, highly regarded beers with friends and favorite brewers from around the country. Yet behind the acclaim and heavy-metal imagery is a mind of real technical know-how and experience. Previously an R&D brewer at Portland’s Great Notion, his accomplishment there include a GABF gold medal last year for their Feniks grodziskie. Nor was that his first GABF gold; in 2018, he won for a hazy double IPA brewed while at Black Market in Temecula, California. Now, Zermeño is embarking on the next phase of Brujos, taking over a now-closed brewhouse which he's transforming into a dark church worthy of the heavy brand. In this episode, he talks about brewing hazy IPA, with glimpses into his process that include: building inefficient grain bills with more wheat and oats than barley brewing with a thick mash, treated gently finishing gravities that pull the most out of heavy hop loads boosting calcium chloride drying out triple IPA for balance managing giant hop loads And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): BSG invites you to experience one of the newest hops from their Hop Solutions line, HS Grove™. Developed for hop-forward beer styles, HS Grove boasts incredible biotransformation qualities, giving you the power to transform your next IPA into a stone fruit powerhouse. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. RMS Roller-Grinder (https://rmsroller-grinder.com): Our industry leading mills deliver optimal grind consistency, unlocking the full potential of your grain. Say goodbye to uneven grinds and hello to exceptional flavor extraction. Visit rmsroller-grinder.com to discover how RMS can transform your brewing experience. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Roberts PolyPro (https://go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod): Try Roberts PolyPro's multipack can handles, designed for sustainability and cost savings. Grip-Pak rings are biodegradable and average $0.05 cents per unit. Craft-Pak carriers are recyclable and designed with 30% less plastic. Visit go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod to request free samples and start saving today!) ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

Boulder’s Upslope has been brewing Craft Lager since long before lager brewing was “cool,” and today the small brewery has built a production methodology for the longtime core offering that optimizes both quality and production efficiency. In this episode, head brewer Alex Meyer discusses the way the brewery makes their signature lager with a litany of unconventional ingredients and processes, and shares how they employ similar iconoclastic approaches with their Japanese-style rice lager, and 4-year-barrel-aged Grand Reserve. Along the way, Meyer discusses: brewing lager with standard two row malt and white wheat lager fermentation under pressure managing sulfur production in pressure fermentation cropping and repitching yeast using exogenous enzymes to facilitate rice lager fermentation with 55% flaked rice American lager hop varieties like Sterling and Contessa feeding healthy high gravity fermentations managing long-term oxidation in extended barrel aging And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): Located in Armstrong, BC, Gambrinus Malting️ combines European-influenced malting practices with the finest barley, wheat, and rye to produce some of the finest Canadian malts available. Visit BSGCraftBrewing.com/Gambrinus to explore their full line of traditionally crafted malts.. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. RMS Roller-Grinder (https://rmsroller-grinder.com): Our industry leading mills deliver optimal grind consistency, unlocking the full potential of your grain. Say goodbye to uneven grinds and hello to exceptional flavor extraction. Visit rmsroller-grinder.com to discover how RMS can transform your brewing experience. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Roberts PolyPro (https://go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod): Try Roberts PolyPro's multipack can handles, designed for sustainability and cost savings. Grip-Pak rings are biodegradable and average $0.05 cents per unit. Craft-Pak carriers are recyclable and designed with 30% less plastic. Visit go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod to request free samples and start saving today!) ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

Dave Chichura loves brewing, and loves to work. He's always lived simply, and maintained a lifestyle that allows him to move around. And move he has, from breweries in the Midwest as well as up and down the Rocky Mountains. Now, as Director of Brewing Operations at Ex Novo in Corrales, New Mexico, he's putting in practice all the lessons he's learned, building and managing the brewing team as they make beers that have brought home four GABF and World Beer Cup medals over the past two and a half years. In this episode, Chichura recounts: The challenges in making beer in rural environments Scaling medaling-winning Melvin beers from 3bbl to 20bbl Developing his recipe-writing skill set Selecting and using hops in West Coast IPA Dry hopping techniques that do and don't work Managing hop creep Asking for help with problems outside of his expertise Becoming a better manager And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): Want a natural and economical clarification aid that doesn’t impact beer flavor? Then you need Kerry Biofine™ Eco—a plant-based fining agent. Available exclusively from BSG, visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. RMS Roller-Grinder (https://rmsroller-grinder.com): Our industry leading mills deliver optimal grind consistency, unlocking the full potential of your grain. Say goodbye to uneven grinds and hello to exceptional flavor extraction. Visit rmsroller-grinder.com to discover how RMS can transform your brewing experience. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Roberts PolyPro (https://go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod): Try Roberts PolyPro's multipack can handles, designed for sustainability and cost savings. Grip-Pak rings are biodegradable and average $0.05 cents per unit. Craft-Pak carriers are recyclable and designed with 30% less plastic. Visit go.robertspolypro.com/CBBPod to request free samples and start saving today!) ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

If Averie Swanson had her way, saison would outsell IPA among craft beer aficionados. The longtime saison brewer hopes to move beyond stereotypes and romanticized history and show (through beautifully designed and constructed beers) that saison provides a broad palette for brewers to explore flavor. With her Keeping Together brand, now based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she hopes to write a new chapter for saison brewed in the United States. In this episode, she tackles both the theoretical and the practical, discussing: building characterful grain bases for saison with everything from smoked malt to oats designing within constraints downplaying Brettanomyces in mixed culture fermentation isolating Saccharomyces and rebuilding a culture around it testing how new ingredients work in saison using acidity as an element of structure And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): Want a natural and economical clarification aid that doesn’t impact beer flavor? Then you need Kerry Biofine™ Eco—a plant-based fining agent. Available exclusively from BSG, visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. RMS Roller-Grinder (https://rmsroller-grinder.com): Our industry leading mills deliver optimal grind consistency, unlocking the full potential of your grain. Say goodbye to uneven grinds and hello to exceptional flavor extraction. Visit rmsroller-grinder.com to discover how RMS can transform your brewing experience. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Five Star Chemicals (https://fivestarchemicals.com): Keep your brewery running smoothly with Five Star Chemicals. Our cleaning solutions are specifically formulated to meet the unique needs of breweries, ensuring that your equipment stays clean and free of harmful bacteria and contaminants. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

Montana is known for its grain, and Mark Hastings of Überbrew and By All Means is in the thick of it. Wheat is the most-grown crop statewide while barley is third; despite their ubiquity, Hastings steered clear of Montana’s brewing grains for the first two decades of his brewing career. Primarily grown for the needs of macro brewers, these grains never quite nailed the flavor and technical performance he sought. However, recent strides in equipment for craft maltsters have opened the door for higher-quality malt at a smaller scale, and he’s slowly been making shifts. It’s one thing to change malt in a beer with few expectations, and it’s another to do that in a beer with a long medal-winning pedigree, but that’s exactly what he did with the malt in Überbrew’s White Noise, a American-style wheat beer that’s won two silvers and two golds at the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup from 2014 through 2022. He’s won a similar number of accolades for the black IPA Alpha Force Double Tap—GABF golds, bronze, silver, as well as top honors at Alpha King. In this episode, Hastings discusses: avoiding darker malt flavors in black IPA shifting base malts from Maris Otter and Golden Promise to pilsner and Vienna dialing in recipes using local craft malt building hop combos using spider plots of flavors and aromas fermenting everything from wheat to clear IPA with London Ale III avoiding the “donut effect” in hoppy beers selecting malt for grassiness in wheat beer building a stable haze And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): Looking for a sustainable way to increase fermenter capacity? Try FermCap™ Eco from Kerry. Developed as a part of part of Kerry’s Eco Brewing range, FermCap™ Eco is a plant-based alternative to traditional silicon-based products. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. RMS Roller-Grinder (https://rmsroller-grinder.com): Our industry leading mills deliver optimal grind consistency, unlocking the full potential of your grain. Say goodbye to uneven grinds and hello to exceptional flavor extraction. Visit rmsroller-grinder.com to discover how RMS can transform your brewing experience. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Five Star Chemicals (https://fivestarchemicals.com): Keep your brewery running smoothly with Five Star Chemicals. Our cleaning solutions are specifically formulated to meet the unique needs of breweries, ensuring that your equipment stays clean and free of harmful bacteria and contaminants. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

This week’s podcast is different from most. A couple weeks ago, I drove down to Colorado Springs to catch up with Jess and Rich Fierro of Atrevida Beer. Jess was the winner of Season One of the Vice TV show Beerland, and they went on to open their small community-focused brewery in 2018. From the start, Atrevida proudly embraced the slogan “Diversity, it’s what’s on tap,” and over the past five years they’ve lived it—women brewers have outnumbered men in their brewhouse by a ratio of about four-to-one. Atrevida would make an interesting case study all on its own, but the night of November 19, 2022, brought them national attention for completely different reasons. Jess, Rich, their daughter Kassy, her longtime boyfriend Raymond, and other friends were celebrating a birthday at Club Q in Colorado Springs when a gunman attacked the club, killing five and injuring another 19 before Rich—who retired with the rank of major after 15 years in the Army—charged, disarmed, and subdued the gunman. Raymond was one of the five people killed. That incident isn’t what this podcast is about. In this episode, we discuss what’s happened since then. Jess, Rich, and Kassy all still work at the brewery. It’s a small business, and they’re isn’t any magical mechanism that automatically keeps the brewery going when an unthinkable tragedy strikes. The outpouring of support for them was intense, and the backlash was also intense. Suddenly, they were thrust into a national spotlight while also having to process such a traumatic personal event. Even now, a few who ostensibly wanted to show support have been harassing them over something as trivial as a delay in shipping T-shirts. However, as you’ll hear in this conversation, Jess and Rich are special people. We cover a range of subjects, from making creative beers that connect through diverse flavors, to running a values-centered business, and on to managing a business through trauma with all the ups and downs that come with it. Their story is an inspiring one. —Jamie This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): BSG and their partners HVG bring you Amira, the latest from their hop Breeding Program. With its classic hoppy, slightly herbal, and zesty lemon aromas it’s the ideal hop for those looking to capture the traditional flavor of a classic German lager. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Tabski (https://tabski.com): Tabski QR Code Ordering is the future of brewery ordering! With Tabski, your customers can order and pay for their beers right from their phones by scanning a QR Code on the table. Get rid of lengthy lines and increase check size by up to 30%! Learn how you can get started today at tabski.com. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Five Star Chemicals (https://fivestarchemicals.com): Keep your brewery running smoothly with Five Star Chemicals. Our cleaning solutions are specifically formulated to meet the unique needs of breweries, ensuring that your equipment stays clean and free of harmful bacteria and contaminants. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

The Northern hemisphere hop harvest is just weeks away, and that means one of our favorite times of the year—fresh hop beer season. To help add to the excitement, we invited three experts in the field of brewing with wet and fresh hops—Joe Mohrfeld of Pinthouse, Steve Luke of Cloudburst, and Zach Turner of Single Hill—to join in on a panel discussion on the subject. Over the course of the podcast, they share thoughts on: the evolution of fresh hop brewing over the past decade and a half telling the agricultural and growers' stories through beer riding the fine line between hops' grassy/vegetal flaors and brighter fruit flavors choosing specific varieties for different brews, and hops that work best in fresh and wet form using fresh dried hops for dry hopping layering multiple forms—IQF, 301 Trial, wet, and fresh dried—for more flavor complexity fermenting with yeast that provides the right sulfur lift managing the pH increase from fresh hops through varied acid additions longevity in fresh hop beers And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/Cancraft): BSG invite you to experience one of the newest hops from their Hop Solutions line, HS Grove™. Developed for hop-forward beer styles, HS Grove boasts incredible biotransformation qualities, giving you the power to transform your next IPA into a stone fruit powerhouse. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Tabski (https://tabski.com): Tabski QR Code Ordering is the future of brewery ordering! With Tabski, your customers can order and pay for their beers right from their phones by scanning a QR Code on the table. Get rid of lengthy lines and increase check size by up to 30%! Learn how you can get started today at tabski.com. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Five Star Chemicals (https://fivestarchemicals.com): Keep your brewery running smoothly with Five Star Chemicals. Our cleaning solutions are specifically formulated to meet the unique needs of breweries, ensuring that your equipment stays clean and free of harmful bacteria and contaminants. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

Utah’s beer laws are some of the most anomalous in the country—the state does everything it can to make life hard on brewers—but one byproduct of the laws restricting the sale of beers based on ABV is that Utah brewers have had the commercial incentive to hone their low gravity brewing techniques. Today, at Templin Family Brewing in the granary district of Salt Lake City, you’ll find a dozen or so beers at 5% ABV (or less) on tap at any given time—because anything they make over 5% must be poured from a can. But ask Kevin Templin about it, and he won’t complain—he loves making and drinking low ABV beers, and the beers on their board are perfect for the social focus of their taproom. Come with friends, drink a few, and still get home safely. That discipline with low gravity beers is paying off—Templin’s Granary Pils, a kellerbier, has won GABF bronze and silver medals every year for the past three years, and recently nabbed a top score of 99 from Craft Beer & Brewing’s blind judging panel. In this episode, Templin discusses his approach to lager brewing, how they lager IPAs, mashing thin and cool for maximum attenuation, shaving the beers each time they’re brewed through a cooperative sensory-driven process, reducing hop matter and contact time for greater hop impact, the importance of a clean brewery, and more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/Cancraft): The best beers start with the best ingredients. All BSG Hops are hand selected for quality by their expert staff, so you can trust you are getting the very best hops from the very best growers in the U.S. and around the world. Discover BSG’s extensive range of domestic and imported hops at BSGCraftBrewing.com/hops Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Tabski (https://tabski.com): Tabski QR Code Ordering is the future of brewery ordering! With Tabski, your customers can order and pay for their beers right from their phones by scanning a QR Code on the table. Get rid of lengthy lines and increase check size by up to 30%! Learn how you can get started today at tabski.com. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Five Star Chemicals (https://fivestarchemicals.com): Keep your brewery running smoothly with Five Star Chemicals. Our cleaning solutions are specifically formulated to meet the unique needs of breweries, ensuring that your equipment stays clean and free of harmful bacteria and contaminants. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

When Winslow Sawyer and his partners launched San Diego’s Pure Project in the middle of the last decade, they weren’t focused on brewing particular styles. Instead, they began with the tenet of building a brewery focused on sustainability, using natural ingredients from small farmers wherever possible, and lowering their environmental impact while also giving back through the 1% for the Planet program. IPA wasn’t the initial focus—San Diego already had plenty of great IPAs—but as the hazy IPA trend caught on Sawyer quickly found a way to explore his love of New Zealand hops despite the constraint Pure Project placed on themselves—no reverse osmosis, only municipal water built up, not stripped down. Now, they don’t define their hazy IPAs as “New England-style,” but have coined the term “murky” instead. In this episode, Sawyer discusses their approach to a range of beers, from IPA to pale lager and even spontaneously fermented acid-forward beer. Along the way, he covers: consciously choosing single infusion over decoction in their pale lager balancing flavor intensity with drinkability altering their approach to hoppy beers over the past number of years using Mosaic as a base for experimentation with new hops reducing dankness as beers increase in ABV brewing spontaneous beers with wet hops And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/Cancraft): Stressed about packaging and can supply? Don’t worry, CanCraft’s team of design & aluminum specialists are here to make things easy by supporting you every step of the way. Visit Bsgcraftbrewing.com/Cancraft to get started Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Tabski (https://tabski.com): Tabski QR Code Ordering is the future of brewery ordering! With Tabski, your customers can order and pay for their beers right from their phones by scanning a QR Code on the table. Get rid of lengthy lines and increase check size by up to 30%! Learn how you can get started today at tabski.com. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Five Star Chemicals (https://fivestarchemicals.com): Keep your brewery running smoothly with Five Star Chemicals. Our cleaning solutions are specifically formulated to meet the unique needs of breweries, ensuring that your equipment stays clean and free of harmful bacteria and contaminants. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

Ask most American brewers about their first experience with New Zealand hops, and nine out of ten will probably name one single beer—Alpine Beer’s Nelson. Alpine founder Pat McIlhenney was one of the early ones to import southern hemisphere hops, and it’s hard to speak about the hop now without acknowledging the importance of that singular beer. Son Shawn McIlhenney inherited his dad’s love of hops and experimentation, and today continues to push the limits of ingredients and techniques through McIlhenney Brewing. In this episode, McIlhenney touches on: the evolution of San Diego IPA using enzymes to manage a flaked rye mash combining Nelson Sauvin and Nectaron hops for maximum effect first wort hopping for less aggressive bite blending whole leaf hops with advanced hop products like Incognito pushing the fine line between enough and too much selecting Southern hemisphere hops recipe considerations when scaling up to double and triple IPA avoiding the flavor effects of over-aeration rediscovering the personal joy of making beer And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): BSG is a proud distributor of New Zealand Hops Ltd. and invites you to experience Nectaron®, an aromatic New Zealand hop, drenched by tropical waterfalls of grapefruit, passionfruit, pineapple, and peach. Contact your BSG sales rep with any questions or visit BSGCraftbrewing.com/Hops to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Tabski (https://tabski.com): Tabski QR Code Ordering is the future of brewery ordering! With Tabski, your customers can order and pay for their beers right from their phones by scanning a QR Code on the table. Get rid of lengthy lines and increase check size by up to 30%! Learn how you can get started today at tabski.com. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Five Star Chemicals (https://fivestarchemicals.com): Keep your brewery running smoothly with Five Star Chemicals. Our cleaning solutions are specifically formulated to meet the unique needs of breweries, ensuring that your equipment stays clean and free of harmful bacteria and contaminants. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

Justin Burdt loves hops, and has developed a unique and somewhat counter-intuitive approach to selecting them for Ghost Town’s award-winning West coast IPAs. His focus on tight and lean intensity relies on boosting expression through embracing some hop aroma notes that give other brewers fits, but it’s the push and pull that gives the IPAs such compelling dynamic range. In this episode, Burdt dives deep into hops for the first hour of the podcast, before walking through the rest of their IPA brewing process, and finishing on the subject of West coast pils. Along the way, he discusses: What makes for “good” hops Searching for the stinging physical sensation in intense hops How Citra with “cat pee” notes can make better IPAs Focusing on hop oil quality over quantity Using certain hops in more concentrated forms like cryo The unique characteristics of HBC586 Choosing lager or ale yeast for fermentation based on a beer’s hop profile Brewing specific competition batches to increase win percentage And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): If you’ve been searching for the perfect malt that’s not quite Pale and not Munich, you’re in luck. Gambrinus Vienna is the malt you’ve been looking for. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Tabski (https://tabski.com): Tabski QR Code Ordering is the future of brewery ordering! With Tabski, your customers can order and pay for their beers right from their phones by scanning a QR Code on the table. Get rid of lengthy lines and increase check size by up to 30%! Learn how you can get started today at tabski.com. Twin Monkeys (https://TwinMonkeys.net): Are you ready to start canning your craft beverages? Twin Monkeys Beverage Systems is here to help. This troop of engineers, service techs, and microbrew fanatics offers customizable packaging solutions for every craft. Visit TwinMonkeys.net today. Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Discover a whole SafLager™ range by Fermentis, covering from traditional to modern-style lagers: SafLager™ S-189, for the elegant lagers with floral notes, SafLager™ S-23, for fruity and hoppy ones, and SafLager™ W-34/70 for your neutral beers. Want to know more about SafLager™ yeasts? Visit www.fermentis.com! ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

As part of the recent Craft Beer & Brewing Brewer’s Retreat, hosted by Russian River in late May 2023, Jamie moderated panel discussions before a live audience of attendees and featured brewers. This episode is a recording of one such panel on West coast-style IPA, featuring Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker, Ben Edmunds of Breakside, and Sean Lawson of Lawson’s Finest. Over the course of the discussion, the brewers cover: using advanced hop products for more hop punch tucking in small amounts of character-building malts dry hopping with dosing vessels mid-fermentation dry hopping with cryo hops for less hop creep and more flavor stability using ALDC to manage hop creep top noting in the dry hop with Southern hemisphere hops managing pH in dry hopping controlling FAN through dry hopping for longevity And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): As distributors of quality domestic malts like Rahr and Gambrinus, BSG gives you the freedom to explore a world of flavors but at local prices. So, you can cut costs but not quality. Start exploring at BSGCraftbrewing.com Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. US Water Systems (https://USWaterSystems.com): US Water Systems.com has been at the forefront of the craft brewing industry and created American made water treatment systems with brewers in mind. Whether you're a hobbyist or a pro, head on over to US Water Systems.com to learn more. Twin Monkeys (https://TwinMonkeys.net): Are you ready to start canning your craft beverages? Twin Monkeys Beverage Systems is here to help. This troop of engineers, service techs, and microbrew fanatics offers customizable packaging solutions for every craft. Visit TwinMonkeys.net today. Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Discover a whole SafLager™ range by Fermentis, covering from traditional to modern-style lagers: SafLager™ S-189, for the elegant lagers with floral notes, SafLager™ S-23, for fruity and hoppy ones, and SafLager™ W-34/70 for your neutral beers. Want to know more about SafLager™ yeasts? Visit www.fermentis.com! ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

As part of the recent Craft Beer & Brewing Brewer’s Retreat, hosted by Russian River in late May 2023, Jamie moderated panel discussions before a live audience of attendees and featured brewers. This episode is a recording of one such panel on wine-beer hybrids, featuring two of the leading brewers in that space—Cory King of Side Project and Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River—alongside inspiring winemaker and brewer (and Napa Valley proponent) Nick Gislason of Hanabi Lager. Over the course of the discussion, the brewers cover: understanding grapes and tannins pick timing’s impact on grapes structuring acids and balancing tannins with acidity grape pressing methodology and skin contact time selecting grapes and beers that complement each other in the blend using Brettanomyces strains to boost flavor characteristics building harmony in complex beers finishing and carbonation in wine-beer hybrids And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): Is your Pilsner looking flat? Wishing you could show off a mousse like foam stand or looking to boost mouthfeel in a hazy? Then look no further because Rahr Dextrin Malt is here to improve your beer. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn how Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. US Water Systems (https://USWaterSystems.com): US Water Systems.com has been at the forefront of the craft brewing industry and created American made water treatment systems with brewers in mind. Whether you're a hobbyist or a pro, head on over to US Water Systems.com to learn more. Twin Monkeys (https://TwinMonkeys.net): Are you ready to start canning your craft beverages? Twin Monkeys Beverage Systems is here to help. This troop of engineers, service techs, and microbrew fanatics offers customizable packaging solutions for every craft. Visit TwinMonkeys.net today. Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Discover a whole SafLager™ range by Fermentis, covering from traditional to modern-style lagers: SafLager™ S-189, for the elegant lagers with floral notes, SafLager™ S-23, for fruity and hoppy ones, and SafLager™ W-34/70 for your neutral beers. Want to know more about SafLager™ yeasts? Visit www.fermentis.com! ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

As part of the recent Craft Beer & Brewing Brewer’s Retreat, hosted by Russian River in late May 2023, Jamie moderated panel discussions before a live audience of attendees and featured brewers. This episode is a recording of one such panel on hazy IPA, featuring some of the most inspiring brewers in that space—Henry Nguyen of Monkish, JC Tetreault of Trillium, and Neil Fisher of Weldwerks. Over the course of the discussion, the brewers cover: the evolution of yeast in hazy IPA applying Belgian brewing techniques to hazy IPA building a common thread in beer families where hop combos change controlling biotransformation and thiol production building complexity through different lots of the same hop variety using specific lots for texture as well as flavor negative hop selection and bench trialing before selection dry hopping process and managing hop creep And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): BSG Hops are sourced directly from growers and processed at their FSSC-certified facility. Giving you access to high-quality and unique varieties like Cashmere, Comet, Triumph, El Dorado, plus many more. Discover a whole universe of hop sensory at BSGCraftBrewing.com/hops Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. US Water Systems (https://USWaterSystems.com): Some brewers want their water profile to be that of their city and that sounds great... except for one factor: Depending upon the city and day, the water quality can vary 40 to 50%. The best method is to start with the same water every time and Reverse Osmosis gives you that power. Visit USWaterSystems.com for a free expert analysis. Twin Monkeys (https://TwinMonkeys.net): Are you ready to start canning your craft beverages? Twin Monkeys Beverage Systems is here to help. This troop of engineers, service techs, and microbrew fanatics offers customizable packaging solutions for every craft. Visit TwinMonkeys.net today. Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Discover a whole SafLager™ range by Fermentis, covering from traditional to modern-style lagers: SafLager™ S-189, for the elegant lagers with floral notes, SafLager™ S-23, for fruity and hoppy ones, and SafLager™ W-34/70 for your neutral beers. Want to know more about SafLager™ yeasts? Visit www.fermentis.com! ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

New Zealand’s climate, latitude, and singular terroir offers the right environment for hops of unique expression, but it’s their longstanding breeding program that has made possible so many of the signatures aromas and flavors we’ve grown to love. Ron Beatson of NZ Hops is the plant geneticist behind many of these beloved varieties, and on this episode recorded at the Craft Brewers Conference, he discusses the complex genetics and processes behind developing hops like Nelson Sauvin, Riwaka, Nectarine, Superdelic, and more. Beatson covers: The impact of triploid genetics The evolution of hop breeding with a focus on aroma and flavor Using a California-grown Late Cluster parent for many popular crosses Effects of terroir on popular New Zealand hop varieties Developing new cultivars for early and late season harvest Impacts of high UV energy on New Zealand hop crops And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): BSG is a proud partner of global hop breeder and merchant Hopsteiner, which has been connecting brewers with the choicest hops and hop products available since 1845. Explore Hopsteiner’s unique and exciting hop varieties at BSGCraftbrewing.com/Hops Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you hear Old Orchard mentioned in the brewing community, don't be surprised: the flavored craft juice concentrate blends from Old Orchard have shipped to over 46 states. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew announces the addition of Specific Gravity to our suite of brewing tools! AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. Join the AccuBrew community today and experience 24/7 peace of mind. Visit AccuBrew.io to learn more! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. US Water Systems (https://USWaterSystems.com): Some brewers want their water profile to be that of their city and that sounds great... except for one factor: Depending upon the city and day, the water quality can vary 40 to 50%. The best method is to start with the same water every time and Reverse Osmosis gives you that power. Visit USWaterSystems.com for a free expert analysis. Twin Monkeys (https://TwinMonkeys.net): Are you ready to start canning your craft beverages? Twin Monkeys Beverage Systems is here to help. This troop of engineers, service techs, and microbrew fanatics offers customizable packaging solutions for every craft. Visit TwinMonkeys.net today. Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Discover a whole SafLager™ range by Fermentis, covering from traditional to modern-style lagers: SafLager™ S-189, for the elegant lagers with floral notes, SafLager™ S-23, for fruity and hoppy ones, and SafLager™ W-34/70 for your neutral beers. Want to know more about SafLager™ yeasts? Visit www.fermentis.com! ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

Matthias Trum is the sixth-generation brewer at Bamberg’s Heller-Trum Bräu—better known as Schlenkerla—and he is as obsessed with local history as he is with producing world-class smoked lagers via their old-fashioned methods. Bamberg has a long history of brewing, and Trum is a great student of that history—and his family has played an important role in it. In this episode, he immerses us in that story, discussing: old family brewing logs that detail strong beers as well as lower-strength ones made from second runnings the true story of rauchbier, and Schlenkerla’s role in preserving its legacy details on Schlenkerla’s own wood-fired malting process, and the old practice of using different types of wood the non-linear intensity of the smoky character in Schlenkerla’s beers the importance of decoction to fermentation and flavor the flavor contribution of their direct-fire copper kettles the trick of balancing smoke and malt with evident hop bitterness experimenting with malts smoked by different woods and paired with different aroma hops balancing the non-smoked yet subtly smoky Helles Lagerbier how hyper-inflation led to the development of the Helles And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): BSG is a proud partner of global hop breeder and merchant Hopsteiner, which has been connecting brewers with the choicest hops and hop products available since 1845. Explore Hopsteiner’s unique and exciting hop varieties at BSGCraftbrewing.com/Hops Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you hear Old Orchard mentioned in the brewing community, don't be surprised: the flavored craft juice concentrate blends from Old Orchard have shipped to over 46 states. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew announces the addition of Specific Gravity to our suite of brewing tools! AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. Join the AccuBrew community today and experience 24/7 peace of mind. Visit AccuBrew.io to learn more! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. US Water Systems (https://USWaterSystems.com): Some brewers want their water profile to be that of their city and that sounds great... except for one factor: Depending upon the city and day, the water quality can vary 40 to 50%. The best method is to start with the same water every time and Reverse Osmosis gives you that power. Visit USWaterSystems.com for a free expert analysis. Twin Monkeys (https://TwinMonkeys.net): Are you ready to start canning your craft beverages? Twin Monkeys Beverage Systems is here to help. This troop of engineers, service techs, and microbrew fanatics offers customizable packaging solutions for every craft. Visit TwinMonkeys.net today. Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Discover a whole SafLager™ range by Fermentis, covering from traditional to modern-style lagers: SafLager™ S-189, for the elegant lagers with floral notes, SafLager™ S-23, for fruity and hoppy ones, and SafLager™ W-34/70 for your neutral beers. Want to know more about SafLager™ yeasts? Visit www.fermentis.com! ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

The town of České Budějovice in South Bohemia may be better known to North Americans as Budweis, the German name that’s been appropriated by a couple of famous beers. The real Czech pale lager from here is known as Budvar—sold as Czechvar in the United States, for legal reasons. It’s an easygoing showcase of light, pure malt flavors and soft, balancing bitterness, nearer in profile to a Bavarian helles than a typical Czech světlý ležák. Joining us to tell this iconic beer’s story and talk about how it’s made is brewmaster Adam Brož, who is contagiously passionate about all the little details that make a pale lager into something that both tastes great and is addictively drinkable. Along the way, he discusses: Budvar Original’s unique place in the pale lager spectrum the importance of soft water to the beer’s profile why he insists on sticking with whole-cone Saaz hops how the barley variety and crop matter to the brewing process why decoction matters, from deeper color and flavor to greater consistency the benefits of long maturation of at least 90 days in horizontal tanks a new variety of Budvar with higher bitterness how the dark lager came to be and what sets it apart And more. "Our product is not the beer, but the joy from the beer," says Broz. "And without drinkability, it’s half of the joy." This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): All BSG Hops are hand selected for quality by their expert staff, so you can trust you are getting the very best hops from the very best growers in the U.S. and around the world. Discover BSG’s extensive range of domestic and imported hops at BSGCraftBrewing.com/hops Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you hear Old Orchard mentioned in the brewing community, don't be surprised: the flavored craft juice concentrate blends from Old Orchard have shipped to over 46 states. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew announces the addition of Specific Gravity to our suite of brewing tools! AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. Join the AccuBrew community today and experience 24/7 peace of mind. Visit AccuBrew.io to learn more! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. US Water Systems (https://USWaterSystems.com): Some brewers want their water profile to be that of their city and that sounds great... except for one factor: Depending upon the city and day, the water quality can vary 40 to 50%. The best method is to start with the same water every time and Reverse Osmosis gives you that power. Visit USWaterSystems.com for a free expert analysis. Twin Monkeys (https://TwinMonkeys.net): Are you ready to start canning your craft beverages? Twin Monkeys Beverage Systems is here to help. This troop of engineers, service techs, and microbrew fanatics offers customizable packaging solutions for every craft. Visit TwinMonkeys.net today. Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Discover a whole SafLager™ range by Fermentis, covering from traditional to modern-style lagers: SafLager™ S-189, for the elegant lagers with floral notes, SafLager™ S-23, for fruity and hoppy ones, and SafLager™ W-34/70 for your neutral beers. Want to know more about SafLager™ yeasts? Visit www.fermentis.com! ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

Monday Night Brewing has grown from their Atlanta roots into taprooms and breweries in major southern US centers—Birmingham, Alabama and Nashville, Tennessee are two, with Charlotte, North Carolina opening soon. The regional powerhouse has grown on the strength of quality beer, measured risk-taking, and a simultaneous embrace of both modern and classic styles. In this episode, brewmaster Peter Kiley shares his unvarnished and thoughtful approach to brewing, touching on: moving to high-gravity brewing to make life easier on the brewing staff kettle souring high-gravity brews homogenizing kettle soured component brews pre-fermentation managing ionic concentration in high-gravity brews troubleshooting excessive attenuation understanding acids like succinic acid in kettle-soured beer the trouble with biotransformation in hoppy beers extensive cold conditioning to reduce hop burn the challenge in creating a framework for innovation the trouble in democratizing creativity And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): Experience Nectaron®, an aromatic New Zealand hop, drenched by tropical waterfalls of grapefruit, passionfruit, pineapple, and peach. Nectaron® is in stock and ready to ship—visit BSGCraftbrewing.com/Hops to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you hear Old Orchard mentioned in the brewing community, don't be surprised: the flavored craft juice concentrate blends from Old Orchard have shipped to over 46 states. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew announces the addition of Specific Gravity to our suite of brewing tools! AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. Join the AccuBrew community today and experience 24/7 peace of mind. Visit AccuBrew.io to learn more! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com/podcast): Indie’s unique varieties—Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, and Meridian—are trusted by brewers worldwide to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Visit indiehops.com/podcast to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Indie Hops — Life is short, let’s make it flavorful! Twin Monkeys (https://TwinMonkeys.net): Are you ready to start canning your craft beverages? Twin Monkeys Beverage Systems is here to help. This troop of engineers, service techs, and microbrew fanatics offers customizable packaging solutions for every craft. Visit TwinMonkeys.net today. Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Fermentis' beer yeast strain line-up is designed to answer the requirements of all brewers, so release your creativity! Visit www.fermentis.com or explore our app to discover more about yeast behavior and characterization. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial is proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

Finding space for personality and authenticity in hazy IPA and tart fruit beer these days can pose a challenge for brewers, but for Jared Welch, Cofounder and Production Director for Nashville, Tennessee’s Southern Grist, that’s no reason to stop pushing. It’s why their popular quick-soured fruit beers are now acidified with a locally-caught Lactobacillus strain, and why they’ve tweaked and increased bitterness in their hazy IPAs while eschewing active fermentation dry hopping. Southern Grist is going to make the beers that customers want from them, but they stand out by making them their way. In this episode, Welch focuses on hazy IPA and tart fruit beers, covering: First-wort hopping with Vic’s Secret Whirlpooling very cool as low as 160°F Tweaking the grist for hazy IPA to ramp up oats Building the lightest color via Pilsner malt Driving London Ale III to a dozen generations through careful fermentation management Dialing in acidity for specific fruits And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): Gambrinus Malting is Canada’s original small-batch, artisanal malthouse. If you’ve been searching for the perfect malt that’s not quite Pale and not Munich, you’re in luck. Gambrinus Vienna is the malt you’ve been looking for. This mellow-kilned malt has a balanced bready character with notes of honey, toffee, and caramel baked in. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you hear Old Orchard mentioned in the brewing community, don't be surprised: the flavored craft juice concentrate blends from Old Orchard have shipped to over 46 states. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew announces the addition of Specific Gravity to our suite of brewing tools! AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. Join the AccuBrew community today and experience 24/7 peace of mind! Visit with the developers at booth (#2935) at the 2023 CBC BrewExpo America! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) ProBrew has always been a dedicated and trusted partner to breweries, especially when they make the leap to canning their product. That is why they only sell rotary can fillers, which significantly reduce product waste and produce higher quality product than an inline can filler. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com/podcast): Indie’s unique varieties—Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, and Meridian—are trusted by brewers worldwide to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Indie also offers classics that thrive in Oregon terroir such as Chinook, Crystal and Sterling. Visit indiehops.com/podcast and stop by their booth#2131at CBC to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Indie Hops — Life is short, let’s make it flavorful! Twin Monkeys (https://TwinMonkeys.net): Are you ready to start canning your craft beverages? Twin Monkeys Beverage Systems is here to help. This troop of engineers, service techs, and microbrew fanatics offers customizable packaging solutions for every craft. Their canning lines are affordable, made in the USA, and engineered to grow alongside the needs of your business. Visit TwinMonkeys.net today. Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Brett is wild, its unpredictable, gives funky notes to beer, evolves in time. Historically it was used without control, but Fermentis harnessed it… Discover SafBrew™ BR-8, the first dry Brett by Fermentis, now available in 100g and 5g. ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial has been a full-service brewery outfitter for over 10 years. We are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. Going to the Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville? Stop by their booth to connect with our brewery consultants and enter for a chance to win a Keg Viking Keg Washer! ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

When brewers think of Czech hops, they naturally think of Saaz, whose delicate and ethereal character is nearly synonmyous with lager itself. Yet while craft brewers around the world have developed an obsession with punchy New World hops and the character of specific varieties, they often know relatively litle about the hops from this region that’s been growing them for more than a millennium. In this episode, we sit down in Žatec—the home of Saaz—with Zdeněk Rosa, chairman of Bohemia Hop, the collective of all Bohemian hop growers. Here, Rosa digs into: the promising overall trajectory of Saaz growth in recent years, despite the disastrous harvest of 2022 how agronomy and growing operations differ in Bohemia compared to the Pacific Northwest the unlikely specifics of how weather impacted the 2022 harvest the development of other varieties that offer similar character to Saaz but with better yield and sustainability newer, more expressive Czech aroma varieties such as Saaz Shine and Saaz Comfort, which offer enticing possibilities for lager and other kinds of beer leaning into a Czech take on cold IPA using more characterful Czech aroma hops And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): BSG are the exclusive distributors of Rahr Malting Co., producers of quality malt since 1847. Is your Pilsner looking flat? Wishing you could show off a mousse-like foam stand or looking to boost mouthfeel in a hazy? Then look no further because Rahr Dextrin Malt is here to improve your beer. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn how. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you hear Old Orchard mentioned in the brewing community, don't be surprised: the flavored craft juice concentrate blends from Old Orchard have shipped to over 46 states. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew announces the addition of Specific Gravity to our suite of brewing tools! AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. Join the AccuBrew community today and experience 24/7 peace of mind! Visit with the developers at booth (#2935) at the 2023 CBC BrewExpo America! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) ProBrew has always been a dedicated and trusted partner to breweries, especially when they make the leap to canning their product. That is why they only sell rotary can fillers, which significantly reduce product waste and produce higher quality product than an inline can filler. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com/podcast): Indie’s unique varieties—Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, and Meridian—are trusted by brewers worldwide to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Indie also offers classics that thrive in Oregon terroir such as Chinook, Crystal and Sterling. Visit indiehops.com/podcast and stop by their booth#2131at CBC to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Indie Hops — Life is short, let’s make it flavorful! Twin Monkeys (https://TwinMonkeys.net): Are you ready to start canning your craft beverages? Twin Monkeys Beverage Systems is here to help. This troop of engineers, service techs, and microbrew fanatics offers customizable packaging solutions for every craft. Their canning lines are affordable, made in the USA, and engineered to grow alongside the needs of your business. Visit TwinMonkeys.net today. Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Brett is wild, its unpredictable, gives funky notes to beer, evolves in time. Historically it was used without control, but Fermentis harnessed it… Discover SafBrew™ BR-8, the first dry Brett by Fermentis, now available in 100g and 5g. Want to know more? Don’t miss the Fermentis Academy 2023 program in Minneapolis April 11th or Portland April 13th, or meet Fermentis experts at CBC in the BSG Village to answer all your questions. We will also host a SafBrew™ BR-8 barnyard bash on Monday May 8th from 2:00 - 4:30pm. You are cordially invited, don’t miss it! ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial has been a full-service brewery outfitter for over 10 years. We are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. Going to the Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville? Stop by their booth to connect with our brewery consultants and enter for a chance to win a

To celebrate this milestone—the 300th episode of the Craft Beer & Brewing Podcast—we reassembled three leading voices in West coast IPA to discuss questions spurred on by the original panel discussion, and this time they answered your audio questions, Direct Fire!-style. Kelsey McNair of North Park in San Diego, Evan Price of Green Cheek in Orange and Costa Mesa, and Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River in Santa Rosa and Windsor dive back into of one their and your favorite subjects—brewing West Coast IPA—and answer your questions along the way. In this episode, they discuss: further research into the way that thin and thick mashes impact attenuation balancing beers in a way that pleases both competition judges and customers techniques to speed up and control hop creep more benefits of “shaving the cone” early in fermentation timing dry hopping to eliminate acetaldehyde hop variety-specific changes to dry hopping regimens hop pellet density reducing dissolved oxygen through the cold side process Evan’s hot take on Centennial achieving consistency in hop selection layering T-90 pellets with advanced hop products cool pooling whirlpool times and temperatures using hop extracts for buttering And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): BSG are the exclusive distributors of Rahr Malting Co., producers of quality malt since 1847. Is your Pilsner looking flat? Wishing you could show off a mousse-like foam stand or looking to boost mouthfeel in a hazy? Then look no further because Rahr Dextrin Malt is here to improve your beer. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn how. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you hear Old Orchard mentioned in the brewing community, don't be surprised: the flavored craft juice concentrate blends from Old Orchard have shipped to over 46 states. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew announces the addition of Specific Gravity to our suite of brewing tools! AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. Join the AccuBrew community today and experience 24/7 peace of mind! Visit with the developers at booth (#2935) at the 2023 CBC BrewExpo America! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) ProBrew has always been a dedicated and trusted partner to breweries, especially when they make the leap to canning their product. That is why they only sell rotary can fillers, which significantly reduce product waste and produce higher quality product than an inline can filler. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com/podcast): Indie’s unique varieties—Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, and Meridian—are trusted by brewers worldwide to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Indie also offers classics that thrive in Oregon terroir such as Chinook, Crystal and Sterling. Visit indiehops.com/podcast and stop by their booth#2131at CBC to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Indie Hops — Life is short, let’s make it flavorful! Twin Monkeys (https://TwinMonkeys.net): Are you ready to start canning your craft beverages? Twin Monkeys Beverage Systems is here to help. This troop of engineers, service techs, and microbrew fanatics offers customizable packaging solutions for every craft. Their canning lines are affordable, made in the USA, and engineered to grow alongside the needs of your business. Visit TwinMonkeys.net today. Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Brett is wild, its unpredictable, gives funky notes to beer, evolves in time. Historically it was used without control, but Fermentis harnessed it… Discover SafBrew™ BR-8, the first dry Brett by Fermentis, now available in 100g and 5g. Want to know more? Don’t miss the Fermentis Academy 2023 program in Minneapolis April 11th or Portland April 13th, or meet Fermentis experts at CBC in the BSG Village to answer all your questions. We will also host a SafBrew™ BR-8 barnyard bash on Monday May 8th from 2:00 - 4:30pm. You are cordially invited, don’t miss it! ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial has been a full-service brewery outfitter for over 10 years. We are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. Going to the Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville? Stop by their booth to connect with our brewe

In the trendy Karlín neighborhood of central Prague, the brewpub called Dva Kohouti embodies the merger of the two key elements of Czech beer culture: the brewing and—no less important—the pouring and service. The side-pull taps attached directly to the serving tanks behind the bar are only part of the story. In this episode recorded at the brewery, head brewer Lukaš Tomsa explains the ideas behind Dva Kohouti, how they brew their traditional lagers and more internationally inspired ales, and how they ensure that the service end completes the job of creating a great beer. Among other topics, he discusses: the importance of pouring and service that respects the product a brewery-taproom concept that gives production and service equal emphasis comparing single- and double-decocted pale lagers fermenting a bit warmer than traditional Czech brewers, to keep diacetyl in check getting natural carbonation by capping the tank during fermentation using decoctions for tart fruit beers and American-style pale ales and IPAs using decoction and raw barley to promote foam in a quick-soured fruit beer paying attention to glassware and draft lines to ensure perfect pours And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): BSG's mission is simple—to help brewers craft the best beer possible. This is why BSG Hops are sourced directly from growers and processed at their FSSC-certified facility, giving you access to high-quality and unique varieties like Cashmere, Comet, Triumph, El Dorado, plus many more. Discover a whole universe of hop sensory at BSGCraftBrewing.com/hops Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you hear Old Orchard mentioned in the brewing community, don't be surprised: the flavored craft juice concentrate blends from Old Orchard have shipped to over 46 states. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew announces the addition of Specific Gravity to our suite of brewing tools! AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. Join the AccuBrew community today and experience 24/7 peace of mind! Visit with the developers at booth (#2935) at the 2023 CBC BrewExpo America! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) ProBrew has always been a dedicated and trusted partner to breweries, especially when they make the leap to canning their product. That is why they only sell rotary can fillers, which significantly reduce product waste and produce higher quality product than an inline can filler. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com/podcast): Indie’s unique varieties—Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, and Meridian—are trusted by brewers worldwide to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Indie also offers classics that thrive in Oregon terroir such as Chinook, Crystal and Sterling. Visit indiehops.com/podcast and stop by their booth#2131at CBC to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Indie Hops — Life is short, let’s make it flavorful! Twin Monkeys (https://TwinMonkeys.net): Are you ready to start canning your craft beverages? Twin Monkeys Beverage Systems is here to help. This troop of engineers, service techs, and microbrew fanatics offers customizable packaging solutions for every craft. Their canning lines are affordable, made in the USA, and engineered to grow alongside the needs of your business. Visit TwinMonkeys.net today. Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Brett is wild, its unpredictable, gives funky notes to beer, evolves in time. Historically it was used without control, but Fermentis harnessed it… Discover SafBrew™ BR-8, the first dry Brett by Fermentis, now available in 100g and 5g. Want to know more? Don’t miss the Fermentis Academy 2023 program in Minneapolis April 11th or Portland April 13th, or meet Fermentis experts at CBC in the BSG Village to answer all your questions. We will also host a SafBrew™ BR-8 barnyard bash on Monday May 8th from 2:00 - 4:30pm. You are cordially invited, don’t miss it! ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial has been a full-service brewery outfitter for over 10 years. We are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. Going to the Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville? Stop by their booth to connect with our brewery consu

Documents show a brewery at the Břevnov monastery in Prague as early as 993. There have been interruptions over the centuries, but the current Břevnov Monastery Brewery of St. Adalbert is the third incarnation, founded in 2011. This one has gained local and international fans for aromatic and highly drinkable pale lager, Benedict 12°, a well as for its other beers, including an imperial stout, a monastic IPA, and a 9 percent ABV imperial lager beloved by the Břevnov’s own Benedictine monks. In this episode, Břevnov brewmaster Aleš Potěšil discusses their approach to these exceptional beers, including: leaning into Saaz hops and whirlpool additions for distinctive aroma the meaning of pitelnost, and aiming for great drinkability the importance of malt specs and protein content in ensuring sufficient body the benefits of decoction mashing, including both body and higher attenuation the Břevnov double-decoction process, step by step adjusting the mash steps and times depending on malt specs reducing and managing diacetyl to accentuate body bringing Czech-style drinkability to an IPA And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing CanCraft (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): When planning your next brewing journey, consider travelling domestically with your malt choice. As distributors of quality domestic malts like Rahr and Gambrinus, BSG gives you the freedom to explore a world of flavors but at local prices. So, you can cut costs but not quality. Start exploring at BSGCraftbrewing.com Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you hear Old Orchard mentioned in the brewing community, don't be surprised: the flavored craft juice concentrate blends from Old Orchard have shipped to over 46 states. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew announces the addition of Specific Gravity to our suite of brewing tools! AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. Join the AccuBrew community today and experience 24/7 peace of mind! Visit with the developers at booth (#2935) at the 2023 CBC BrewExpo America! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) ProBrew has always been a dedicated and trusted partner to breweries, especially when they make the leap to canning their product. That is why they only sell rotary can fillers, which significantly reduce product waste and produce higher quality product than an inline can filler. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Indie Hops (https://indiehops.com/podcast): Indie’s unique varieties—Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, and Meridian—are trusted by brewers worldwide to modernize, brighten and diversify their beer lineup. Indie also offers classics that thrive in Oregon terroir such as Chinook, Crystal and Sterling. Visit indiehops.com/podcast and stop by their booth#2131at CBC to discover what’s new in hop flavors. Indie Hops — Life is short, let’s make it flavorful! Twin Monkeys (https://TwinMonkeys.net): Are you ready to start canning your craft beverages? Twin Monkeys Beverage Systems is here to help. This troop of engineers, service techs, and microbrew fanatics offers customizable packaging solutions for every craft. Their canning lines are affordable, made in the USA, and engineered to grow alongside the needs of your business. Visit TwinMonkeys.net today. Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Brett is wild, its unpredictable, gives funky notes to beer, evolves in time. Historically it was used without control, but Fermentis harnessed it… Discover SafBrew™ BR-8, the first dry Brett by Fermentis, now available in 100g and 5g. Want to know more? Don’t miss the Fermentis Academy 2023 program in Minneapolis April 11th or Portland April 13th, or meet Fermentis experts at CBC in the BSG Village to answer all your questions. We will also host a SafBrew™ BR-8 barnyard bash on Monday May 8th from 2:00 - 4:30pm. You are cordially invited, don’t miss it! ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com): ABS Commercial has been a full-service brewery outfitter for over 10 years. We are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and small parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs. Going to the Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville? Stop by their booth to connect with our brewery consultants and enter for a chance to win a Keg Viking Keg Washer! ABS Commercial. We are brewers.

Tucked into a corner of the sprawling grounds at Pilsner Urquell in Plzeň, Czechia—the birthplace of pilsner—a new chapter in that story is developing. Now in its third year, Pivovar Proud is Pilsner Urquell’s experimental playground—a beautifully equipped 30-hectoliter kit producing a range of both ales and lagers and other creations less easily categorized. Its head brewmaster Lenka Straková has access to Pilsner Urquell’s resources—including malt from its own maltings—but she also has creative license to dabble in New World hops, various yeasts, barrel-aging, and more. In this episode, Straková tells us more about what she and her team are up to at Proud, including: how Pilsner Urquell’s owner, Asahi, agreed to go along with a substantial experimental brewery focused on craft beer how Proud’s own flagship pale lager, Ventill, is based on Pilsner Urquell and yet markedly its own beer her approach to diacetyl reduction in Czech lager brewing with 34/70 yeast—the same used at Gambrinus—and her trials with various new Czech hop varieties combined with traditional lager-brewing methods brewing ales and craft styles for a Czech audience, with their own spin adjusting Plzeň’s famously soft water happy accidents and barrel-aged imperial brut IPAs And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing CanCraft (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): With overtones of honey and sweet bread, flavor and aroma notes of hay and nutty character. Rahr North Star Pils™ is a base malt you can set your compass by! Set a course for BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn how Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you hear Old Orchard mentioned in the brewing community, don't be surprised: the flavored craft juice concentrate blends from Old Orchard have shipped to over 46 states. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew announces the addition of Specific Gravity to our suite of brewing tools! AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. Join the AccuBrew community today and experience 24/7 peace of mind! Visit with the developers at booth (#2935) at the 2023 CBC BrewExpo America! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) ProBrew has always been a dedicated and trusted partner to breweries, especially when they make the leap to canning their product. That is why they only sell rotary can fillers, which significantly reduce product waste and produce higher quality product than an inline can filler. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Ss Brewtech (https://www.ssbrewtech.com): Ss Brewtech has taken technology they invented working with world-renowned industry veterans and made them available to every craft brewer. To learn more about Ss Brewtech's innovation list, head over to SsBrewtech.com. PakTech (http://resources.paktech-opi.com/beer-and-brewing-inquiry): 100% recycled, 100% recyclable, and reusable—PakTech handles are the sustainable solution to handle your craft beer. PakTech has been a leading producer of secondary packaging for the craft beer industry for over 30 years. Order your free samples today! Call 541.461.5000. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com): The creators of Tropics yeast, which produces massive notes of guava and passionfruit, now bring you Thiol Boost. Berkeley Yeast’s Thiol Boost is pure liquid thiol precursors that take Tropics to the next level. Mention this podcast and get 15% off your next order.

The sandstone cellars of Plzeňský Prazdroj—better known to us as Pilsner Urquell—may be the ideal place to wallow in the history of the world’s most popular beer style with brewmaster emeritus Václav Berka. As the brewery’s 13th brewmaster in a line that stretches back to Josef Groll, there are few people better qualified to recount the story of pilsner, discuss the details of how it’s brewed at its birthplace in Plzeň, and offer suggestions on how to brew an excellent and addictive one in your own brewery. Among other topics, Berka discusses: Pilsner Urquell’s pivotal role in the history of modern beer the elements of Pilsner Urquell, from malting their own barley and the city’s famously soft water to generous hopping with Saaz and the house lager yeast how control over the malting is directly related to the brewery’s traditional triple-decoction mash about the Pilsner Urquell that is still fermented and matured on oak, to compare to the large-scale commercial batches (and to share on the popular tours) the overarching importance of drinkability to pilsner and to Czech beer, and thoughts on purusing excellence in lager brewing And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing CanCraft (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com/CanCraft): Need Aluminum Cans? Lids or PakTech Can Carriers? Design Help? Don’t know where to start? Thankfully Cancraft is nearby and ready to deliver your complete packaging solution. Visit bsgcraftbrewing.com/CanCraft to get started. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Scheduling freight carriers should be the last thing on a brewer's mind, so why not trust the experts to handle freight for your ingredients? Old Orchard has partnered with a leading logistics firm in the craft beverage industry to transport your flavored craft concentrate blends. When you order two pails or more from Old Orchard, you qualify for freight quotes. To get started, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew announces the addition of Specific Gravity to our suite of brewing tools! AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. Join the AccuBrew community today and experience 24/7 peace of mind! Visit with the developers at booth (#2935) at the 2023 CBC BrewExpo America! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) ProBrew has always been a dedicated and trusted partner to breweries, especially when they make the leap to canning their product. That is why they only sell rotary can fillers, which significantly reduce product waste and produce higher quality product than an inline can filler. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Ss Brewtech (https://www.ssbrewtech.com): Ss Brewtech has taken technology they invented working with world-renowned industry veterans and made them available to every craft brewer. To learn more about Ss Brewtech's innovation list, head over to SsBrewtech.com. PakTech (http://resources.paktech-opi.com/beer-and-brewing-inquiry): 100% recycled, 100% recyclable, and reusable—PakTech handles are the sustainable solution to handle your craft beer. PakTech has been a leading producer of secondary packaging for the craft beer industry for over 30 years. Order your free samples today! Call 541.461.5000. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com): The creators of Tropics yeast, which produces massive notes of guava and passionfruit, now bring you Thiol Boost. Berkeley Yeast’s Thiol Boost is pure liquid thiol precursors that take Tropics to the next level. Mention this podcast and get 15% off your next order.

Barn Town popped up on our radar in 2022, with a number of beers across styles that scored well with our blind panel of judges, but the best of the bunch was Neon hazy IPA with an impressive score of 98. In our upcoming IPA issue, they did it again with another 98 for hazy double IPA Stink, Stank, Stunk, so naturally we felt the need to ask some questions and understand how they’re making consistently impressive beers. In this episode, founder Pete Faber, head brewer Grant Brower, and brewer Cody Guyer cover a list of topics, including: updating beer recipes over the past half decade to adapt to changing customer tastes building stability in hazy IPA with malted oats, wheat, and Pilsner malt why Citra is “the bacon”—good with everything chilling the whirlpool and optimizing for survivable dry hopping after crashing to minimize less desirable flavors consistency and variability in hop varieties from lot to lot brewing fruited sour beers without gluten-containing grains the impacts of thickness and gravity on batch pasteurizing And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): Looking for a way to save on freight, reduce waste, all while improving beer quality? Then change your brewing game with TNS Hop Oils. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn how TNS Hop Oils can make your beer (and your margins) better. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you need a central source for fruit flavor, Old Orchard has you covered. Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew announces the addition of Specific Gravity to our suite of brewing tools! AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. Join the AccuBrew community today and experience 24/7 peace of mind! Visit with the developers at booth (#2935) at the 2023 CBC BrewExpo America! ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) ProBrew has always been a dedicated and trusted partner to breweries, especially when they make the leap to canning their product. That is why they only sell rotary can fillers, which significantly reduce product waste and produce higher quality product than an inline can filler. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Ss Brewtech (https://www.ssbrewtech.com): Ss Brewtech has taken technology they invented working with world-renowned industry veterans and made them available to every craft brewer. To learn more about Ss Brewtech's innovation list, head over to SsBrewtech.com. PakTech (http://resources.paktech-opi.com/beer-and-brewing-inquiry): 100% recycled, 100% recyclable, and reusable—PakTech handles are the sustainable solution to handle your craft beer. PakTech has been a leading producer of secondary packaging for the craft beer industry for over 30 years. Order your free samples today! Call 541.461.5000. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com): The creators of Tropics yeast, which produces massive notes of guava and passionfruit, now bring you Thiol Boost. Berkeley Yeast’s Thiol Boost is pure liquid thiol precursors that take Tropics to the next level. Mention this podcast and get 15% off your next order.

When Jeremy Kosmicki was promoted off the Founders packaging line to the brewhouse in the early 2000’s, he relished the opportunity to jump from homebrewing to their 30bbl brewhouse. Over the past two decades, he’s overseen the brewing program while the brewery experienced remarkable growth—launching pivotal brands like All Day IPA, scaling production by orders of magnitude—and since Founders was fully acquired and merged into Spanish brewer Mahou San Miguel in early 2023, he’s taken on an even larger role working with the brewing team at Avery. In this episode, Kosmicki discusses the beers important to Founders, and how they make them. The conversation touches on: brewing concerns for packaged beers stored in a variety of conditions developing All Day IPA and building body and expression in a small hoppy beer implying body and sweetness with strategic use of adjuncts mash hopping for additional nuance dry hopping All Day IPA during active fermentation resisting, then developing a hazy iteration in the All Day family coming late to Citra hops balancing flavors in big barrel-aged beers using coffee in beer testing advanced hop products piloting again on a new 1bbl system And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): TNS Hop Oils are a revolutionary hop product that gives your beer all the hop intensity with none of the astringency. Make better beer and get more from each turn with less work. Change your brewing game with TNS Hop oils. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn how Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. The AccuBrew sensor, mounted through your tank’s sample port, creates a record of sugar conversion, clarity, and temperature for every batch run. Something BIG is coming, find out more at accubrew.io. ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) At ProBrew, we believe that your brewery deserves equipment as unique as the drinks that you craft. ProBrew’s customizable equipment empowers breweries to expand operations at their own pace. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you need a central source for fruit flavor, Old Orchard has you covered. Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer Ss Brewtech (https://www.ssbrewtech.com): Ss Brewtech has taken technology they invented working with world-renowned industry veterans and made them available to every craft brewer. To learn more about Ss Brewtech's innovation list, head over to SsBrewtech.com. PakTech (http://resources.paktech-opi.com/beer-and-brewing-inquiry): 100% recycled, 100% recyclable, and reusable—PakTech handles are the sustainable solution to handle your craft beer. PakTech has been a leading producer of secondary packaging for the craft beer industry for over 30 years. Order your free samples today! Call 541.461.5000. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com): The creators of Tropics yeast, which produces massive notes of guava and passionfruit, now bring you Thiol Boost. Berkeley Yeast’s Thiol Boost is pure liquid thiol precursors that take Tropics to the next level. Mention this podcast and get 15% off your next order.

Travis Fritts didn’t set out to brew hazy IPA. In fact, the initial plan for Old Nation was far more conventional—brew traditional American craft beer styles like stout and pale ale, with some European standards like altbier and weizenbock, make the beers good, slap some cool branding on them, and wait for the sales to come. But it was 2015, and craft beer consumers had other ideas. To survive, Old Nation starting looking at new and evolving styles, while trying to understand (from a technical perspective) how they worked. The project ultimately led to the beer M-43, a hazy IPA that is now a mainstay of Old Nation’s production and which now sees distribution to upwards of twenty states. In this episode, Fritts recounts that process of reverse engineering as they set out to understand what makes hazy IPA tick, and later touches on his approach to brewing helles. Along the way, he discusses: why biotransformation isn’t all that important to the style how the lipids in oats provide an important building block for haze stability the contribution of London Ale III yeast to mouthfeel dialing in the perfect water chemistry nailing a pH of 4.4 for longer stability and to underscore fruit flavors in hops building just the right “snap” from bitterness giving each hazy beer small amounts of eccentricity through smaller left-field hop additions helles passing the "sauf test" And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): Navigating the seas of brewing can be a treacherous affair, so let Rahr North Star Pils™ be your guide. With overtones of honey and sweet bread, flavor and aroma notes of hay and nutty character, Rahr North Star Pils™ is a base malt you can set your compass by! Set a course for BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn how. Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. The AccuBrew sensor, mounted through your tank’s sample port, creates a record of sugar conversion, clarity, and temperature for every batch run. Something BIG is coming, find out more at accubrew.io. ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) At ProBrew, we believe that your brewery deserves equipment as unique as the drinks that you craft. ProBrew’s customizable equipment empowers breweries to expand operations at their own pace. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you need a central source for fruit flavor, Old Orchard has you covered. Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer Ss Brewtech (https://www.ssbrewtech.com): Ss Brewtech has taken technology they invented working with world-renowned industry veterans and made them available to every craft brewer. To learn more about Ss Brewtech's innovation list, head over to SsBrewtech.com. PakTech (http://resources.paktech-opi.com/beer-and-brewing-inquiry): 100% recycled, 100% recyclable, and reusable—PakTech handles are the sustainable solution to handle your craft beer. PakTech has been a leading producer of secondary packaging for the craft beer industry for over 30 years. Order your free samples today! Call 541.461.5000. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com): The creators of Tropics yeast, which produces massive notes of guava and passionfruit, now bring you Thiol Boost. Berkeley Yeast’s Thiol Boost is pure liquid thiol precursors that take Tropics to the next level. Mention this podcast and get 15% off your next order.

There’s more to German-style beer than just lager, and Cedar Springs Brewing Co. is out to preach the gospel of weissbier to anyone who will listen. Their Kusterer Original Weissbier has a couple GABF medals to its name, and their dedication to foundational brewing methods—step mashing, open fermentation—along with a knack for storytelling that’s necessitated by their focus on the weissbier family (they generally have two or three different weissbiers on tap at any given moment) makes for a brewery experience far different from today’s norm. In this episode, founder David Ringler discusses the Cedar Springs approach to weissbier, from the historical roots of the beer style to the choices they’ve made in process and recipe. Along the way, he touches on: building balance and subtlety step mashing everything designing open fermenters for softer fermentation working through different weissbier yeasts tracking down and brewing historical iterations of weissbier brewing the all-barley take, called dampfbier adjusting fermentation temperatures for ester production And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): Need Aluminum Cans? Lids or PakTech Can Carriers? Design Help? Don’t know where to start? Thankfully Cancraft is nearby and ready to deliver your complete packaging solution. Visit bsgcraftbrewing.com/CanCraft to get started. Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. The AccuBrew sensor, mounted through your tank’s sample port, creates a record of sugar conversion, clarity, and temperature for every batch run. Something BIG is coming, find out more at accubrew.io. ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) At ProBrew, we believe that your brewery deserves equipment as unique as the drinks that you craft. ProBrew’s customizable equipment empowers breweries to expand operations at their own pace. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you need a central source for fruit flavor, Old Orchard has you covered. Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer Ss Brewtech (https://www.ssbrewtech.com): Ss Brewtech has taken technology they invented working with world-renowned industry veterans and made them available to every craft brewer. To learn more about Ss Brewtech's innovation list, head over to SsBrewtech.com. PakTech (http://resources.paktech-opi.com/beer-and-brewing-inquiry): 100% recycled, 100% recyclable, and reusable—PakTech handles are the sustainable solution to handle your craft beer. PakTech has been a leading producer of secondary packaging for the craft beer industry for over 30 years. Order your free samples today! Call 541.461.5000. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com): The creators of Tropics yeast, which produces massive notes of guava and passionfruit, now bring you Thiol Boost. Berkeley Yeast’s Thiol Boost is pure liquid thiol precursors that take Tropics to the next level. Mention this podcast and get 15% off your next order.

Edwin Collazo is a natural born salesperson. Yes, he’s a brewer and brewery owner, but the bridge in City Built Brewing’s logo isn’t just a graphic element—connecting customers with beer they love is the entire point of this Grand Rapids, Michigan brewery. But the focus of the brewery has changed over the years, and COVID presented the crisis that precipitated the brewery rethinking their approach to beer. Now, they’ve embraced progressive styles, from hazy IPA to pastry stout and fruited quick sour beer, and have recently ramped up lager production to feed a growing interest in the taproom. Nothing is off limits, and City Built is watching and listening as their own customers tell them what they want the brewery to be. In this episode, Collazo recounts the challenges the brewery has encountered along the way, and the ways they’ve addressed them, from an intellectual property issue with hip hop group Run the Jewels through helping staff better explain and sell beer to taproom customers. Building the right team, and managing change in a way that doesn’t create chaos, has presented its challenges, but Collazo is here for this evolution of the beer program and the business itself. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): TNS Hop Oils are a revolutionary hop product that gives your beer all the hop intensity with none of the astringency. Make better beer and get more from each turn with less work. Change your brewing game with TNS Hop oils. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn how Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. The AccuBrew sensor, mounted through your tank’s sample port, creates a record of sugar conversion, clarity, and temperature for every batch run. Something BIG is coming, find out more at accubrew.io. ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) At ProBrew, we believe that your brewery deserves equipment as unique as the drinks that you craft. ProBrew’s customizable equipment empowers breweries to expand operations at their own pace. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you need a central source for fruit flavor, Old Orchard has you covered. Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer Ss Brewtech (https://www.ssbrewtech.com): Ss Brewtech has taken technology they invented working with world-renowned industry veterans and made them available to every craft brewer. To learn more about Ss Brewtech's innovation list, head over to SsBrewtech.com. PakTech (http://resources.paktech-opi.com/beer-and-brewing-inquiry): 100% recycled, 100% recyclable, and reusable—PakTech handles are the sustainable solution to handle your craft beer. PakTech has been a leading producer of secondary packaging for the craft beer industry for over 30 years. Order your free samples today! Call 541.461.5000. Berkeley Yeast (https://berkeleyyeast.com): The creators of Tropics yeast, which produces massive notes of guava and passionfruit, now bring you Thiol Boost. Berkeley Yeast’s Thiol Boost is pure liquid thiol precursors that take Tropics to the next level. Mention this podcast and get 15% off your next order.

Jason Spaulding, cofounder of Brewery Vivant and Broad Leaf Brewery, has been around the block. He cofounded his first brewery, New Holland, in the mid-90’s, and after exiting that brewery and spending time away from the brewing industry, launched Brewery Vivant with his wife Kris about twelve years ago. Operating a brewery with a niche focus comes with benefits as well as challenges, but Vivant has always focused on beer, food, and hospitality with a particular bit of Wallonian-like flair. Their take on Belgian-style beers is a bit more earthy and a touch more subdued than the American norm, but their audience has followed along. There’s a temptation in every business to chase growth, no matter the cost, and Brewery Vivant followed the same book that everyone followed through the early 2010’s. They put beer into grocery stores through distributors, and when distributors told them which beers to make more of, or make less of, they had no choice but to listen. Rather than dilute the Brewery Vivant brand with styles that didn’t feel germane, they launched a second brewpub out in the ‘burbs (Broad Leaf) dedicated to progressive styles like hazy IPA and fruited kettle sours. Then, through COVID, the bottom all but dropped out. They made it through, but the broader conditions were an existence-level threat. Now, the Spauldings are rethinking why, and how, they make beer. The larger 60bbl tanks that required three turns on their 20bbl brewhouse, have gone and are being replaced by a pair of 20bbl tanks. Rather than feeding the distribution beast, they’re refocusing on making the beer their customers want in the quantity they want it, and packaging any extra that isn’t earmarked for their own locations. It’s been a tough to scale back the earlier aspirations, but the health of the business requires it, and the ability to be dynamic and creative at this smaller scale is creating a new excitement. This isn’t a typical episode of the podcast, more business than brewing, but it’s honest look at how this long-time craft brewer is taking on the challenge of the beer business, now. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://BSGCraftbrewing.com): TNS Hop Oils are a revolutionary hop product that gives your beer all the hop intensity with none of the astringency. Make better beer and get more from each turn with less work. Change your brewing game with TNS Hop oils. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn how Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) AccuBrew is a game changing fermentation monitoring system that gives you unprecedented insight into your yeast’s health and activity. The AccuBrew sensor, mounted through your tank’s sample port, creates a record of sugar conversion, clarity, and temperature for every batch run. Something BIG is coming, find out more at accubrew.io. ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) At ProBrew, we believe that your brewery deserves equipment as unique as the drinks that you craft. ProBrew’s customizable equipment empowers breweries to expand operations at their own pace. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email [email protected]. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): If you need a central source for fruit flavor, Old Orchard has you covered. Old Orchard supplies flavored craft juice concentrate blends to beverage brands for the production of beer, cider, seltzer, wine, spirits, kombucha, and more. Flavor your lineup and streamline your sourcing by heading to oldorchard.com/brewer Ss Brewtech (https://www.ssbrewtech.com): Ss Brewtech has taken technology they invented working with world-renowned industry veterans and made them available to every craft brewer. To learn more about Ss Brewtech's innovation list, head over to SsBrewtech.com. Christian Hansen (https://www.chr-hansen.com): Christian Hansen are now bringing their knowledge of microbes to brewers with their SmartBev range of frozen liquid yeast and freeze-dried bacteria. Reimagine what your beer can be. Go to Chr-Hansen.com to learn more on the SmartBev line of products. California Craft Beer Summit (http://cacraftbeersummit.com): Join the craft beer community in Sacramento March 19-22 for the California Craft Beer Summit. Access educational sessions on business and technical skills and network with industry leaders all under one roof. Early bird discounts end January 20 visit cacraftbeersummit.com to register.