423: Integrating Used and New Equipment in Brewery Design with Big Grove and First Key

Over the past decade, Cycle Brewing (https://www.cyclebrewing.com) (St. Petersburg, Florida) has made a name for themselves with big barrel-aged stouts. These stouts make up more than half of the brewery’s yearly production, and are so important to the brewery that they custom-designed a brewhouse with a massively oversized mash tun (more than twice the capacity of the kettle) in order to brew they efficiently. In this episode, owner and head brewer Doug Dozark walk through everything from recipe design to blending process, touching on hot-button subjects like using sugars in high gravity beers (“If you can get over some of the preconceived notions about adding sugar, and just think of these as materials, and different colors on your palette to paint with, it opens up a lot.”) to caramel components in the malt bill, to the ideal age for bourbon barrels, temperature for barrels, and one of the most controversial positions of all—his love of pasteurization. Many factors impact the flavors and stability of high gravity, adjunct-laden beers, and here Dozark shares his experience, and dispels the myths, surrounding the dark art of barrel-aging imperial stouts. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): As the brewing industry’s premier choice for glycol chilling, G&D Chillers has set the standard on quality, service, reliability and dedication to their customer’s craft. For 25 years G&D has led the way with innovative solutions for the craft brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at 800.555.0973 or reach out online at Gdchillers.com. Mention Craft Beer and Brewing podcast and you’ll receive up to $1000 worth of glycol with the purchase of any new G&D chiller unit. Tavour (https://about.tavour.com): Tavour makes it possible to access and discover the highest-rated craft beers from all over the world through the free mobile app. Twice a day you get access to a new limited beer from an independent craft brewer. Imagine sipping a Vanilla Ice Cream Stout from Wild Leap Brewing in Georgia or Juicy Bits IPA from WeldWerks in Colorado. Join the independent beer community today and get $10 in beer money with code “brewing”. Clarion Lubricants (https://www.clarionlubricants.com): Clarion Lubricants, balancing barley and hops is your expertise, food-grade lubricants is ours. The team at Clarion knows that when it comes to making great beer, you’re the expert, and when it comes to supplying food-grade lubricants backed by service-oriented professionals, they're the experts. Clarion will work with you to create an efficient lubrication program that helps protect your brewery. To speak with an expert dial 1-855-MY-CLARION (855-692-5274) or visit clarionlubricants.com. Clarion Lubricants. The expert that experts trust. Oktober Can Seamers (https://oktoberdesign.com/podcast): Whether you’re a full-scale production brewery, a taproom, or a homebrewer striving for the ultimate setup, Oktober Can Seamers has THE small-scale canning solution. They’ve proven that breweries increase revenue through to-go sales with Oktober Can Seamers, and everyone loves to sell more beer. You’re only a few clicks away from selling more beer, just head over to oktoberdesign.com/podcast (https://oktoberdesign.com/podcast) and use offer code “jamie” to save $50 on any can seamer purchase.

28 Dec 20191h 37min

There are as many ways to make sour and funky beers as there are brewers, but for Phil Joyce of Amalgam Brewing (Denver, Colorado) and Westbound & Down Brewing (Idaho Springs, Colorado), the things some brewers focus on have less impact on the finished beer than the things they tend to overlook. In this episode, Joyce tackles some misconceptions, and shares the things that make their sour and funky beer successful: » Water chemistry has one of the biggest long-term impacts on texture and mouthfeel » The first 7-14 days of fermentation are far more important then the following 6-18 months » Stacking and staggering yeast pitches, while incorporating yeasts typically used in other styles, can create building blocks for the mixed culture to work on » A slow start tends to produce more nuanced beer over the long run » Most fruit is one dimensional, but ingredient and process tweaks can produce far more complex and interesting beers. Toward the end of the episode, Joyce moves past sour beer and delves into their process around ingredient additions in their highly regarded Underground Breakfast barrel-aged imperial stout. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): As the brewing industry’s premier choice for glycol chilling, G&D Chillers has set the standard on quality, service, reliability and dedication to their customer’s craft. For 25 years G&D has led the way with innovative solutions for the craft brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at 800.555.0973 or reach out online at Gdchillers.com. Mention Craft Beer and Brewing podcast and you’ll receive up to $1000 worth of glycol with the purchase of any new G&D chiller unit. Tavour (https://about.tavour.com): Tavour makes it possible to access and discover the highest-rated craft beers from all over the world through the free mobile app. Twice a day you get access to a new limited beer from an independent craft brewer. Imagine sipping a Vanilla Ice Cream Stout from Wild Leap Brewing in Georgia or Juicy Bits IPA from WeldWerks in Colorado. Join the independent beer community today and get $10 in beer money with code “brewing”. Clarion Lubricants (https://www.clarionlubricants.com): Clarion Lubricants, balancing barley and hops is your expertise, food-grade lubricants is ours. The team at Clarion knows that when it comes to making great beer, you’re the expert, and when it comes to supplying food-grade lubricants backed by service-oriented professionals, they're the experts. Clarion will work with you to create an efficient lubrication program that helps protect your brewery. To speak with an expert dial 1-855-MY-CLARION (855-692-5274) or visit clarionlubricants.com. Clarion Lubricants. The expert that experts trust. Oktober Can Seamers (https://oktoberdesign.com/podcast): Whether you’re a full-scale production brewery, a taproom, or a homebrewer striving for the ultimate setup, Oktober Can Seamers has THE small-scale canning solution. They’ve proven that breweries increase revenue through to-go sales with Oktober Can Seamers, and everyone loves to sell more beer. You’re only a few clicks away from selling more beer, just head over to oktoberdesign.com/podcast (https://oktoberdesign.com/podcast) and use offer code “jamie” to save $50 on any can seamer purchase.

21 Dec 20191h 10min

Three years ago, homebrewer and professional chemist John Rowley and his partner (chef Jeffrey Kaplan) launched Rowley Farmhouse Ales as a brewpub with a particular focus on sour beer. This past October, they brought home three medals (gold, silver, and bronze) in different sour beer categories at the Great American Beer Festival, and that medal count locked up Small Brewpub of the Year honors for the young brewpub. In this episode, Rowley details their signature brewing process, from live Lactobacillus souring (no boil) to their unexpected Saccharomyces selection, water treatment and composition, building an maintaining a house sour culture, understanding pH and titratable acidity, and more. The methods they use are sometimes unconventional, such as pre-acidifying the mash of their gold medal-winning Gose “Meier” with cut up lemons, but Rowley isn’t afraid to tackle labor-intensive processes if they yield better-tasting beer. From the high desert of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Rowley continues to produce small batches of thoughtfully constructed, and this episode dives into those elements that make their beers stand apart. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): As the brewing industry’s premier choice for glycol chilling, G&D Chillers has set the standard on quality, service, reliability and dedication to their customer’s craft. For 25 years G&D has led the way with innovative solutions for the craft brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at 800.555.0973 or reach out online at Gdchillers.com. Mention Craft Beer and Brewing podcast and you’ll receive up to $1000 worth of glycol with the purchase of any new G&D chiller unit. Tavour (https://about.tavour.com): Tavour makes it possible to access and discover the highest-rated craft beers from all over the world through the free mobile app. Twice a day you get access to a new limited beer from an independent craft brewer. Imagine sipping a Vanilla Ice Cream Stout from Wild Leap Brewing in Georgia or Juicy Bits IPA from WeldWerks in Colorado. Join the independent beer community today and get $10 in beer money with code “brewing”. Clarion Lubricants (https://www.clarionlubricants.com): Clarion Lubricants, balancing barley and hops is your expertise, food-grade lubricants is ours. The team at Clarion knows that when it comes to making great beer, you’re the expert, and when it comes to supplying food-grade lubricants backed by service-oriented professionals, they're the experts. Clarion will work with you to create an efficient lubrication program that helps protect your brewery. To speak with an expert dial 1-855-MY-CLARION (855-692-5274) or visit clarionlubricants.com. Clarion Lubricants. The expert that experts trust. Oktober Can Seamers (https://oktoberdesign.com/podcast): Whether you’re a full-scale production brewery, a taproom, or a homebrewer striving for the ultimate setup, Oktober Can Seamers has THE small-scale canning solution. They’ve proven that breweries increase revenue through to-go sales with Oktober Can Seamers, and everyone loves to sell more beer. You’re only a few clicks away from selling more beer, just head over to oktoberdesign.com/podcast (https://oktoberdesign.com/podcast) and use offer code “jamie” to save $50 on any can seamer purchase.

13 Dec 20191h 2min

An 11 year veteran of Oskar Blues, Tim Matthews now holds the lofty title of VP of Global Brewing for the Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective, where he's hyper focused on improving everything from product innovation to ingredient sourcing and grower/broker relationships. In this episode, he discusses their process of reinvention for popular beers, and what they've learned about the impacts of various ingredients and processes in the brewhouse. From the four year process of retooling Mama's Little Yella Pils to protein content shifts in barley (“Don’t get romantically involved with barley varieties") to how flavors expressed in raw hops reflect in finished beers, Matthews gets technical and nuanced in discussing beer ingredients. Along the way, he touches on important cultural trends such as breweries pursuing exclusive hops (“What brewers should not look for is their own special hop. Don’t do that. It’s too much pressure on yourself. You want a hop that works for everybody, and that means the growers, the brokers, and the brewers. And that’s plural ‘brewers.’ Not just you, not just Canarchy, but all of craft beer. You want it to be proliferated across the entire industry so it’s sustainable.”) He also discusses the way their yeast program is evolving, and offers up thoughts about next trends in beer (“Big, dark, and malty is next"). There's a lot to unpack in this information-dense episode, so grab a beer and listen in. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): As the brewing industry’s premier choice for glycol chilling, G&D Chillers has set the standard on quality, service, reliability and dedication to their customer’s craft. For 25 years G&D has led the way with innovative solutions for the craft brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at 800.555.0973 or reach out online at Gdchillers.com. Mention Craft Beer and Brewing podcast and you’ll receive up to $1000 worth of glycol with the purchase of any new G&D chiller unit. Tavour (https://about.tavour.com): Tavour makes it possible to access and discover the highest-rated craft beers from all over the world through the free mobile app. Twice a day you get access to a new limited beer from an independent craft brewer. Imagine sipping a Vanilla Ice Cream Stout from Wild Leap Brewing in Georgia or Juicy Bits IPA from WeldWerks in Colorado. Join the independent beer community today and get $10 in beer money with code “brewing”. Clarion Lubricants (https://www.clarionlubricants.com): Clarion Lubricants, balancing barley and hops is your expertise, food-grade lubricants is ours. The team at Clarion knows that when it comes to making great beer, you’re the expert, and when it comes to supplying food-grade lubricants backed by service-oriented professionals, they're the experts. Clarion will work with you to create an efficient lubrication program that helps protect your brewery. To speak with an expert dial 1-855-MY-CLARION (855-692-5274) or visit clarionlubricants.com. Clarion Lubricants. The expert that experts trust. Oktober Can Seamers (https://oktoberdesign.com/podcast): Whether you’re a full-scale production brewery, a taproom, or a homebrewer striving for the ultimate setup, Oktober Can Seamers has THE small-scale canning solution. They’ve proven that breweries increase revenue through to-go sales with Oktober Can Seamers, and everyone loves to sell more beer. You’re only a few clicks away from selling more beer, just head over to oktoberdesign.com/podcast (https://oktoberdesign.com/podcast) and use offer code “jamie” to save $50 on any can seamer purchase.

7 Dec 20191h 8min

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more bombastic, opinionated brewer than Purpose Brewing & Cellars’ Peter Bouckaert. But with decades of experience in both Europe and the US, leading the brewhouse for iconic breweries, he’s earned the right to speak his mind. In this episode, he shares thoughts on a range of technical brewing subjects, from using wood as a spice, to malt biotransformation, using yeast to unlock the flavors of ingredients, his decision process behind ingredient additions, toxicology screening when using new ingredients, and more. But the conversation really heats up when Bouckaert hops on his soapbox and delves into the philosophy behind brewing, from style constrictions to inspiration from the culinary world and the ways brewing is far superior in a creative sense to winemaking or distilling. “I love the brewing process and think we should treat [brewing] as more important than any winery,” says Bouckaert. “Opus One? That’s a joke. That’s a marketing ploy. Compared to Purpose? There’s way more happening here, flavor-wise.” Throughout, Bouckaert remains committed to the new. Moving things forward, trying new ingredients and processes, and building a better, higher touch experience for beer consumers. In this episode, he discusses the hows and whys of this different approach. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): As the brewing industry’s premier choice for glycol chilling, G&D Chillers has set the standard on quality, service, reliability and dedication to their customer’s craft. For 25 years G&D has led the way with innovative solutions for the craft brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at 800.555.0973 or reach out online at Gdchillers.com. Mention Craft Beer and Brewing podcast and you’ll receive up to $1000 worth of glycol with the purchase of any new G&D chiller unit. Tavour (https://about.tavour.com): Tavour makes it possible to access and discover the highest-rated craft beers from all over the world through the free mobile app. Twice a day you get access to a new limited beer from an independent craft brewer. Imagine sipping a Vanilla Ice Cream Stout from Wild Leap Brewing in Georgia or Juicy Bits IPA from WeldWerks in Colorado. Join the independent beer community today and get $10 in beer money with code “brewing”. Clarion Lubricants (https://www.clarionlubricants.com): Clarion Lubricants, balancing barley and hops is your expertise, food-grade lubricants is ours. The team at Clarion knows that when it comes to making great beer, you’re the expert, and when it comes to supplying food-grade lubricants backed by service-oriented professionals, they're the experts. Clarion will work with you to create an efficient lubrication program that helps protect your brewery. To speak with an expert dial 1-855-MY-CLARION (855-692-5274) or visit clarionlubricants.com. Clarion Lubricants. The expert that experts trust. Oktober Can Seamers (https://oktoberdesign.com/podcast): Whether you’re a full-scale production brewery, a taproom, or a homebrewer striving for the ultimate setup, Oktober Can Seamers has THE small-scale canning solution. They’ve proven that breweries increase revenue through to-go sales with Oktober Can Seamers, and everyone loves to sell more beer. You’re only a few clicks away from selling more beer, just head over to oktoberdesign.com/podcast (https://oktoberdesign.com/podcast) and use offer code “jamie” to save $50 on any can seamer purchase.

29 Nov 20191h 11min

With two gold medals in hotly contested categories and Small Brewing Company and Small Brewer of the Year accolades at the 2019 Great American Beer Festival, Denver's Comrade Brewing firmly established their credentials as one of the most important new school IPA producers in the country. Here, they discuss philosophy and techniques behind their hoppy beers before delving into brewing thoughts on a range of styles from chili beer to milk stout. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): As the brewing industry’s premier choice for glycol chilling, G&D Chillers has set the standard on quality, service, reliability and dedication to their customer’s craft. For 25 years G&D has led the way with innovative solutions for the craft brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at 800.555.0973 or reach out online at Gdchillers.com. Mention Craft Beer and Brewing podcast and you’ll receive up to $1000 worth of glycol with the purchase of any new G&D chiller unit. Tavour (https://about.tavour.com): Tavour makes it possible to access and discover the highest-rated craft beers from all over the world through the free mobile app. Twice a day you get access to a new limited beer from an independent craft brewer. Imagine sipping a Vanilla Ice Cream Stout from Wild Leap Brewing in Georgia or Juicy Bits IPA from WeldWerks in Colorado. Join the independent beer community today and get $10 in beer money with code “brewing”. Clarion Lubricants (https://www.clarionlubricants.com): Clarion Lubricants, balancing barley and hops is your expertise, food-grade lubricants is ours. The team at Clarion knows that when it comes to making great beer, you’re the expert, and when it comes to supplying food-grade lubricants backed by service-oriented professionals, they're the experts. Clarion will work with you to create an efficient lubrication program that helps protect your brewery. To speak with an expert dial 1-855-MY-CLARION (855-692-5274) or visit clarionlubricants.com. Clarion Lubricants. The expert that experts trust. Oktober Can Seamers (https://oktoberdesign.com/podcast): Whether you’re a full-scale production brewery, a taproom, or a homebrewer striving for the ultimate setup, Oktober Can Seamers has THE small-scale canning solution. They’ve proven that breweries increase revenue through to-go sales with Oktober Can Seamers, and everyone loves to sell more beer. You’re only a few clicks away from selling more beer, just head over to oktoberdesign.com/podcast (https://oktoberdesign.com/podcast) and use offer code “jamie” to save $50 on any can seamer purchase.

22 Nov 201958min

Malt is subject most take for granted—a commodity that is generally fungible and often overlooked. But for Troubadour Maltings’ (http://www.troubadourmaltings.com) Chris Schooley, it’s a subject of endless fascination and professional obsession. In this deep dive into the subject, Schooley expounds on the value of thinking about malt beyond extract numbers, explores the history of malt and why certain malt styles are what they are today, defines great malting grain while discussing new developments in the agriculture that has helped craft maltsters produce better raw materials, and more. In the brewhouse and in the malt house, consistency may be overrated, but quality is not—the malting process and role of the maltster is to add value to the agriculture and the brewing process, since the power in malt is not intrinsic… someone has to unlock it. But the things that really make a difference in malt quality may not be the things you suspect, and as specialty malts get darker, certain factor like freshness play a larger role in the flavor of the end beer. It’s a fascinating episode for anyone who has every pondered why and how malt does what it does in the brewing process… This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): As the brewing industry’s premier choice for glycol chilling, G&D Chillers has set the standard on quality, service, reliability and dedication to their customer’s craft. For 25 years G&D has led the way with innovative solutions for the craft brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at 800.555.0973 or reach out online at Gdchillers.com. Mention Craft Beer and Brewing podcast and you’ll receive up to $1000 worth of glycol with the purchase of any new G&D chiller unit. Tavour (https://about.tavour.com): Tavour makes it possible to access and discover the highest-rated craft beers from all over the world through the free mobile app. Twice a day you get access to a new limited beer from an independent craft brewer. Imagine sipping a Vanilla Ice Cream Stout from Wild Leap Brewing in Georgia or Juicy Bits IPA from WeldWerks in Colorado. Join the independent beer community today and get $10 in beer money with code “brewing”. Clarion Lubricants (https://www.clarionlubricants.com): Clarion Lubricants, balancing barley and hops is your expertise, food-grade lubricants is ours. The team at Clarion knows that when it comes to making great beer, you’re the expert, and when it comes to supplying food-grade lubricants backed by service-oriented professionals, they're the experts. Clarion will work with you to create an efficient lubrication program that helps protect your brewery. To speak with an expert dial 1-855-MY-CLARION (855-692-5274) or visit clarionlubricants.com. Clarion Lubricants. The expert that experts trust. Country Malt Group (https://countrymaltgroup.com): With over 200 years of combined experience in the craft beverage industry, Country Malt Group’s dedicated sales and support staff understand the importance of excellent ingredients, product knowledge, and expertise in making great beer. Country Malt Group’s mission is to provide the products and services you need while making the process of ordering ingredients easy – the focus is to inspire your best craft! Order online at shop.countrymalt.com (https://shop.countrymalt.com) | @CountryMalt

15 Nov 20191h 23min

Civil Life Brewing is a brewer's brewery. The biggest beers on the menu top out around 6.5%, the taproom is comfortable and pubby, and everything across the board is finely crafted with character and intention. It's wonderful space in which to drink beer, staffed by folks intensely passionate about what they do, serving beer confidently unflashy yet thoroughly satisfying. To build such character and expression into small beers, head brewer Dylan Mosley has spent the past eight years fine tuning every element of their beers, and in this episode, he walks through the various ways they amplify flavor without hiking up the ABV. Carefully selecting malt not just for color but for flavor, is first and foremost. While some brewers prefer broad ranges of malt, Mosley operates in a tighter range, often using similar malts from different malt houses in the same beer to provide shades of nuance. His goal, of course, is to move past the specificity of individual ingredients, so that everything hangs together as a whole. "You don't want the end of the story before you start it," says Mosley. "You need a little something else there. I spend more time thinking about what's in the middle of the beer rather than base malt or finishing touches." From malt to yeast, water, hops, and even finishing processes like filtration, Mosley runs through the things that make Civil Life beers beloved by drinkers, and brewers, in their native St. Louis. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): As the brewing industry’s premier choice for glycol chilling, G&D Chillers has set the standard on quality, service, reliability and dedication to their customer’s craft. For 25 years G&D has led the way with innovative solutions for the craft brewing industry. Contact G&D Chillers today at 800.555.0973 or reach out online at Gdchillers.com. Mention Craft Beer and Brewing podcast and you’ll receive up to $1000 worth of glycol with the purchase of any new G&D chiller unit. Tavour (https://about.tavour.com): Tavour makes it possible to access and discover the highest-rated craft beers from all over the world through the free mobile app. Twice a day you get access to a new limited beer from an independent craft brewer. Imagine sipping a Vanilla Ice Cream Stout from Wild Leap Brewing in Georgia or Juicy Bits IPA from WeldWerks in Colorado. Join the independent beer community today and get $10 in beer money with code “brewing”. Clarion Lubricants (https://www.clarionlubricants.com): Clarion Lubricants, balancing barley and hops is your expertise, food-grade lubricants is ours. The team at Clarion knows that when it comes to making great beer, you’re the expert, and when it comes to supplying food-grade lubricants backed by service-oriented professionals, they're the experts. Clarion will work with you to create an efficient lubrication program that helps protect your brewery. To speak with an expert dial 1-855-MY-CLARION (855-692-5274) or visit clarionlubricants.com. Clarion Lubricants. The expert that experts trust. Country Malt Group (https://countrymaltgroup.com): With over 200 years of combined experience in the craft beverage industry, Country Malt Group’s dedicated sales and support staff understand the importance of excellent ingredients, product knowledge, and expertise in making great beer. Country Malt Group’s mission is to provide the products and services you need while making the process of ordering ingredients easy – the focus is to inspire your best craft! Order online at shop.countrymalt.com (https://shop.countrymalt.com) | @CountryMalt

8 Nov 20191h