173: Marcus Baskerville of Weathered Souls Brews Beautiful Stouts

It’s been a busy and momentous year for Marcus Baskerville. The co-owner and head brewer of San Antonio’s Weathered Souls Brewing made national news with his Black Is Beautiful initiative in 2020. To date, more than 1,200 breweries in all 50 states and 22 countries have patrticipated in the open-source collaboration to raise funds and awareness for diversity and racial justice. However, well before that initiative, Baskerville already had developed a strong reputation among fellow brewers and Texas drinkers for his characterful stouts and other beers.

In this episode, Baskerville lays out his approach to brewing, including:

• Developing a distinct flavor point-of-view when brewing established styles
• Building stout grists that minimizes roast and smoke flavors
• Counterintuitive balancing of base stouts with adjuncts
• Building caramel midtones in stouts while keeping specialty malts under control
• Creating body with high mash temps and flaked oats, plus long boils and maltodextrin (but no lactose)
• Managing fermentation in imperial stouts
• Adjunct processing for vanilla, marshmallow powder, coconut, and more
• The impact of various bourbon flavors on barrel-aged stouts
• Best barrel preparation practices, including soaking to rehydrate

Baskerville also reflects on how the Black Is Beautiful project has evolved over the past months, how to help brewers be relevant to Black drinkers, creating allies within the industry, and the importance of positivity.

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