A few years ago, NoDa Brewing co-owner and head brewer Chad Henderson was happy to sit by and watch as the thiol hype train barreled past him. Sure, he knew these compounds—often smelling of ripe tropical fruit—were part of the matrix of contributors to hop expression. Yet when he smelled them in isolation, he thought they were overly sulfuric and off-putting. And, when he tasted other brewers’ initial experiments with thiol-boosting Phantasm powder, he found them to be a bit too one-note.
So, it took some new perspective via thiol-optimizing yeasts to turn him from skeptic to true believer almost two years ago—and help him design two of the North Carolina brewery’s most celebrated new beers in the process.
The Synchronicity of SLURP
Thiols, Henderson came to realize, could be the harmonizing vocals in an IPA, not its screaming lead singer. A growing understanding of just how powerful compounds such as 3MH, 4MMP, and 3S4MP are—they’re perceptible at parts per trillion—is encouraging brewers to make sure thiols are well supported by beer’s other ingredients. Rather than leaning into everything from thiol-promoting yeasts, thiol precursor–rich hops, and products such as Phantasm to provide the totality of a beer’s flavor, Henderson approached the yeast as the starting point around which he could build his hazy IPAs.