Lager is anything but a minimalist pursuit for the head brewer of Philadelphia lager stalwarts Human Robot. Flavor and character are primary focuses, and the brewery achieves those with all the tools in the toolbox—interesting ingredients, customized approaches to decoction and other processes, and a variety of fermentation profiles that maximize different types of expressions.
These leading brewers and great friends from Brooklyn Brewery and Russian River share what they’ve learned from brewing new beers with the African grain fonio.
This Pittsburgh brewery’s initial journeys into fruit had lanes both classic and modern, with mixed-culture foeder creations as well as juicier, acid-forward American fruit beers. Now, however—as the team deepens its repertoire in food and flavor science—Cinderlands is remixing the program with fruited riffs on their most popular and sessionable styles.
The brewmaster and the co-CEO of this Midwestern stalwart respect their brewery’s three and a half decades of tradition—but they also test assumptions while tackling new beers that reflect today’s trends.
This Cleveland brewery takes an intentionally small and sustainable approach to making creatively fulfilling beers, and it all starts with the flexibility of their 10-barrel brewhouse.
Since their start in 2009, Matt Cole and Fat Head’s have cleaned up in the major competitions with their German-style wheat beers, American-style IPAs, and closely related styles. In this episode, Cole pulls back the veil and shares some of the process and ingredient choices that set their beers apart.
As an unabashed lover of hazy IPA, Murphy Johnson doesn’t apologize for focusing a huge portion of BlackStack’s brewing program on the hop-laden crowd pleasers. His latest obsession, meanwhile, is maximizing flavor without breaking the bank, using traditional American hops in some very untraditional ways.
The Twin Cities’ Fair State Brewing Cooperative both heralds the adjunct-driven history of Upper Midwest lager brewing and pushes the craft-beverage conversation forward with an honest approach to hemp-derived THC drinks.
Lager yeast is capable of so much more than many brewers give it credit for, and in this industry spotlight panel discussion brought to you by the yeast experts at Fermentis, Bob Kunz of Highland Park, Urs Wellhoener of Boston Beer, and Grant Lawrence of Fermentis explore ways to heighten expression in cold fermentations.
From Beachwood to Riip and now under his own brand, Ism, Ian McCall has honed his West Coast IPA craft and racked up a bunch of medals along the way. The secret? He’s not afraid of bitterness, as long as it’s properly shaped and timed.