247: Allagash, Cantillon, and Russian River Weigh in at the Spontaneous Brewing Roundtable

This roundtable discussion with Allagash, Cantillon, and Russian River kicks off a new series of Tuesday episodes to be released every other week—in different formats, including roundtables and Q&As featuring your questions for the pros.

Recorded in the coolship room at Russian River the morning of their Wild Friendship Blend event, the conversation among Rob Tod and Jason Perkins of Allagash, Jean and Florian Van Roy of Cantillon, and Natalie and Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River explores both bigger picture questions about spontaneous brewing and particular implementations and adaptations employed by the American breweries in making compelling beers using the traditional process.

Topics include:

• stories from the earliest days of American spontaneous brewing
• sensory differences between spontaneous beer made at Allagash, Russian River, and Cantillon
• the challenge in building a blend with “characterful” base beers
• creating environments that support better spontaneous brewing results
• tuning coolship rooms for more consistent and reliable production
• the dynamics of spontaneous fermentation through a season
• reducing opportunities for failure
• the various (and very different) ways each brewery ages and uses hops
• connecting spontaneous beer to consumers through experience
  

And more.

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