Master Brewers Podcast

This week on the show, we take a break from technical brewing to chat with current Master Brewers president, Toby Eppard, live from the CBC in Denver. Toby talks about recent changes at MB, where the organization is headed, and the importance of partnering with the BA and other organizations.LINKS: Executive Committee Board of Governors Strategic Review Working Group Strategic Implementation Task Force

Tom Shellhammer is back (This time, live from CBC in Denver) to talk about the latest findings regarding varietal differences in hop creep. Jeff Clawson also joins us to talk about the new brewery at OSU.Special Guest: Tom Shellhammer.

David Oldenburg & Krystina Engebos talk about the commitments and resources required to leverage freshness as a competitive advantage.Links: MBAA District Presentations Archive Master Brewers Mobile App Special Guest: David Oldenburg.

Cassie Liscomb and Bob Hansen of Briess Malt & Ingredients Co. explain the various methods of production of caramel malts, as well as some fast/easy/affordable sensory methods for evaluating caramel malts in the brewery for QA and R&D.Links: MBAA TQ: Kilned vs. Roasted: A Differentiation of Caramelized Specialty Malts Master Brewers Mobile App

Founders is known for using a lot of CO2 extract in the brewhouse. Alec Mull talks about how Founders uses hop extract to yield more bbl of higher quality beer.Links: MBAA District Presentations Archive Master Brewers Mobile App Special Guest: Alec Mull.

Industry veteran Karl Ockert talks about the economics of hop growing, contracting tips, things to look for during hop selection, contributing factors of recent hop market swings, and more.Links: MBAA District Presentations Archive Master Brewers Mobile App Special Guest: Karl Ockert.

Eric Abbott talks about the biotransformation of hops - How it works, how to maximize it, and more.Links: MBAA District Presentations Archive Master Brewers Mobile App Special Guest: Eric Abbott.

Total Packaged Oxygen is the industry standard for determination of beer shelf life. If your brewery is going to survive an increasingly competitive market, you must calculate and strive for the lowest possible TPO. Measuring the DO of your packaged beer is not enough/the same thing as TPO. In this episode, Kevin Sudderth & Mike Feldman (Hach) give practical advice for TPO measurements. Listeners may also want to download slides from Mike's recent presentation at MBAA District New England.Links: MBAA District Presentations Archive Master Brewers Mobile App

Liz Pratt talks about starting a sensory program from scratch with limited resources.Links: Master Brewers Mobile App Special Guest: Liz Pratt.

Tim Lozen of Bells Brewery was awarded best poster (People's Choice) at the 2017 Master Brewers Conference for: A comparison of selected lactic acid bacteria for use in the production of sour wort and beer.Links: Poster: A comparison of selected lactic acid bacteria for use in the production of sour wort and beer 2017 Master Brewers Conference Proceedings Special Guest: Tim Lozen.

Ron Pattinson joins us to talk about his latest publication in the MBAA Technical Quarterly. Abstract: Through research in German-language technical publications, such as brewing textbooks and chemical journals, this paper has assembled considerable information about German sour beer styles. Much of this material has never been available in English before, and the author has personally translated them from German. This paper will discuss information on the brewing techniques employed in producing these mostly extinct beer styles and details such as the original gravity and alcohol content. This latter information mostly comes from 19th century German chemical journals, which often published chemical analyses of German beers. This material demonstrates how many sour styles there once were in Germany and how common they were in some parts of the country. Links: MBAA TQ: German Sour Beers of the Late 19th Century

Michael Caviness joins us to talk all things brewery hose: longevity, selection, storage, cleaning, and more.Links: District Northwest Presentation: The Hose Guide Ask The Brewmasters: Chlorobutyl Hose Liner Failure Ask The Brewmasters: Pickling new hoses

Barley breeder & research scientist Crispin Howitt tells the story of how Kebari, the world's first gluten-free barley variety was born and how Radeberger used the variety to develop the world's first Reinheitsgebot approved gluten-free beer.Links: Brewing Summit Presentation: Kebari gluten-free barley: Lab to supermarket 2018 Brewing Summit Proceedings

Industry veteran Mark Sammartino talks about his past experiences keeping yeast happy to achieve consistent fermentations.Links: MBAA TQ: Maintaining Good Yeast Health: A Reflection from Practice MBP: Zinc in Fermentation Special Guest: Mark Sammartino.

Max Michel (Weihenstephan) describes how he used RSM to optimize a non-Saccharomyces strain for beer.LINKS: MBAA TQ: Optimization of Beer Fermentation with a Novel Brewing Strain Torulaspora delbrueckii Using Respmse Surface Methodology

Chika Ezeani discusses best practices when using silicic acid finning products.

The legendary Graham Stewart joins us to discuss his latest publication: Brewing Intensification Through the Lens of the Craft Brewer.Links: MBAA TQ: Brewing Intensification Through the Lens of the Craft Brewer Special Guest: Graham Stewart.

What happens at the intersection of art and science in brewing? The Brewing Summit's keynote speaker is widely recognized for the highly imaginative and experimental beers that he has produced in his 22+ years in the brewing business. While he considers himself more avant-garde in his approach to brewing, he has long understood the role of perspective and great fundamental science as being an integral part of the flavors he chases as he knows, those who ignore the science of brewing are destined to fail. Join Tomme as he discusses his brewery operations and how art and science work together in tandem to produce world-class beers.

Magdalena Oehlschlaeger discusses a novel brewhouse design which produces higher fatty acid and zinc concentrations, reduced wort aeration, higher yeast cell growth, faster extract degradation, and altered production of higher alcohols and esters.LINKS: MBAA TQ: Influence of Altered Wort Composition on Selected Parameters of Fermentation

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is the biggest overhaul of US food safety laws in over 70 years. The smallest breweries are supposed to be in compliance in September 2018. Tatiana Lorca and Doug Hindman explain how to comply, where to go for resources, and who to ask for help when it comes to making food safety part of your brewery's culture.LINKS: Brewers’ Responsibilities and Obligations under the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Food Safety Modernization Act: Insights for Brewers Submit a question to the MBAA Food Safety team

Is that sour beer also gluten-free? Brett Taubman explores the topic of producing gluten-free/reduced beers with lactic acid bacteria.Links: MBAA TQ: Microbial Gluten Reduction in Beer Using Lactic Acid Bacteria and Standard Process Methods Special Guest: Brett Taubman.

If you use Brettanomyces in your brewery, you know that counting brett cells is complicated. Leo Chan joins us to discuss the development of a method to automate cell counting of Brettanomyces.Links: 2018 MBAA TQ: Monitoring Brettanomyces Concentration, Viability, and Pseudohyphae Percentage During Propagation and Fermentation Using the Cellometer X2 Image Cytometer 2016 MBAA TQ: Measuring Lager and Ale Yeast Viability and Vitality Using Fluorescence-Based Image Cytometry 2016 MBAA TQ: Measuring Glycogen, Neutral Lipid, and Trehalose Contents in Yeast Using Fluorescence-Based Image Cytometry Related slide decks

What's better than learning from your own mistakes? Learning from other people's mistakes, of course. This week on the show, practical tips & lessons learned the hard way from Andy Tveekrem, who is here to help you make better beer.Special Guest: Andy Tveekrem.

Eric Warner has been bottle conditioning beer since before some of you were born. Eric discusses different methods and his experiences. Link: Eric's webinar Link: The original Deschutes process Link: Bottle Conditioning Panel

How can you assure quality from small-scale hop growers? Who better to answer this question than a small-scale hop grower like Josh Mayich. Also, be sure to check out these resources: Link: Josh's checklist Link: Brewing Materials & Processes: A Practical Approach to Beer Excellence by Charles W. Bamforth

Hollow Fiber Membranes can be used for carbonation or nitrogenation of beer, production of deaerated water, and for oxygenating wort in breweries of any size. Mimi Cartee and Todd Rausch join us to explain the technology. View the poster at MBAA.comSpecial Guests: Mimi Cartee and Todd Rausch.

No brewery is too small to take a systematic approach to quality. Gary Nicholas has some great advice for aligning your breweries priorities, data collection, and decision-making process. This week's content was curated based on a listener request.Special Guest: Gary Nicholas.

No brewery is too small to take a systematic approach to quality. Gary Nicholas has some great advice for aligning your breweries priorities, data collection, and decision-making process. This week's content was curated based on a listener request.Special Guest: Gary Nicholas.

Inefficient extraction. Beer loss. These are problems that have to be solved, even when centrifuging dry-hopped beer. Alyce Hartvigsen is looking for dry-hoppers to trial Alfa Laval's prototype Iso-Mix External Drive Rotary Jet Mixer.

Andrew Fratianni explains how isinglass works, how to optimize results, when and why to use auxiliary finings (such as silica solutions), and more.

During the MBAA Brewing & Malting Science Course, students are put into groups to work through hypothetical scenarios. The winning case study is then published in the Master Brewers Technical Quarterly. Simon Nielsen joins us to talk about the approach his group took during the 2017 course.

Have you ever noticed that diacetyl seems to rear its head more often in hoppy beers? Is dry hopping to blame? Kara Taylor & Devin Tani from White Labs join us to discuss a presentation given during the 2017 Master Brewers Conference.

Understanding the basics of yeast propagation is critical for commercial brewers of all sizes. With 50 years of experience researching yeast, Graham Stewart joins us to talk about the basic principles of brewer's yeast propagation.Special Guest: Graham Stewart.

Jordon Geurts joins us from Briess Malt & Ingredients to give us a behind-the-scenes look at product development for malted, naked oats, which can be used to enhance mouthfeel or to produce gluten free beers.Special Guest: Jordon Geurts.

John Giarratano talks yeast pitch rates, how to manipulate esters and higher alcohols, and other fundamentals for the craft brewer.

Nick Mader is on a mission to eliminate "black box syndrome" in regards to mixed culture fermentations. Learn how inoculation rate impacts esters and phenols.

Matt Huddleston and Kevin Campbell of synTerra collaborated with Holy City Brewing Co. and the College of Charleston on a brewery effluent treatability study using a microcosm-scale constructed wetland system.

Many hop farms in Yakima operate 24/7 during much of September. Now that the bales are off the farms and hop selection is over, we catch up with Roy Johnson to get some perspective from one of the world's largest hop merchants.

In 2010, Christian & Andrea Stanley built one of the first craft malthouses in the US. Today, they produce 8 tons per week at Valley Malt. In this episode we catch up with the husband & wife team to hear about their challenges, successes, and the many moving parts in the craft malt supply chain. Special Guest: Andrea Stanley.

Steve Bradt from Micro Matic joins us to talk about keg valve design, function, maintenance, safety, and...hamburgers. If you work with kegs, this episode is for you, regardless of your experience level.Special Guest: Steve Bradt.

John Paul Maye of S.S. Steiner explains the unintended consequences of dry hopping and why the standard IBU test doesn't work for dry hopped beer.Special Guest: John Paul Maye.

Author & MBAA Publications Director, John Palmer, revisits a fundamentals topic that most brewers have learned but may not think about during daily operations. Explore this topic with us for a renewed understanding so you can better plan grist weights and liquor volumes to hit your targets. Read more at MBAA.comSpecial Guest: John Palmer.