123: Blake Tyers of Creature Comforts on Wood-Aging Beer

It takes a huge leap of faith to abandon a linear production model to embrace the chaos and uncertainty of a blending-focused wood cellar. But Athens, Georgia’s Creature Comforts Brewing is unburdened by the past and unafraid when it comes to turning typical brewing practice on its head. Their process of continuous improvement is reflected in a number of other shifts to the way they operate, like jettisoning their negative approach to blending (eliminating bad barrels and blending the rest) and replacing it with a positive one (building a blend that accomplishes a specific flavor goal). In this episode, Wood Cellar and Mixed Fermentation Director Blake Tyers walks through that and more. He discusses how they construct different blending stock recipes to provide contrasts in the blending process, when to adjunct ingredients, preparing barrel-aged beers for the journey of time, designing “loud” beers that are nonetheless balanced, creating locally relevant approaches to popular styles, structuring a program that nudges customers toward more complex and time-consuming wood-aged beers, low-temp fruit maceration for tightly controlled flavor expression, and much more.

“There’s the old adage, ‘Brew what’s for yourself and sell whatever you’ve got left over,’ and I think that doesn’t necessarily always work,” says Tyers. “There’s a fine line there. The integrity and the fun comes from the pursuit of excellence within the framework that may be palatable or accessible to your consumer. You don’t have to love every single thing to the max that you make. But you should find joy, and pride, and excitement, in what you are making.”

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