49: Stone's Greg Koch: The Challenge of Keeping the Art in Brewing as the Business Grows

Anchorage Brewing’s (https://anchoragebrewing.company) Gabe Fletcher has been turning heads with barleywine since he brewed his first one 24 years ago, but that long-standing respect hasn’t dulled his sense of exploration. Today, he’s pushing limits with barrel aging by double- and triple-casking beers over long conditioning times. It takes a hardy beer to stand up to that much age, and Fletcher builds his barleywine to last. In this episode, taken from an interview earlier this year for a story in Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, Fletcher outlines the various problems in brewing high-ABV beers, and shares the creative solutions he’s developed. Along the way, he discusses: Fermentation strategy via overpitching and aggressive step-up batching Embracing simple but flavorful malt Using decoction to build flavor in more basic malts Building a high-gravity wort Selecting hops for flavor and not just bitterness Utilizing multi-stage barrel aging for more depth of character Finishing and packaging barleywine for maximum effect And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): G&D Chillers’ Engineers are committed to green technology design, while developing a more energy efficient chiller for the brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at gdchillers.com (https://gdchillers.com) Probrew (https://www.probrew.com) ProBrew has the equipment, systems and technology to take your brewery to the next level. Check out www.probrew.com (https://www.probrew.com) for info on patented ProCarb inline carbonation technology, ProFill rotary filling & seaming can fillers, the Alchemator inline alcohol separation system, 7 – 50bbl Brewhouses and more! Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard has partnered with a leading logistics firm in the craft beverage industry to transport your craft concentrate blends. To get started on a freight quote for craft concentrates today, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Looking for a good lager yeast? Fermentis, the obvious choice for beverage fermentation, provides brewers large and small with the most complete portfolio of dry lager yeast available anywhere. To learn more about how Fermentis can improve the quality of your fermentation, and for the latest on their exciting new product releases, visit Fermentis.com (https://fermentis.com). Brewmation (https://brewmation.com/cbbpod): Brewmation specializes in electric, steam, and direct fire brew houses, complete cellar solutions, and automated controls for the craft brewing industry. Visit them at brewmation.com/cbbpod (https://brewmation.com/cbbpod) to get started. Arryved (https://www.arryved.com): Arryved mobile point of sale powers places with personality. No contracts and no monthly fees make Arryved a no brainer for your craft business. Go to Arryved.com/cbb (https://arryved.com/cbb) to set up a free, customized demo.

15 Sep 202255min

Tom Shellhammer’s research work in the brewing field has been crucial for helping brewers, as well as barley and hop growers, gain deeper understanding of brewing ingredients and how they actually work. As a food science professor at Oregon State University, he’s led critical studies, including a well-known study on hop creep. His latest project is a wide-ranging, multi-year study to understand the impact of terroir on hops, and the results of the first year of the study have just been released (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03610470.2022.2089010). In this episode, Shellhammer discusses the study—what they studied, how they studied it, what the results show, and what we have yet to understand. Along the way, Shellhammer discusses: what hop terroir is (weather, soil, latitude), and what it isn’t (geomorphology) the impact of farming management practices the goals and parameters of the project measuring compounds, but also expression through sensory, to understand terroir impact how hop growers measure maturity on the bine the logic behind the focus on cascade and mosaic varieties the compounds at play, including monoterpene alcohols and thiols clustering of groups of flavor and aroma compounds based on location how the chemical compound analysis translates into finished beer magnitude of the differences in terroir and the potential for impact impact of microbiome in soil the scale of difference in the qualitative and measured factors in the study And more. One takeaway? Leaning on hop variety alone is a not a perfect measure. As Shellhammer said, “The variation between these two regions was as large as the variation between the two hop varieties.” This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): G&D Chillers’ Engineers are committed to green technology design, while developing a more energy efficient chiller for the brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at gdchillers.com (https://gdchillers.com) Probrew (https://www.probrew.com) Check out www.probrew.com (https://www.probrew.com) for info on patented ProCarb inline carbonation technology, ProFill rotary filling & seaming can fillers, the Alchemator inline alcohol separation system, 7–50bbl Brewhouses and more! Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Looking for innovation in your next beverage break-through? Think outside the purée box and let your brand stand out with Old Orchard's craft concentrate blends. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Fermentis, the obvious choice for beverage fermentation, provides brewers large and small with the most complete portfolio of dry lager yeast available anywhere. To learn more, visit Fermentis.com (https://fermentis.com). Brewmation (https://brewmation.com/cbbpod): Brewmation specializes in electric, steam, and direct fire brew houses, complete cellar solutions, and automated controls for the craft brewing industry. Visit them at brewmation.com/cbbpod (https://brewmation.com/cbbpod) to get started. Arryved (https://www.arryved.com): Arryved mobile point of sale powers places with personality. No contracts and no monthly fees make Arryved a no brainer for your craft business. Go to Arryved.com/cbb (https://arryved.com/cbb) to set up a free, customized demo.

2 Sep 20221h 5min

West Coast pilsner is the subject of this month’s roundtable, and we’ve assembled a talented cast of brewers to further the discussion. From the Firestone Walker Propagator brewhouse in Venice, California, Sam Tierney returns to the podcast. Highland Park Brewery founder Bob Kunz joins from their location in Los Angeles. And from Santa Cruz, California’s Humble Sea Brewery, cofounder Nick Pavlina rounds out the panel. The topic is West Coast pilsner, and each make excellent examples the style, from Highland Park’s award-winning Timbo Pils to Firestone Walker’s Welcome to LA and Humble Sea’s Santa Cruz Pils. Here, the brewers discuss: the challenge in building body and structure to balance hop loads in the lean beer simplifying malt bills and using domestic pilsner malt for higher attenuation finding better hop expression through restraint in the dry hop avoiding excessive malt complexity to allow the hops to shine layering in lower-alpha hops to build texture and support the fruitier modern hop notes selecting aroma hops for cohesion managing hop creep distinguishing West Coast pilsner from cold IPA and Italian-style pilsner And more. This episode is brought to you by: Accubrew (https://accubrew.io): AccuBrew is an analytical tool designed to collect and compare the information brewers need to produce consistent results and continuously improve the process of fermentation. AccuBrew is more than a progress bar and early warning system. It is an ever evolving piece of technology tailored to you and your process. Save time and turn tanks faster. Monitor and compare batch progress in real-time. Enter notes, set custom reminders and temperature alerts. And detect process issues before a batch is ruined. Quality, consistency, and confidence. That is what AccuBrew delivers! Visit accubrew.io (https://accubrew.io) today, for a no obligation 90 day trial! BSG (https://bsgcraftbrewing.com) Brought to you by CanCraft and BSG. Whether you need a full-service packaging experience, from design to delivery, or you just need some aluminum cans, CanCraft can do. CanCraft’s design & aluminum specialists are here to support your business every step of the way. Visit bsgcraftbrewing.com/CanCraft (https://bsgcraftbrewing.com/CanCraft) to learn how CanCraft can help realize your brand potential. G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): What if you could chill your beer with a more efficient chiller? The Answer? G&D Chillers new Micro Channel Condensers! G&D’s Micro Channel Condensers are highly efficient in hotter regions, use a fraction of the refrigerant over traditional chillers which provides less opportunity for leaks along with lower global warming potential. G&D Chillers’ Engineers are committed to green technology design, while developing a more energy efficient chiller for the brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at gdchillers.com (https://gdchillers.com)

30 Aug 20221h 8min

Anchor (https://anchorbrewing.com) Brewmaster Tom Riley has been working on steam beer for a long time—38 years, in fact. He started at Anchor in 1984, decades before craft beer was considered a viable career choice, and has watched the entire industry grow up alongside Anchor. He’s a company man, and in 38 years of brewing, this is the only place he’s brewed. Assistant Brewmaster Dane Volek started at Anchor 14 years ago and, like Riley, has only worked at Anchor. He leads the R&D side of the brewery now, making beers on the smaller brewhouse across the street from the production brewery at Anchor Public Taps, but he shares a similar love of the company and their unique brewing culture. There’s a pride in craft, in the workmanship, and a genuine love of the brewery’s history and sense of place. The beer they focus on, of course, is the ubiquitous Anchor Steam—brewed with pitched lager yeast, but fermented relatively warm in shallow open top fermenters in a temperature-controlled room but without temperature control in the vessels. It echoes the 1800’s approach to steam beer, but with a focus on sanitation and consistency that those earlier brewers could only dream of. Today, the brewery on the corner of De Haro and Mariposa Streets in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco looks much like it did when Fritz Maytag was actively running the business, strategic production upgrades notwithstanding. And while the neighborhood around it has changed measurably over the past 50 years, the brewery’s flagship beers have not. Some things ought to change, and some things should not. In this episode, Riley and Volek talk about style, history, and process for the flagship beers that Anchor focuses on—Steam, Porter, and Liberty Ale. Along the way, they discuss: the historical significance of Steam mechanics of open fermentation employing house yeast across a range of styles and ABVs fermenting with the same yeast under head pressure brewing blended batches with open and closed fermentation the value and importance of the story behind the beer And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): G&D Chillers’ Engineers are committed to green technology design, while developing a more energy efficient chiller for the brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at gdchillers.com (https://gdchillers.com) Probrew (https://www.probrew.com) Check out www.probrew.com (https://www.probrew.com) for info on patented ProCarb inline carbonation technology, ProFill rotary filling & seaming can fillers, the Alchemator inline alcohol separation system, 7–50bbl Brewhouses and more! Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Looking for innovation in your next beverage break-through? Think outside the purée box and let your brand stand out with Old Orchard's craft concentrate blends. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Fermentis, the obvious choice for beverage fermentation, provides brewers large and small with the most complete portfolio of dry lager yeast available anywhere. To learn more, visit Fermentis.com (https://fermentis.com). Brewmation (https://brewmation.com/cbbpod): Brewmation specializes in electric, steam, and direct fire brew houses, complete cellar solutions, and automated controls for the craft brewing industry. Visit them at brewmation.com/cbbpod (https://brewmation.com/cbbpod) to get started. Arryved (https://www.arryved.com): Arryved mobile point of sale powers places with personality. No contracts and no monthly fees make Arryved a no brainer for your craft business. Go to Arryved.com/cbb (https://arryved.com/cbb) to set up a free, customized demo.

26 Aug 20221h 2min

John Harris has been around. From his start at the McMenamins Hillsdale brewpub in 1986 (where they brewed with extract and fermented without temperature control in open-top fermenters), through stints launching Deschutes, the Full Sail pub in Portland, Oregon, and now the past nine years at his own brewery Ecliptic, he’s been eyewitness to a myriad of change in the craft beer world. In this episode, Harris recounts the early days and the challenges they faced in trying to create what we now know as the craft beer industry. These stories from the early days of craft illustrate just how far the brewing world in the United States has come over the past few decades. Along the way, Harris discusses: brewing commercial batches in the mid-80’s while scavenging yeast from Sierra Nevada Pale Ale bottle dregs launching the original Deschutes brewpub in Bend with founder Gary Fish heading the Full Sail Portland brewpub for two decades the development of the PNW strain of West Coast IPA using color to tell a story in beer working with Strata hops embracing fruit in brewing and making quick-sour fruit beers beers that made sense in his head but never connected with an audience And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): G&D Chillers’ Engineers are committed to green technology design, while developing a more energy efficient chiller for the brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at gdchillers.com (https://gdchillers.com) Probrew (https://www.probrew.com) Check out www.probrew.com (https://www.probrew.com) for info on patented ProCarb inline carbonation technology, ProFill rotary filling & seaming can fillers, the Alchemator inline alcohol separation system, 7–50bbl Brewhouses and more! Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Looking for innovation in your next beverage break-through? Think outside the purée box and let your brand stand out with Old Orchard's craft concentrate blends. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Fermentis, the obvious choice for beverage fermentation, provides brewers large and small with the most complete portfolio of dry lager yeast available anywhere. To learn more, visit Fermentis.com (https://fermentis.com). Brewmation (https://brewmation.com/cbbpod): Brewmation specializes in electric, steam, and direct fire brew houses, complete cellar solutions, and automated controls for the craft brewing industry. Visit them at brewmation.com/cbbpod (https://brewmation.com/cbbpod) to get started. Arryved (https://www.arryved.com): Arryved mobile point of sale powers places with personality. No contracts and no monthly fees make Arryved a no brainer for your craft business. Go to Arryved.com/cbb (https://arryved.com/cbb) to set up a free, customized demo.

19 Aug 20221h 8min

In this first-ever “Direct Fire” episode of the podcast, listeners from around the globe heat things up with spicy brewing questions for Weldwerks (https://www.weldwerks.com) founder Neil Fisher. From IPA to hefeweizen, pastry sour, and stout, every style is fair game as you ask and Neil answers questions around: ideal pH in hoppy beers for aroma and flavor expression achieving pie-crust flavor in kettle sours using vanilla in bean and extract form building mouthfeel in stout with oats, wheat, and even flaked corn yeast choice and fermentation concerns with hefeweizen controlling ester production in hefeweizen through temperature and pitch rate optimizing chocolate flavors in barrel-aged stout orienting the brewery around community service employing hazy IPA techniques in West Coast-style IPA And more. This episode is brought to you by: Accubrew (https://accubrew.io): AccuBrew is an analytical tool designed to collect and compare the information brewers need to produce consistent results and continuously improve the process of fermentation. AccuBrew is more than a progress bar and early warning system. It is an ever evolving piece of technology tailored to you and your process. Save time and turn tanks faster. Monitor and compare batch progress in real-time. Enter notes, set custom reminders and temperature alerts. And detect process issues before a batch is ruined. Quality, consistency, and confidence. That is what AccuBrew delivers! Visit accubrew.io (https://accubrew.io) today, for a no obligation 90 day trial! BSG (https://bsgcraftbrewing.com) Brought to you by CanCraft and BSG. Whether you need a full-service packaging experience, from design to delivery, or you just need some aluminum cans, CanCraft can do. CanCraft’s design & aluminum specialists are here to support your business every step of the way. Visit bsgcraftbrewing.com/CanCraft (https://bsgcraftbrewing.com/CanCraft) to learn how CanCraft can help realize your brand potential. G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): What if you could chill your beer with a more efficient chiller? The Answer? G&D Chillers new Micro Channel Condensers! G&D’s Micro Channel Condensers are highly efficient in hotter regions, use a fraction of the refrigerant over traditional chillers which provides less opportunity for leaks along with lower global warming potential. G&D Chillers’ Engineers are committed to green technology design, while developing a more energy efficient chiller for the brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at gdchillers.com (https://gdchillers.com)

16 Aug 20221h 5min

Science teacher turns brewer. On paper, it makes sense. But Alesong’s (https://www.alesongbrewing.com) Matt Van Wyk made the career transition long before many in the current generation of brewery owners made similar leaps. With two decades of professional brewing under his belt, Van Wyk has observed, and brewed through, many trends, but the love of barrel-aged beer led him and his partners (including Alesong production director Brian Coombs) to create Alesong with a deep focus on three threads—Farmhouse-style beers fermented with Brettanomyces, mixed-culture sour beers, and spirits-barrel-aged “clean” fermentations. The results have been impressive, with industry recognition through medals, and a club-based customer base that supports their boundary-pushing work. But this brewery that looks and feels like a winery (and is, in fact, located on a small parcel next to one of the area’s largest and most significant wineries) is less concerned with creating hype and more focused on the slow, iterative process of making compelling and flavorful beer. In this episode, Coombs and Van Wyk discuss: learning fruit fermentation techniques from wineries building complexity in stout malt bills with smaller amounts of a vast array of malts creating the perception of sweetness in stouts with relatively low (8-8.5° P) finishing gravity selecting barrels for flavor over marketing potential tank cleaning regimen for working with both sour and clean beer oxygenating Brett fermentations over three days blending strategy for sour fruited beer creating a perception of body in 0° P sour fruited beer And more. G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For nearly 30 years, G&D Chillers has set the mark for quality equipment you can rely on, with 30 years of real world, field labor experience in breweries, wineries and distilleries. Contact the total glycol system design experts today at gdchillers.com (https://gdchillers.com) Probrew (https://www.probrew.com) Still emptying those overflowing wastebins full of low-fills, crushed and damaged cans, or under carbonated beer every canning day? It’s time to Fill Like a Pro. Email ContactUs@ProBrew.com (mailto:ContactUs@ProBrew.com) for more information on ProFill Can fillers from ProBrew. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Looking for innovation in your next beverage break-through? Think outside the purée box and let your brand stand out with Old Orchard's craft concentrate blends. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Hey nano-brewers! Fermentis, the obvious choice for beverage fermentation, is soon offering our dry ale and lager yeasts in flexible 100g packaging. To learn more, visit Fermentis.com (https://fermentis.com). Country Malt Group (https://countrymaltgroup.com/the-brewdeck-podcast/): The secret is out and Canada Malting Co.'s newest malt is here! Introducing Euro-Pils, made from the finest overseas low-protein barley available. Contact Country Malt Group (https://countrymaltgroup.com/warehouse-sales-team/) to try Euro-Pils in your next brew. Arryved (https://www.arryved.com): Arryved mobile point of sale powers places with personality. No contracts and no monthly fees make Arryved a no brainer for your craft business. Go to Arryved.com/cbb (https://arryved.com/cbb) to set up a free, customized demo.

13 Aug 20221h 26min

Tonya Cornett marks her brewing experience in decades, but the head of R&D for 10 Barrel (https://10barrel.com) in Bend, Oregon, isn't resting on any laurels. She’s earned every right to cruise, with many GABF and World Beer Cup medals under her belt—including three at the World Beer Cup earlier this year—but she continues to challenge herself and her team to find new and better ways to express flavor in beer. One of her favorite styles, and one she’s earned wide acclaim for, is quick-soured fruit beer. Under their Crush brand, 10 Barrel now sells these beers across the country, and Cornett’s small brewery and R&D team are constantly working ahead, creating new iterations with different fruits and ingredients for 10 Barrel’s pubs in Bend. In this episode, she discusses how she’s made this “simple” style much more difficult to make, from varying grain bills based on the fruit, to using different yeasts, and including one fruit in multiple forms to capture all of its flavor. Along the way, she covers: the change over time in their Lacto culture brewing quick-soured beers in two stages as blender batches using wheat, oats, and dextrin malt to build mouthfeel and keep the beers from drying out varying pitch rate based on the current state of the culture and production calendar carefully measuring total acidity rather than just pH using hops that complement fruit and acidity managing sulfur production and controlling diacetyl layering purée, freeze-dried fruit, juice, concentrate, extracts, and more to build a whole fruit picture using adjacent fruits as well as spices to amplify the expression of a primary fruit And more. G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): G&D stands above the rest as the only chiller manufacturer that engineers your glycol piping for free. G&D also stands alone as the only chiller manufacturer with an in house team of installers and engineers, with 30 years of real world, field labor experience in breweries, wineries and distilleries. Contact G&D Chillers today at gdchillers.com (https://gdchillers.com) Probrew (https://www.probrew.com) The Alchemator from ProBrew uses proprietary membrane technology to strip the alcohol from the beer without sacrificing all the elements – like flavor and color - that make the beer great! Are you ready to Brew Like A Pro? Check out www.probrew.com (https://www.probrew.com) to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Looking for innovation in your next beverage break-through? Think outside the purée box and let your brand stand out with Old Orchard's craft concentrate blends. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer) Fermentis (https://fermentis.com): Working on a new sour beer? Fermentis is now offering an expanding range of dry bacteria for the production of sour beers. To learn more about how Fermentis can improve the quality of your fermentation, visit Fermentis.com (https://fermentis.com). Country Malt Group (https://countrymaltgroup.com/the-brewdeck-podcast/): Three new roasted malts from BestMalz: Chocolate, Black, and Black Malt eXtra! Roasted in a gentle fluidized bed process to create smooth de-bittered flavors. BestMalz products are available exclusively through Country Malt Group, contact CMG (https://countrymaltgroup.com/warehouse-sales-team/) to try a free sample today! Arryved (https://www.arryved.com): Arryved mobile point of sale powers places with personality. No contracts and no monthly fees make Arryved a no brainer for your craft business. Go to Arryved.com/cbb (https://arryved.com/cbb) to set up a free, customized demo.

5 Aug 20221h 12min