107: The Best 19 Beers of 2019 Special Edition!
We taste thousands of beers per year at Craft Beer & Brewing, between beers our blind panel reviews, beers sent to us to consider for general coverage, beers tasted at various festivals, and beers shared when we visit breweries. Once a year, we put our collective heads together and create our Editors' Picks for the Best Beers of the Year. In addition, we poll our readers and listeners for your favorite beers of the year, favorite breweries of various sizes, and favorite breweries within certain styles. In this special episode of the podcast, Cofounder and Editorial Director Jamie Bogner, and Managing Editor Joe Stange, walk through the background and stories behind these best beers and breweries of 2019. Read the full story at https://beerandbrewing.com/editors-picks-the-best-19-beers-of-2019/
1 Nov 20191h 27min
106: Mitch Steele of New Realm Brewing on Designing Characterful IPAs, Pilsners, and Hard Seltzers
If you brew IPA, you’ve probably read Mitch Steele’s book on the subject. His storied brewing career has taken him from from positions as Brewmaster at Anheuser-Busch and Stone to his newest venture as Brewmaster at Atlanta’s New Realm Brewing. This latest chapter has posed one of the biggest creative challenges he’s faced—designing an entire beer program from scratch. In this episode, Steele discusses creating beers to style that still contain unique character, explores the structure of their hoppy lager, admits to goofing on their first IPA releases and discuses how they made recipe and brand changes to satisfy their customers, cracks the code on hazy IPA and discusses the ways they’ve designed and brewed that style, delves into the resurgence and reinvention of West Coast IPA, shares their innovation process from small scale evaluation brews on up, and talks about their latest tests in the hard seltzer space with what works and what doesn’t. 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. Brew Guru (https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/brew-guru/): Brew Guru, the free mobile app that alerts you to local discounts on beer, food, and homebrewing supplies! Created by the American Homebrewers Association, Brew Guru is your essential guide to brewing and drinking great beer. Start a 30-day free trial, no credit card info required, when you download Brew Guru for iPhone or Android.
25 Okt 20191h 1min
105: August Schell's Jace Marti on Creating Distinctive Lagers and Historically-Inspired Berliner Weisse
August Schell is not a new brewery, and sparking attention from today’s craft beer consumer is more difficult than ever. But in this conversation, Jace Marti (Assistant Brewmaster and 6th generation of the Schell family) dives deep into the storied lager brewer’s evolution of recipe and technique for marquis beers like their Pilsner, explains how they develop and change beers over time, and outlines the thorough way they went about launching a sour program that feels germane to the Schell brand (while also making great beer). Their craft Pilsner is on version 4.0, and has seen many changes since its launch in the 1980’s. Today, they even borrow techniques from IPA brewers, like dry-hopping during active fermentation, and apply them to their lager process—adding hops at 24 hours to the cold lager fermentation. Other moves, like shifting hot side hops to a middle addition rather than early addition, changing up the base malt, and embracing “modern” noble hops have helped them build a Pilsner that’s both to style and distinctly theirs. On the sour side, Marti recounts the deep historical research into Berliner Weisse that led to them building house cultures for mixed fermentation, and touches on everything from maintaining and selecting cultures to cleaning process and fruit usage. How does a 160-year-old brewery balance the weight of tradition with the need to be innovative? 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. Brew Guru (https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/brew-guru/): Brew Guru, the free mobile app that alerts you to local discounts on beer, food, and homebrewing supplies! Created by the American Homebrewers Association, Brew Guru is your essential guide to brewing and drinking great beer. Start a 30-day free trial, no credit card info required, when you download Brew Guru for iPhone or Android.
18 Okt 201954min
104: Evan Price of Green Cheek Beer Co.: Creatively Evolving West Coast IPA (and Winning!)
Since their founding in June 2017, Green Cheek Beer Co. has pulled off an impressive list of awards—a silver medal in American-style IPA at the 2018 World Beer Cup, two bronze medals at the 2018 GABF, and most recently a silver and gold (in American-style IPA and Australian-style Pale Ale) at the 2019 GABF. In this conversation, recorded a few days before Price and Green Cheek collected those 2019 medals, he goes deep on the subject of the evolving style of West coast-style IPA. From malt shifts (“Crystal malt ends up tasting like an old beer right when you make it”) to the impacts of water profiles to selecting low cohumulone hops for less aggressive bitterness, every choice matters. Price covers developing skills like translating hops aromas while rubbing into an idea of how they’ll express in a finished beer, their hops evaluation procedures, lowering whirlpool temperatures for better hot side hops character, and even discusses their strategy toward brewing for and entering competitions. If you’re not smiling by the end of this episode, you’re doing it wrong. 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. Hops Direct (https://hopsdirect.com): Five generations of hops grown in Yakima Valley, Washington, sold directly from our farm to you. Skip the middleman, go for the farm fresh green! Our hops are harvested, processed and kept in cold storages here on our farm until shipping straight to you. Find 100+ domestic and imported varieties in Pellet and Leaf year-round on our website by the pound at wholesale pricing. Thanks for supporting family-owned - shopping small is a BIG deal. www.hopsdirect.com | info@hopsdirect.com | @hopsdirect
11 Okt 20191h 4min
103: Beachwood Blendery's Harrison McCabe: Creating the Right Environment for Spontaneous and Pitched Culture Wild and Sour Beers
When Long Beach, California's Beachwood Brewing set out to create a wild and sour beer program years ago, they did it with an intentionality one would expect from a brewery that has racked up so many accolades over the years. In this episode, Beachwood Blendery head brewer and blender Harrison McCabe walks through the various ways they've controlled environmental factors in the brewhouse for optimal spontaneous brewing in the non-traditional climate of Southern California, while maintaining parallel programs producing both spontaneous and pitched culture sour and wild beer. To McCabe, the key is using hops, temperature, and mash to slow the lactic acid production process, allowing for more characteristic funk to develop before acidity completely takes over. He talks about how they've embraced a single infusion high-temperature mash, bumped up the amounts of aged hops, and carefully created "seasons" in the barrel warehouse through temperatre control, before discussing everything from blending to fruiting process. Great wild, sour, and spontaneous beer can be made anywhere—it's just a matter of creating a process and environment that favors great flavors.
5 Okt 201955min
102: Blue Moon & Ceria Beverage Founder Keith Villa: Exploring Uncharted Territory in Beer With Cannabis
Keith Villa is an unlikely advocate for cannabis-infused non-alcoholic beer. The cerebral PhD with a molecular biology background spent more than three decades working for Coors, with two decades focused on creating and building the Blue Moon brand, and today he approaches the subject of cannabis beer with a scientist’s rigor and a marketer’s soul. In this conversation, he lays the groundwork for his current exploration, discussing the ins and outs of brewing Belgian-style witbiers (from grist composition to mash regimens that lock in stable haze and substantial head), the value of ritual and drama in beer service, and thinking beyond style strictures when envisioning beers. From there, he delves into the new opportunities that blending beer with cannabis provides—utilizing terpenes common to both hops and cannabis to promote certain physiological effects—before finishing with a primer in the process and technical concerns around de-alcoholizing beer. 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
29 Sep 20191h 15min
101: Off Color Brewing's John Laffler: Turn Down the Volume, Focus on the Harmony
"If we’re just going to come out and make the same beers as everybody else, what’s the whole point of this?" says Off Color Brewing Cofounder John Laffler. "I could make more money working somewhere else, and work a lot less, if we’re just going to make the same pale ale as a brewery down the street. I don’t get the point of doing all this if you’re not doing it for a reason, and for us it was to make the beers we think should be made. if you’re into Pale Ale, that’s great—you all do you. For us, that wasn’t it." Risk is in the DNA of Chicago, Illinois' Off Color Brewing, and for Laffler, that means charting new territory in mixed-fermentation beer, focusing on subtlety and nuance over intensity and strength, and playing the long game in building an artistic brand that is not meant to appeal to everyone. In this sprawling conversation, he shares his thoughts on why more brewers should be dumping beer ("If you're not taking enough risks... you're not trying hard enough"), using malt bill and fermentation techniques to tweak yeast ester expression in farmhouse ales like their flagship Apex Predator, how American brewers have all but ruined the Gose style ("It does not make a bit of difference what type of sale you use"), corralling and developing wild cultures using selective pressure to bring out desired traits, rustic sake fermentation, and much more. 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 is the tastiest way to explore the world from the comfort of your home. Select delicious craft beers on the Tavour app that you cannot find in your area and get them delivered right to your door. It's not a beer of the month club where you end up with lagers you have to give to your grandpa. Download the free Tavour app today and get $10 in beer money with code “brewing”. Ska Fabricating (https://skafabricating.com): Ska Fabricating is excited to announce the new and improved “Half Pint OD” mobile depalletizer. The OD is made up of stainless steel and lightweight aluminum, with a new patent-pending rotary table design that provides accumulation and natural backpressure to help cans flow smoothly and consistently into your filler. This machine can run up to 80 cans per minute, features over 180 degrees of flexibility for rinse cage placement, and has an even smaller footprint than the original Half Pint. It is a breakthrough design for breweries in search of a fully automated solution that fits a tight space and budget. To learn more, contact Ska Fab today at (970) 403-8562 or reach out online at skafabricating.com. 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.
20 Sep 20191h 14min
100: A Quick Look Back, Plus Neil Fisher and Cory King Talk Barrel-Aged Stouts
In this special 100th episode of the podcast, we take a quick look back at your favorites of the first 100 episodes, before Side Project Brewing's Cory King and Neil Fisher of Weldwerks take over the podcast in a previously subscriber-only conversation recorded at the Firestone Walker Invitational earlier this year. 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. Hopsteiner (https://www.hopsteiner.com): Hopsteiner is a vertically integrated global hops supplier dedicated to delivering the finest hops and hop products available. For six-generations Hopsteiner has partnered with breweries of all sizes, offering unique hop varieties and innovative hop products designed to enhance flavor, aroma, consistency, and flexibility for brewing and beyond. Learn more at https://www.hopsteiner.com.
13 Sep 20191h 3min
