384: Eric Tennant of Benchtop Brewing Smooths the Edges of Foeder Lager and Barrel-Aged Barleywine

As a trained food scientist with 20 years of experience in the field, Eric Tennant entered the brewing world with a bit more background than most. And that background has served him well, as he considers both ingredients and processes required to achieve the beer flavors he envisions. Over the past few years, he’s focused Benchtop around foeder-aged lagers, but the constraints of the small brewery have led to a number of innovative process solutions. The techniques that he applies are making award-winning beer, too—Benchtop just recently took home a silver medal in Zwickelbier or Kellerbier at GABF, and their barrel-aged barleywine, Old Wooden Ship, was one of Craft Beer & Brewing’s 20 best beers of 2023.

In this episode, Tennant discusses:

• crafting a hybrid approach to lager that’s part Czech, and part German
• decocting in a brewhouse not designed for it
• polishing beer through lagering without head pressure in oak foeders
• increasing IBUs in lager recipes to offset the mellowing effect of foeder aging
• double batching with different recipes optimized for two different mash processes
• checking COAs and manipulating mashes to fit the malt
• protecting foam potential when wood aging
• brewing barrel-aged English barleywine

And more.

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