329: Best in Beer 2023 Editor's Picks and Readers' Choice with Jamie Bogner and Joe Stange

There’s more to running a successful beer bar than just having a killer tap list. This week on the podcast is Greg Engert, the beer director and managing partner for Neighborhood Restaurant Group in Washington D.C. which includes The Sovereign, Churchkey, and Birch and Barley, among others. From proper care and respect for cask ale, to what bars need to do to adapt to a brewery taproom dominated market, to why commitment is more than just talking the talk. This episode is brought to you by the American Homebrewers Association (https://www.homebrewersassociation.org).

8 Dec 201846min

When he and his two brothers founded Jack’s Abby Brewing in Framingham, Massachusetts in 2011, Jack Hendler thought their craft brewery making only lagers might grow to brew 3000 bbl of beer per year in the first decade. Fast forward to 2018, where they’ll finish the year around the 50,000 bbl mark, and lagers are a bona fide trend with Jack’s Abby as one of the leaders of the charge. In this episode, Jack discusses the ins and outs of their lager brewing techniques, from yeast management to spunding, recipe design, ingredient selection, designing lager recipes for barrel-aging, and more. “I think recipe formulation is a bit overrated,” says Hendler. “There’s only four ingredients, and unless you’re trying to brew a Helles with roasted barley, you’re probably going to be close, plus or minus 3% of one malt versus another malt or one hop versus another hop. You can make great beer as long as you’re in the ballpark on the recipe. It really comes down to process, and for us, our process is what makes us unique. I don’t care about telling people what we put in our beer—what our recipe is—because I know there’s not a lot of people who are going to try to replicate what we do, because what we do is really hard.”

30 Nov 20181h 3min

There's a lot to like about brewing in Portland, Oregon but for Justin Miller the Head Brewer of Hopworks Urban Brewery having access to terrific hop growers just a short drive away tops the list. On this episode he discusses the important relationship between farm and brewery, why all brewers and drinkers need to be more focused on environmental concerns, and why the Cascadian dark ale is a style with substance.

17 Nov 201839min

Jeremy Wirtes, cofounder and head brewer for Triple Crossing Beer in Richmond, Virginia, may never be completely happy with the beer he makes. “We can always be better, and it’s a constant pursuit of that,” he says. But for this two-location brewery in the burgeoning craft beer city of Richmond, things are going right thanks to a philosophy of constant improvement and experimentation, and smart strategies for using their small scale as an asset rather than a hinderance. In this conversation, Wirtes talks about the steps they took to arrive at their current ester- and haze-forward IPA approach, hops blending techniques such as blending lots of the same variety from multiple vendors and farms to achieve more depth in single-hop beers, and how they grew comfortable leaving hazy double IPAs with high finishing gravities. “In my head, I couldn’t stand it. It drove me nuts. But then I would taste them, and they’re great. They sound sweet on paper, but then you have them, and they just don’t feel that way. They feel plush, they feel full. They feel delicate. No matter what the final gravity and the hydrometer was saying, our palates and minds are saying ‘this is what we want them to be.’”

9 Nov 201859min

Dave Engbers, the cofounder at Founders Brewing Company has learned a lot about brewing from both the beers he likes to drink, and how it's evolved to the way to keep the lights on. In this podcast he talks about walking back from the brink of bankruptcy to the runaway success of All Day IPA and how at heart, even with foreign investment, the brewery remains craft at heart. Is Founders the last of the one million barrel breweries in the U.S. maybe. And Dave explains why.

2 Nov 201855min

From his pioneering masters thesis on fermenting with Brettanomyces to his current role running a 10,000 BBL per year brewery and artisan-focused craft distributorship in Denver, Colorado, Chad Yakobson has made his mark on the world of brewing. In this conversation with Jamie Bogner, he discusses his early days of Brett research, myths about mixed culture fermentations, the brewhouse feedback loop with sensory and lab components that work in sync, the importance of water chemistry on beer color, optimizing brewhouse processes to improve the longevity and shelf stability of beer, shaping acidity with hops in mixed culture beers, and more. “Craft beer for so long has been a muscle flexing contest,” says Yakobson. “Sour beer is not meant to be aggressive. This is not the sour arms race. Nobody wants the most sour beer—that’s gross. We want to make the most complex beer.”

26 Okt 20181h 15min

There's a lot of beer that comes through the Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine office each year, and even more tasted at festivals, breweries, and with friends. Our staff, columnists, reviewers, and readers all got together and selected our picks for the top beers of 2018. In this special edition of the podcast be among the first to hear the breweries who made the list and why, and get a peek behind the curtain on how beers are selected. Read the full story at https://beerandbrewing.com/the-best-18-beers-of-2018/ This episode is brought to you by Big Beers, Belgians, & Barleywines (https://bigbeersfestival.com).

19 Okt 20181h 33min

What fruits work best when it comes to brewing a Florida-weisse? J. Wakefield has the answer in this week's podcast. The celebrated homebrewer turned pro also talks about his love of stouts, the art of collaboration and the connection between geek and beer culture.

12 Okt 201841min