Craft beer & brewing magazine

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Magazine® FOR THOSE WHO MAKE AND DRINK GREAT BEER Craſt Beer & Brewing Magazine® SAISON: NATURALLY WILD | SOUR VS. FUNKY | BEERCATION: BOULDER, CO June-July 2016 | BEERANDBREWING.COM | CHEERS! THE BEST BREWERIES TO VISIT IN BOULdER, Co HoP HEaVEn: CELLARMAKER BREWING EL SEGUNDO BREWING MELVIN BREWING The Truth About Wild Yeast: It’s Not as “Unique” as You Think! Brew This: One Saison Recipe Hopped Five Ways Blind Tasted & Reviewed: 83 sAISOn Saisons and Farmhouse Ales HeAD Sour Vs. Funky Train Your Palate to Know the Difference Naturally Wild

description

Magazine pour les brasseurs de bière artisanale.

Transcript of Craft beer & brewing magazine

Page 1: Craft beer & brewing magazine

Magazine®

FOR THOSE WHO MAKE AND DRINK GREAT BEER

Craft

Beer &

Brew

ing M

agazine®

SAISON: NATURALLY WILD | SOUR VS. FUNKY | BEERCATION: BOULDER, CO

Jun

e-July

2016

| BEERANDBREWING.COM

| CHEERS!

THE BEST BREWERIES TO VISIT IN

BOULDER, COHOP HEAVEN: CELLARMAKER BREWINGEL SEGUNDO BREWINGMELVIN BREWING

The Truth AbOut WilD YeAst: It’s Not as “Unique” as You Think!

Brew This: One Saison Recipe Hopped Five Ways

Blind Tasted & Reviewed:

83

sAISON

SAisONs AND FArmhOuse Ales

HeAD

SOur Vs. FuNky Train Your Palate to Know the Difference

NAturAlly WilD

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In celebration of our 25th year brewing Fat Tire, we set out to create a commemorative collection worthy of honoring our flagship brand. We asked some of our brewery friends to

put their own spin on this amber classic. Grab one and join us in celebrating a quarter-century of beer and bikes. Meet the crew at NewBelgium.com/FatPack.

FAT TIRE & FRIENDSCOLLABEERATIONCOLLABEERATIONCOLLABEERATIONCOLLABEERATION

A hoppy amber with amplified American hop aroma and flavor.

FIRESTONE WALKER BREWING COFAT HOPPY ALE

Classic pear, banana and spice alongside malty goodness.

ALLAGASH BREWING COMPANYFAT FUNK ALE

A sturdy malt backbone, fruity hop aroma and a tropical pineapple layer.

FAT WILD ALEAVERY BREWING COMPANY

A slightly sour ale with a snap of apple tartness.

HOPWORKS URBAN BREWERYFAT SOUR APPLE ALE

A perfect balance of biscuity malt flavor and hoppy freshness.

NEW BELGIUM BREWINGFAT TIRE AMBER ALE

Belgian-Style XPA with bready-sweet malts and fruity, vinous hops.

RHINEGEIST BREWERYFAT PALE ALE

COLLABEERATIONCOLLABEERATIONCOLLABEERATIONCOLLABEERATIONCOLLABEERATIONCOLLABEERATIONRIDING INTO STORES MID-JUNE

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Tim came from a culinary background before converting to brewer. He used to stop in at Empire Brewing Co. for pints until he was tapped for his talent.

Tim shares the brewpub’s commitment to local ingredients in both beer and food. The region’s rich hop and agricultural history help Empire feed the growth of New York’s craft beer niche.

ONE OF THE MANY

STORIES ON TAP IN CENTRAL NEW YORK

Building a new brew empire in New York – just one of the many stories, traditions and tastes on tap in Central New York. Craft your own adventure at brewcentralny.com

Tim Butler, Head BrewerEmpire Brewing Co.

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Designed by brewers for brewers. Ss Brewing Technologies’ Engineering Team began with professional equipment design and commercial brewing operations before ever making the foray into home brewing gear. Now we’ve gone back to our roots and will be rolling out some exciting new professional brewing products at the Craft Brewer’s Conference in May. We’ve taken a brewer-centric approach by designing in important details that make a huge difference in transportation, installation, ease of use, efficiency, and most importantly, quality and consistency of the finished product. Engineering better beer. That’s what we do.

PROFESSIONAL BREWING SYSTEMSDesigned by brewers for brewers. Ss Brewing Technologies’ Engineering Team

PROFESSIONAL BREWING SYSTEMS

www.ssbrewtech.com/pro

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| CONTENTS: JUNE/JULY 2016 |

73 62

sAISOnThe RiSe (and Further Rise) of

FEATURES

61 The Rise (and Further Rise) of SaisonSaison as a style was on the ropes twen-ty-five years ago, at risk of extinction, but the comeback in ensuing years is one of legendary proportions. In this issue, we delve into what makes beers in this style so exciting and the various methods brewers are using to continue its rapid evolution.

62 | Brewers’ Perspectives: Mad for Mixed-Fermentation In the early 1990s, revered beer scribe Michael Jackson mused on the potential extinction of the saison style, while describing certain Belgian breweries’ iterations as “slightly sour” or “tart.” Today, the style is one of the fastest growing in craft beer, and a new generation of brewers is embracing Brettanomyces, Pediococcus, and the lac-tic acid–producing bacteria that create the tart and sour acidity in the style.

66 | Step Mash Your Way to a Dry Finish So it’s getting warmer out, and you’re itching to brew a summer beer with a super-dry finish that begs for another refill? Instead of bumping up the simple sugar adjuncts in the recipe, try a step mash.

69 | Going Local: How to Create Vastly Different Saisons by Simply Altering Hops With just a typical grist, you can create a wide variety of deliciously different saisons simply by varying hops selec-tion, timing, and quantity. Your favorite commercial brewers are doing it, too.

73 | Naturally a Bit Wild American brewers interested in making beers that fit under the rather broad umbrella of saison don’t necessarily need to look toward Wallonia. The answer may be in their own backyards.

76 | Brett Projects Ever wondered what flavors those different Brett strains add to beer? Thanks to these commercial breweries, it’s easy to compare.

85 | Saison Reviews There’s never an off-season for saison and farmhouse ales. Our tasting panel revisited classic, Brett, and mixed-fermentation saisons and farmhouse ales, plus more!

BEERANDBREWING.COM | 3

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THE MASH

11 | Stats, Beerslanging, Gear Re-view, and Whalez Bro

19 | Father’s Day Gift Guide (Spon-sored Content)

TRAVEL

24 | Love Handles

26 | Beercation: Boulder-Longmont Corridor, Colorado

BREAKOUT BREWERS

34 | Melvin Brewing

38 | El Segundo Brewing Company

44 | Cellarmaker Brewing Company

PICK SIX

48 | “Balance” is an overused word in brewing parlance, but for Stone Brewmaster Mitch Steele it’s valuable only within the context of intensity and character.

COOKING WITH BEER

52 | South by Southwest There’s no time like summer to turn up the heat with savory and spicy fare made with your favorite cerveza. Here are five of our favorites from Chef Christopher Cina, excerpted from our new cookbook The Best of Cooking With Beer.

HOMEBREWING

66 | Step Mash Your Way to a Dry Finish

78 | Slow + Steady Wins the Race: Temperature Control for Homebrewers

81 | Bière de Garde & Saison Recipes

THE BUSINESS OF BEER

108 | Striking Gold Developing and bringing a new hops variety to market is a tricky proposi-tion fraught with expense and uncer-tainty. Here’s how breeders, growers, and brewers are working together to bring promising new strains to beers near you.

MORE

112 | CB&B Marketplace

116 | CB&B Retail Shop Directory

120 | Chill Plate

| CONTENTS |

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Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® (print ISSN 2334-119X; online ISSN 2334-1203) is published bimonthly in February, April, June, August, October, and December for $29.99 per year (six issues) by Unfiltered Media Group, LLC at 214 S. College Ave., Ste 3, Fort Collins, CO 80524; Phone 888.875.8708 x0; [email protected]. Periodical postage paid at Fort Collins, CO and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, PO Box 681, Stow, MA 01775. Customer Service: For subscription orders, call 888.875.8708 x0. For subscription orders and address changes contact Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, PO Box 681, Stow, MA 01775, [email protected]. Foreign orders must be paid in U.S. dollars plus postage. The print subscription rate for outside the United States and Canada is $39.99 U.S.

4 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

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FOR THOSE WHO LIVE LIFE

ALASKAN

Brewed and Bottled in Juneau, Alaska alaskanbeer.com

Richly malty, with just enough hop backing to make this beautiful amber colored “alt” style ale notably well balanced.

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| RECIPES IN THIS ISSUE |

| CONTRIBUTORS IN THIS ISSUE |

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Emily Hutto is a Colorado-born travel writer with an affinity for fermented beverages. She’s the author of Colorado’s Top Brewers and a contributor at many craft-beer and food-centric publications. Find her ethnography at emilyhutto.com.

Josh Weikert took up homebrewing in 2007 as a way to stay sane during graduate school. He is a founding member of the Stoney Creek Homebrewers, has medaled in every BJCP beer style, is a BJCP Grand Master Judge and Certified Cicerone, and is a two-time Eastern Pennsylvania Homebrewer of the Year. He leads a double life as the jet-setting author of the Beer: Simple blog (beer-simple.com).

Tom Wilmes is a beer drinker with a writing habit. A former Boulderite and Daily Camera beer columnist, he now calls Lexington, Kentucky, home. His beer fridge is usually stocked with a wide variety of local craft brews.

Paul Zocco (Zok), owner of Zok’s Homebrewing Supplies in Willimantic, Connecticut, has been homebrewing award- winning beers and meads for twenty years. He has won the New England Homebrewer of the Year, Cidermaker of the Year, and Meadmaker of the Year. A nationally ranked BJCP judge, Zok has judged at the GABF for several years.

Taylor Caron is co-founder of the Liquid Poets Society, Fort Collins’s largest homebrew club, and manager of the Hops & Berries homebrew supply stores.

SAISONS “The Classic” SaisonJosh Weikert, author, beer-simple.comPage 71

“The Continental” SaisonJosh Weikert, author, beer-simple.comPage 71

“The Colonial” SaisonJosh Weikert, author, beer-simple.comPage 71

“The Craftsman” SaisonJosh Weikert, author, beer-simple.comPage 71

“The Question Mark” SaisonJosh Weikert, author, beer-simple.comPage 71

Bière de Garde in the Style of Castelain Paul Zocco, owner of Zok’s Homebrewing SuppliesPage 81

Bière de Garde in the style of JenlainPaul Zocco, owner of Zok’s Homebrewing SuppliesPage 82

High-Gravity Saison with Chinese White Pepper and Bitter Orange Peel Paul Zocco, owner of Zok’s Homebrewing SuppliesPage 82

Belgian Saison in the Style of Saison Dupont Paul Zocco, owner of Zok’s Homebrewing SuppliesPage 83

Sessionable Saison Paul Zocco, owner of Zok’s Homebrewing SuppliesPage 83

OTHERWhite Dog IPA Rob Croxall, founder and brewmaster, El Segundo Brewing Company (El Segundo, California)Page 42

Underberg and Cigarettes Smoked PorterTim Sciascia, cofounder, Cellarmaker Brewing Co. (San Francisco, California)Page 46

John Verive is a South-ern California native and freelance writer dedicated to growing the craft-beer scene in L.A. He’s the founder of Beer of Tomorrow (BeerofTo morrow.com) and the editor of Beer Paper LA (a monthly print newspaper). He covers the beer beat for the Los Angeles Times and is a certified cicerone.

6 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

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“I went through 4 recipe variations, entered several local competitions and took in everyone’s advice before I entered the final version of my NHC gold medal winning Tripel to the National Homebrew Competition. The one thing that didn’t change is my use of PBW and Star San throughout the entire process. My guarantee to a clean brewing process every time.”

Winners Use Five Star!Don’t trust your beer to just anyone, use PBW and Star San like Gerry.

PBW | Star San | Saniclean | IO Star | LLC5.2 pH Stabilizer | Super Moss HB | Defoamer 105

facebook.com/FiveStarChemicalswww.�vestarchemicals.com support@�vestarchemicals.com

Find Five Star Products At Your Local Homebrew Store

Page 12: Craft beer & brewing magazine

8 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

Sometimes life, business, and brewing take you in unexpected directions. Maybe your mash was more efficient than you expect-ed, and you overshot your gravity. Maybe your friends (or custom-ers) liked one of your beers much more than expected and insist you brew it again and again. Maybe a friend moves out of the country and leaves you a sweet three-tier homebrew rig. Maybe the friend of yours who owns your favorite local beer bar decides to move out of state and sells you his bar. That last one might sound like a stretch, but it just happened to us.

When we launched Craft Beer & Brewing a few years ago, owning a beer bar was not part of the plan—our focus was media and community. But over time, we started to understand that connecting with readers and the beer community as a whole required more than just a magazine, website, and email newsletter.

We launched our retreat events to create a special experience with brewers we love and passionate members of our community. We launched beer festivals in Wisconsin and Minnesota to connect with larger audiences and keep festivals focused on celebrating the craft of beermaking.

And then our buddy Jeff mentioned to us that he was looking to sell his beer bar Tap and Handle—located across the street from our offices in Fort Collins, Colorado—and move back home to Texas. All of a sudden, we found ourselves with yet another opportunity to engage with our community and put our love of craft beer into practice.

So now we own a craft-beer bar (a pretty good one that both we and Draft Magazine have recognized as one of the best in the country), and we hope you’ll come see us on your next beercation to Northern Colorado. Or at our Midwestern craft-beer festivals. Or at our retreat events at resort destinations in Colorado and Oregon (and a new 2017 retreat in Maine). Connecting with creative pas-sionate brewers and beer lovers is the thing that makes Craft Beer & Brewing meaningful and rewarding to us.

We hope you enjoy this issue, our festivals, our websites, our books, our online learning platform, our retreats, our newsletters, our special issues, and now, our beer bar. We made them for you.

John, Jamie & SteveCofoundersCraft Beer & Brewing Magazine®

| EDITOR’S NOTE |

PHOT

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GRAV

ES/M

GRAV

ESPH

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Editorial Director Jamie BognerManaging Editor Trish FaubionEditorial Consigliere Stephen KoenigContributing Editor Emily HuttoWriters Stan Hieronymus, John Verive, Tom Wilmes, Josh Weikert, Taylor Caron, Sara Dumford, Eric Reinsvold, Christopher Cina, Paul Zocco (Zok)Photographer Matt Graves (mgravesphoto.com) Illustrators Ansis Purins, Brian Devine

Tasting Panel Cy Bevenger, Kyle Byerly, Jesse Clark, Neil Fisher, Jester Goldman, Janna Kregoski, Ted Manahan, Greg Simonds, Anne Simpson, Andy Mitchell, Hermen Diaz, Matt BurtonBrew Lab Advisor Chris Kregoski

Publisher John BoltonSales Director Mary KinCannonSales Manager Alex Johnson

FOR MEDIA SALES INQUIRIES, please call 888.875.8708 x2 or email [email protected]

Retail Sales Manager Rachel Szado

RETAILERS: If you are interested in selling Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® in your shop or brewery please contact us at [email protected] or 888-875-8708 x705.

Digital Media & Marketing Director Haydn StraussJr. Marketing & Design Specialist Nick Hammond

Find us:Web: beerandbrewing.comTwitter: @craftbeerbrewFacebook: facebook.com/craftbeerandbrewingInstagram: craftbeerbrewPinterest: pinterest.com/craftbeerbrew

Editorial and sales office:214 S. College Ave, #3, Fort Collins, CO 80524888.875.8708

Subscription Inquiries:Craft Beer and Brewing MagazinePO Box 681, Stow, MA [email protected] x0

Customer Service:[email protected] or888-875-8708 x0

We invite previously unpublished manuscripts and materials, but Unfiltered Media Group, LLC accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and other materials submitted for review. The editorial team reserves the right to edit or modify any material submitted.

Contents copyright © 2016 Unfiltered Media Group, LLC, All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part in print or electronically without the written consent of Unfiltered Media Group, LLC. All items submitted to Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® become the sole property of Unfiltered Media Group, LLC. The opinions and claims of the contributors and advertisers in Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® are not necessarily those of the Publisher or Unfiltered Media Group, LLC. Printed in the U.S.A.

Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® is published by

UnfilteredMedia Group, LLC

UnfilteredMedia Group, LLC

UNFILTEREDMEDIAGROUP, LLC

UNFILTERED

MEDIAGROUP LLC

UNFILTERED

MEDIAGROUP, LLC

Cofounder & CEO John P. Bolton, Esq.Cofounder & CCO Jamie BognerCofounder Stephen Koenig

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34 5COUNTRIES CONTINENTS

The Growth Of Craft-Beer EducationIt’s long been known that education sells craft beer—smarter consumers make better choices—and the first tier of interac-tion that most consumers have with craft beer is a knowledge-able bartender or server. To that end, Ray Daniels founded The Cicerone® Certification Program in 2008 to promote and professionalize craft-beer style and service education. Here, we chart the explosive growth of the program, the regional hotbeds of beer education, and the tiers of mastery built into the educational program that’s growing at a faster rate than the craft-beer market as a whole. By Brian Devine

The hightest level of mastery of beer styles, beer attributes, off-flavor recognition, and more.

In-depth theoretical and practical knowledge of draft systems, beer styles, and tasting experience.

Competent knowledge of beer storage and service, modest knowledge of beer styles, and basic familiarity with beer-tasting, flavors and the brewing process.

BEERANDBREWING.COM | 11

| THE MASH |

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Each year at the end of March, the Brewers Association releases its list of the top fifty craft brewers (ranked by number of barrels they produce). While the overall volume of craft beer produced has increased every year since 2007, certain brands have grown faster than others, resulting in somewhat significant shifts over time. Here, we’ve updated the infographic we developed last year charting the tangled web of moves of these top craft brewers.

Trading Places 2.0

Because the craft-beer market overall has consistently increased each year since 2007, the revenue value of this top 50 has also increased each year, so moving lower on the list does not imply any decline in revenue (only a slower rate of growth relative to other competitors in the top 50).

Who’s on Top?Every year the Brewer’s Association compiles and crunches sales data from craft breweries across the U.S. to create a Top 50 list that ranks breweries on the amount of beer they sold in the previous year.

With the 2014 list being released recently we thought it would be interesting to see how it has evolved over the years and which breweries are moving up and down the list. Here is the progression of rankings since 2007.

Boston Beer Co.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

New Belgium Brewing Co. Inc.

Gambrinus

Pyramid Breweries Inc.

Matt Brewing Co.

Deschutes Brewery, Inc.

Boulevard Brewing Co.

Full Sail Brewing Co.

Harpoon Brewery

Alaskan Brewing Co.

Magic Hat Brewing Co.

Anchor Brewing Co.

Bell’s Brewery, Inc.

Shipyard Brewing Co.

Summit Brewing Co.

Abita Brewing Co.

Gordon Biersch Brewing Co.

Brooklyn Brewery

Stone Brewing Co.

Rogue Ales

Long Trail Brewing Co.

New Glarus Brewing Co.

Kona Brewing Co.

Dog�sh Head Craft Brewery

Firestone Walker Brewing Co.

Great Lakes Brewing Co.

The Lagunitas Brewing Co.

Flying Dog Brewery

Sweetwater Brewing Co.

Bridgeport Brewing Co.

Rock Bottom Brewery Restaurants

Odell Brewing Co.

BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery

Victory Brewing Co.

Mac and Jack’s Brewery

Lost Coast Brewery and Café

Big Sky Brewing Co.

Pete’s Brewing Co.

Otter Creek Brewing Co.

Karl Strauss Breweries

Breckenridge Brewery

Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant

Anderson Valley Brewing Co.

Boulder Beer Co.

North Coast Brewing Co. Inc.

McMenamins

Utah Brewers Cooperative

Capital Brewing Co.

Blue Point Brewing Co.

Ownership changes did not fit “craft” definition.

Acquired by an existing craft brewery.

Change in “craft brewery” definition.

Bear Republic Brewing Co.

Saint Arnold Brewing Co.

Oskar Blues Brewery

Stevens Point Brewing Co.

Real Ale Brewing Co.

Ninkasi Brewing Co.

Left Hand Brewing Co.

Founders Brewing Co.

CraftWork Breweries

Cold Spring Brewing Co.

Southern Tier Brewing Co.

Ballast Point Brewing Co.

Allagash Brewing Co.

Tröegs Brewing Co. 21st Amendment Brewery

Sixpoint Brewery

Uinta Brewing

Green Flash Brewing

Four Peaks

Revolution

D.G. Yuengling & Son

Minhaus Craft Brewery

August Schell Brewing

Tröegs Brewing Co.

Duvel Moorgat USA

Smuttynose Brewing Co.

Independent Brewers United

Narragansett Brewing Co.

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Legend NotesOwnership changes did not fit “craft brewery” definition

Acquired by an existing craft brewery

Change in “craft brewery” definition made brewery eligible for list

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open top fermentation. At high krausen a foamy, rocky yeast head crests the sides of the fermenter releasing notes of black pepper and spicy clove. Unfiltered and cloudy with yeast, it’s slightly tart & downright refreshing.

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Whalez, Bro. By Ansis Purins BEERSLANGING

Acronyms for Beer GeeksFor anyone involved in craft-beer forums or social media groups, you’ve grown accustomed to seeing acronyms used for breweries, beer terms, and beer names themselves. Here’s a quick cheat sheet on explaining some of the terms we’ve seen being used recently. How many do you know?

>> BeersAdF: Apricot Du Fermier (Side Project)ANTEAD: A Night to End All Dawns (Kane)BAVSS: Barrel-Aged Vietnamese Coffee

Speedway Stout (AleSmith)BCBS: Bourbon County Brand Stout

(Goose Island)BDBDB: Biere de Blanc du Bois (Jester King)BT: Black Tuesday (The Bruery)BVDL: Bourbon Vanilla Dark LordCFP: Casey Family Preserves (Casey)FF: Fou Foune (Cantillon)FS: Fruit Stand (Casey)HT: Heady Topper (Alchemist)LC: Love Child (Boulevard)LPF: Lou Pepe Famboise (Cantillon)LPK: Lou Pepe Kriek (Cantillon)MOTS: Map of the Sun (Rare Barrel)MvB: Montmorency vs Balaton (Jester King)PnB: Peche ’n Brett (Logsdon)PTY: Pliny the Younger (Russian River)SHRBL: Southampton Raspberry Black

Lambic)SITR: Sour in the Rye (The Bruery)V17: Veritas 17 (The Lost Abbey)VR: Vanilla Rye (Goose Island)VSB: Very Special Blackberry (New Glarus)VotHD: Valley of the Heart’s Delight

(Alamanac)

>> BreweriesBL: Bottle LogicBP: Black ProjectCCB: Cigar City BrewingCW: Central WatersFW: Firestone WalkerJK: Jester KingJWB: J Wakefield BreweryMT: Modern TimesNBB: New Belgium BrewingPAA: Prairie Artisan AlesRB: Rare BarrelRR: Russian RiverSARA: Sante Adarius Rustic AlesWW: Wicked Weed

>> MiscellaneousABV: Alcohol by VolumeFG: Final GravityFT: For TradeIBU: International Bittering UnitsISO: In Search OfLBS: Local Bottle ShopMTF: Milk the FunkOG: Original Gravity

14 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

| THE MASH |

Page 19: Craft beer & brewing magazine

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We needed a new word to describe the BoilerMaker G2™, our reinvention We needed a new word to describe the BoilerMaker G2™, our reinvention

of the market’s best brewpot. We’ve raised the bar again, adding an of the market’s best brewpot. We’ve raised the bar again, adding an

industry-leading linear fl ow control valve, an enhanced surface fi nish, industry-leading linear fl ow control valve, an enhanced surface fi nish,

custom-molded grips for cooler handling, and much more. With custom-molded grips for cooler handling, and much more. With

superior engineering, beauty, and performance, we’ve created the superior engineering, beauty, and performance, we’ve created the superior engineering, beauty, and performance, we’ve created the

next generation of brewpot. next generation of brewpot.

BREWING INNOVATION BREWING INNOVATION BREWING INNOVATION *Applies to 7.5, 10, 15, and 20 gallon pots.*Applies to 7.5, 10, 15, and 20 gallon pots.

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TRENDING ONLINE

Top Stories on BeerandBrewing.com7 Coconut Beers to Drink during the Year of CoconutMany trend-watch-ers have declared coconut 2016’s flavor of the year. Here are seven beers brewed with the hottest flavor of the year.

How to Brew Your Best IPA EverIf you’re ready to take your IPA to the next level, and maybe even win an award along the way, use these tips to improve your odds of making the final round.

Brewing with MushroomsAfter a couple years of pairing mushrooms and beer, Eric Reins-vold joined a handful of commercial brewers with the crazy idea of throwing mushrooms into the brew kettle.

Lawson’s Double Sunshine IPA RecipeSean Lawson, owner of Lawson’s Finest Liquids, shared this recipe for their Double Sunshine IPA—packed with juicy tropical fruit flavors and bright herbal aromas.

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Anton Paar EasyDens

ANTON PAAR HAS BEEN a big name in the measuring tech field for decades. Their high-end alcohol meters and density me-ters enjoy a great reputation for quality and accuracy, but they will set you back almost $10,000 for a tabletop version. Recently the company developed an (almost) pocket- sized density meter aimed at the small craft brewer and homebrewer. It operates through a free smartphone app and uses the same oscillating U-tube technology as the more expensive models. The small density meter will still set you back a solid $500 with shipping, but if that’s in your budget, the EasyDens deserves a close look.

The unit seems to be solidly constructed, and a plastic cover guards the unit from ac-cidental spillage. Downloading and setting up the free Android app (the Apple version is due out any day) took no time. The unit is calibrated using deionized water, but in our test, no calibration was needed.

To get a density reading, you need 2–3 millimeters of your sample wort/beer. That required volume is one big advan-tage, especially if you’re trying to track fermentation daily. Compare that to the 5 fluid ounces (147 ml) or more needed to fill a hydrometer’s test jar, and we are talking about pints of precious brew saved for when you actually want it.

Here’s how the unit works. Your sample needs to be thoroughly degassed and fil-tered. (We simply shook a sample for a few minutes in a jar with a loose lid to degas it and then ran it through a paper coffee fil-ter.) You pull your sample into the supplied

syringe and inject it into the unit via a port on top. The injected sample electronically stimulates the oscillating U-tube inside the sample medium, thereby calculating the density to within 0.3° Plato (1.00125 SG). There is automatic temperature correc-tion between 41 and 86°F (5 and 30°C), which should cover any usual measuring situations. The sample temperature and density in either °Plato or SG are instantly displayed on your smartphone.

We had the chance to take a number of readings from both raw wort and fer-menting wort as well as finished beer. We compared the readings with our stan-dard-issue homebrew hydrometer as well as with a lab-grade hydrometer from a local brewery, all with very consistent results. It would have been interesting to measure some very strong samples to see whether readings diverged between the different methods, but we had no strong samples available at the time. Within our normal- strength samples, there was no clear differ-ence between the EasyDens measurement and our hydrometers. A quick flush with deionized water was all that was needed before storing the EasyDens.

It’s important to note that without thorough degassing, the reading from the EasyDens was definitely be skewed, but it was clear when this was the case because the “waste tube” on the out port would show gas breakout. If this happens, you can sim-ply degas better and repeat the reading.

Bottom line, this unit certainly does what it means to, taking a very quick and

accurate gravity reading with very minimal product loss. While it’s probably a rare homebrewer who is able to drop this kind of money on such a high-tech tool, the small craft brewer looking for a very consis-tent and accurate way to track fermentation progress may find that this is an affordable answer. We can hope that the price will come down in the future and put it a bit more in reach for serious homebrewers.

Price: $477, excluding import duty, taxes, and shipping; shop.anton-paar.com/wwd-en/

This extract and density meter for homebrewers is on the pricey side but delivers fast and accurate readings for a fraction of the cost of higher end professional units, making it a great option for nano breweries.

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| THE MASH |

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Introducing a bold, citrus-inspired, hop-forward beer from your friends at Odell Brewing.

© 2016 Odell Brewing Co.

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�e sour �at

SOURTHING

STARTEDTHE WHOLE

RODENBACH. The Original Sour.Around here, sour beer isn’t the next big thing. It’s the only thing. We’ve been brewing and aging RODENBACH since 1821. Try the Original Sour and discover how delicious sour beer can be.

Imported by Latis LLC, Ridgefield, CT Rodenbach ©2016 Latis, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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SPONSORED CONTENT

Father’s Day Beer Gi� sIf the dad in your life is a brewer or beer fan, then these beer-centric gi� suggestions are sure-� re hits come this Father’s Day.

THE GIFT BOX FOR ANY IPA LOVERWith four different beers (all IPA, of course) and an array of IPA-ish snacks, this gift basket from BeerGifts.com is sure to please the hophead in your life. Includes IPA nuts, IPA peanut brittle, IPA popcorn, a sugar cookie, and IPAs from Uinta, New Belgium, Mad River, and Anderson Valley. beergifts.com/dads-ipa-beer-gift-box

DRINK YOUR WAY ACROSS THE USABrewers aren’t the only ones innovating in the craft-beer space. When it comes to show-ing off your exquisite taste in beer, the maps from Beer Cap Maps set the standard. This new corrugated steel map of the USA complements their range of wooden maps with a raw industrial feel—perfect for your downtown loft or any room decorated to look like one. beercapmaps.com

A PERFECT POUR EVERY TIMEGet a perfect head on every beer you pour using Fizzics’ unique dispensing system. It only takes 4 AA batteries (no extra gas or anything else to buy) and works with whatever format you buy beer in—cans, bottles, and even growlers. A great head is both visually appealing and releases vital aromatics that impact your perception of � avor, and Fizzics is a great way to get a draft-quality head on everyday beer. � zzics.com

GREAT COFFEE, DELIVEREDWhether you’re adding it to the beer you brew or drinking it straight, great coffee always makes a great gift. And with Corvus Coffee’s subscription program, you get exquisite single-origin direct trade coffee delivered directly to your door every 7, 14, or 30 days. Corvus is a favorite of brewers in their home state of Colorado, and it’ll become your favorite, too. corvuscoffee.com

THIS BEER IS SERIOUS BUSINESSIf the man you’re giving to isn’t the “gift basket” type, send him the business casual craft-beer briefcase from Give Them Beer. The selection of hoppy beers included is � rst rate—Ballast Point Sculpin, Bear Republic Racer 5, Bell’s Two Hearted, etc.—but the specially designed briefcase and stainless steel opener are sure to make an unforgettable impression. Who wouldn’t want to take beer to a party in one of these? givethembeer.com

BEER FOR YOUR BEARDCraftsman Soap, known for their range of beer soap, also offers some of the coolest oil for your beard. Their “hops � ower” beard oil will imbue your facial hair with the familiar hops notes of citrus and pine, and Craftsman kicks that up a notch by blending in some grapefruit and pepper. If you want your beard to match your mood, try the sampler, with three varieties (bourbon barrel, sandalwood spice, and back country forest) packaged in a special tin perfect for gift-giving. craftsmansoapco.com

BEERANDBREWING.COM | 19

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SPONSORED CONTENT

DRINK & SCRATCHSocial drinking apps might be all the rage, but this unique “99 Bottles of Craft Beer On The Wall” poster from Pop Chart Lab goes old-school letting you track the beers you drink by physically scratching off the metallic gold coating with a coin, like a lottery scratch-off. The poster itself is beautiful and an attractive excuse for trying beers across a range of styles, with the added satisfaction of visually tracking your progress as you go. popchartlab.com

LIGHTER, STRONGER, BETTERAll self-respecting brewers or beer lovers should have a bottle opener on them at all times—you never know when the need will arise—and the Spine Wallet makes that easy with their lightweight titanium minimalist wallet. Perfectly sized to carry a few cards and a bit of cash, it won’t weigh you down but you’ll never come up empty-handed. spinewallet.com

A LIFE JACKET FOR YOUR BEERIf you love to travel and bring back beer, but hate the expense and inconvenience of styrofoam shippers, Brewhug has an innovative solution in the form of their self-in� ating bottle protector. It folds � at when not in use, making it easy to transport, and the quality is � rst-rate with ultrasonic welded seams and a rip stop nylon skin. brewhug.com

THE CLEANSING POWER OF HOPSThis all-natural soap from The Beerded Beard is naturally colored with the chlorophyll from hops, contains ground oatmeal to moisturize and exfoliate as it cleans, and is packed with hops goodness. The perfect gift for any hop head, brewer, or beer lover. beerdedbeard.com

THE ART OF THE FLIGHTServe beers at home in style with the “Beer is Art” personalized beer � ight set from Home Wet Bar. The sampler glasses included with the set are the same ones the Craft Beer & Brewing blind-tasting panel uses when reviewing, and the natural wood tray can be personalized making it a great gift for any beer lover. homewetbar.com

20 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

| HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE |

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SPONSORED CONTENT

HIGHEST QUALITY BOTTLINGYou put so much care into making your beer, but if you package it poorly, oxygen can turn your bright and beautiful beer into a stale mess. The Blichmann Beer Gun solves this problem elegantly, with dual-function CO2 purging and beer � lling all in an easy-to-use one-handed wand. It’s a worthwhile upgrade for anyone focused on maintaining the quality of their homebrew. blichmannengineering.com

HEAT AND COOL INTERNALLY WITH BREW JACKETWhether you’re keeping your lager fermentation cool or ratcheting up the heat to get the right � avors from your saison yeast, the new Immer-sion Pro from Brew Jacket has you covered. The dual-stage heating and cooling functions let you do more with less, and the compact nature of the system is fantastic for those who don’t have the space for dedicated fridges just for fermentation. Works with an array of fermentors, too! brewjacket.com

GREAT BEER STARTS WITH GREAT WATERThe right water pro� le is the key to brewing great examples of many beer styles, but testing in the past has been a serious pain. The Smart Brew Water Testing kit from Industrial Test Systems makes it simple with chemical reagents plus a Bluetooth-enabled photometer and smartphone app that allow you to test and track 40 parameters. Get the info you need in about 20 seconds, and take the guesswork out of your brewing water. sensafe.com/smartbrewkit/

BEAUTIFUL A great kettle makes brew day easier and much less stressful, and the kettles from Spike Brewing are some of the best. With sanitary welds (so no nasty stuff gets trapped in your kettle), tri-clad bottoms, internal volume markings, and the thickest walls on the market, these kettles can take whatever you dish out and will provide years and years of faithful brewing service. Step up to Spike and take the hassle out of brew day. spikebrewing.com

ET TU, BRUTE?If you brew larger batches—15 gallons or more—you know how long it can take to cool that wort down to pitching temperature, and the longer it takes the more risk you see from opportunistic organisms that love to spoil beer. The Brutus Double Barrel 225 from Exchillerator solves that problem by sandwiching two copper tubes for wort inside of the 1" PEX tubing exterior, allowing for faster throughput and speedier chilling. brickriverbrew.com

BEERANDBREWING.COM | 21

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FIVE STARB.S. REMOVER

For Removal of Beer Stone & ScaleDirections For Use

1. Use at a rate of 1 oz. per gallon of water. 2. Allow a contact time of 10 minutes.3. Drain and allow the surface to air dry.4. Rinse and sanitize just prior to next use.

For Stubborn Scale Or StoneFollow the directions above, but do not dilute. Apply full strength to area.

Net Wt: 8 OZ

FIRST AID: Never give anything by mouth to an unconscious person. If you feel unwell, seek medical advice (show the label where possible). If Inhaled: Allow victim to breathe fresh air. Allow the victim to rest. If Skin Contact: Remove affected clothing and wash all exposed skin area with mild soap and water, followed by warm water rinse. If Eye Contact: Rinse immediately with plenty of water. Obtain medical attention if pain, blinking or redness persist. If Ingested: Rinse mouth. Do NOT induce vomiting. Obtain emergency medical attention. PRECAUTIONS FOR SAFE HANDLING: Wash hands and other exposed areas with mild soap and water before eating, drinking or smoking and when leaving work. Provide good ventilation in process area to prevent formation of vapor.

SPONSORED CONTENT

FERMENT FASTERSimplify the fermentation process by eliminating racking and transferring with this 7.9 gallon conical fermentor from Fast Ferment. Easily harvest yeast for reuse and bottle straight from the fermentor after secondary is complete—the handy starter kit includes everything you need to successfully ferment and bottle except the yeast itself! fastbrewing.com

BIG THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGESSmall batch homebrewers don’t often get the bene� t of innovation that occurs on the bigger side of the market, but Ss Brewing Technologies is committed to helping the littlest guys as much as the big ones. Case in point—the new 5.5 gallon kettle and 3.5 gallon Brew Bucket Mini, which make their gorgeous stainless accessible to everyone. All the high-quality features you need are still there—volume markings, heavy duty riveted handles, pro-quality valves—at a size that’s perfect for those with limited space. SsBrewtech.com

GET RID OF BS (BEER STONE)If you brew enough, over time you’ll � nd beer stone/beer scale build up in your kegs, bottles, and anything else that touches beer. This buildup of calcium oxalate can be very dif� cult to clean using traditional methods, and while the buildup itself won’t cause off-� avors, it can provide nooks and crannies for beer spoiling agents to thrive in. Get rid of it with B.S. Remover from Five Star Chemicals, now available to homebrewers. � vestarchemicals.com

SIMPLIFY BREWING WITH THE GRAINFATHERWhat better Father’s Day gift for the homebrewer in your life than The Grainfather? This all-in-one brewing marvel simpli� es the brewing process by mashing and boiling in one vessel (using a built-in perforated stainless bucket plus integrated pump and sparge arm for mashing), and runs using only household-voltage electricity. grainfather.com

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| HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE |

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| LOVE HANDLES |

Map RoomChicago, Illinois

With tasty hard-to-find craft beers and a cozy neighborhood corner bar setting, Map Room offers a welcome and easy-going respite from the pace of the city.

What it is: A classic neighborhood corner bar is sometimes just what you need to off-set the ever-changing landscape of taproom and brewery visits. That’s when I stop into the Map Room on the corner of Hoyne and Armitage in Chicago’s Bucktown neighbor-hood for some local drinking and global thinking. Serving neighbors and travelers for more than twenty years, the Map Room offers locally brewed beers on tap and an internationally focused bottle list.

Why it’s great: The Map Room is an authentic beer bar with cool old-fashioned maps on the walls, tables decorated with foreign coins, and plenty of back issues of National Geographic to peruse. One feels transported upon entering the cozy space to a place where good beer and com-fortable conversation is always on tap. I order a Begyle Oh Hey!, an easy-drinking English-style porter, and relax flipping through an article about Stonehenge.A study of the tap-and-bottle list high-lights the Map Room’s focus on obscure microbrews and international selections. Take a journey through Belgium with a Saison d’Erpe-Mere from Glazen Toren or sip and savor a Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin on nitro. The quality of the beer and the easy-going feel of the bar will make you glad you did. —Sara Dumford

Details Hours: 6:30 a.m.–2:00 a.m., Monday–Friday; 7:30 a.m.–3:00 a.m., Saturday; 11:00 a.m.–2:00 a.m., SundayAddress: 1949 N Hoyne Ave., Chicago, ILWeb: maproom.com

Clouds BrewingRaleigh, North Carolina

A great beer list, reimagined classic American cuisine, and a self-serve wall of taps

What it is: Tucked a few blocks west of the North Carolina capitol building in Raleigh’s historic Glenwood South Neighborhood, Clouds Brewing is pouring beers and dishing out reimagined classic American cuisine in an old Carolina Power & Light garage that’s listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. That electric-industrial feel permeates the space, giving it a sense of energy and activity.

Why it’s great: The beer list and deli-cious pub food would be reason enough to check out Clouds Brewing, but what sets this place apart is The Downpour, a state-of-the-art self-serve wall of taps with ten different offerings that patrons can pour themselves. Upon request, the server will issue an RFID wristband that unlocks all the taps with a wave of the wrist, so you can pour and blend to your heart’s content.

Don’t let the do-it-yourself option of The Downpour lead you to ignore the bar staff. They offer a wealth of knowledge of the thirty other beers on tap; the beers in their massive cellar, including local favor-ites such as Wicked Weed and Fullsteam; and the local Triangle beer scene. If this isn’t enough, they’ve just started serving their own beers, brewed at their off-site brewery. —Eric Reinsvold

Details Hours: 11 a.m.–10 p.m., Monday–Wednesday; 11 a.m.–12 a.m., Thursday & Sunday; 11 a.m.–2 a.m., Friday & SaturdayAddress: 126 N. West St., Raleigh, NCWeb: cloudsbrewing.com

Bridge Tap House & Wine BarSt. Louis, Missouri

The romantic, versatile bar in Dave Bailey’s diverse family of St. Louis restaurants

What it is: Bridge is the downtown spot to go with a group of friends, some of whom prefer wine or spirits. It is also the place to wear your best collar shirt and share an intimate table on the balcony overlooking the long curved bar backed by a library of bottles.

Why it’s great: First, there are the twig chandeliers, a striking large one inside the entrance and others hanging over the bar. Of course, there is the beer selection—the ever-changing list of fifty-five beers on tap is balanced in every way: local, national, and international brands; quiet beers and loud ones; and comfortably familiar beers and “you won’t find this everywhere” choices. The food is dependable, the choices diverse, and the specials are, well, special. But, frankly, it is hard to get past the various boards (such as Warm Heartland Goat Cheese) or the mix-and-match cheese and charcuterie. They work equally well with beer—and encourage the thought to dig a little deeper into the beer menu by choosing from the 4-ounce, 12-ounce, and 20-ounce pours—or wine (twenty are available by the glass). —Stan Hieronymus

Details Hours: 11 a.m.–1 a.m., Monday–Saturday; 11 a.m.–midnight, SundayAddress: 1004 Locust St., St. Louis, MOWeb: thebridgestl.com

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300 Days of Sun, 365 Days of Beer

Colorado is home to so many breweries that one beercation isn’t nearly enough. On your next trip to the Centennial state, venture north of Denver to explore these off-the-beaten-path destinations in one of the state’s brewing hotbeds—the Boulder-to -Longmont corridor. By Jamie Bogner

DENVER MAY BE THE capital of brewing in Colorado, but Boulder (and its close neighbor Longmont) are, arguably, its spiritual center. Home to the Brewers Association, the American Homebrewers Association, and Colorado’s first craft brewery, the Boulder area has a long history of leading and inspiring brewers both inside and outside of the state. It’s no surprise, then, that the breweries formed in this formidable shadow have found acclaim—there’s something in the water, or at least in the regional brewing gene pool, that almost guarantees it.

The big names are familiar—Avery, Oskar Blues, Left Hand—but despite the popularity and scale of their national brands, experiencing them on their home turf is a far more intimate and rewarding experience. Likewise, these institutions have trained and seeded a creative new generation of brewers making their own beer that you’ll rarely find outside of their taproom. So grab a designated driver and get started on this itinerary to sample some of the best that Boulder, Longmont, and the surrounding areas have to offer.

BoulderIf you drink craft beer at all, it’s almost certain you’ve heard the name Avery Brewing at least once. These Boulder-area

stalwarts have been doing their thing for twenty-three years now and have done plenty of pioneering work in barrel-aging and sour-beer fermentation, but most of that history was spent in an unassuming (and parking-challenged) business park lovingly named “the alley.” Last year, Avery built their dream brewery just outside of Boulder in Gunbarrel, and the gleaming temple of the brewer’s craft is a must-visit. If your goal is a meal, book a reservation in advance on Open Table—the limited space in the upstairs dining room gets booked fast, and the alternative is often a two-hour wait for a table. But the good news is the kitchen is fantastic,ߺ and you won’t regret it. If you do have to wait, grab a beer from the bar and stroll through the raised walkways on the self-guided tour overlooking the brewery. Before you leave, check out the cold cases across from the hostess stand—Avery is notorious for stocking it with vintage bottles from their barrel-aged series.

Back in Boulder proper, a visit to one of the Upslope Brewing locations should be next on your list. The original brewery on Lee Hill Road now handles small and specialty batches, while the main produc-tion brewery in Flatiron Park pumps out larger volumes of cans, but either offers a deep tap list of beers you won’t find on

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Left Hand Brewing Cofounder Eric Wallace enjoys a stout on the taproom patio of their Longmont brewery.

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store shelves. If you visit the Flatiron Park location on a Friday, pop into White Labs’ Colorado office next door and sample some of the test batches brewed with their range of brewer’s yeast.

Minutes away is Fate Brewing, a clean, modern, stylishly appointed brewpub just up Arapahoe Road. It’s perpetually busy, thanks to a winning combination of solid beer and creative menu. They’re most known for lighter styles, such as their Laimas Kölsch (2014 GABF gold medal winner) and Uror Gose, and their brewing is understandably focused on lighter styles that pair well with meals.

Similar, but different, is the brewpub Brü, also on Arapahoe. Here, Chef Ian Clark brews beer to accompany his food, with culinary-inspired flavor combina-

is one you crave, then a visit to the Bohe-mian Biergarten won’t disappoint.

If you’re looking for bottles to take back home, do yourself a favor and first check Hazel’s Beverage World. Those visiting from more beer-challenged states might be taken aback upon stepping into Hazel’s—it’s the size of a grocery store and even features a P-51 Mustang hanging from the rafters. Wednesdays and Thurs-days are great days to shop—the very rare releases go quickly once they make it onto the store shelves. Liquor Mart is similarly scaled with door after door full of local and regional craft beer and worth a visit.

Lastly, Colorado law only allows compa-nies to own a single retail beer, wine, and liquor location, so every store in the entire state is a one-off (there are no chains). However, even the big grocery chains have taken advantage of their legal right to operate a single liquor store, and Whole Foods located theirs in Boulder.

If you’re making a longer day of it, there are plenty of other solid beer locations in Boulder—Finkel & Garf’s mid-century mod taproom is just down the road from Avery; West Flanders offers just-okay beer from a phenomenal location on the Pearl Street mall; Mountain Sun brewpub has won ten GABF medals over the years and is renowned for stout month every Febru-ary; the Sundown Saloon on Pearl Street is known for cheap pitchers and college kids but keeps an impressive bottle list that you’d never expect to see; Twisted Pine will melt your face off with their Ghost Face Killah chile beer; and Sanitas Brewing is growing their reputation for creative and well-crafted beers.

Clockwise from top left » Upslope Brewing’s Flatirons Park taproom; White Labs operates a satellite office in Boulder next to Upslope; Fate Brewing’s rugged exterior houses a beautiful modern interior and great beer; Backcountry Pizza’s sixty-eight taps are a must-visit for serious beer fans in Boulder.

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tions, and uses the by-products from brewing as ingredients in his dishes—a creative and delicious full-circle approach.

For a more casual menu and an abso-lutely stunning tap and bottle list, make your next stop at Backcountry Pizza. Own-er John Fayman is a true beer lover, an in-vestor in Wyoming’s Melvin Brewing, and is currently working to open Denver’s first sour-beer bar, Goed Zuur. It’s no surprise, then, that the sixty-eight taps include beers you won’t find anywhere else in Col-orado or that the bottle list includes deep sour selections from Russian River, Jolly Pumpkin, Jester King, Crooked Stave, and a handful of Belgium’s best.

If history is your thing, Colorado’s first craft brewery, Boulder Beer, is worth a stop. And if the Czech beerhall experience

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Solids. Yes, that’s the one with the painted silo attached to it, so you just can’t miss it. And for something entirely different, Oskar Blues even has the Cyclops Cantina with street tacos, more beer, margaritas, and their very own bike shop.

For more beer and less lifestyle brand-ing, swing over to Left Hand Brewing and grab a pint of Nitro Milk Stout (rated a 97 by CB&B) from the source. This employee-owned brewery loves to have fun and puts on great festivals just about every other month—from their Hops and Handrails rail jam in March to Nitrofest every November.

One of the newest additions to the Long-mont brewing scene is Wibby Brewing, focused solely on lager brewing, and their IPL (along with their cool open industrial taproom) is worth the visit.

If bottles are your thing, then make a stop by Wyatt’s Wet Goods and stock up from their deep selection of local and international bottles and cans. Beer-cen-tric spot Parry’s Pizza has just opened a fourth location around the corner from Wyatt’s with 100 taps that focus on really great Colorado beer. Or if you’re in the mood for a Longmont classic, a stop at The Pumphouse will net you some solid pub food and average in-house beers, but their guest taps are always killer.

LafayetteThree years ago, this section would not exist in a story about the area’s beer. But boy, how times change. In that short time, Lafayette has gained two excellent breweries (and a third that most would agree is “good”), turning it into quite the destination.

From top » The open industrial space at Wibby Brewing offers a comfortable environment for tasting their craft lagers; a moose head keeps watch over the Oskar Blues Tasty Weasel taproom; crowlers (32 oz can growlers) allow the bar staff to can taproom–only specialties at the Tasty Weasel.

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NiwotAs you head from Boulder toward Longmont, make a point to stop in the tiny town of Niwot for not one but two quality breweries—Bootstrap Brewing and Powder Keg. At Bootstrap, grab a pint of their Insane Rush IPA and kick back on the outdoor patio. At Powder Keg, hope they have some of their Palisade Reunion peach wild ale available, but if not, they offer a wide selection of their own beers in addition to a healthy tap list of guest beers from folks such as Perennial, Firestone Walker, Melvin, and more.

LyonsIf beer is your goal, then there’s only a sin-gle reason to go to Lyons (other than the fantastic mountain biking at Hall Ranch and my favorite bike shop on the planet, Redstone Cycles)—it’s the original Oskar Blues brewpub location. Before the private equity investment and acquisitions, it all started right there. If you’re a fan of the brand, it’s a necessary pilgrimage.

Longmont The Oskar Blues “empire” extends to neighboring Longmont, and they own and operate no fewer than four separate loca-tions here. The main Oskar Blues brewery features the Tasty Weasel taproom with skeeball lanes that overlook one of their canning lines and an extensive array of taproom-only beers. For casual burgers with your beer, head over to Chuburger and order a Berk Burger—the ground pork patty, bacon, carmelized onions, and blue-cheese butter are exquisite in their excess. For a sit down Southern-style meal, try OB’s Homemade Liquids and

30 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

| BEERCATION: BOULDER-LONGMONT |

Page 35: Craft beer & brewing magazine

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A few blocks away, Odd 13 Brewing has watched their star rise in 2016 on the strength of very cre-ative, hazy, hoppy beers such as their Codename: Su-perfan IPA. A new separate production brewery with a 30bbl brewhouse joins the 10bbl

brewhouse at the taproom, allowing them to pump out cans in greater volume to meet the demand for those soft and fluffy IPAs that are in short supply in the state.

If you have the time, stop by Liquid Mechanics in Lafayette and grab a glass of their Peanut Butter Porter before heading off to your next stop.

ErieThe Old Mine combines a cidery and craft-beer bar with a light menu of pizzas and smoked meats. With a dozen of their own various ciders on tap—everything from dry-hopped to blueberry to bar-rel-aged—plus another dozen craft beers with a strong leaning toward vintage sours and stouts, it’s a great place to visit if you’re traveling with someone who doesn’t love beer quite as much as you. Take a peek at the bottle list while you’re there—they’ve been known to put back some Belgian gems.

Clockwise from Top Left » Cannonball Creek Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado, is known for their hoppy beers; Brewmaster Bryan Selders of The Post Brewing has shifted focus to sessionable beers; Odd 13’s tap list showcases their ambitious approach to hops, sour beers, and barrel-aged projects.

First up is The Post Brewing, devel-oped by a local restaurant group known for high-quality restaurants. Normally, you hear “restaurant group” and cringe at the thought of bland beer, but to do it right they recruited Bryan Selders, former Dogfish Head brewmaster, and set him loose to build a brewhouse and brew beer that complements their culinary offerings. While Selders was known for genre-defying beers at Dogfish Head, he’s gone the other direction at The Post, refining simple, ses-sionable beers into an immaculately crafted lineup. The 4.5 percent ABV Howdy Beer Pilsner is tight, crisp, and palate cleansing, while the 6 percent ABV Cul-de-Sac oatmeal stout is one of the tastiest you will ever have the pleasure of drinking. The most fun way to enjoy the beers is in the 21+ Elkhorn Room in the back—the ersatz Elk or Moose “lodge” with padded leather barstools and trophies mounted on the walls is kitschy, but the beer is the absolute truth. PH

OTOS

: JAM

IE B

OGNE

R

There’s More To Golden Than Coors

Any discussion of Colorado beer inevitably involves Coors and their massive brewery in Golden, Colorado. But lately, Golden has been getting noticed by craft-beer fans for another brewing destination—Cannonball Creek Brewing Company. In a nonde-script strip mall behind a 7-Eleven and next to an Anytime Fitness, Cannonball Creek has quietly been pumping out some of the best hoppy beers in the state.

It took a while for people to no-tice—they sell just about everything they make in their own taproom and don’t distribute the beer out-side of a few special occasions—but the secret is out. On one recent Sunday afternoon visit, it was almost impossible to find a parking place in the parking lot, as car after car of mountain bikers stopped in for post-ride refreshments.

It’s tough to make the trip to Golden for a single brewery, but if you’re heading out of Denver into the mountains, it’s only 8 minutes off of I-70 and worth the detour. Grab a pint of their Mindbender IPA, or if you’re lucky, they’ll have the latest incarnation of their Project Alpha series of experi-mental IPAs.

32 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

| BEERCATION: BOULDER-LONGMONT |

Page 37: Craft beer & brewing magazine

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The Beatniks

WHAT STARTED AS A tiny 20-gallon brewery tucked in the back of an eccentric Thai food restaurant in downtown Jack-son, Wyoming, has become a production facility with a 30-barrel brewhouse in Alpine, Wyoming, and will become a new tap house in Bellingham, Washington, later this year to boot.

Meet Jeremy Tofte (center), the ski bum who opened Thai Me Up in tourist town Jackson in 2000. “At the restaurant, we have two TVs. They both play Kung Fu,” he says. “We only listen to hip hop. We have secret things on the menu that tour-ists don’t know about because we’ve got to take care of the locals.”

World Beer Cup gold. Multiple GABF golds. Back-to-back wins in the Alpha King Challenge. Small brewpub of the Year. Up until a few months ago, Melvin Brewing might have been the most decorated 3 BBL brew-house in the country. And the only reason they’re not now is the addition of a gleaming new 30 BBL brewhouse, production facility, and canning line in Alpine, Wyoming. These self-professed Kung Fu and hip hop fanatics, with beers named in honor of the Wu-Tang Clan, are on the march to take their brand of unrepentant hops-forward beers to beer fans throughout the Rock-ies and PNW. Can anything stop them? By Emily Hutto

“Everyone who works at Melvin has a chip on their shoulder,” adds Tofte of his offbeat businesses. “I have this theory that it’s us against the world.”

In 2010, Tofte installed a 20-gallon sys-tem in the back of Thai Me Up. The next year Tofte installed the 3-barrel system that’s currently in place and called on Mel-vin Cofounder and current Head Brewer Kirk McHale (far left) to help him develop recipes. McHale flew to Jackson and post-ed up at the bar with Tofte. The result was 2x4 Double IPA and Melvin IPA.

All good beer recipes start on a napkin, Tofte says. “It sounds cheesy, but that’s exactly what happened... well, more like a scratch piece of paper instead of a napkin. Kirk and I sat down at the bar at Thai Me Up and wrote recipes for 2x4 and Melvin IPA, just playing around with ideas and flavors and thoughts. We brewed those two beers almost exclusively for the next six months, aside from a couple of porters and a strong ale.”

“Dear (insert your name here), This is the best damn DIPA in the world,” explains the beer description for 2x4. This PH

OTOS

: © M

ELVI

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34 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

| BREAKOUT BREWER: MELVIN BREWING |

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beer, a gentle beast with citrus and floral, is deceiving—it doesn’t drink like its 10 percent ABV. Then there’s Melvin IPA, an intense, fruit-forward IPA focused on aroma instead of bitterness. Melvin IPA weighs in at 7.5 percent ABV. “These beers got better and better every time we brewed them,” Tofte remembers of those early days. “We would roll in every morn-ing and drink coffee, listen to some hip hop, and just make shit up as we went.”

Arguably, Thai Me Up is responsible for Jackson’s best beer list. It has twenty taps, ten dedicated to Melvin beers and ten for the best beers that can be found in that part of the country, says Tofte. “What we can get in Wyoming isn’t too extensive,” he admits, “but we get the very best beer on tap that we possibly can.”

Thai Me Up’s curated beer list was good for both morale and beer quality when Melvin got started. “People tasted our beers side by side with other breweries’ [beers] that they knew; the beer list showed that we weren’t afraid to be up there with everyone else. We’re proud of our beer.”

Thai Me Up was slow for the first few years (after Tofte took it back over after sell-

ing it on eBay and surfing in exotic places around the world for two years), and there were even a few times that Tofte thought the company might go out of business. “We almost went out of business pursuing the dream,” he says, “but we seemed to always have these last-second heroic saves that helped us get over the top. Selling my 1978 Mercedes Wagon to buy the initial brew system was one of them... and then there were all the medals.”

In 2012, Melvin’s 2x4 and Melvin IPA took home gold medals from the Great American Beer Festival; their Chch-chch-Cherry Bomb fruit beer took home the GABF silver. In 2014, 2x4 won the World Beer Cup gold medal while Chch-chch-Cherry Bomb won a bronze. Then in 2015, Chchchch-Cherry Bomb won a GABF gold and Melvin IPA won a GABF bronze in the Wet Hops category. In addi-tion, Melvin was awarded the prestigious Small Brewpub of the Year Award from the Brewers Association.

“We’ve had to brew a lot of those beers a lot more after [the awards],” Tofte says, regaling me with tales of brewing contract batches of 2X4 and Melvin IPA on the

30-barrel system at nearby Grand Teton Brewing Company to meet the demand. “We’ve always experimented and had fun, but if we didn’t have it on [tap], people would be like, ‘Dude where’s Melvin IPA?’”

Expansion was inevitable for Melvin. It took shape in the form of the brewery’s current production facility in Alpine, Wyo-ming, where Melvin flagships Melvin IPA, 2x4 DIPA, Hubert (what the brewery calls a Melvin pale ale and others call an IPA), Killer Bees (American blond ale), and Clinic ISA (session IPA) are brewed. The increased production of these beers allows Tofte to use the brewhouse at Thai Me Up to keep the beer list rotating with one-offs and experimental batches. Included in this lineup are copious double IPAs that come out of Melvin’s RIIPA, the Rotation-al Imperial India Pale Ale series.

Melvin might be focused on a hoppy beer list that sports five Double IPAs, but “we’re not one-trick ponies,” says Tofte. “We’re always playing around with different hops and their timings. We make Belgians, im-perial porters, coffee porters.” The list goes on to include Jungle Juice, a red raspberry ale and Heyzeus! (a Mexican lager) among many others. The brewery is also developing a sour-beer program that will launch next year and soon will debut the Manual Release Series, named after its manual bottler than can fill about fifteen cases of beer each hour. Manual Release will be an experimental series that focuses on barrel aging as well as different grains and yeast strains. 

“Basically, we’re going to keep leaking out crazy beers to people,” Tofte says. “We’re always going for it. Always putting the cart before the horse. It’s always worked. The gut knows. The beer gut knows.”

Left » Melvin IPA won a bronze for fresh or wet hopped ale at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival, and in February (2016) Melvin finally released cans into several markets in the Rockies and Pacific Northwest. Above » The new 30 BBL brewhouse in Alpine, Wyoming, is a far cry from the 3 BBL system in the back of the Thai Me Up restaurant in Jackson Hole where they got their start.

36 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

| BREAKOUT BREWER: MELVIN BREWING |

Page 41: Craft beer & brewing magazine

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38 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

| BREAKOUT BREWER: EL SEGUNDO BREWING COMPANY |

pHop HeadsThe

From wet-hopped beers to the freshest possible bottles offered to drinkers to the unquenchable desire to keep refining and keep showing drinkers a new side of hoppy beers, El Segundo Brewing has become L.A.’s premier IPA brewery. By John Verive

IN A SLEEPY BEACH TOWN less than twenty miles from downtown Los Ange-les, a five-year-old craft brewery is on a mission to change how people see—and taste—hoppy beer. El Segundo Brewing Company has quickly evolved from a favorite of local beer geeks to a destina-tion in L.A.’s thriving South Bay craft-beer scene. And now, the hops-obsessed brewery is gaining national attention for a unique collaboration with an icono-clastic entertainer. At the end of 2015, El Segundo Brewing (ESBC) partnered with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin—legendary professional wrestler turned reality TV

star and podcaster—to craft Austin’s ideal IPA. The result was Broken Skull IPA, and it’s more than just an off-the-shelf IPA adorned with a celebrity name. The beer, which ESBC Founder and Brewmaster Rob Croxall calls a “hybrid of old-school and new-school IPAs,” was designed from the ground up to appeal to Austin’s tastes, and it has become a massive crossover hit with a whole new demographic.

“He’s got a pretty good palate,” Croxall says. “He knows what he likes, and he’ll tell you if he doesn’t like something.” The ESBC team got to know Austin’s pref-erences, which tend toward the classic California craft flavors of C-hops, and Croxall wrote a recipe that combined the iconic character of Cascade and Chinook hops in the kettle with a Citra-heavy dry hop. Showcasing a bold mid-palate hops flavor and more subdued bitterness and aromatics than the typical ESBC IPA, PH

OTO:

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Page 43: Craft beer & brewing magazine

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40 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

| BREAKOUT BREWER: EL SEGUNDO BREWING COMPANY |

Broken Skull strikes the balance of quaffable and striking that Austin was looking for. “I may be biased,” Austin told the assembled throng of wrestling fans (who greatly outnumbered craft-beer fans) during the Broken Skull release party at the brewery, “but it’s a damn good beer!”

Broken Skull, with its emphasis on hops flavor over aromatics, is a departure for ESBC, even among the brewery’s more than two dozen other IPAs. When the brewery launched in 2011, they brewed a flagship IPA that showcased Simcoe hops and a wheat-heavy and Nelson Sau-vin-hopped IPA called White Dog. They soon added a double IPA to the mix, and as Croxall got more comfortable in the pro-

varieties to create a layered and distinctive flavor profile. Even after a couple of dozen different hoppy beers—from the crowd-fa-vorite Mayberry IPA that’s rich with the tropical dankness of Mosaic hops to the diesel-oil punch of Nelson Sauvin hops that defines Hop Tanker DIPA to a pair of wins at the prestigious Bistro Double IPA Festival during San Francisco Beer Week in 2014 and 2015—Croxall doesn’t see any end to his focus on the hoppy side of beer. “It isn’t so much about making the next new IPA; it’s about finding these great in-gredients and learning how to use them,” he says. “There’s always a new oddball hops variety to play with. I haven’t had a chance to use the Idaho 7 hops yet….” His voice trails off, and it’s clear that his mind is already working on an idea to showcase the hype-heavy new variety.

Croxall has the deep tan and laid-back demeanor that you expect from a SoCal native, but he also has a ceaselessly analyt-ical mind. Before opening the brewery, he worked in the aerospace industry, but in finance rather than engineering. A decade plus of crunching numbers has left him well-tuned to evaluate the economics of his brewing operations. The brewery’s growth has been fast, but it’s been very controlled, as Croxall has added trucks

“ It’s incumbent on the breweries to make quality beer, to have quality beer on the shelf. We have to make sure when drinkers try craft beer for the first time that it’s a good experience; otherwise you could scare those people away forever. It’s not just attracting customers to the craft seg-ment; it’s about retaining them.”

duction brewhouse, more new IPA recipes found their way onto the brewing schedule.

Co-owner and Director of Sales and Marketing Thomas Kelley helped push his partner further into his hops obsession. “We didn’t set out to be the IPA brewery,” Kelley says, “but when we were entering the market in that first year, there was no [other brewery] in L.A. saying ‘we make hoppy beer; that’s what we do,’ so I told Rob that we needed to typecast ourselves.”

“I wanted to brew the stuff that I love to drink, and I love hoppy beers,” Croxall adds. “It’s always been where my heart is.” His goal is to show off the incredible diversity that hops offer, and he has a knack for mixing and matching hops

Clockwise from top left » ESBC Brewmaster and Cofounder Rob Croxall pulls a sample off a zwickel; loyal taproom customers line up for ESBC’s hoppy beers; Steve Austin’s Broken Skull IPA has raised the profile of the brewery; the brewery exterior is unassuming, but demand led ESBC to quadruple the taproom size in 2015.

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Page 45: Craft beer & brewing magazine

Hoppy: adjective hop·py \’hä-pe\Definition: Having the smell or taste of hops.

But that’s not the whole story for Southern Tier beers. Our Pack-o-Pales explodes in all directions with hop flavors and aromas from floral and tropical to piney and earthy.

Pack-o-Pales will challenge what you think of the word “hoppy,” from Tangier’s spicy Azacca hops to 2XIPA’s intense, passionfruit & pine loaded Simcoe hops and everything in between.

Explore the full meaning of “hoppy.” Explore Pack-o-Pales.

Page 46: Craft beer & brewing magazine

42 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

MAKE IT

White Dog IPAEl Segundo Brewing Company Founder and Brewmaster Rob Croxall shared this recipe for one of the first IPAs he brewed.

ALL-GRAIN

Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)Brewhouse efficiency: 70%OG: 1.061FG: 1.010IBU: 44ABV: 6.7%

MALT/GRAIN BILL

7 lb (3.2 kg) 2-row base malt6 lb (2.7 kg) White Wheat malt0.5 lb (227 g) rice hulls (if you’re con-cerned about a stuck mash)

HOPS SCHEDULE

1 oz (28 g) Chinook [11.1% AA] at 60 minutes

1 oz (28 g) Cascade at 5 minutes1 oz (28 g) Nelson Sauvin at 5 minutes0.5 oz (14 g) Chinook dry hop 7 days1 oz (28 g) Cascade dry hop 7 days2 oz (57 g) Nelson Sauvin dry hop 7 days

YEAST

White Labs WLP0001 or Wyeast 1056

DIRECTIONS

Mash at 148°F (64°C) for 60 minutes. Sparge at 168°F (75°C), bring to a boil, and boil for 60 minutes following the hops schedule. Whirlpool and cool to 68°F (20°C) rapidly. Maintain fermenta-tion temperature at 68°F (20°C). Once primary fermentation and diacetyl rest are complete, drop the temperature to 60°F (15°C) and dry hop for 7 days. Don’t use a filter or finings; the beer should finish with a medium haze but shouldn’t be murky. Carbonate to 2.5 vols of CO2.

and cooperage and more staff to support all the expansion of production capacity.

Building the business on the strength of IPA sales poses a unique set of challenges for the small brewery that produced about 4,500 barrels of beer in 2015. “Freshness is of paramount importance,” the brewer says. “It’s part of our identity.” This obsession with freshness led to what the brewery calls its “Day One” program. Each month, one of the brewery’s hoppy brands is bottled and sent to retailers across California. “It’s in drinkers’ hands literally hours after we bottled it,” Croxall says—no small feat for a self-distributing brewery. Croxall believes that controlling quality and keeping fresh beer on the shelves is too important to leave up to wholesalers. Day One events started as a way to edu-cate consumers about the importance of freshness, and hops-conscious drinkers in Los Angeles are savvier to the importance of cold storage and bottled-on dates than ever before.

“It’s incumbent on the breweries to make quality beer, to have quality beer on the shelf. We have to make sure when drinkers try craft beer for the first time that it’s a good experience; otherwise you could scare those people away forever. It’s not just attracting customers to the craft segment; it’s about retaining them.”

The freshness awareness campaign propagated through social media and won many new fans for the brewery, which quadrupled the size of its tasting room

in 2015 and added more cellar capacity. “We’re pretty much maxed out in this facility,” the brewer says with a hint of wonder in his voice. “Now we’re focused on improving processes and becoming more efficient.”

“I grew up in El Segundo, and this is where I want [my business] to be. Los An-geles has such a huge, diverse population, and we’re just scratching the surface.”

“Where’s the ceiling for IPA?” Kelley asks rhetorically. “Do you see a ceiling? We’re still not there. We keep adding tanks, and we keep blowing the ceiling off. So I guess we’ll just keep making IPA.”

In the fall of 2015, the brewery organized “Wet Hop Weekend”—a days-long cele-bration of the hops harvest that featured a lineup of specialty brews cooked up with the bounty of freshly harvested hops that Croxall had secured. The brewery’s fans lined the street before the doors opened and crowded around the bar three or four deep to get a taste of the unique offerings.

Croxall sees no sign of the fervor for hops diminishing. “The sky’s the limit for IPA,” Croxall answers. “People new to craft beer sometimes think that all IPAs taste the same, but what sets our hoppy beers apart is that you can taste the differ-ence. You can always taste the hops we’re using, and that’s something that we’ve always stuck to.”

Above » “Stone Cold” Steve Austin shows off the hybrid old school-new school IPA that’s bringing flavorful craft beer to new audiences in Southern California.

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BEERANDBREWING.COM | 43

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Cellarmaker Brewing Company is one of the most cellar-focused craft breweries in San Francisco, if not the country, and accordingly named. From their geography-defying take on hazy IPAs and pales to an unwavering focus on freshness, they’ve built a reputation as a Bay Area institution in less than three years. By Emily Hutto

MEET YOUR MAKERS— Tim Sciascia, Connor Casey, and Kelly Caveney. This trio founded Cellarmaker Brewing Com-pany in San Francisco’s SoMa district in 2013. Their business is built around the idea that great beer isn’t just made on brew day; it’s developed over time during fermentation and aging.

“The growing mantra around here is that beer is truly formed in the cellar over days, weeks, months, and years with less impor-tance being placed on the actual brew day,” says Tim Sciascia. “‘Cellarmaker’ is a play off that idea.”

Sciascia graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in his hometown Boston with a degree in classical saxophone performance. “During those years, I began homebrewing and formed an insatiable taste for everything beer. After college, I be-gan giving tours at the Sam Adams Boston Brewery. I was hooked from then on out.”

Sciascia would eventually pack his life into his car and drive across the country

to wash kegs at Marin Brewing Company in Larkspur, California. They eventually let him touch the brewing equipment, on which he brewed for five years before the inception of Cellarmaker.

Sciascia met his business partners, Connor Casey and Kelly Caveney, when they were all working at Marin Brewing. Casey also worked at City Beer Store, and Caveney’s decade plus in the industry in-cluded a stint bartending at Russian River Brewing Company.

Russian River was a big influence on the hoppy beers that Sciascia would go on to make at Cellarmaker. “Our hoppy style began with much influence from Russian River’s high hopping and restrained malt bills,” he says. “I think from there we further held back bitterness and began drying out the beer a bit more. Some of our beers were not clearing up, and we began to assess why that was. Our pref-erence shifted, not completely but 50/50, toward these hazy-to-opaque pale ales and IPAs. We discerned a difference between the flavor, aroma, and mouthfeel in the same beer that was cloudy as opposed to clear. We now brew either way depending on how we feel at the moment or how a beer may speak to us.”

The huge spectrum of hops flavor and aroma available is one of the reasons Sciascia and crew can brew for the moment. “The variability in hops flavor and aroma alone can create a spectrum that can mimic malt and yeast, spices and fruit. We get really excited about discovering and combining new and old hops varieties in our beers to explore that spectrum,” he says, adding, “Hops are on top these days for a reason.”

Cellarmaker crafts a multitude of hoppy beers, including the potent Hop Killah that uses Citra and Simcoe hops; the four-grain Cantaloupe Island IPA brewed with oats, spelt, barley, and wheat, and generously hopped with Citra, HBC 344, and Simcoe hops; and the Alpha Redux, an IPA ampli-fied with Vienna and Munich malts and ag-gressively bittered with mid-boil Columbus hops. Alpha Redux also employs Simcoe, Equinox, Citra, and Mosaic hops.

Earlier this year, Cellarmaker announced that it would begin bottling its hoppy beers in limited quantities. “Bottled hoppy beer is a huge point of contention among many brewers and drinkers,” said a press release about the new bottles. “We are very divided on the issue of bottled hoppy beer,” adds Sciascia. “We refused to do it until we felt that our main customer base had reached a level of freshness education and that we had found a format that gave us every tool available to help ensure the beer is drunk quickly.”

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Page 49: Craft beer & brewing magazine

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Page 50: Craft beer & brewing magazine

Those tools, including a bottled-on date and label instructions for consuming and storage, demonstrate Cellarmaker’s mission to care for its beer long beyond brew day and through its shelf life. “During my formative brewing years, I would go down to the local beer store and buy a six-pack of this or a bomber of that. When I got home, all too often those beers were oxidized and stale,” Sciascia remembers. “It’s a lesson that’s dif-ficult to learn for a hardcore beer drinker, let alone the casual taster. Brewers themselves are doing better at pushing freshness, but there’s a lot to improve. I never want a Cellar-maker customer to be sold a less-than-stellar product, whether they know it or not.”

For those reasons, Sciascia explains, he, Casey, and Caveney plan to keep the brewery small and self-distributing. Their bottles are date-stamped (month-day-year format), and drinkers are encouraged to consume these beers within twenty-one days of bottling. Thus far, Cellarmaker has released Dank Williams, a tropical Double IPA brewed with New Zealand hops, and Mt. Nelson, a pale ale brewed with 100 percent Nelson Sauvin hops at 2.5 pounds (1.1 kg) of hops per barrel.

In addition to IPAs and pale ales, Cellar-maker also crafts a variety of small-batch beers that let them experiment with differ-ent hops, grains, barrels, and yeasts. For example, they make a dry-hopped blonde ale, Daphne, and a smoked coffee porter, called Coffee & Cigarettes, that uses local-ly roasted coffee beans from San Fran-

cisco’s Sightglass Coffee. There are often barrel-aged selections on the brewery’s tap list and an occasional kettle-soured beer such as the SoMa Vice #2 Berliner Weisse fermented with pureed guava and mango.

Cellarmaker brews on a 10-barrel brew-house attached to a small tasting room between 7th and 8th Streets on Howard Street. Upon opening, Cellarmaker quick-ly became a neighborhood hub. When Cellarmaker started offering growler fills in other breweries’ growlers, it became the town hero. “When the brewery opened, a law about filling other breweries’ growlers was just ‘clarified,’” Sciascia explains. “The ABC added the fact that in order to fill a growler that doesn’t have your logo, you have to obscure the logo somehow and add your own info to it while leaving the government warning and having proper label approval. We wrap painter’s tape or black stretch wrap around the growler and then add a hanging tag with all the approved info and warnings.”

Growler fills were hardly the most chal-lenging barrier for Cellarmaker, or any brewery getting started in San Francisco for that matter. “The cost of opening a brewery in San Francisco is almost pro-hibitive with rents soaring,” Sciascia says. “If you can get through that, however, this is a thirsty, ever-growing market ready for as much good beer as you can give it. Beer city? Not until recently, if yet, but it has been an Epicurean city for a while. Beer is really making its impact now.”

MAKE IT

Underberg and Cigarettes RecipeTim Sciascia of Cellarmaker Brewing Co. in San Francisco, California, brewed this beer for GKR, owner of Good Karma Veg-an Cafe in San Jose, California. It uses Underberg, an herbal bitter digestif with a strong licorice flavor that is aged in Slo-venian oak casks for many months. You can find three-packs of 20 ml bottles at specialty liquor stores. When infused into this recipe, it creates a sophisticated brew with hints of anise and herbs, bittersweet cacao, and a restrained smoky bite.

ALL-GRAIN

Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)Brewhouse efficiency: 72%OG: 1.076FG: 1.018IBUs: 53ABV: 7.1%

MALT/GRAIN BILL6.6 lb (3 kg) Canadian 2-row pale malt5 lb (2.3 kg) Scottish Golden Promise malt1.3 lb (590 g) chocolate malt1.2 lb (544 g) German Beechwood smoked malt7 oz (198 g) brown malt2.3 oz (65 g) black malt

HOPS SCHEDULE1.65 oz (47 g) Amarillo [9.2% AA] at 75 minutes2 oz (57 g) Hersbrucker [2.75% AA] (or other low alpha European-aroma hops variety—Cellarmaker uses Styrian Celeia) at whirlpool/flameout

YEASTWhite Labs WLP002

DIRECTIONSSingle-infusion mash at 151°F (66°C) for 60 minutes. Boil for 75 minutes. Ferment at 68°F (20°C) until the specif-ic gravity reaches 1.032, then raise the temperature to 72°F (22°C) for a diacetyl rest. Cold condition for 3–5 days and then rack off the yeast. Add one 20 ml Underberg bottle per gallon (3.8 l) of beer yielded. Bottle or keg the beer and carbonate. Serve cold (for the finest flavor) after another week.

“ We are very divided on the issue of bottled hoppy beer. We refused to do it until we felt that our main customer base had reached a level of freshness education and that we had found a format that gave us every tool available to help ensure the beer is drunk quickly.”

46 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

Page 51: Craft beer & brewing magazine

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Page 52: Craft beer & brewing magazine

Intensity & Balance“Balance” is an overused word in brewing parlance, but for Stone Brewmaster Mitch Steele it’s valuable only within the context of intensity and character…

THROUGH HIS YEARS AS a professional brewer, Stone Brewmaster Mitch Steele has done everything from hone the mass production of light lagers to design and brew acclaimed West Coast IPAs. He even wrote the book on the subject of IPA—IPA: Brewing Techniques, Recipes and the Evolution of India Pale Ale. His six-pack is similarly focused on that push-pull between intensity and drinkability.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale(Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Chico, California)

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is the first craft beer I ever tasted. I was a student at UC Davis. We took a field trip up to Sierra Ne-vada Brewing Company, I tasted that beer,

and it made me realize that I wanted to be a brewer professionally. It was a landmark moment for me. When that beer came out and when I tasted it—not to show too much about my age, but it was the early 1980s—there was nothing like that beer anywhere. The intensity of the hops char-acter and the maltiness—the entire flavor combination was radically different from anything I had ever tried before.

My palate has changed over the past thirty years like everyone else’s, but Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is still what I consider a masterpiece beer—absolutely wonderfully balanced—and I would never hesitate to order one. That initial shock of hops char-acter—so many brewers are doing that now that it has become more common—but the Cascade hops character is wonder-ful. The technical aspect of that beer and what Sierra Nevada has done technically continue to amaze me as a brewer.

Orval(Brasserie Orval, Villers-devant-Orval, Belgium)

I know Orval is on everybody’s list, but to me it’s the quintessential Belgian Trappist beer. The fact that they are making a fairly standard Belgian beer and then dosing with Brettanomyces in the secondary—to me, it’s just a wonderfully balanced beer. Brett is a hard thing to do right. If you’re

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48 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

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not brewing the right beer style, it doesn’t taste good, and this beer is just the perfect beer to have that Brett going on. It’s a beer that tastes great fresh, and if you put it in your refrigerator and age it for a fairly sig-nificant period of time, it will change, and that’s a lot of the fun of Orval—tasting it and seeing how that Brett character chang-es the beer over time. This beer taught me a lot about what Brett can do in a beer. We’ve done only one Brett beer here, but with our Stone Enjoy After IPA, we took inspiration from the way Orval makes their beer and packages it. We didn’t copy their recipe by any means, but the idea of dosing Brett after primary fermentation and letting the beer condition in the bottle and develop those flavors—certainly that was influenced by the way Orval does their beer.

Visiting the Orval brewery is one of my bucket-list items. Hopefully, with all the trips I’m making to Stone Berlin, I’ll be able to swing a side trip!

London Porter(Fuller’s Brewery, London, England)

I’ve spent a lot of time in England—and in London particularly—over the past six

years. I’ve toured Fuller’s Brewery three times and have absolutely fallen in love with their approach to brewing traditional British beers. I think they’re the best ones at it in the world. They’ve done a masterful job of combining the technology of brew-ing now with traditional English brewing techniques that brewers have practiced for hundreds of years. To me, the beers are the best English ales brewed now.

Fuller’s London Porter holds a special place to me. The very first trip I took to London with Steve Wagner [Stone cofounder and president], where we were out there to discuss brewing a collaboration beer, we went into a Fuller’s pub, and they were pouring London Porter from a cask. That was the one and only time I’ve found it on cask, and it was magical. It was one of those experiences where you take the glass, smell the beer, and you’re instantly transported to the mash tun. It tasted like dark roasted malt, and it was just amazing. Every real brewer and craft-beer fan has these seminal beer moments—where you taste a beer and it just blows you away and sticks with you for the rest of your life. The experience with Fuller’s London Porter was one of those, and I think it’s one of the best porters in the world.

Prima Pils(Victory Brewing Company, Downingtown, Pennsylvania)

I spent fourteen years brewing lager beers. I have a very strong appreciation for the amount of technical quality and expertise that goes into brewing a great Pilsner beer. Prima Pils captures that. It’s a classic German Pils, but the other thing that really elevates it for me is the hopping approach to this beer. They’re using German and European hops, but they’re hopping it so that the hops are very pronounced—like an American beer.

To me, it’s a perfect flavor combination: It’s refreshing, it’s crisp, and it just has this nice hops complexity and hops bite that I think are absolutely perfect and balanced. I can drink Pilsners all day, and right now, this is my favorite of the Pil-sners I drink. It’s the perfect combination of American and German brewing tech-niques. We pour it a lot here in our bistro [Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens], and it’s a go-to for me.

When I’m talking to other brewers, we al-ways refer to Pilsners as “the brewers beer.” That’s the beer made for brewers because you can’t hide anything in a Pilsner—you have to nail every part of the brewing pro-cess. And I think that’s why brewers have a special appreciation for the style.

Consecration(Russian River Brewing Company, Santa Rosa, California)

Vinnie [Cilurzo] is doing so many great things with barrel-aged beer, using wine bar-rels, inoculating them with all sorts of really cool microorganisms. All of his barrel-aged beer that have Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus fermentations going on are so wonderfully balanced and so delicious.

I mentioned seminal beer moments when I was talking about Fuller’s, and this is another one for me. The first time I had Consecration, I was at the brewery in Santa Rosa. When I tasted it, I was like “Oh my god.” Vinnie uses cabernet barrels and black currants with it. And it just has this intense wine-like character—like the perfect blend of a beer and an elegant red wine. It’s one of my favorites that he does. You get a glass of it, and it evolves as the beer temperature changes. Over the time you’re drinking it, it’s equally delicious but different from what you first tasted. To me, that’s the sign of a great beer—it tastes great at 40°F (4°C) and also at 50°F (10°C). Consecration is a classic interpretation of wine-country brewing. Vinnie nailed it. I think I bought a case the first time I tasted it. PH

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Page 55: Craft beer & brewing magazine

Head Hunter IPA(Fat Head’s Brewery, North Olmstead, Ohio)

I have to have an IPA on my list! I have a few IPAs on my short list, and it’s extremely difficult to choose, but I’m going to have to say Fat Head’s Head Hunter. Matt Cole [Fat Head’s head brewmaster] is a good friend of mine—we’ve brewed together several times, and we talk all the time. This is a beer that’s won GABF gold and other awards several times. It’s passing through in competitions that feature hundreds of beers, it’s getting passed through by expert judges and brewers and winning. When you win once, it can be a fluke, but when you win mul-tiple times, your beer really rocks.

Matt’s approach to this beer was to make a West Coast IPA even though his brewery is just outside of Cleve-land. At the time he started brewing it, it was pretty unique for that part of the country. The first time I visited him in his brewery, I think we were brewing a dark Belgian-style beer or some-thing. But when I tasted Head Hunter, I thought, “you nailed it.” It totally captured the West Coast vibe. It’s one that we can’t get in California, so when I do see it, I always order it because it’s a rare treat for me.

Some of the other IPAs that I’ve grown attached to—Russian River’s Blind Pig is my favorite IPA they do. It’s a great balanced old-school kind of IPA. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, with all the Centennial hops, is one of my favorites. It reminds me of Stone IPA, and I’ll say in all candidness that Stone IPA was one of my favorite beers before I joined Stone. The Centennial hops in an IPA are a wonderful flavor combination.

All of these beers have been inspiring to me—what the beers bring in terms of hops character is important and is one of those things I always look at. With the exception of London Porter or Consecration, which aren’t really hoppy, they capture a hops intensity or balance that really works for me. That’s something we always strive for when we do hoppy beers. I’m not sure how they’re getting what they’re getting, but my reaction is “this really works,” and that’s the intensity and balance I am looking for in our beers as well.

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South bySouthwest

There’s no time like summer to turn up the heat with savory and spicy Southwestern fare made with your favorite cerveza. Here are five of our favorites from Chef Christopher Cina, excerpted from our new cookbook The Best of Cooking With Beer.

Sour Beer Goat Cheese Chile Rellenos

52 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

| COOKING WITH BEER |

Page 57: Craft beer & brewing magazine

Alamosa Striped Bass Tostadas with Lager Tomatillo Salsa

BEERANDBREWING.COM | 53

Page 58: Craft beer & brewing magazine

Whether you’re entertaining a group or cook-

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Alamosa Striped Bass Tostadas with Lager

Tomatillo Salsa

Active preparation time: 60 minutesTotal time: 3 hoursServes: 4

Tomatillo Salsa1 lb (454 g) tomatillos, papery skin removed

and rinsed¼ cup (2 fl oz/59 ml) olive oil, plus

additional to coat the tomatillos¼ lb (113 g) yellow onion, diced small5 cloves garlic¼ cup (2 fl oz/59 ml) lime juice½ cup (4 fl oz/118 ml) Vienna lager½ bunch cilantro, leaves only½ tsp ground cumin seed1 teaspoon dark chili powder1 tsp kosher salt or to taste

Preheat the broiler. Halve the tomatillos, toss with olive oil to coat, and spread them skin side up on a sheet pan. Broil them for 5–7 minutes, until the skins begin to blister and blacken and they start to re-lease their liquid. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature.

Combine the tomatillos and their liquid with the ¼ cup (2 fl oz/59 ml) of olive oil and remaining ingredients, except the salt. Purée with a hand blender or in a food processor. Season to taste with salt and chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

Alamosa Striped Bass1 side Alamosa striped bass or other

mild-flavored fish (1½–2 lb/680–907 g) 1 tsp olive oilSalt and pepper2 Tbs (1 fl oz/30 ml) grapeseed oil

Clean the fish from head to tail, trimming the fat off the belly and removing the bones (or have your fishmonger do this for you). Coat the fish with olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper.

In a large sauté pan over medium to high heat, add the grapeseed oil and heat for 1–2 minutes, until the oil is hot. Place the fish skin side down and cook 4–5 minutes on each side. Remove the fish from the pan and place skin side down on paper towels to drain. When drained and cooled slightly, flake the fish with a fork to pull it off the skin. Reserve.

Tostadas2 cup (16 fl oz/473 ml) grapeseed oil8 small white corn tortillas1 tsp kosher salt½ red onion, diced1 handful cilantro, chopped2 green onions, thinly sliced on the bias½ lime, cut in wedges1 tsp kosher salt

In a large pan with high sides, heat the oil to 325ºF (163°C). Fry the tortillas for 2–3 minutes on each side, until they are light golden brown and crispy (they will start to bubble when they are done). Remove from the oil and place on paper towels to drain. Season to taste with salt while they are still hot.

To serve, divide the flaked fish evenly among the tortillas and top with the To-matillo Salsa and red onion, cilantro, and scallions. Season with a squeeze of lime and salt to taste.

Beer Suggestions: Devil’s Backbone Vienna Lager (Roseland, Virginia), August Schell Firebrick (New Ulm, Minnesota), Live Oak Big Bark Amber (Austin, Texas).

Beer and Pork Posole

Active preparation time: 60 minutesTotal time: 8 hoursServes: 6–8

Red Chile Purée6 oz (170 g) dried New Mexico red chilesWater

Remove the stems and seeds from the red chiles. Place the chiles in a small pan with just enough water that the chiles start to float. Place the pan on high heat and boil for 30 minutes or until the chiles become tender. Remove from the heat and strain the chiles, making sure to reserve the liquid. Place the chiles in a blender and purée with just enough of the reserved liq-uid to create a smooth mixture. Reserve.

Posole½ lb (227 g) pork butt, trimmed and cut

into ½" (13mm) cubes2 Tbs (1 fl oz /30 ml) olive oil2 large cloves garlic, minced1 cup yellow onion, diced6 oz (170 g) fresh tomatillo, papery skin

removed, washed, and diced3 Anaheim chiles, deseeded and diced12 oz (340 g) posole/dried hominy, rinsed4 1/2 cup (36 fl oz/1 l) IPA1 cup (8 fl oz/237 ml) Red Chile Purée2 Tbs fresh oregano, choppedKosher saltShredded cabbage

54 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

| COOKING WITH BEER |

Page 59: Craft beer & brewing magazine

Asadero cheese (an off-white, semi-firm Mexican cheese)

Tortillas

In a heavy bottom saucepan over medi-um-high heat, heat the oil and brown the pork. Add the garlic and onions and cook un-til translucent. Transfer the pork mixture to a slow cooker. Add the tomatillos, Anaheim chiles, posole, beer, and red chile purée.

With the lid on securely, cook on low (a slow simmer) for 7 hours. If you need to add a little liquid during the cooking process or at the end, add a little more beer. Add the oregano and season to taste with salt. Serve garnished with shredded cabbage and Asadero cheese and accom-panied by warm tortillas.

Beer Suggestions: Ballast Point Habanero Sculpin IPA (San Diego, California), Hum-boldt Nectar IPA (Paso Robles, California).

Sour Beer Goat Cheese Chile Rellenos

Active preparation time: 60 minutesTotal time: 75 minutesServes: 4

2 cup goat cheese1/2 cup (4 fl oz/118 ml) lambic, gueuze, or

other sour beer2 Tbs basil chiffonadePinch of salt4 poblano peppersCooking oil4 eggs, lightly beaten2 cup all-purpose flour3 cup semolina

In a mixing bowl, combine the goat cheese, beer, basil, and salt. Mix well and set aside.

Preheat the grill to high. Lightly rub the poblano peppers with the cooking oil. Fill a mixing bowl with ice water. Place the peppers on the grill and char the skin on each side. (This can also be done in an oven at a high temperature.)

When the skin has sufficiently black-ened around the peppers, remove them from the heat and place them in the ice water to stop the cooking. When the peppers are cool, carefully remove the skin with your fingers or by scraping with a paring knife, making sure not to cut the skin. Ideally, the peppers should be left intact, but if not, it’s not that big of a deal.

Once you’ve removed the charred skin, with a sharp knife make a cut in the pepper from the top to the bottom, just enough for you to scrape out the seeds. Divide the goat cheese into 4 pieces to match the size of the peppers. (Peppers may vary in size, but each should aver-age about a ½ cup of your goat cheese mixture.) With your hands, roll the goat cheese into an oblong shape and slide each oblong piece inside a pepper. Press the cut edges of the peppers together and refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow the cheese to firm up.

Line up, in three separate pans, your breading ingredients: flour, then egg, then semolina. Roll each pepper in the flour first, coating well and knocking off any

Beer and Pork Posole

BEERANDBREWING.COM | 55

Page 60: Craft beer & brewing magazine

extra flour. Dip the floured pepper in the egg mixture, shake off any excess, and then roll the pepper in the semolina. You can keep these prepared rellenos in the refrigerator for up to 3 days before the next step.

Preheat a deep fryer to 350°F (177°C). Fry the peppers until they become golden

Whether you’re entertaining a group or cook-

ing for one, using beer as an ingredient

is a perfect way to marry your passion for

cooking with your love of finely crafted beer.

This selection of recipes represents your

favorite recipes from Craft Beer & Brewing

Magazine’s Cooking With Beer, a regular

section of the magazine as well as a once-a-

year special issue with recipes created by

award-winning chefs that all showcase the

creative ways that beer can be used in

cooking. With everything from appetizing

starters to mouth-watering mains and more

than a dozen delicious desserts, The Best of

Cooking With Beer will quickly become your

go-to resource for the best recipes using beer.

T H E B E S T O F

CookingW I T H

BeerA great meal is made even better when you cook

and pair it with a great beer. In every issue of

Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine®, our award-winning

chefs share fantastic recipes that use beer as an

ingredient and highlight the benefits of using beer—

flavor, texture, and more—in your cooking. This

collection of reader favorite recipes showcases the

versatility of beer and how it can be used to make

everything from light and fresh seafood dishes to rich

and decadent desserts. Whether you’re a seasoned

cook or a beginner, these inspiring recipes will

expand your kitchen repertoire and are perfect for

everything from entertaining a group to a quiet meal

at home. So tie on an apron, break out your bottle

opener, and explore The Best Of Cooking With Beer.

$19.99

Th

e Best of C

ooking W

ith B

eer

These recipes are excerpted from The Best of Cooking With Beer, by Christopher Cina and Sara Dumford with photos by Christopher Cina and Matthew Graves. Buy a copy now at better bookstores, homebrew shops, craft-beer stores, or online at beerandbrewing.com/bocwb.

brown, 2–3 minutes. Serve hot with a black bean sauce or Beer and Pork Posole (page 54).

Beer Suggestions: The Rare Barrel Forc-es Unseen (Berkeley, California), Crooked Stave Flor D’Lees (Denver, Colorado), Boon Oude Gueuze (Lembeek, Belgium).

Stout-Brined Andouille Sausage

Active preparation time: 55 minutesTotal time: 27 hoursMakes: 10–12 sausages

5 lb (2.3 kg) pork butt1 1/2 cup (12 fl oz/355 ml) High Hops

Brewing The Dark One or similar stout¼ cup garlic, minced1 tsp freshly ground black pepper1 tsp cayenne pepper ¼ tsp dried thyme1 Tbs paprika¼ tsp crushed bay leaf¼ tsp dried sage2 Tbs salt1½ yd (91 cm) pork casing

Cut the pork butt into about 2" × 2" (5 × 5 cm) pieces and place in a mixing bowl. Add the beer, garlic, herbs, spices, and salt and mix well. Refrigerate for 12 hours then move the seasoned pork to the freezer for 2 hours.

Remove the sausage mixture from the freezer and pass it through a food grinder fitted with a fine blade. Using a hand stuffer, fill the pork casing with the pork mixture. Twist and tie off to make 4–6" (10–15 cm) sausages. Store uncovered in the refrigerator for 12 hours. Finish on the grill over high heat.

Beer Suggestions: Pair with the remain-ing High Hops Brewing The Dark One (Windsor, Colorado). Also pairs well with Mad River Steelhead Extra Stout (Blue Lake, California) and Tallgrass Brewing Buffalo Sweat (Manhattan, Kansas).

Stout-Brined Andouille Sausage

56 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

| COOKING WITH BEER |

Page 61: Craft beer & brewing magazine

114

ACTIVE PREP: 40 minutesTOTAL TIME: 60 minutesSERVES: 2

Gnocchi½ cup dehydrated potato �akes¼ cup (2 � oz/59 ml) pumpkin beer1 cup pumpkin puree1 egg2 Tbs sugar1 tsp nutmeg1 tsp ground ginger¾ cup all-purpose �our, plus more for rolling laterKosher saltBlack pepper2 Tbs unsalted butter

Reduction1½ cup (12 � oz/355 ml) pumpkin beer

Pepitas1 tsp unsalted butter2 Tbs pepitasPinch of cayenneKosher salt

Roasted Mushrooms1 Tbs unsalted butter4 large button mushrooms, stems removed

Lakefront Pumpkin Lager (MILWAUKEE, WI)

Alewerks Pumpkin Ale (WILLIAMSBURG, VA)

Anderson Valley Fall Hornin’ Pumpkin Ale (BOONVILLE, CA)

Gnocchi with Pumpkin Beer Reduction and Roasted MushroomsGNOCCHIIn a large bowl, combine the potato akes and beer. Add the pumpkin, egg, sugar, and spices. Mix well. Slowly incorporate the our until a thick, mostly dry, dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a oured surface. Dust with our and knead gently for 3–4 minutes, adding a little our as necessary, until the dough is slightly elastic and smooth. Divide the dough into 4 portions. Roll each portion out into a rope ¾-inch (19-mm) thick. Cut the rope into 1-inch (25-mm) pieces. Reserve.

REDUCTIONIn a small saucepan, bring the beer to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the beer is reduced to a syrup.

PEPITASIn a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter, then add the cayenne and pepitas. Slowly toast the pepitas for 3 min-utes. Season lightly with salt.

ROASTED MUSHROOMSPreheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). In a small pan over medi-um-high heat, melt the butter. Place the mushrooms top down in the butter and cook for 2 minutes. Turn over and �nsh in the oven for 5 minutes.

Drop the gnocchi pieces into a pot of boiling salted water and cook for 3–4 minutes, until the gnocchi oat to the surface. Remove the gnocchi and drain. In a large sauté pan over me-dium-high heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the gnocchi and sauté until lightly browned. Add a little of the beer reduc-tion and toss to coat the gnocchi. Remove from the heat. Add the pepitas and stir gently.

Divide the gnocchi between 2 pasta bowls. Top with the Roasted Mushrooms, whole or sliced, and drizzle more of the Pumpkin Beer Reduction over the top.

88

ACTIVE PREP: 20 minutesTOTAL TIME: 35 minutesSERVES: 2–4

Lamb2 racks of lamb, frenched2 Tbs fresh rosemary, chopped2 Tbs garlic, mincedKosher saltBlack pepperSprigs of fresh rosemary for garnish

White Beans1 can white beans, great northern beans, or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed1 cup (8 � oz/237 ml) water1 large shallot, sliced2 Tbs garlic, minced1 tsp fresh thyme, mincedKosher saltBlack pepper

Peach Preserves2 cup frozen peaches1 cup (8 � oz/237 ml) smoked porter2 Tbs brown sugar

Alaskan Smoked Porter (JUNEAU, AK)

Founders Smoked Porter (GRAND RAPIDS, MI)

Captain Lawrence Smoked Porter (ELMSFORD, NY)

Rack of Lamb with White Beans and Smoked Porter Peach PreservesA frenched rack of lamb has the meat, fat, and membranes that connect the individual ribs removed. It gives the rack a clean look. You can do it yourself or ask your butcher to do it for you.

LAMBPreheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Rub the lamb with the rose-mary and garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Place the lamb racks in a roasting pan and roast for 17–20 minutes. Add 7–10 minutes if you prefer a more well-done lamb. Let the racks rest 3–4 minutes before carving.

WHITE BEANSIn a small saucepan, combine the beans, water, shallot, garlic, and thyme. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10–12 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

PEACH PRESERVESIn a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the ingre-dients, bring to a simmer, and cook down to a syrup consisten-cy. If desired, puree the mixture.

For a dramatic presentation, cut each rack of lamb in half and interweave the rib bones. Spoon the white beans in a line across each plate. Arrange the lamb over the beans. Place a spoonful of the Smoked Porter Peach Preserves in front of each half-rack of lamb. Garnish with rosemary.

101+ RECIPESBEERfor cooking with

A FRESH AND CREATIVE APPROACH TO COOKING WITH BEERKitchenBeerCraftThe

Cooper BrunkCooper BrunkFOREWORD BY KIM JORDAN, CO-FOUNDER OF NEW BELGIUM BREWING

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Introducing The Best of Cooking with BeerFeaturing your favorite recipes from the pages of Cra� Beer & Brewing Magazine® presented in a beautiful cookbook you’ll love to cook from and share with others. Full of creative recipes that range from classic comfort food to cutting-edge cuisine, all made with your favorite ingredient—beer!

Whether you’re entertaining a group or cook-

ing for one, using beer as an ingredient

is a perfect way to marry your passion for

cooking with your love of �nely cra�ed beer.

This selection of recipes represents your

favorite recipes from Cra� Beer & Brewing

Magazine’s Cooking With Beer, a regular

section of the magazine as well as a once-a-

year special issue with recipes created by

award-winning chefs that all showcase the

creative ways that beer can be used in

cooking. With everything from appetizing

starters to mouth-watering mains and more

than a dozen delicious desserts, The Best of

Cooking With Beer will quickly become your

go-to resource for the best recipes using beer.

T H E B E S T O F

CookingW I T H

BeerA great meal is made even better when you cook

and pair it with a great beer. In every issue of

Cra� Beer & Brewing Magazine®

chefs share fantastic recipes that use beer as an

ingredient and highlight the bene�ts of using beer—

�avor, texture, and more—in your cooking. This

collection of reader favorite recipes showcases the

versatility of beer and how it can be used to make

everything from light and fresh seafood dishes to rich

and decadent desserts. Whether you’re a seasoned

cook or a beginner, these inspiring recipes will

expand your kitchen repertoire and are perfect for

everything from entertaining a group to a quiet meal

at home. So tie on an apron, break out your bottle

opener, and explore

Th

e Best of C

ooking W

ith B

eer

Page 62: Craft beer & brewing magazine

“Texas Red” Chili

Active preparation time: 35 minutesTotal time: 2 hoursServes: 8

2 oz (57 g) New Mexico chile, dry1½ cup (12 fl oz/355 ml) doppelbock2 lb (907 g) beef stew meat¼ cup (2 fl oz/59 ml) canola oil2 yellow onions, small dice2 poblano peppers, large dice2 green bell peppers, large diceTwo 15 oz (425 g) cans diced tomato½ cup chili powder2 Tbs kosher saltSour creamScallions, thinly sliced on the diagonal

Peheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Place dried chiles on a sheet pan and roast for 10–15 minutes until fragrant. Remove from the oven, cool, and remove the stems and seeds. Place in a blender, add enough beer to cover, and purée. Reserve.

In a large pan, brown the meat on all sides in the canola oil over high heat. You may have to do this in batches to avoid steaming the meat. Add the onions and peppers and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, chili powder, chile purée, and salt and cook until the beef is tender, about an hour, add-ing beer as necessary if the chili thickens too much. Adjust seasoning as necessary.

Serve the chili topped with sour cream and scallions and accompanied by tortilla chips.

BEER SUGGESTIONS: Epic Double Skull Dopplebock (Salt Lake City, Utah), Ayinger Celebrator Dopplebock (Aying, Germany), or for a bit of extra smokiness, Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche Dopplebock (Bamberg, Germany).

Whether you’re entertaining a group or cook-

ing for one, using beer as an ingredient

is a perfect way to marry your passion for

cooking with your love of finely crafted beer.

This selection of recipes represents your

favorite recipes from Craft Beer & Brewing

Magazine’s Cooking With Beer, a regular

section of the magazine as well as a once-a-

year special issue with recipes created by

award-winning chefs that all showcase the

creative ways that beer can be used in

cooking. With everything from appetizing

starters to mouth-watering mains and more

than a dozen delicious desserts, The Best of

Cooking With Beer will quickly become your

go-to resource for the best recipes using beer.

T H E B E S T O F

CookingW I T H

BeerA great meal is made even better when you cook

and pair it with a great beer. In every issue of

Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine®, our award-winning

chefs share fantastic recipes that use beer as an

ingredient and highlight the benefits of using beer—

flavor, texture, and more—in your cooking. This

collection of reader favorite recipes showcases the

versatility of beer and how it can be used to make

everything from light and fresh seafood dishes to rich

and decadent desserts. Whether you’re a seasoned

cook or a beginner, these inspiring recipes will

expand your kitchen repertoire and are perfect for

everything from entertaining a group to a quiet meal

at home. So tie on an apron, break out your bottle

opener, and explore The Best Of Cooking With Beer.

$19.99

Th

e Best of C

ooking W

ith B

eer

These recipes are excerpted from The Best of Cooking With Beer, by Christopher Cina and Sara Dumford with photos by Christopher Cina and Matthew Graves. Buy a copy now at better bookstores, homebrew shops, craft-beer stores, or online at beerandbrewing.com/bocwb.

58 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

| COOKING WITH BEER |

Page 63: Craft beer & brewing magazine

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Page 64: Craft beer & brewing magazine

B R E W E R S R E T R E A TC R A F T B E E R & B R E W I N G

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Join us this October for a unique and authentic brewing experience. Matt Brynildson (Firestone Walker), John Mallett (Bell’s Brewery), Steven Pauwels (Boulevard Brewing), Andy Parker (Avery Brewing), Tomme Arthur (Port Brewing/Lost Abbey), and the Cra� Beer & Brewing team are your guides for three days and three nights of brewing, learning, sharing, and relaxing at the luxurious Devil’s Thumb Resort in Tabernash, Colorado. By day, participants will get hands-on experience brewing with these master brewers and by night will enjoy pairing dinners, beer shares, and camaraderie. The 2015 event sold out, and tickets for the 2016 event are going fast. To secure your spot, visit beerandbrewing.com/co today.

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Page 65: Craft beer & brewing magazine

sAISOnFruit, Pepper, Funk: Saison as a style was on the ropes twenty-five years ago, at risk of extinction, but the comeback in ensuing years is one of legendary proportions. Today, many major breweries offer their own take on the dry and refreshing style, and over the past three years more and more artisanal pro-ducers have pushed the envelope with mixed-fermentation approaches highlighting the acidity and funk historically associated with the style (the number of breweries using Brettanomyces yeast today is truly staggering). In this issue, we delve into what makes beers in this style so exciting and the various methods brewers are using to continue this rapid evolution.

The RiSe (and Further Rise) of

BEERANDBREWING.COM | 61

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BREWERS’ PERSPECTIVES:

MaD FoR Mixed fErmEnTAtionIn the early 1990s, revered beer scribe Michael Jackson mused on the potential extinction of the saison style while describing certain Belgian breweries’ iterations as “slightly sour” or “tart.” Today, the style is one of the fastest growing in craft beer, and a new generation of brewers is embracing Brettanomyces, Pediococcus, and the lactic acid-producing bacteria that create the tart and sour acidity in the style. But brewing with these “bugs” presents its own challenges, as brewers from Jester King Brewery, Two Roads Brewing Co., Almanac Beer Company, and more, explain. By Emily Hutto

TRENDING NOW ARE SOUR and funky beers, many of which are created by mixed fermentations of yeast and bac-teria to replicate flavors associated with traditional farmhouse ales. To create these complex, nuanced, and often unexpected beers, craft brewers are fermenting beers with Brettanomyces and bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Pediococcus, among other microbes. Some are are even ferment-ing their beers with naturally occurring airborne yeasts and bacteria that they capture from the air.

Brett, Lacto, PedioThe most common yeast-bacteria cocktail used in sour and funky beer-making is the Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pedio-coccus trifecta. Brettanomyces, or Brett, is a yeast strain that ferments more slowly

than standard Saccharomyces. Brett has many different strains that yield a cornu-copia of flavors and aromas, most notably barnyard funk and horse blanket. Brett creates earthy, fruit, and floral characters in beers as well. Lactobacillus and Pediococ-cus are bacteria that consume sugar and leave lactic acid in its place, creating tart and acidic qualities in beer.

“We sour our beers with intentional inoculation coupled with unintended organic fermentation that comes along with reused barrels,” says Douglas Day-hoff, the president at Upland Brewing Company in Bloomington, Indiana. “We inoculate our wood-aged sours with the combination of classic microbes—Brett, Lacto, Pedio. This helps us gain a certain amount of control before embedded microbes in the foeders and barrels further develop the beer’s character over time. We’ve seen the embedded microbes in that wood actually help accelerate and create better fermentations.”

The mixed microbes that ferment Upland’s sours create complexity that can’t be achieved with basic ale yeast, Dayhoff says. “We shoot for multiple dimensions of flavor and aroma that reflect a balance of malts, microbes, fruits, flowers, and AL

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62 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

sAISOnThe RiSe (and Further Rise) of

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spices. Our beers have pleasant tartness and cheesy-funky notes that express but then finish clean.”

House BlendsA house yeast blend is a thing of beauty among craft brewers, many of whom have gone to great lengths to create these microbial mixtures. At Jester King Brewery in Austin, Texas, the house yeast blend developed out of what Co-owner and Brewer Ron Extract calls “miniature coolship experiments.”

“We left a pan of wort to cool overnight and sent it off to a lab to isolate those yeasts. From there, we decided which yeasts to use, and [we] sourced various strains from commercial yeast labs. Over time, we created a unique blend. At this point, it is truly a house yeast—the blend of microorganisms is truly unique. When you have a mixture, it mutates and changes and becomes even more unique.”

Another blend that started out of thin air was created by Two Roads Brewing Co. in Stratford, Connecticut, when Brewmaster Phil Markowski and his team captured and

isolated airborne yeast during Superstorm Sandy. “We have a multitude of organisms in that stew, and we’ve also added some lab culture to it. Now it’s a combination of something we caught airborne and some cultures that we purposefully added,” Mar-kowski says. “It’s taken on a life of its own.”

This stew was used to ferment Two Roads’ award-winning Urban Funk sour ale that aged in stainless steel for a year before its debut in 2013.

Another noteworthy house microbe blend was cultivated by Jesse Friedman, the cofounder and brewmaster at Alma-nac Beer Company in San Francisco, Cal-ifornia, with a combination of dregs from favorite sour beers. “We threw a party, and everyone brought their favorites. We cultured the dregs from those bottles and added commercial bugs as well. There are too many beers to name—of course, there was beer from Russian River, Orval, Cantillon ... at least a dozen or two.”

“ There’s just not a lot of standard practice in the industry—every brewery has its own approach to the process and the flavor.”

—Jesse Friedman, Almanac Brewing Company

Funk Vs. AcId:WhAt DoES “SouR” REally meAn?What makes a beer sour? In purely scientific terms, “sourness” is a function of acidity—the more perceptible acidity in a beer (as measured by pH, or more accurately as measured by titratable acidity), the more one would say it is “sour.” However, in popular perception, funkiness—that typically Brettanomyces-derived trait commonly referred to as “barnyard” or “horse blanket” or “wet hay”—is often confused or mislabeled as sourness, when in fact the two are very different.

That funkiness is primarily a product of Brettanomyces yeast, while acidity in beer is primarily a function of lactic-acid bacteria. This is why beer styles such as Berliner Weisse can be sour (acidic), but still very clean—most brewers use pure Lactobacillus to produce acidity but do not involve Brettanomyces in those beers (there are some exceptions to this with brewers who use a mixed culture including Brett to produce beers labeled Berliner Weisse, but they are the exception rather than the rule). By the same token, beers made with Brettanomyces are not necessarily sour (acidic), because Brett typically produces very little, if any, additional acid.

So why, then, do many saisons and farmhouse ales fermented with Brett taste more sour? First, Brett is a scavenger and will eat just about anything—any residual sugar left in a beer, certain yeast esters, you name it. Because sweetness acts as a buffer to reduce your per-ception of acidity, the reduction in that sweetness has a side effect of making the acidity already in the beer more noticeable.

The second reason is that many are not fermented with 100 percent Brett, but rather are fermented using a mixed culture that also includes Lactobacillus and Pediococcus—both of which do produce acids.

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64 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

sAISOnThe RiSe (and Further Rise) of

Page 69: Craft beer & brewing magazine

AnDy miTchEllBrewer at New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins,

Colorado“Boulevard Saison-Brett stands out as a

classic to me, maybe because it was the first

Brett saison I had. I remember it showcased

Brett really well without being sour and while

still retaining saison characteristics.”

BREtT GOldStockCofounder at Duck Foot Brewing Company

in San Diego, California

“Council Brewing’s Beatitude Tart Saison (San

Diego, California) is a beautiful melding of funk

from Brettanomyces, tartness from Lactobacillus,

and wonderful esters from their saison yeast

strain. No matter which of the many fruit (or dry-

hopped) varieties you try, your taste buds will be

met with a sublime balance and complexity that

will have you coming back for many a refill.”

JEReMy tofTECofounder and Field Hoperative at

Melvin Brewing in Jackson, Wyoming

“Love Buzz from Gabe Fletcher at

Anchorage Brewing Company. The

number one reason is that it’s crisp—so

balanced and fresh. I want more now.”

cORy caRVaTtHead Brewer at Barrels & Bottles Brewery

in Golden, Colorado

“Boulevard Brewing’s Saison-Brett. I see

that one as the model for the style.”

FiVe on FivEI can’t imagine craft brewers are often asked the question, What’s your favorite

Brett saison? Perhaps that’s because this style of beer, if it could be qualified as

a style, is a relatively new trend in the American craft-beer market. I asked more

than ten craft brewers this question, and almost every one replied with Boule-

vard’s Brettanomyces-fermented rendition of Tank 7, Saison-Brett (Kansas City,

Missouri) and Logsdon Farm Brewery’s Seizoen Bretta (Hood River, Oregon).

Here are five of those brewers on these two beers and a couple of others.

Compiled by Emily Hutto

dOug PoMInvIllESpecialty Brewer at Ballast Point Brewing

in San Diego, California

“Logsdon Seizoen Bretta. It’s the epitome

of the Brett saison style.”

Spontaneous FermentationSpontaneous fermentation, in which beer ferments entirely from naturally occurring airborne microbes, is the original form of mixed fermentation. This ancient, open-air fermentation method yields the funky, tart, and sour flavors of traditional Belgian farmhouse ales. Spontaneous fermenta-tion is time-consuming and inconsistent and, therefore, rare among American craft brewers. There are a few, though, includ-ing Jester King Brewery, Allagash Brewing in Portland, Maine, and Former Future Brewing Company in Denver, Colorado, that are home to small coolship projects.

There’s one pioneer brewery in Tilla-mook, Oregon, that is fermenting all of its beers via coolship. “We don’t pitch yeast. We are at the mercy of yeast and bacteria,” says Trevor Rogers, the co-owner at de Garde Brewing, who chose the site for his brewery based on where he could capture the most delicious and best-smelling mi-crobes on the Oregon coast. “We are quite fond of the character of the microbes and naturally occurring yeast on the Oregon coast,” he says. “I’ve found that truly wild fermentation is an intuitive science. So much more of what we do is by smell and by taste and feel [rather] than by the numbers.”

The Benefits of BlendingAll of the breweries here agree that mixed fermentation is often inconsistent and sing the praises of blending barrels after wood aging. “Different barrels yield dif-ferent results, and that’s where blending comes in,” explains Markowski of Two Roads. “It’s hard to get a consistent and pleasant mouthfeel out of long-aged sour beers. That’s where moving in the direc-tion of blending instead of single batches [really helps],” adds Dayhoff at Upland. Friedman of Almanac Beer Company can’t stress the importance of blending enough. “Blending is an opportunity to take different parts that create a whole. It’s part of the final editing process.”

From inoculation to open fermentation and everything in between, each brewery seems to have its own signature meth-od for souring and funk-ifying beers. “There’s just not a lot of standard practice in the industry—every brewery has its own approach to the process and the fla-vor,” says Friedman of Almanac. Despite the varying approaches, though, these brewers all agree that mixed fermenta-tion is a way to establish complexity and nuance. It taps a new frontier of possible flavor and aroma combinations and cre-ates interactions among organisms that yield evolving characteristics over time.

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ONE OF THE MAIN reasons a lot of homebrewers make the leap from extract to all-grain brewing is to have more control over the wort sugar profile. When we begin making our own wort, there are a handful of grain-native enzymes we can manipulate to influence the finished beer, but with today’s modern malts, we can put most of our attention on the “saccharify-ing” enzymes, alpha and beta amylase.

These two enzymes break down (hydrolyze) our grist’s amylopectin and amylose starches into smaller and more fermentable sugars, but they work in differ-ent ways. Alpha amylase cleaves these long starch chains somewhat indiscriminately into randomly smaller carbohydrates and is happiest in the 160–168°F (71–76°C) range. Beta amylase can work on only one end of the starch chain, prefers a temperature of 140–150°F (60–66°C), and falls apart (denatures) well before alpha amylase’s preferred temperature range.  With a

for short). I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but maybe you haven’t quite mustered the courage to dive in. I am here to tell you it isn’t hard, and you might even have a bit of fun with it.

 Step Mash in PracticeIf you happen to have a direct-fire mash tun, to perform a step mash, you can sim-ply dough in on the low end of beta amy-lase activity (138°F/59°C), let it rest for 20 or 30 minutes, then slowly (as in 2°F/1°C a minute!) add heat until you get to the 150–152°F (66–67°C) range for another 20 minutes, then again heat up through the high end of alpha amylase activity (168°F/76°C). This sort of mash profile has proven to make very fermentable wort, but it requires almost constant stirring to pre-vent scorching and to give the enzymes a more consistent temperature throughout the mash tun. 

 If, like most of us, you are using an insulated cooler as your mash tun, you’ll need to use infusions of near-boiling water to heat the mash through the steps, but the effects are comparable (and you don’t need to worry about scorching). The

STEp maShyOur Way tO a Dry FiniShSo it’s getting warmer out, and you’re itching to brew a summer beer with a super-dry finish that begs for another refill? Instead of bumping up the simple sugar adjuncts in the recipe, try a step mash. By Taylor Caron

much more limited location of activity, beta amylase also works much more slowly than its alpha sibling. Luckily, there is enough overlap in the working ranges that we can expect good results by mashing in the 148–154°F (64–68°C) range, with the lower end giving us a bit more fermentable sugars than the higher end.

Let’s say that it’s brew day, and you’ve got your alpha amylase chopping those long starch chains up willy-nilly and your beta amylase nibbling the ends into fer-mentable sugars, working happily together at the low end of the normal mash range (148°F/64°C), and maybe you’re planning an extra twenty minutes of rest to make sure the job is complete. Great! You will definitely make beer, and it will likely be quite fermentable with a low finishing gravity, but there is more you can do! 

If you really want to maximize the fermentability of your wort, you need a multistep temperature mash (step mash,

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first step of the mash should be some-where in the low 140s Fahrenheit (low 60s Celsius) to favor beta amylase activity, but you’ll need to dough in much thicker than you might normally to allow room for more hot-water infusions on your way up the thermometer. This is actually not a problem because, as it happens, beta amylase works better in a thick mash than a thin one (just another of the many ways Mother Nature smiles on brewers).

You should be able to dough in at around 148°F (64°C) using a 0.9:1 liquor-to-grist ratio (0.9 quarts/852 ml) of water to 1 pound/454 g of grain) and then be able to add near-boil-ing water (in the 1.5:1 range) to get into the mid-to-high 150s Fahrenheit (low 70s Celsius). Such a mash profile allows time for the beta amylase to do the bulk of its work well before hitting temperatures that cause it to denature. At the same time, alpha amylase is somewhat active chopping those long chains up and giving the beta more nibbly ends to work on. 

The exact temperature rest points along this range are up to the brewer, so long as you understand that at the lower end, the beta is doing all of the work with no help from alpha, and at the higher end, the alpha runs solo, with beta being quickly denatured and useless. You may choose to make many small steps up through the range, adding as little as a quart (946 ml) of boiling water every five minutes over a half-hour after the initial low-end rest of 20 to 30 minutes. Or you may choose to simply jump up from 148°F (64°C) to 156°F (69°C) in one go, or anything in between. 

Just remember that it’s the time spent in the middle that allows the alpha to chomp open those long starches to give beta access to more of the “reducing” end of the chain, which gives you that simple maltose sugar that yeast loves. Also keep in mind that beta amylase is both slower to work and slower to denature, so don’t fret a long initial rest on the low end.  Whatever you do, take notes so that when it comes out perfect, you’ll be able to reproduce the beer!

 A Few More ConsiderationsNow that we’ve gone over the basics of how our friends the amylase enzymes work, you are ready to pull out all the stops on the driest beer you can manage. But hold on. There are a few things to consider beyond mash temperatures and rest times. 

Especially when you’re trying to finesse the dance between beta and alpha, timing can be a major factor in your success or lack

thereof. To ensure that the enzymes have full access to all of those starchy bits in the grist, it’s not a bad idea to hydrate the mash for ten minutes or so before doughing in. Technically this is just another step in the step-mash regimen, but using only a cup or so (237 ml) of warm water in a 5-gallon (19 l) grist shouldn’t require any rework-ing of your math.

Also keep in mind that the overall perception of dryness is influ-enced by many factors in the beer beyond simply residual sugar content. Carbonation levels, water profile, grist composition, hops profile, and finished pH will all have a synergistic effect that leads to that epic finish we’re chasing. 

Without getting deep into water chemistry, if you find your favor-ite recipe isn’t delivering the finish you’re looking for, it could be as simple as bumping up sulfate levels 30–50 more ppm. Maybe your late hops are bringing a fruit sweetness and fullness that muddies the low terminal gravity. Remember that in all things related to making an excellent beer, “everything is everything.” Using a step-mash profile, you can bring that finishing gravity down and bring yourself closer to that mythic perfect pint.

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GOInG local:

By JOSh WeikeRt

cREaTEhOW to

diFfERent choicE +TiminGSAIsOns...

by SimplyAlteRInGhoPsvAStly

With just a typical grist, you can create a wide variety of deliciously different saisons simply by varyinghops selection, timing, and quantity. Your favorite commercial brewers are doing it, too.

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A GREAT MANY BREWERS seem to have conspired to make a mystery of saison. Yes, of course, there is such a thing as a “traditional” saison—a beer and style that we’ve come to define in a certain way—but this is one of those beers that actually fails the quantification test for a very simple reason. Originally, saisons were made with…well, whatever was laying around at the time. Saison is the poster child of a “local” beer. Its origins give us a place to start (farmhouse beer, lowish in alcohol to keep the field hands from being hammered on the job, spicy-but-not-necessarily spiced), but we should be treating that much more as a jumping-off point than a destination. Even before saison came to the attention of (sometimes brand-new) professional brewing concerns, saison recipes varied

substantially due to the hyper-local nature of their recipe formulations. Local ingre-dients made saison what it was, and while we tend to think of that in terms of yeast, grains, and spices, there’s no reason to exclude hops from that list.

And oh my, how you can do things with this beer by manipulating the hops! That’s probably true of any beer that isn’t malt-aggressive, really, but particularly this one because

a) we’re not being held to any kind of “historical” standard (as we might be for, say, Czech Pils), and b) this is a Belgian and French beer style originally, so people are going to not only appreciate but expect an array of flavors, which really opens up the doors when it comes to playing with the hops selections.

Most brewers tend to obsess over the yeast strain selection and treatment (“I totally fermented this in my oven! You can’t get too hot for a saison yeast!” Side note: yes, you certainly can) and whether to add actual spices or just rely on other ingredients to give you that traditional spicy character (real quote from a com-petition beer I once judged: “I sourced the spices from a woman who lives on top of a hill near my house”). However, I think that hops are the neglected middle-child of saison brewing. Let’s not fall into that trap.

We’re going to start with a fairly typical grist (see “One Grist, Five Saisons,” page 71) and talk about how changing things up in terms

of hops variety, timing, and quantity can give you beers that are signifi-

cantly different and wonderfully varied. Beer in general is a flavor playground, but saison is that KaBOOM! playground edifice that’s three stories tall and has more gadgets than the Batcave. Take advantage of that and get creative!

Hops Varieties in SaisonIn thinking about how hops are going to impact saison, we have three variables to consider: hops variety, addition timing, and addition quantity. It’s often a good idea to start with a decision about the overall flavor profile you’re hoping for, so we’ll start with the “what” before moving on to the “when” and the “how much!”

The ClassicLet’s not assume that just because this style originated in continental Europe we’re restricted to classic noble hops varieties. But let’s start there, just to get it out of the way! For my money, you don’t get better than Styrian Goldings for saison hops if your goal is a traditional “Continental” saison. You get all of that nice geraniol-fueled floral character and a hint of earthiness (maybe cut in a bit of Fuggle or East Kent Goldings to increase the earthy character), which sets up very well against the Pils-dominated grain bill. Since we’re talking about a beer that most associate with the outdoors, a floral note in the taste and aroma will do a great job of evoking that image in the mind. It’s also almost impossible to overdo it, since these tend to be subtler flavors than some we’re about to hit. So you certainly won’t go wrong with Styrian Goldings.

The ContinentalDrifting just a bit, you might also consider some of the Hallertau hops and/or their American cousins (think Liberty, Crystal). The flavor experience isn’t radically dif-ferent from what you’ll get from Styrian, but the Hallertau family does add some interesting flavor elements. They’re still floral but add an element of woody and herbal character that will stand up to and complement more-assertive flavors. Particularly in the American variants, you might also add a touch of fruit to your profile, which is certainly in keeping with traditional saison’s heritage.

The ColonialOkay, now let’s have some real fun. Who says that you can’t Americanize this thing? After all, many of you reading this are American brewers who have an affinity for local ingredients—so why add import-ed European hops to your saison? There are dozens of varieties out there, but if

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MAKE IT

OnE gRiSt, FivE sAiSonSThe ClassicA gentle floral, earthy, and spicy hops flavor and aroma (can’t go wrong!) [20 IBUs]

1 oz (28 g) Fuggle [5% AA] at 30 minutes1 oz (28 g) Styrian Goldings [5.5% AA] at 10 minutes

The ContinentalSimilar to The Classic, but with a spicier and slightly more fruity hops flavor and an herbal/floral aroma [22 IBUs]

1 oz (28 g) Liberty [4.5% AA] at 30 minutes1.5 oz (43 g) of Hallertau [5% AA] at 10 minutes

The ColonialAn American saison with a bright pineapple and blackberry flavor and a distinct resiny Nugget aroma [28 IBUs]

Mash with 1 oz (28 g) of Amarillo [9% AA]0.5 oz (14 g) Amarillo [9% AA] at 10 minutes1 oz (28 g) Chinook [13% AA] in the whirlpool1 oz (28 g) Nugget at post primary fermentation dry hop

The CraftsmanGo full Northern Brewer and you’ll have a hops character that will be like strolling through the Black Forest. [30 IBUs]

0.5 oz (14 g) Northern Brewer [8% AA] at 60 minutes0.5 oz (14 g) Northern Brewer [8% AA] at 30 minutes1 oz (28 g) Northern Brewer [8% AA] in the whirlpool 

The Question MarkThis is fun—do this once a year with some grist, but saison makes a good one for it because of the style flexibility and the “kitchen sink” origin story it has. Forget hops selec-tion and timing and IBUs—just take all of your leftover, remainder, stray-pellet hops and dump them all (up to about 4 ounces/113 g) into an 8–10 minute whirlpool. If you don’t have a bunch of small bags of leftover bits of hops like I do, then you can just pick 2 or 3 ounces (57 or 85 g) at random (go purely by how cool the name sounds) at your local homebrew shop. Ferment, condition, and get ready to find out what you made.

This recipe is built to yield a batch size of 5 gallons (19 liters) and assumes 72 percent brewhouse efficiency.

ALL GRAIN

OG: 1.056FG: 1.008IBUs: (variable—see the individual regimens at right)ABV: 6.1%

MALT/GRAIN BILL

8 lb (3.63 kg) Pilsner malt1 lb (0.45 kg) Vienna malt0.5 lb (226 g) wheat malt2 oz (56 g) Caramunich malt

HOPS SCHEDULE

Mate the grain bill to the hopping regimens as listed to the right.

YEAST

Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison

DIRECTIONS

Mill the grains and mix with 3.5 gallons (13.25 l) of 162°F (72°C) strike water to reach a mash temperature of 150°F (65°C). Hold this temperature for 60 minutes.

Vorlauf until your runnings are clear. Sparge the grains with 3.1 gal-lons (11.7 l) and top up as necessary to obtain 6 gallons (23 l) of wort. Boil for 75 minutes, adding hops according to the variation selected.

After the boil, turn off the heat and whirlpool for 10 minutes. Then chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 68°F (20°C). Aerate the wort with pure oxygen or filtered air and pitch the yeast.

Ferment at 69°F (20°C) for 6 days, then increase the tempera-ture to 72°F (21°C). Add the dry hops (if directed) and hold at temperature for 4 more days. Once the beer reaches terminal gravity, bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to about 2.5 volumes of CO2. You may want to cold crash the beer to 35°F (2°C) for 48 hours before packaging to improve clarity.

EXTRACT

Replace the Pilsner malt with 6 pounds (2.72 kg) of Pilsner liquid malt extract. Bring 5.6 gallons (21.2 l) of water to about 162°F (72°C) and hold there. Steep the crushed Vienna, wheat, and Caramunich malts in grain bags in the hot water for 15 minutes. Remove the grain bags and let them drain fully. Stir in the liquid malt extract and stir until completely dissolved. Top up as necessary to obtain 6 gallons (23 l) of wort. Boil for 75 minutes, adding hops according to the variation selected. Continue as directed above.

BREWER’S NOTES

This grist will give you a beer that is slightly on the paler end of the spectrum and uses relatively small amounts of character malts (Vienna, wheat, Caramunich) just to provide some nice grain/malt background. I like Vienna rather than Munich to avoid any “heavy” maltiness and give an increased perception of attenuation. Be sure to give this one time to ferment out fully—saison should be a dry beer!

Use this all-around base recipe to create five distinct saisons just by manipulating the hopping! Whether your taste leans toward traditional or you love to explore contemporary variations, you’ll find a recipe here.

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we assume that you’re using a traditional yeast, then I’d shy away from the more “tropical” hops (sorry to all you Citra lov-

ers out there—though feel free to give it a shot!). No, I prefer the orange

and pineapple and white-fruit flavors that we get out of Am-

arillo and Nugget. These are hops with fruit-forward flavors and also a touch of that geraniol-derived floral

component that we saw in the Styrian hops, making them

a great fit for saison. Chinook is also a fun choice, adding a spicier note along with its citrus characters. And for those who worry that you’ll end up making a slightly Pilsnery version of American pale ale, you can emphasize the “saison” character with the other ingredients, since these are hops that can more than handle competition from spice additions and higher alcohols. For those with a love of lemony citrus, New Zealand-grown hops (even of classic varieties) seem to push those flavors to the fore.

The CraftsmanAnd last but not least, my personal favorite hops: Northern Brewer. In a beer that was traditionally an unpretentious and rustic beverage that “fueled” the farms of Wallo-

nia, what could be a better choice than what is probably the most

rustically flavored hops? Thanks to a healthy dose of myrcene and caryophyllene oils, Northern Brewer often presents an aroma comparable to walking through a cedar forest with herb bushes growing

all around. Some might prefer the herbal/earthy flavor of

Saaz, but I feel like that’s been done before and too often—Northern Brewer is like the character in the movies that you fall in love with but who has been there right in front of you all along. It’s a great fit for the complexity-is-good nature of saisons.

Say WhenOnce you settle on a type (or types) of hops, you have to decide on how much to add and when in the process to add them for the flavor impact and bitterness level you want. Just like in type selection, tim-

ing and quantity can be adjusted to create a wide range of flavors. We’ll take these together, since your IBU budget may well dictate what you can add when (though don’t be afraid of bittering in saisons—just be aware of how your impression of bitterness is amplified or dulled by spice additions, alcohol level/sweetness, and yeast strain).

If you’re looking for a rule of thumb, I think this is a good guide: Add late and add big. Unless you’re explicitly making a saison that emphasizes a particular yeast character or spice addition, you can’t really go wrong with a substantial addition of hops flavor or aroma. And even in that case, I still say that the complexity adds something worth having. For those who are scared of overpowering their “pre-ferred” flavor, though, there is a simple solution: use more hops, just earlier in the boil. So long as you aren’t going over-board on IBUs, adding hops to the boil earlier will result in a greater percentage of isomerized compounds that would oth-erwise present as flavor/aroma. You could always just use smaller amounts, but that requires a greater degree of predictive accuracy (in terms of how it will present) than the brewing process will generally allow us.

And that brings me to my principle exception to this rule: when working with American hops (or other high alpha-acid hops), you will likely have no choice but to limit your hops additions, both in terms of quantity and time, to avoid excessive bitterness. The good news is that those also tend to be the hops that have the more-assertive and less-traditional flavors, so a lighter touch is probably a good call.

Finally—dry hopping of saisons. Do it. Just don’t go crazy with it. Whatever protocol you usually use for dry hopping your IPAs and APAs, cut it in about half for your saisons. It’s easy to see why dry hopping would be attractive: hops aroma and some flavor contribution with no added IBUs. But at the same time, you’ll want to avoid overpowering other flavors. Complex flavor profiles depend on the ability to detect independent flavors within the beer, and going overboard on any one aspect risks muddling or muting one or more other flavors. So start with halving your dry hops amount and contact time and increase from there, to taste.

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nAtuRAllyWilda

biT

American brewers interested in making beers that fit under the rather broad umbrella of saison don’t necessarily need to look toward Wallonia.

The answer may be in their own backyards. By Stan Hieronymus

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THE FIRST TIME MICHAEL CRANE, a homebrewer who since helped found Crane Brewing in Kansas City, collected yeast in the wild, he started by setting a large bucket under a friend’s pear tree. The culture he discovered fermented beer that tasted like a saison. When Christian DeBenedetti went looking for a wild strain that might become the house yeast for Wolves and People Farmhouse Brewery in Oregon, he started with what he found on a plum from perhaps the oldest tree on the farm where the brewery is located. The yeast turned out to be well suited for producing saisons.

Across the country, Jasper Akerboom harvested wild yeast from five sites in Virginia and one in New York. Akerboom oversees quality control at Lost Rhino Brewing and is a partner in Bright Yeast Labs. He estimates that he has isolated about 100 strains and that they all share what he describes as “outspoken charac-ter,” what others might call “saison-like.” “I have not found anything that is really mild,” he says. Instead, the strains tend to be “wild,” estery, and often need to ferment at higher temperatures. Most of them do not flocculate very well.

Notice something similar? American brewers interested in making beers that fit under the rather broad umbrella of saison don’t necessarily need to look toward Wallonia. The answer may be in their own backyards. But just to be clear, this is not to suggest that somebody will discover the

long-lost twin for Saison Dupont yeast floating in the northern

Montana air any time soon.

Nor does it imply wrangling a strain suit-able to brew with is as easy as finding one that will ferment wort.

There are several questions brewers need to ask first.

What is wild yeast?Quite often when brewers, and their fans, talk about “wild yeast,” they mean a mixed culture that also contains Brettanomyces and bacteria such as Pediococus and Lactobacil-lus. However, that isn’t the wild yeast we’re talking about here. The most straightfor-ward definition of what we mean by wild yeast comes from Jeff Mello, who operates Bootleg Biology and launched the Local Yeast Project in 2014 with a goal to collect a culture from all 43,000 ZIP codes. Mello says wild is “a culture that has never been part of an intentional fermentation. As soon as you do that, then to me, while you may not have changed the genetics, you have selected a strain and excluded others. You are in the process of domesticating it.”

Thus, a single “pure” Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ale yeast) collected in the wild can produce the “wild” saison character Akerboom is talking about. One reason is that any yeast collected in the wild will be phenolic off-flavor positive (POF+). “I have no doubt [about that],” says Karen Fortmann, senior research scientist at White Labs. Those phenolics are not ap-propriate in most beers but contribute the spicy, sometimes clovy, character found in strains used to brew German Weiss beers and many Belgian beers. They are essential in saison.

How do you collect wild yeast?Mello’s Backyard Yeast Wrangling Tool Kit is sold at homebrew shops across the country, but he also provides instructions for collecting wild yeast at the Bootleg Biology website. What Crane did illustrates how simple it can be. He sanitized a large bucket, added about a quart of water, cov-ered the bucket with a paint strainer and set it under the pear tree. He added what found its way into the bucket to low-gravity wort, attached an airlock to the beaker, and waited. Within two days it was bubbling. Inside of a week there was a thin layer of yeast on the bottom, gravity had dropped to 1.010, and he knew he had something that would metabolize wort into alcohol. He chilled the beaker, decanted the liquid, and added fresh wort. He did this repeatedly for more than a month, until the slurry was thick enough to ferment 5 gallons (19 liters) of wort into beer.

An adventurous brewer may choose to isolate a single colony. Mello has infor-mation about how to create agar plates, streak the plates, and pick a single colony, as do Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff in Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fer-mentation. It isn’t hard, but they include a warning to be taken seriously. “Use caution when tasting any native fermen-tation, especially if it does not smell like beer,” White and Zainasheff write. “You might want to avoid tasting any sponta-neous fermentation, waiting until you have isolated the yeast and grown up a pure culture from it.”

A single “pure” Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ale yeast) collected in the wild can produce the “wild” saison character… One reason is that any yeast collected in the wild will be phenolic off-flavor positive (POF+). Those phenolics are not appropriate in most beers but contribute the spicy, sometimes clovy, character found in strains used to brew German Weiss beers and many Belgian beers. They are essential in saison.

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Akerboom concurs. Last fall, his presentation titled “Isolating interesting wild Saccharomyces yeast strains for brewing applications” was awarded best paper at the Master Brewers Association of the Americas Annual Conference. In the paper, he basically outlines backyard wrangling on a larger scale. Before any sensory evaluation, he screens the sample to ensure that the organism captured is Saccharomyces that will ferment wort. “Everything after that is the smell and taste test,” he says.

Another option is to send samples to a laboratory to have single strains isolated.

Do you want to tame wild yeast?This is the $64,000 question. Small brew-eries are increasingly interested in finding their own proprietary yeast. Akerboom says, “When you want to work with local yeast, you need to start from scratch. You have a better understanding of what the yeast is, what it wants to do. It is good to see how it behaves in its own environment.”

But he cautions, “I think a lot of strains in brewing have been domesticated, very domesticated.” Strains collected in the outdoors are acclimated to that environ-ment. “They always going to be a little wild,” he says.

Quite obviously, wild yeasts are attractive when brewing saisons because they are wild, so a brewer who wants to main-tain that character should take that into account. Unfortunately, there is no real way to select for the wild character the way a brewer can select for flocculation and fermentation.

And selecting for such characteristics as flocculation and fermentation could affect the wild character because strains used in brewing may adapt or change each time they are reused due to selective pressure and repitching methods. They are also organisms that reproduce quickly and so may change quickly. Akerboom empha-sizes that newly collected single strains are likely to drift strongly when they are initially repitched. “More than an English yeast. That organism has been in that environment [wort] for a long time.”

It might not always be the case that a collected strain loses its wild character.

Akerboom says it depends on what the brewer selects for (on purpose or inadver-tently). He says that “evolution” of flavor/aroma (“wild character”) might go more slowly than the evolution of other charac-teristics, but “it does not mean it does not take place.”

American yeast, American beer?DeBenedetti sent the culture he collected off the plum to White Labs, where they isolated a single strain he named Sebas-tian, after Sebastian Brutscher, a Bavarian immigrant who in the nineteenth century began growing crops on the land on which Wolves and People is located.

“We are finding [Sebastian] is very diverse,” DeBenedetti says. “There are a lot of esters, pear, marmalade, and nice spicy notes. Sometimes clove.” After fifteen generations, “we feel like we’re just getting to know it. It’s evolving. One thing I like is it is a snapshot. Give it a different environment and it changes.”

Wolves and People is located on farm-land outside Portland where DeBenedetti grew up, but he is not shy about taking in-spiration from beers brewed in Belgium. Sebastian will continue to be the primary strain, but the brewery will also use it in tandem with yeast found elsewhere on the farm, such as from rose hips and from hazelnut tree flower blossoms. “And we’ve collected the dregs from great beers we admire,” he says. They’ve also developed a house sour culture. “Our goal is to be all wild, but there are certain beer styles that don’t lend themselves to the profile [Sebastian produces],” he says.

DeBenedetti recognizes that consumers mentally link “farmhouse brewery” and “Belgian beer” but that romance and real-ity must intersect at a certain point. “We are not historical reenactors,” he says. “We have a lab. We do cell counts. We want to make the most authentic beer we can, from the farm and from this location. A pure expression of place.”

It turns out that’s naturally a bit wild.

The Yeast Family TreeResearch teams from White Labs and a Belgian genetics laboratory only recently created the first genetic family tree for brewing yeasts by sequencing the DNA of more than 240 strains. The tree makes it easy to visualize possible relationships among varieties considered British or American, for instance, and in turn the relationship between them and strains found in the wild. (White Labs Founder Chris White will talk about “Unlocking the Genetic Code of Brewing Strains” at the Na-tional Homebrewers Conference in June, and it will surely be one of the most revealing of dozens of presentations.)

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BREtT PRojEctSBREWERS, BY NATURE, ARE tinkerers. Whether it’s new hops, new malts, or a slight tweak of technique or timing, there’s almost nothing that brewers today won’t experiment with in the name of science, flavor, and the joy of exploration. Over the past decade, that sense of adventure has pushed American brewers in another new and interesting direction—exploring the effects of yeast on their beer, and in par-ticular the “wild” strains of Brettanomyces found primarily in sour and funky beer.

Credit for the first comprehensive sur-vey of Brett and its effects on wort must go to Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project’s Chad Yacobsen, whose master’s thesis was a touchstone for Brett-loving brewers and lives on at brettanomycesproject.com. Crooked Stave’s “Wild Wild Brett” series (with seven beers named for the colors of the spectrum—ROYGBIV—released from 2011 through 2013) took those various Brett strains that Yacobsen isolated and brewed different beers with them, explor-ing the flavor possibilities in 100 percent Brett fermentations.

Last year, Trinity Brewing in Colorado Springs released a series of its own named “The Magical Brettanomyces Tour,” which took a single base-beer recipe and fermented it in oak wine barrels with

Have you ever wondered how different strains of Brettanomyces impact the flavors in beer? A few enterprising breweries have launched beer series that explore this very question. By Jamie Bogner

seven different strains of Brettanomyces. At the same time, California’s The Bruery embarked on a series of four beers, named “Elements of Funk,” with the same idea—one base beer fermented with four differ-ent strains of Brett. Several strains used in these series overlapped, offering points of comparison, so in the interest of science, we offer our tasting notes of these Brett strains and the beers made with them.

B. Bruxellensis, var Drie (or Drei)The Bruery’s Elements of Funk variant showcases the soft fruit nose of this wild yeast, with a mild sweetness and light raspberry notes. The flavor pulls familiar Brett notes of tree bark and wet mulch, but it appears to attenuate slightly less than the other strains leaving slightly more residual sweetness along with more mellow and faint raspberry and strawberry notes. It’s a bit like an all-natural fruit pop-

sicle (with no sugar added)—not sweet, but hints in that direction.

Trinity’s take on Drie exhibits even more heightened sweetness, and the wine-bar-rel character tends to overpower the Brett notes, leaving the beer closer to a farm-house cider or under-carbed champagne than a dry, Brett saison.

B. BruxellensisThe Bruery’s version hints at stone fruit—apricot and peach as it warms—with a slight melon sweetness and a moderate bitterness (relative to the other variants) that’s still significant. A retronasal fruitiness mixes with the rustic Brett character to lend a note of grilled peaches. But the beer makes it very evident why B. Bruxellensis is the go-to Brett strain for most brewers—it provides a per-fect blend of fruit-forward notes and the dry and crisp character that is Brett’s signature.

Trinity’s B. Brux variant is a very different experience than their Drie—it’s sharper and cleaner with crisp and dry wine notes in proper balance, and the added attenua-tion crackles on the tongue like pop rocks.

For a More Humorous Take On The Magic of BrettFor much more irreverent tasting notes on the Magical Brett Tour series, read “Don’t Drink Beer Digs In To Trinity Brewing’s Magical Brettanomyces Tour” on beerand brewing.com where the beer world’s most iconoclastic blogger reviews each variant while pairing them with an item from the Wen-dy’s Right Price Right Size Menu.

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B. LambicusIn The Bruery’s iteration, B. Lambicus brings the woodsy, hay, and earthy character to the forefront, with slightly lower attenu-ation and a soft lingering bitterness. Think baked sweet potato with the skin on and a faint dusting of ground black pepper.

“Afro Brett” is Trinity’s closest corollary to The Bruery’s Lambicus. This beer had a subtle nose and showcased a decent bal-ance between the funk and wine notes—it was dry and aromatic with a woody tree-bark character, but that subtlety may be overplayed as it had less character overall than others in the series.

B. ClauseniiIn its Bruery variation, B. Clausenii was very distinct, with a crisp linen and mild lemon character initially that evoked more fruit as it warmed. The incredibly high attenuation was evident—it was dry, sharp, and very effervescent (bubbling out of the bottle after the first pour), and the strong punchy bitterness lingered long into the aftertaste. Think of a salad with bitter greens and a light olive oil and lemon juice dressing.

“Farmhouse Brett”This Trinity variation was wildly effervescent, leaping from the bottle into the glass. The strong

white-wine character was complemented by the full attenuation, and that dryness helped pull forward interesting lemon, lime, lemongrass, and Thai basil notes.

B. Bouckaertii, B. Nardensis, B. AnomalaLet’s lump these Trinity variations into one header because, frankly, there was little to learn from them. B. Bouckaertii exhibited sharp stale vinegar notes ini-tially that settled into an equally fragrant and pungent lily-like character with an off-putting cider-like note. B. Nardensis led with a promising soft rose note, but the heightened bitterness in the flavor only amplified the slight butyric character. B. Anomala attacked the tongue with the fervor that only Brett can, but offered little interest beyond that.

One thing that became immediately ap-parent when tasting through these beers is just how much the base recipe (and impact of other elements such as wood fermenta-

tion) can change the flavor. If your goal is to perform your own brewing experiment with various Brett strains, keep the recipe straightforward and minimize additional inputs such as wood, specialty grains, aggressive dry hopping, or adjuncts that can cover up the flavor of the Brett itself. In terms of evaluating the flavors of each Brett strain, The Bruery’s series was more effective because of that recipe restraint.

It’s also worth noting that as each of these beers decanted, the individual character that each expressed initially then morphed into a much more general “Brett-ness.” We found a significant differ-ence in perception with fresh pours and the strong aromatics released by that ini-tial head compared to our return to those samples ten or fifteen minutes later.

But despite these caveats, adventurous beer drinkers interested in developing their own palates are well-served by sam-pling through these beer series, exploring the nuanced flavors that the various Brett strains produce.

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Slow + steADy Wins thE RAce……and ferments the beer. Here are some ways to give your yeast cells a steady and productive fermentation environment to ensure that your beer turns out great. By Josh Weikert

FOR EVERY BEER BREWED, the yeast cells live out a whole series of steps. They wake up, grow new yeast cells, consume sugars, and produce carbon dioxide, alcohol, and a host of other compounds, then drop back into a dormant state and fall out of solution. It’s easy to overstate the extent to which we as brewers actually “make” beer and just as easy to understate the extent to which yeast cells are doing the bulk of the hard work. Yeast, though, works in an environment that we manipu-late, and the ways in which we tinker with that environment greatly impact the work that yeast can do within it. One of the key features of that environment is tempera-ture, and good brewers manage tempera-tures to give their yeast the best shot at producing the beer that the brewers (and, I think, the yeast) really want.

We could talk for days about ideal fermentation temperatures for different yeast strains, but we’re going to keep it

simpler than that. We’re just talking about ways to manage temperature, whatever you want that temperature to be. Control is the name of the game for many aspects of brewing, and controlling temperature should be first on your list as a brewer because your yeast’s health, performance, and effectiveness are relying on it. Yeast cells want a steady and productive envi-ronment, and that’s just what we should endeavor to give them.

I’m sure that most of you already have a good sense of why temperature manage-ment matters in brewing. Yeast will pro-duce different precursors and compounds, consume sugars at different rates, yield different flavor profiles, exhibit symptoms of stress, and attenuate more or less com-pletely depending on the temperatures in the beer as it is fermenting. Temperature will affect how quickly fermentation starts, how long it lasts, and what is left behind. Temperature will increase the risk of

off-flavors, decrease the development of es-ters and phenols, and often will mean the difference between sweet, apple-like etha-nol and harsh, hot fusel alcohols. Neglect-ing the temperature of your fermentation makes about as much sense as not tuning your guitar before a performance. Tem-perature matters. I’d go so far as to say that nothing matters more than temperature. So, if everyone is sufficiently panicked, let’s get into how you keep it under control!

Temperature and TimingIn the brewing process, there are effec-tively three stages of temperature control that yeast cells need. There’s getting to the initial “starting” temperature, manag-ing the “fermenting” temperature, and warming things up for the “final cleanup” temperature.

First, you need to get your beer from the “chilled” post-boil temperature down (or up) to your initial fermentation temperature. You do this during the lag phase (when you first pitch the yeast), to ensure that when your yeast starts its exponential growth phase and begins taking up the simple sugars, it is producing what you want it to produce (no more, no less). So, you might be getting your wort down to about 75–80°F (24–27°C) using your immersion or plate chiller, which is a fairly high start even for a saison. If you begin fermentation there, you might end up with a lot of precursors and off-flavors that you don’t want, so you want to cool that beer down to about 70°F (21°C). I’d start even lower, but saison yeast strains

Control is the name of the game for many as-pects of brewing, and controlling temperature should be first on your list as a brewer because your yeast’s health, performance, and effective-ness are relying on it. Yeast cells want a steady and productive environment, and that’s just what we should endeavor to give them.78 | CRAFT BEER & BREWING

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tend to be okay at higher temperatures, and this still leaves you room to ramp up. I pitch my yeast at whatever temperature I’m at after chilling from the boil and adjust the temperature to my initial fermentation tem-perature while the yeast cells are waking up.

Second, you have temperature man-agement during the exponential growth phase (basically, days 1–3) and the station-ary phase (days 4–10). During that time, the yeast cells are chewing through a lot of sugar, producing esters, alcohols, and phenols, and they’re also warming up the beer that they’re living in. If you let them run wild, they might move the tempera-ture higher to a level that makes them more likely to produce things you don’t want, or it might create large temperature swings throughout the day that will trick the yeast cells into dropping back into a dormant stage. So it’s helpful to manage their temperature a bit here. The key is to maintain a slow and steady rise in temperature, so that as the environment becomes more toxic (alcoholic) and as the yeast cells start to tire, they keep up a reg-ular and complete fermentation of your beer. So let’s take our fictional saison: You may have started at 70°F (21°C), but you’re not staying there. You hold at that initial temperature for about 72 hours, but then you want to slowly raise the temperature over the succeeding week or so, walking it up to about 75°F (24°C). Feel free to tinker with this, though: your yeast strain choice and flavor preferences may vary, and there’s a lot of play in this one! I know people (my Brewdog, Biscuit, and me) who ferment even their Belgians on the colder side; I start all of my ales at about 65°F (18°C) no matter the style, for consis-tency. I know other people (including one who works for a yeast manufacturer) who start their fermentations as high as 78°F (26°C). Different strokes...

Finally, there’s the concluding stage of the fermentation, and here you want to juice the yeast cells into doing a good final cleanup of the beer: reabsorb that diacetyl, process that acetaldehyde, break down those last few chunks of maltotriose, all before drifting back to sleep. For that, you need to bump up the temperature in their environment. I like to add another 3–4°F (2°C) over the course of a day or two and

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hold it there for a couple of days before crashing to near freezing for clarity.

So, to recap:

▪ Chill (or heat) to the initial fermenta-tion temperature

▪ Hold steady there for the first few days ▪ Slowly raise the temperature to encour-age complete attenuation

▪ Warm up for your diacetyl rest/cleanup ▪ Cold crash to encourage flocculation and clearing

Practical Temperature ControlIn a perfect world, all brewers would own dual-stage temperature controllers and a

dedicated fermentation chamber (usually in the form of a chest freezer). You’d brew, pick an initial fermentation temperature, and dial that puppy in to whatever you want as the fermenta-tion process progresses. The cooling

mechanism (the freezer’s own compressor) would keep your beer from running away with itself as fermentation starts, while the heating mechanism (often a shielded incandescent bulb or ceramic heat element) would keep temperatures moving upward and stimulating yeast activity as the yeast cells start to slow down.

But let’s face it: Not everyone has that luxury, and that

shouldn’t mean that you’re sacrificing beer

quality. You should still be managing temperature. The issue is that you can’t simply say, “Oh well, I guess I’ll just ferment at room

temperature,” either. Why not? Because there’s re-

ally no such thing as “room temperature.” What I mean by that is that throughout the day and night, the temperature in your room (wherever that is) will vary, often by a significant amount. This can cause the yeast to behave erratically. If tempera-tures are increasing, you might end up with fermentation characteristics or hot alcohols that you don’t want, and drop-ping temperatures can cause premature flocculation and incomplete fermentation. So if you don’t have that dedicated and controlled fermentation chamber, your goal should be twofold: first, promote a steady temperature; and second, do your best to hit your ideal “phase” temperature.

For steady (and generally brewing-friendly) temperatures, your basement is your best friend. Because the base-ment is subterranean, its unconditioned temperature will likely be somewhere around 60°F (16°C) almost all year long. And since the basement isn’t directly exposed to the elements, that temperature will remain much steadier than in rooms above grade (many digital thermometers have a high-low setting that you can use to measure the actual variation in any 24-hour period). Consider your own circumstances, of course, but start in the darkest and most out-of-the-way corner of your basement. Near the walls is great because it’s both close to the source of that steady-state-temperature dirt and out of the way of drafts and currents. If you have a separate closeted sump-pit area, you can even shave a couple of degrees off of the regular temperature thanks to evaporation in the exposed pit area. I had a tucked-away area in my first basement that held a steady 54°F (12°C), and as fermentation progressed I could simply slide the carboy farther out from the corner to slowly raise the temperature. It was perfect!

If you don’t have a basement, don’t despair. There are other options. First, start in the heart of the house. An interior room with no windows will almost always be a better option than a room with an exterior wall. In any room, a closet is go-ing to exhibit smaller temperature swings than the rest of the room, especially if it has a non-louvered door that you can keep closed and no HVAC vents/elements. A large-enough cabinet or pantry can work this way as well. If that’s not an option, you might consider putting your carboy/

In a perfect world, all brewers would own dual-stage temperature controllers and a dedicated fermentation chamber. But let’s face it: not everyone has that luxury, and that shouldn’t mean that you’re sacrificing beer quality.

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Bière de Garde in the Style of Castelain ALL-GRAIN

One of the most celebrated breweries in French Flanders, Caste-lain is an artisan independent brewery best known for producing bières de garde. Annick Castelain—the granddaughter of the brewery’s founder—has been pivotal in the movement to revive artisan brewing in France. This version of bière de garde is a bit higher in alcohol and somewhat sweeter, with a pleasant honey aroma and flavor. The appearance is deep golden. The yeast I’ve chosen shows some spicy notes, typical in this version. This malt-forward beer with a very subtle hops presence ages well.

OG: 1.085FG: 1.022IBUs: 20ABV: 8.2%

MALT/GRAIN BILL

15 lb (6.8 kg) Pilsner malt1 lb (454 g) Honey malt1 lb (454 g) Crystal 101 lb (454 g) Clear Candi Sugar (added the last 15 minutes of the boil)

HOPS SCHEDULE

1 oz (28 g) Northern Brewer pellets [6.9% AAU] at 60 minutes

YEAST

Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes or White Labs WLP510 Belgian Bastogne

DIRECTIONS

Mash the crushed grains at 152°F (67°C) for 60 minutes. See “Mashing Technique” and “Fermentation and Conditioning” (page 83) for details.

BièrE dE GARdE &SAIsOn rEciPeSAward-winning homebrewer Paul Zocco (Zok) shares two bière de garde recipes, one modeled on a bière de garde from Castelain, an artisan French brewery, and one modeled on Brasserie Duyck’s Jenlain Ambrée. In addition, you’ll find three saison recipes, including one modeled on Saison Dupont. All recipes are scaled to 5 gallons (19 liters) with a brewhouse efficiency around 80 percent. Zok recommends using soft, low-mineral water throughout the brewing process for all these recipes.

bucket inside a larger storage container and filling it with water: The additional thermal mass of the water will slow any temperature movement caused by changes in the ambient air temperature (and you can also manage the water temperature to help nudge your beer’s temperature in the direction you’d like it to go). And when it comes to steady temperatures, don’t underestimate the simple things: avoid drafts, sunny spots, commonly opened doors or windows, and exterior walls. Steady as she goes.

But what about active temperature control? There are two common methods for cooling beer, and both are fairly low-tech. The first is a simple water bath. If you want to reduce/hold temperature, drop the fermentor into a water bath, either using the water as is or adding frozen water bottles or jugs. You might also consider a simple evapora-tion cooler. Place the fermentor in a pan with a quantity of water in the base. Drape a T-shirt, thin towel, or sheet over the fermentor such that it drops into the water and wicks the water up and around the fermentor. As the water evap-orates, it will reduce the temperature of the beer in the fermentor—all the more so if you keep a fan on the wet cloth! With either method, I recommend less aggressively managing it at night to better simulate a steady tempera-ture environment (since ambient temperatures will likely fall in the evenings).

When it comes time to warm up your beer (either because it’s winter or because you’re looking to bump up temperatures at the end of fermentation), you have two similar strategies. There’s nothing like a warm bath—and your yeast will provide its own bubbles. You also shouldn’t underestimate the impact of tenting/wrapping your fer-mentor with towels or blankets, especially if you can direct the warm air from a heat register up under the wrappings (this works to cool beer if the air conditioning is on, too). To this day, I bottle condition beers all winter by simply putting the cases over the vent in my brewery and draping a thick towel over them. Seven days to carbonation!

And by all means, be creative. Just keep the two goals in mind: steady temperatures and timing.

Time and TemperatureJust because you don’t have a temperature-controlled fermentation chamber doesn’t mean you’re out of luck when it comes to temperature control. Beer was made for thousands of years—and grew to its prominence today—before the advent of air conditioning and freezers. Find your own equivalent of the beer caves of Munich, the hot farmhouses of Belgium, or the frigid brewhouses of the Baltic region. Remember, though: your yeast cells likely won’t notice a degree or two of difference here and there, but they will notice significant changes in temperature. Consistency matters more than accuracy. If you can time your temperatures to the appropriate phase of the yeast life cycle, fantastic. But if not, worry more about consis-tency than absolute temperature.

Slow and steady won the race for the tortoise—it will work for you (and your beer)!

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High-Gravity Saison with Chinese White Pepper and Bitter Orange Peel

ALL-GRAIN

This saison is one of my favorites. It is a conventionally made saison, but I kick up the OG to 1.080 and give it a good dose of Chinese white pepper and bitter orange peel. I keep the hops presence low to allow the spice from the pepper and the yeast strain to shine. The combination of orange and hot pepper seems to marry well. The hops presence in this beer is very sub-dued. Saisons are typically very individualistic in style and reflect the brewer’s art.

OG: 1.080FG: 1.010IBUs: 25ABV: 8.6%

MALT/GRAIN BILL

15 lb (6.8 kg) Pilsner alt1 lb (454 g) wheat malt0.3 oz (9 g) chocolate malt (this gives the beer a slight orange/pink color)

HOPS AND ADDITIONS SCHEDULE

1 oz (28 g) Northern Brewer pellets [6.9% AAU] at 60 minutes1 oz (28 g) dried bitter orange peel at 60 minutes0.5 tsp Chinese white pepper at 60  minutes

YEAST

Pitch Wyeast 3711 French Saison yeast. This yeast will attenuate the beer to a very low final gravity, giving it a dry finish.

DIRECTIONS

Mash the crushed grains at 145°F (63°C) for 60 minutes to ensure a dry finish. See “Mashing Technique” and “Fermentation and Conditioning” (page 83) for details.

Bière de Garde in the style of Jenlain

ALL-GRAIN

Jenlain is a range of beers made by the Brasserie Duyck in Jenlain in far northern France, just to the west of Belgium. This bière de garde version is possibly the definitive representation of the style. Amber in color, this beer shows a strong malt-forward character with notes of caramel and toffee. Though some hops flavor exists, it is very subtle. Some drinkers have mentioned corky and musty notes, which are probably due to the aging qual-ities of this style of beer and possibly the cork used in its bottling.

OG: 1.075FG: 1.018IBUs: 25ABV: 7.5 %

MALT/GRAIN BILL

12 lb (5.4 kg) Pilsner malt1 lb (454 g) Crystal malt 90° 1 lb (454 g) CaraMunich malt

HOPS SCHEDULE

1 oz (28 g) Northern Brewer pellets [6.9% AAU] at 60 minutes0.5 oz (14 g) Czech Saaz [3.7% AAU] at 5 minutes

YEAST

There are many choices. If you don’t have a favorite, try Wyeast 3726 Farmhouse Ale or White Labs WLP570 Belgian Golden Ale.

DIRECTIONS

Mash the crushed grains at 150°F (66°C) for 60 minutes. See “Mashing Technique” and “Fermentation and Conditioning” (page 83) for details.

BièrE dE GARdE & S

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Belgian Saison in the Style of Saison Dupont ALL-GRAIN

Saison Dupont is the definitive example of this beer style. This saison shows complex fruity esters with floral and grassy notes. The appearance is cloudy with golden hues. A lower mash temperature (145°F/63°C) would assure a very dry finish, typical of this style of very food-friendly beer.

OG: 1.065FG: 1.012IBUs: 28ABV: 6.5%

MALT/GRAIN BILL

11 lb (4.9 kg) Pilsner malt0.5 lb (227 g) Vienna malt0.25 lb (113 g) Munich malt0.5 lb (227 g) Caramunich malt0.5 lb (227 g) wheat malt

HOPS SCHEDULE

1 oz (28 g) East Kent Goldings pellets [6.3% AAU] at 60 minutes0.5 oz (14 g) Styrian Goldings pellets [1.5% AAU] at 5 minutes

YEAST

Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison or White Labs WLP565

DIRECTIONS

Mash the crushed grains at 150°F (66°C) for 60 minutes. See “Mashing Technique” and “Fermentation and Conditioning” at right for details.

Sessionable Saison ALL-GRAIN

This beer is the little sister of the High-Gravity Saison recipe, but without the bitter orange or white pepper. Spicy notes come from the yeast by-products. The alcohol level makes it a pleasant sessionable beer.

OG: 1.040FG: 1.005IBUs: 20ABV: 4.5%

MALT/GRAIN BILL

7 lb (3.2 kg) Pilsner malt1 lb (454 g) wheat malt0.2 oz (6 g) chocolate malt (for color only)

HOPS SCHEDULE

1 oz (28 g) Northern Brewer pellets [6.9% AAU] at 60 minutes

YEAST

Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison Yeast or White Labs WLP565 Saison Yeast

DIRECTIONS

Mash the crushed grains at 150°F (66°C) for 60 minutes. See “Mashing Technique” and “Fermentation and Conditioning” below for details.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS

Mashing TechniqueMash the crushed grains at the stated mash temperature. I use the rate of 1 pound (454 g) of crushed grain per quart (946 ml) of water that is heated to 15°F(8°C) higher than my targeted mash temperature because there will be about a 15°F (8°C) drop in temperature when the grains are added. Mix well and adjust the mash to the chosen temperature with hot or cold water. Mash in an insulated vessel for 60 minutes. Recirculate until the wort runs clear. Sparge with 168°F (76°C) water

until you get 6 gallons (22.7 l), which will be boiled down to 5 gallons (19 l). Boil the wort for 60 minutes following each recipe’s hops schedule. After chilling the wort to below 80°F (27°C), pitch the rec-ommended strain of yeast. You may want to experiment with various yeast strains. Each has its own characteristic flavors.

Fermentation and ConditioningFerment at the recommended temperature for your yeast strain (refer to the yeast lab specs, roughly 65–70°F/18–21°C). Transfer the beer to a secondary fermentor after 10 days of primary fermentation. Continue fermenting at 65–70°F (18–21°C) until all signs of fermentation are gone, usually another 2 weeks. On bottling day, condi-tion with ¾ cup of corn sugar (dextrose) or 1¼ cup of dry malt extract (DME). Rest bottles at 65–70°F (18–21°C) for 10 days until you achieve carbonation. Then enjoy.

PARTIAL MASH

Partial-mash brewers can calculate the amount of dry or liquid malt extract (DME or LME) to use in place of the base grain. Though DME is a bit more malt rich, use the same calculation. To get the amount of DME or LME to use, multiply the base grain amount by 0.75. Your OG will be basically equivalent. In the case of conducting a partial-mash brew, mash the desired grains using the method in “Mashing Technique” and simply sparge the runnings into the kettle along with the DME or LME.

& SAIsOn rEciPeS

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There’s never an off-season for saison and farmhouse ales. Our tasting panel revisited Classic, Brett, and Mixed-fermentation Saisons and Farmhouse Ales, Grisettes and Table Beers, Bières de Miel, Bières de Garde, and Fruited and Spiced takes on these. Read on for their thoughts on the rapid evolution we’re witnessing in these classic styles.

Tasted

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INSIDE CB&B

How We Taste & TestReviewing beer may sound like a dream job, but our tasting and re-view panel takes the role seriously. Composed entirely of Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) judg-es who have all studied, trained, and been tested on their ability to discern characteristics in beer, our panel is independent and doesn’t include any CB&B editors or staff. The panel tastes all beer blindly—they do not know what brands and beers they are tasting until the tasting is complete.

Our goal is to inform you about the strengths and weaknesses of these beers as well as their rel-ative differences (not everyone has the same taste in beer, so accurate descriptors are more valuable than straight numerical values). The quotes you see are compiled from the review panel’s score sheets to give you a well-rounded picture of the beer.

As our reviewers judge, they score based on the standard BJCP components: Aroma (max 12 points), Appearance (max 3 points), Flavor (max 20 points), Mouthfeel (max 5 points), and Overall Impression (max 10 points). We’ve listed these individual component scores, and the bottom-line number is derived from adding then dou-bling these component scores to produce a rating on a 100-point scale. Note that we’ve rounded the printed component scores to the nearest whole number, so the math won’t necessarily add up.

Our judges use the following scale in valuing scores:

95–100 » Extraordinary World-class beers of superlative character and flawless execution90–94 » Exceptional Distinguished beers with special character, style, and flavor85–89 » Very goodWell-crafted beers with note-worthy flavor and style80–84 » Good Solid, quality, enjoyable beers75–79 » Above AverageDrinkable and satisfactory beers with minor flaws or style deviations70–74 » Average50–69 » Not recommended

We’d like for you to keep one thing in mind as you read these reviews—your perception of a beer is more important than that of our review panel or edi-torial staff, and reading reviews in a magazine (or on the Web or in a book) is no substitute for trying the beer yourself.

Blackberry Farm Classic Saison

| ABV: 6% | IBUs: 31 | SRM: 5 |

What the brewer says“The aroma is dominated by fruity esters reminiscent of citrus fruits and a moderate earthy and floral hops aroma. It is medium-bodied and refreshing.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Moderate white pepper note with a light fruit and lemon ester. Light spicy notes of lemongrass and white pepper. Low herbal earth hops. A very clean-smelling beer.”Flavor: “Big lemon and light grape notes up front with plenty of carbonation. Moderate grapefruit with a pithiness creates a dryness at the end of the sip. Tangerine carries through with light peppery phenols and white bread. Low malt sweetness up front gives way to a mix of moderate acidity and bitterness. Earthy hops presence with a slight floral and basil flavor. Clean and well- balanced. Hops bitterness lingers with a slight tartness in the back.”Overall: “Moderate carbonation covers up a lot of the fruitiness up front, but once it dissipates there is more sweet-ness and a moderate spicy note. The light mix of esters, phenols, and bready malt give a nice complexity, while the dry tart finish and high carbonation make it very refreshing.”

Blackberry Farm Summer Saison

| ABV: 6.1% | IBUs: 45 | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“A hops-forward farmhouse ale with complex aromas of fruit and a balanced bitterness.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Juicy citrusy and bright American hops aroma. Honey and floral. A light malt aroma develops as it warms. Big tropical fruit notes of pineapple and mango.”Flavor: “A sweet citrus fruit juiciness carries throughout. Tastes fresh and sweet but finishes mostly dry with a clean finish that defies the sweet aroma. Big orange and floral hops, peppery phenol, and honey and slight caramel malt. Similar to the aroma, the flavor is a clever blend of traditional saison yeast flavors (pear, ripe apple, herbal/floral notes) and juicy hops character, with light mango, strawberry, and grapefruit. A perfectly dry beer that encourages more drinking.”Overall: “Refreshing and juicy, this beer came together nicely. Intriguing use of citrus and floral hops in what would otherwise be a classic French saison. The sum is greater than the parts—a delicious combination of a base saison style with New World hops. Great dry light finish and refreshing fruity notes.

95 93 99AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 20MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

Adelbert’s Philosophizer

| ABV: 7.8% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“This smooth ale tastes citrusy with yeasty notes and a hint of peppery spice. Its dry finish and mild carbon-ation make it perfect for pairing…”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “A nice, prominent yeast phe-nolic character of spice and peppercorn coupled with a malt sweetness and a pleasant amount of yeast fruitiness–citrus, orange, apple, pear, and a slight earthiness.”Flavor: “A healthy amount of yeast phenolics up front, combined with a dose of fruity esters. Moderately sweet with a bit of tart in the middle but a borderline cloying sweetness carries into the finish. Nice clean dry finish due to the high carbonation.Slight tartness. Touch of orange, lemon, and some spicy notes. A bit bitter in the finish.”Overall: “A wonderfully crafted saison that definitely leans more toward examples of stronger, heavier versions, but does so without losing its footing or balance. Very good—the only thing holding this beer back is bit too much malt sweetness throughout. This beer was full of flavor yet still really refreshing due to the high carbonation. Enjoyed it.”

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8795 91 86AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 3OVERALL: 8

AROMA: 10APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 17MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

Brasserie St. James Daily Wages

| ABV: 6.7% | IBUs: 37 | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“This straw-colored ale takes three months to create, using a process involving three different yeast strains added at specific times, temperatures, and gravities. Green peppercorns are added alongside whole-cone European hops to give an earthy bite.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Moderate peppery phenols up front with a light lemon note in the back. As it warms, more lime notes come out. Orange and white grape esters. Slight apple and green-grape skin.”Flavor: “High tangerine and orange note up front with a mild sweetness and medium tartness that lingers into the aftertaste with a heavy fruity note and just a touch of spiciness. Carbonation is moderate for the style. As it warms, the earthy hops flavor pushes forward. Low bitterness in the finish. The bright acidity and light pepper note cut through the sweetness of the malt bill.”Overall: “Very fruity and juicy with big notes of orange, grapefruit, and tangerine. Tart character and dry finish make this very drinkable. The fruitiness paired with the light pepper notes on top of the malt bill create this fantastic balanced beer.”

Breakside Brewery Belly Laugh

| ABV: 5.6% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Belly Laugh is a traditional saison brewed with a French farmhouse yeast, triticale (wheat/rye) malt, and a touch of elderfower and grains of paradise. Very dry, bright, and highly carbonated!”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Big pale malt aroma with a slight hay sweetness. Fruity esters of lemon and pear are light and clean. Medium hops aroma—slight white pepper, orange zest, fresh-baked bread. Lemongrass up front with a spicy note and a touch of earthy horse blanket.”Flavor: “Malt sweetness is evident but restrained. Lemon and citrus hops flavor with some balanced earthy spiciness. Citrus esters and bready malt are light but very refreshing. Spicy note toward the end of the sip plays with the carbonation, but the carbonation creates the bitterness.”Overall: “Overall, a clean and fruity example of the style. The apple and pear really shine through this one and are very refreshing. Very good beer. Might suggest a lower level of carbonation to let the middle and back flavors linger more. Very nice refreshing lighter saison with orange and bready yeast character, dry finish, and huge carbonation.”

Brooklyn Brewery Sorachi Ace

| ABV: 7.2% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“An unfiltered golden farmhouse ale with a clean malt flavor and Sorachi Ace hops standing front and center. Dry-hopping releases Sorachi Ace’s bright, spicy aromatics that harmonize with Pilsner malt and Belgian ale yeast.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Moderate peppery phenols up front with a big flower shop and rose note. Blend of spice character in the aroma—coconut, cinnamon, slight ginger, herbal tea-like hops.”Flavor: “Oak flavors up front with a moderate estery character and a light sweetness, perhaps vanilla. Medium peppery phenols with a moderate floral note. Somewhat sweet throughout with a bit of bitterness in the finish and acidity. Well-balanced with the malt sweetness. Finishes sweet with tangerine, pear, and passion-fruit notes.”Overall: “Big floral and oak notes up front are smooth with a perceived light amount of carbonation for the style. Creamy consistency. Moderate tangerine and lemon flavors with a balanced amount of spice. Very drinkable—spice-forward and low in esters. More carbonation might have also cut through some of the sweetness.”

Brasserie De La Senne Saison du Meyboom

| ABV: 4% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer saysNot available.

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Moderate esters up front with a slight skunking note. Light lemongrass esters. Low bread note. As it warms the skunking starts to go away. High grain aroma. Medium-high lemon esters. Me-dium-high earthy hops aroma of lemon with a slight orange at the end.”Flavor: “Sharp carbonic bite up front with a slight lemon note in the background. In the aftertaste, mostly bitterness—some from hops but some from an astringent note. High spiciness. As the carbonation starts to dissipate, a slight lemon fruitiness starts to come out. Grainy malt flavor and a touch of Pilsner-like malt characteristic in the middle. High earthy hops flavor that dominates the back. Grassy and spicy notes that linger far into the aftertaste. Balance is toward the hops, but it pairs well with overall malt bill. Clean dry finish with a lingering hops astringency.”Overall: “Sharp astringency overall makes this an acquired taste. Signifi-cant bitterness and spicy notes up front with a moderate hops flavor toward the end of the sip. Missing the fruity esters one expects from a saison.”

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Brasserie Dupont Saison Dupont

| ABV: 6.5% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Coppery blond, the finest aromas, and a strong bitterness transform this beer into a thirst-quencher. Our selection of yeasts is the perfect base for these typical aromas and taste.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Very fruity and smells delicious—lemon, apple, pear—with a touch of spice in the background. White pepper phenols and slightly herbal tea-like hops. Bready malt.”Flavor: “High hops fruitiness of lemon and pear with a slight evidence of apple. Well-balanced among malt, hops, and yeast profiles. Medium-high carbonation. Clean dry finish. Moderate spicy phenols up front with a moderate carbonic bite. Dry finish with grape- and wine-like notes belies the layered sophistication.”Overall: “A very well-balanced beer. Fruity, yet the peppery hops bitterness in the back provides an interesting contrast. Lots of white pepper phenols and lemon/tangerine esters trademark of French saison yeast. Slight tartness. Dry, quick finish cleans the palate for another sip. Big carbonation and tart finish make this very refreshing and incredibly drinkable.”

Brasserie Dupont Avec Les Bons Voeux

| ABV: 9.5% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Brewed with a selection of Dupont’s signature yeasts and given a longer maturation phase, the resulting beer has a full and malty richness with flavors of banana, clove, and lemon peel.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Honey-like with an underlying tangerine and light floral character. Slight earthiness in the back. A pleasant mix, in almost perfect balance, of the fruity, citrusy ester notes and phenolic spice.”Flavor: “The beer has a honey-like sweetness that hits up front along with some tropical fruit notes—pineapple, a little melon, some caramel apple, a little orange. The spice character helps to balance the sweet a bit with a little bitterness, and it finishes fairly dry for how sweet it starts. High carbonation helps scrub the palate and makes this fairly refreshing (despite its strength).”Overall: “Really enjoyed the way the car-bonation helped to bring out the tropical esters in this beer. For a stronger saison example, it’s very-well balanced and not overpowering. Bit on the sweet side, but interesting fruit and funky flavors. The orange esters play into the spicy alcohol nicely, and the high carbonation finishes nicely.”

8887 97 96AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 20MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 3OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

Brasserie du Bocq Saison 1858

| ABV: 6.4% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Hazy amber-gold color, medium body, and a complex Belgian-yeast aroma; crisp flavor with a bit of inviting, dynamic acidity balanced by forward hops. Beautiful soft carbonation and mouthfeel from bottle conditioning.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Big aroma! A bit of bready malt sweetness, strong lemongrass esters and a hint of peach. White grape, orange, and perfume like coriander. High lemon notes like a lemon-drop candy and light white pepper spice.”Flavor: “Low malt presence and a slight Thai basil earthy/herbal flavor in the middle. A bit of tartness and pepper that lingers to balance the lemon and lemongrass. Dry finish with a medium body. Grape and citrus come through strong. Light astringency before the end that transitions back to a moderate lemon flavor.”Overall: “Very earthy and fruity beer, balanced well between the herbal and fruit notes. Although tasty, the spices were somewhat overpowering for the saison style—it’s more akin to a strong wit fermented with saison yeast. The finish is dry and slightly peppery but the taste itself has a nice lemon sweetness.

De Ranke Saison de Dottignies

| ABV: 5.5% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer saysNot available.

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Moderate spicy hops up front with a touch of honey and bread. Light skunk note perhaps? High fruity esters of lemon and citrus with a slight lemongrass and grapefruit pith. Wet hay funk and herbal hops follow with a bit of bready malt. A bit of oxidation in the aroma.”Flavor: “Big sweetness up front with a honey note and light lime. Transitions into a bitter, spicy note that extends all the way into the aftertaste. Big/high American hops flavor of grapefruit and other citrus. Orange and wet hay “farmhouse” character. Bitterness lingers beyond the finish. Dry and nice carbonation.”Overall: “Medium body and a moderate sweetness up front are a nice introduc-tion, but then it transitions into a spicy bitterness that is very dry and lasts well after the sip. Citrusy with an earthy funk and finishes with a moderate bitterness. Dry and drinkable with nice complexity.”

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Funkwerks Tropic King

| ABV: 8% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Originally designed to be a hoppier version of our flagship Saison, the accidental addition of two extra bags of Munich malt balanced the hops bit-terness. Tropical fruit flavors come from the New Zealand hops variety, Rakau.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Fruity esters are more prominent, with slight phenolic spice, but overall relatively restrained for the style. Balance of white pepper phenols and orange. A bit of floral and bready malt. Tangerines and oranges. Floral and fruity.”Flavor: “As in the aroma, the fruity esters are dominant, primarily apple, apple cider, and pear. Tangerines, oranges, plums, dates. Some light floral and herbal notes. A touch of spice at the back end. Sweetness slowly fades and it finishes moderately dry with slight alcohol warmth.”Overall: “Some fun fruity esters, but overall a bit less attenuated than I would like. Esters and phenols are fairly bal-anced with an orange and white-pepper character. A bit of alcohol warmth in the finish lets you know the strength without being overwhelming. Nice carbonation helps it finish well.”

Hof Ten Dormaal Saison

| ABV: 5.5% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“As a saison, this is as old-school as they get. Lightly sour, brewed only with grain and hops made right here! Brewed for before, during, and after hard labor in the fields!”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Moderate lemon notes with a touch of lime. Light spicy notes, but more muted than other examples. Light tart note, could have a slight Brett note. Fantastic aroma that really shines—or-ange and fresh-baked bread.”Flavor: “Tart notes up front with big grapefruit and lime notes. I would guess Brett in this beer because of that. Moderate spiciness toward the end of the sip that could be considered harsh, but then a big grapefruit flavor comes in to finish it off. Overall malt sweetness is low. Balanced toward yeast character-istics and hops flavor. Very refreshing. Extremely dry, but in a drinkable way.”Overall: “Very fruity and refreshing beer. Had there been a little more balance toward the malt, it would have scored even higher. Very dry with a touch of carbonic bite. Very acidic for a saison—it’s refreshing but fairly intense for what I would expect.”

Jandrain IV

| ABV: 6.5% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Blonde beer, unfiltered, unpasteurized, and fermented in the bottle. This beer is brewed with only the four basic ingredients (water, malt, hops, yeast). Jandrain IV used different hops to give it its special character.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “The touch of American piney hops is very different. As it starts to warm, a bit more spicy hops start to come out. Very interesting herbal and grape that creates a unique aroma of earthy and herbal.”Flavor: “Hops flavor is medium-high with an earthy, peppery, and fruity pres-ence. Big earthy tea-like hops character. Spicy phenols play into that with a bit of lemony esters in the background. The finish is dry and the body light, bordering on watery.”Overall: “A bit of a dirty, earthy beer with notes of lemon. I’m not sure this is a saison—tastes a bit more like a dirty blond or English IPA with the earthy hops notes. Light lemon notes toward the end. Overall, a good beer—very different from other saisons with the earthy and peppery aroma and flavor. Would have loved some more fruitiness to cut earthy flavors and balance it a little more.”

Off Color Apex Predator

| ABV: 6.8% | IBUs: 35 | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“We turn off the temperature control and let the yeast do its thing. The result is the scent of juicy fruit wafting from a frothy, white mane. Its teeth come from a Crystal dry-hopping that completes the dry finish with a fruity bite.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Big hoppy aroma, perhaps American hops with a touch of pine and light earthiness. As it warms, less hops and more lemon fruitiness. Juicy tangerine, passion fruit, and white grape from esters and hops.”Flavor: “Fruit-forward from a mix of esters and hops. Slightly tart throughout with light bready malt sweetness up front and in the finish. Finish moderately dry with a bit of aspirin-like bitterness from yeast bite. The fruitiness is the star of the show.”Overall: “Hops are featured in this beer with the fruity, lemon notes in the background. Spicy and light earthy notes cover up the esters. May be a bit young—some sulfur in the aroma and yeast bite in the flavor. Phenols are very low, but a nice juicy saison with tropical fruitiness that shines through the flavor. Very drinkable— a very good beer.”

9091 80 92AROMA: 10APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 15MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 3OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

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Schlafly Saison

| ABV: 6% | IBUs: 20 | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“While most saisons are made with one yeast strain, ours distinctly features two, which impart varying spicy notes. Bal-anced with a malt backbone, this beer is easy-drinking with a crisp, dry finish.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Orange, tangerine, and a bit of tropical fruit. Spicy peppery note up front with a touch of lemon in the background. As it warms, a slight vegetal note mixed with a high fruitiness. Spices start to dissipate.”Flavor: “Citrus and tropical esters dominate with low clove and pepper spice and a bit of white bread malt/yeast character. High carbonation with a big fruitiness—almost banana-like in the beginning. Flavor is gone as soon as the sip is over. Moderate bubblegum-like note throughout the sip. Medium sweet-ness and dry finish.”Overall: “Very clean and citrus-forward with a bit of clove and pepper. Although very solid, enjoyable, and easy drinking, it also seems very safe and straightfor-ward. Once it warms, the banana notes are replaced with a bubblegum-like note mixed with a low lime. Good beer, but the flavors are somewhat muted and lack the intensity of the best in this category.”

Stillwater Stateside

| ABV: 6.8% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Naturally brewed with the finest European malts and fresh aromatic hops from the United States and New Zealand. It’s then fermented using a classic farmhouse ale yeast and bottle conditioned to enhance stability.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Low malt aroma with slight grain present. Very complex aroma—light pepper phenol with a blend of tangerine and lemongrass, white grape, and tea-like hops all fairly balanced. A bit of Lifesavers candy.”Flavor: “Lemon and lemongrass dominate with slight apple and pear flavors in the middle. Finishes with a very prominent lemon bittering flavor that lingers. Slight tartness on the back/finish. Finish is bitter but not astringent. Medium body and carbonation. Earthy tea-like hops blend with fruity tangerine esters and spicy peppery phenols.”Overall: “Very good beer—juicy and fruity yet bitterness provides a pivot point for the beer. Hops are prominent but complementary to the esters and phenols. Maybe a bit sweet throughout for the style but still balanced with acid-ity and bitterness. The hops bitterness and flavor take center stage.”

9299 85 90AROMA: 10APPEARANCE: 2FLAVOR: 17MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 0OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 20MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 3OVERALL: 9

Revolution Coup D’etat

| ABV: 7.6% | IBUs: 50 | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Our interpretation of this classic French-style saison is naturally fer-mented at a higher temperature, which creates more citrus hops character and a stronger, earthier aroma of spice than most traditional saisons.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Prominent mix of yeast esters and phenolics with a touch of alcohol warmth. Strong overripe pear and apple esters, with a touch of floral and spicy peppercorn notes. A bit higher alcohol note, but this dissipates as it warms.”Flavor: “Assertive combination of saison yeast flavors, similar to the aroma. The beer dries out quickly, despite a touch of sweetness up front, with a lingering bitterness. A through line of floral, herbal flavor is pleasant the first couple sips but distracting deeper in. Light tangerine and herbal with a bit of wet hay. The earthy spice character helps cut some of the sweetness and adds complexity.”Overall: “A good display of saison flavors and what a saison yeast can provide. I really enjoyed how the spice notes and fruit sweetness blended together throughout the taste in this beer. More carbonation would make this beer even better.”

Perennial/The Commons Meriwether

| ABV: 5.5% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Meriwether, brewed with our friends at The Commons, is our take on a classic saison. We decided to use our respective saison yeast strains in a 50/50 blend for fermentation. This beer is then dry-hopped with Hallertau.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Peppery phenols and lemon-grass, orange peel, and a bit of bready malt. Just a touch of banana. High fruity esters of lemon, lemongrass, and pear along with a slight green-grape skin.”Flavor: “Balance of orange and tanger-ine citrus esters and peppery phenols, and a bit of sage. Balanced sweetness up front gives way to low acidity and just a bit of bitterness. Great clean malt flavor and orange, lemon, and pear from the hops. Slight spiciness is really nice as it rounds out. Light-medium body with nice carbonation. Very dry and effervescent. ”Overall: “The balance of yeast-driven esters and phenols make this a very drinkable classic French-style saison. Very refreshing, dry, and clean beer that drinks easily but really comes through with Smarties candy-like sweet and tart fruity characteristics of lemon and pear.”

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Tallgrass Songbird Saison

| ABV: 4.8% | IBUs: 17 | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Belgian-style ale where apricot and lemon flavors mingle with fresh-cracked pepper and citrus notes. With a light dry finish, Songbird is gentle on the palate, soars with flavor, and is totally crushable.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Fruity esters up front and light aroma overall. Slight juice note as it starts to warm. Wonderful pale malt characteristic. High esters of orange with a slight lemongrass. Very clean and bright aroma.”Flavor: “Light sweetness up front with a touch of pear and lemongrass. Moderate spicy notes that are balanced with the sweetness and carbonation. Aftertaste has slight spicy bitterness and lemon-grass notes. Malt flavor is clean yet pale, with slight Pilsner characteristic evident. High hops flavor of lemon and slight orange. Balance is really wonderful on this beer as the style of the yeast characteristics meld well together.”Overall: “Spiciness and fruity esters are well-balanced with a moderate carbonic bite. Hops are nice and spicy without being too bitter or lasting into the finish. Very balanced and straightforward. Great beer.”

Trinity One Ear

| ABV: 6.5% | IBUs: 35 | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“One Ear is an unspiced ’naked’ saison brewed with barley, oats, and rye. A free-rise fermentation develops a light fruit and pepper, while the assertive hopping profile creates a dry finish.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Moderate peppery note with light fruity esters. As it warms, a big grapefruit note. Low pale malt presence. Tangerine, guava, and white grape. This has a strong white-wine character to it. Some underlying earthy hops.”Flavor: “Moderate grapefruit flavor with a tartness and spiciness that extend into the aftertaste. Moderate bitterness and moderate carbonation. Hops dominate this beer. Huge white-wine character that’s citrusy and tropical. Seems like it would be sweet, but overall sweetness is fairly low and transitions into a pleasant acidity and bitterness. Dry finish is very clean with a touch of bitterness.”Overall: “Would like a bit more balance in the spiciness and a little less carbon-ation. Mild astringent notes toward the end of the sip linger into the aftertaste. Very fruity even for a saison with a big white-wine character and underlying citrus and tropcial fruit. Dry finish makes this very drinkable.”

Two Roads Worker’s Comp

| ABV: 4.8% | IBUs: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“A traditional farmhouse ale made with an expressive yeast strain that contrib-utes lots of tropical fruit (passion fruit, pineapple, mango, lychee), spice flavors (clove, white pepper), and aromatics. Brewed with a variety of harvest grains including barley, wheat, oats and rye.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Moderate lemon notes up front with a touch of spicy hops note and big fruity esters.”Flavor: “Moderate spicy notes up front with a forward lime note. Very light body (maybe a touch too light) with high carbonation. Moderate spiciness up front with a black pepper–like note that slightly overpowers the esters. Wonderful malt sweetness is appropriate and balances well with the hops flavor. Very well-balanced, but hops shine through with some slight yeast characteristics. Overall clean finish with some spice.”Overall: “Very refreshing with high carbonation and moderate fruity notes up front. Good spiciness that extends into the aftertaste with a mild bitter note. Perhaps a bit too thin—would prefer a bit more body to balance out the carbonation and spiciness, but a very well-balanced saison.”

Upright Brewing Seven

| ABV: 8% | IBUs: 23 | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Seven is a modern saison expressing a ripe and aromatic range from farm to greenhouse, finishing dry.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “A prominent funk welcomes you to the beer, followed by nice fruity esters, subtle spice, and floral notes. The funk is reminiscent of Brett—tropical, fruity, floral, with a rose character.”Flavor: “A continued funkiness and a touch of tartness that was promised from the aroma sits atop a continental base malt that’s not necessarily sweet but works wonderfully with the fruity flavors developed from the fermentation. An appropriate amount of bitterness lends to the dryness of the beer. Some nice tropical fruit notes, a smoothness, and slight warmth.”Overall: “While we’re tasting this in the classic category, the taste suggests a mixed-fermentation saison, with complementing flavors from both Brettanomyces and the saison yeast. A very fun beer to drink. The ester character blended nicely with the light Brett funk—dry and light with some interesting tropical notes.”

9096 89 94AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 17MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 2FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

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Beachwood Propagation Series 128

| ABV: 5.7% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Ale with spelt, Brettanomyces, and Mosaic hops. Fermented with a blend of Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces in stainless-steel, aged for a short time, then dry hopped with Mosaic hops.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Moderate passion fruit and peach notes up front with light white peppery spiciness. Juicy hops blend into fruity esters with a bit of barnyard funk. Hoppy, earthy, lemon, and a hint of Brett.”Flavor: “Juicy peach and passion fruit meet earthy Brett funk. Light tartness throughout with a bit of bitterness in the finish. Creamy consistency with a dry finish and pleasant effervescence. A bit of herbal hops in the background. Some apricot and lemon esters bal-anced with spicy phenolics and a bit of barnyard, leather funk.”Overall: “Big fruity peach notes with a rather dry finish. Dryness and high carbonation make this very crushable. A unique and complex example of the style with a nice expression of subtle Brett complexity and a confident sense of balance. Only gripe would be the slightly thin body, but otherwise, nearly flawless.”

Blaugies Saison D’Epeautre

| ABV: 6% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Very dry and light, this is one truly feisty brew, with an outrageous pop and a long-lasting head. The aroma is heady and musty, unmistakably Belgian, and a lot like champagne. The taste delivers on the promise of the nose.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Light lemongrass note with low peppery esters. Medium white-grape note with a mild sweetness and slight apple and Brett notes. Big lemon and earthy funk. Wet hay.”Flavor: “Fruity grape notes with a light lemon note and a high carbonic bite toward the end of the sip. Light body. Farmhouse characteristics with an apri-cot tartness. There’s a bit of sweetness up front that plays well with the citrus and quickly transforms into moderate acidity and low bitterness. Very dry finish and moderate-high carbonation.”Overall: “The subtle herbal and earthy notes provide balance and give this beer a refreshing and inviting flavor and aroma while complementing the blend of citrus and funk notes. Tart dry finish with moderate-high carbonation makes this very refreshing, and the mild acidi-ty/tartness balances the expectation of sweetness.”

9998 97 96AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 20MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 20MOUTHFEEL: 5OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 20MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

Almanac Saison de Brettaville

| ABV: 7.2% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Brettanomyces brings out a range of flavors and aromas, from exotic fruits to earthy funk. We added twelve different Brett strains to our dry-hopped Saison Dolores, then aged it in white-wine barrels resulting in a farmhouse ale with nuance and depth.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Very fresh and grassy with juicy orange, mango, and pineapple notes. Earthy, floral, and tart, but just a touch of funk. A wonderful complement of hops and funk that’s hard to execute, but this beer seems to do it effortlessly.”Flavor: “A burst of pineapple, passion fruit, guava, and mango notes and a really nice juicy Brett character. The front hits with some nice acidity and tartness but that fades into a dry finish with great carbonation. Prominent amount of tartness, coupled with a healthy amount of tropical fruitiness and delicate Brett funk.”Overall: “The funk is showcased with tropical fruit juiciness that dances throughout. Seems like there’s a ton of fruit in this beer without actual fruit. The superlatives that this beer deserve are beyond my skill as a writer. A perfect dry-hopped American farmhouse ale!”

Allagash Century Ale

| ABV: 8% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Aromas of toasted crackers, passion fruit, citrus. The flavor has notes of biscuit and fruit followed by a dry, slightly tart finish. Fermented with both saison yeast and Brettanomyces. Dry-hopped with German and American experimental hops.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Heavy funk in your face, but a good mix of pineapple, peach, and hay. Light spice and subtle sweetness. Ripe pineapple, juicy mango, and peach stone-fruit Brett funk. White wine and white pepper.”Flavor: “Prominent tartness, verging on sour, but moderate initial sweetness maintains the balance. The funkiness carries all the way through, like a P Funk megamix, with rustic barnyard flavors and more tropical pineapple and mango. Good carbonation keeps it light on the tongue. Nice earthy funk.”Overall: “An unapologetic funky beer that gives you the entire showcase of Brett flavors on top of a well-crafted base. Great balance of citrus and stone-fruit character and light Brett funk. Good juicy notes and nice carbonation with good acidity and funk. This defines what a tart funky saison should be to me.”

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The Brew Gentlemen Homegrown

| ABV: 5.9% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Modern farmhouse ale brewed with 100 percent Pennsylvania malt, re-fermented in the bottle. Drink fresh or age.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Light white grape with a touch of Brett funk. As it warms, a bit of raspberry and moderate spicy, earthy hops. Bright lemon character up front with some subtle floral/perfume notes reminiscent of roses and lilies. Super perfume-y—roses and irises, orange, and a bit of spice in the background with some barnyard Brett funk.”Flavor: “Moderate spiciness up front with a slight chili flavor (not the heat). Creamy consistency with a moderate vanilla note toward the back. Raspberry notes and an earthy spiciness. After-taste has a bit of a peach-skin astrin-gency that lingers well after the sip. Nice stone-fruit and lemon esters mixed with a floral character. Subtle acidity in the back adds to the citrus flavors.”Overall: “Interesting take featuring a complex fermentation character, exhibiting some notes not often seen in the style. Well-balanced, making it very drinkable and refreshing. Light and tart citrus and Brett funk play a nice supporting role.”

Casey Brewing & Blending Saison

| ABV: 5.5% | IBU: 25 | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“We use all Colorado ingredients: malted and raw barley and wheat, Crystal hops, and a yeast blend of saison yeast, Brettanomyces, and Lactobacillus. We ferment in open oak barrel fermentors, then in other barrels. The result is a citrusy, dry, tart and effervescent beer.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Citrus with just a touch of Brett. Fruity esters abound, with notes of apricot, lemon, and lychee. A hint of must and leather adds to the Brett complexity.”Flavor: “Moderately dry, medium body. Tart notes up front, orange and lime esters throughout. Moderate carbonation creates a refreshing bite toward the end. A puckering sensation after the taste lingers in the back of my mouth a while after the sip. Apricot, peach, and lemon up front with a bit of barnyard/horse blanket, must, and leather. Acidity pairs nicely with the Brett character, and the finish is surprisingly balanced.”Overall: “Very complex, well-executed Brett saison. Tons of complexity from the Brett character with just the right amount of tartness and acidity to make each sip dynamic. Definitely worth seeking out.”

The Commons Maybelle

| ABV: 6.4% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“A farmhouse ale aged in white-wine barrels with Brett.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Light lemon note. Slightly sweet maltiness. Hint of Brett funk. Some dark stone fruits and earthy notes. Pear and red apple esters with a hint of white pepper and a touch of malt sweetness.”Flavor: “Sweet and sour notes up front with peach sweetness and a slight oak sour note. Light creamy consistency at the end with a nice peppery spiciness. Fruity sweet with a tart finish—almost with a touch of wood/oak. Medium body with a dry sour finish. Apple, pear, peach, apricot fruit character dominate up front that coupled with the malt sweetness gives a very sweet fruity character. Barnyard Brett in the back-ground. Moderate sweet into strong sour that fades back into a low-to-moderately sweet finish.”Overall: “Very drinkable. Nice fruity and funky aroma and flavor but a bit high on the acidity. I really enjoy the big stone-fruit flavors and the more subtle funk. Overall this beer is fairly sweet for a saison even though it’s enjoyable and very drinkable.”

Council Les Saisons

| ABV: 6.3% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Les Saisons is a series of barrel-aged rustic ales that are fermented with Brettanomyces and saison yeast, then dry-hopped to give aromas of the season.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Light aroma with light tart note and a bit of peach. Stone fruit and malt sweetness up front. Peach, apricot, musty barnyard Brett funk. Very slight vanilla.”Flavor: “Moderate malt sweetness with a light tart note and pear and tangerine notes that extend into the finish. High carbonation with a slightly astringent note toward the end of the sip. Brett barnyard funk up front with some apricot to back it up. Slight herbal and earthy character. Light fluffy mouthfeel.”Overall: “More malt-forward example with a bit of spicy hops and light peach and pear notes toward the end. Creamy consistency helps. A bit too sweet and malty for my tastes but nothing inher-ently wrong. Brett funk-forward stone-fruit saison with a moderate amount of acidity that makes it drinkable and refreshing. Great light and fluffy mouth-feel. Overly clean compared to some of the acid bombs we’ve had.”

9192 91 95AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 5OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

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Funkwerks Paisley

| ABV: 7% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“A saison fermented with one Sacchro-myces and two Brettanomyces yeast strains that showcase the tropical-fruit esters produced by Brettanomyces.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “A strong floral aroma comes through up front. Pineapple Brett-funk character adds some earthiness and slight fruitiness. Coupled with the Brett flavors is a strong floral, almost fancy soap-like character. Sweet, fruity, floral, mixed berries, and a hint of funk.”Flavor: “A mango-like sweetness carries throughout and works with the spice notes. Pineapple and orange Brett funk with a huge rose-floral (geraniol) character. The finish is dry with low bitterness and moderate carbonation. Strong Brett funk, but tempered with some saison yeast fruity ester and malt sweetness.”Overall: “I enjoyed the blend of the mango fruitiness with the spice. It had some complexity that worked, and the spice from the alcohol heat was nice. Nice pineapple and orange Brett funk, but the rose-floral character is really strong. Some unique and intriguing flavors that play a little against style, but add up for a nice experience.”

Grand Teton Brett Saison

| ABV: 6.2% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Aged in wine barrels for nine months. Dry-hopped. The live Brett and the generous amount of unique and flavorful hops make this a great beer to drink fresh.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Moderate fruity esters with pine and spicy hops layered on mild Brett tart notes and a hint of caramel malt sweetness. Tropical passion fruit, tangerine, and pineapple plus a bit of dank hops as it warms up.”Flavor: “Big hops flavor with pine and earthy spiciness up front and a peach and raspberry ester flavor toward the end of the sip. Moderate creamy consis-tency and carbonation. Nice light acidity brightens the dry finish and keeps it very drinkable. Very citrus and tropical fruit-forward.”Overall: “Big raspberry and stone-fruit notes with a moderate hops spiciness and flavor that we haven’t seen in the other beers. Very interesting. Almost a slight vanilla toward the end of the sip. This is unique and not your average saison. A nice complex yet approachable example of the style with some expres-sive Brett and well-executed tartness. Very enjoyable.”

8187 86 96AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 17MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 15MOUTHFEEL: 3OVERALL: 8

AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 2FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

Brasserie Dunham Saison Pinacle

| ABV: 6.5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Hoppy farmhouse ale brewed with rye, oats, and wheat and hopped with Australian and American hops. Fresh, lively, and hoppy when young, this beer also benefits from a bit of aging to reveal its Brettanomyces character of farmhouse funk.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Juicy tropical hops—lot of grapefruit and a bit of passion fruit. A bit of citrus esters maybe, but hops dominate. There’s a freshness about the aroma of sweet tropical fruit—pine-apple and mango and more rustic Brett flavors in the background.”Flavor: “Big juicy tropical citrus hops with a slight orange tang and hint of herbal. Fruit character hits with pineapple, mango, and gooseberry, but it quickly fades to a thin bitter beer with some harsher Brett flavors and slight hops astringency.”Overall: “Big juicy aroma is awesome, but hops bitterness is way over the top and excessively astringent, which makes this difficult to drink (like Malört). An intriguing concept for a beer, with a ludicrous amount of hops flavor, but the beer gets so dry and bitter that the origi-nal concept is lost in the final product.

Crooked Stave Surette

| ABV: 6.2% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Surette is a provision saison with a tart and vinous character from extended barrel aging.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Pear, apricot, and lemon esters with a hint of some sort of burnt phenolic character. Slight toasty bready malt. Apricot and red grape. A bit of wet-dog Brett funk. Stone fruit, earthy. Light matchstick note with a medium- tart note.”Flavor: “Ripe peach, apricot, and lemon up front with a nice lactic tartness that rounds out the fruit character. Finishes mostly dry with a slightly lingering tart-ness. Apricot up front with red grape and toasty biscuit malt. Finish is very dry with slight peach notes and heavy Brett.”Overall: “Nice complexity and excellent balance between Brett character and tartness/acidity. Well-balanced, very approachable with a surprising amount of complexity. Quite sour with an interesting apricot and grape character. A fair amount of toasty malt character. Nice fruity notes, but the sourness is a bit overpowering. A milky lacto consis-tency with a sharp sourness and what I would describe as roast in the middle of the sip.”

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Green Bench Saison de Banc Vert

| ABV: 6.5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Dry and crisp, Green Bench Saison is packed with fruity esters similar to citrus fruits and spicy, peppercorn-like phenols from our farmhouse yeast strain.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Subtle aroma of lemon and Brett funk with a slight vegetal note. Light spiciness and lots of phenols—smoky, white pepper. A bit of overripe peach and a bit of toasty malt.”Flavor: “Starts a bit sweet and becomes moderately acidic with a finish that’s sweet, sour, and bitter. Lemon and stone fruit with a hint of tartness. Finishes semidry with a slight tart note. Lots of pineapple, peach, and spicy, smoky phe-nols—almost a BBQ sauce. Some horse blanket but just a touch of Brett with a few woody notes. High carbonation pushes into a light, dry finish.”Overall: “Odd beer to taste: sweet, tart, and bitter all at once. Lots of unusual smoky phenols, lots of peach. Moderate tart notes with grapefruit and light peach notes. Light funk note and a slight astringency toward the end of the sip. Light body and funky spicy complexity were enjoyable. No major flaws but the flavor is outside of the canon and tough to wrap your head around. ”

Hardywood Full Color

| ABV: 5.6% | IBU: 8 | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“This is a delicate yet complex beer that is bright, dry, acidic, and highly aromat-ic. While young, it is bursting with peach and tropical fruit flavors. Over time the barnyard flavors associated with the style will begin to develop.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Mild peach note with a light Brett note. Very slight herbal and spice in the background. Lemon and lime notes give way to some Pilsen malt sweetness. Aroma is a bit muted.”Flavor: “Candy and caramel note up front with a medium sweetness tran-sitioning into a sour-apple note. Citrus notes of lemon and lime plus a touch of peach followed by a pronounced Pilsen malt sweetness and even a hint of toast-ed malt. Sweet in the start with a drying tart finish and just a touch of funk.”Overall: “The caramel note that I got up front was surprising given the category. Moderate fruity esters (light plum and lemon) with high carbonation. Tartness is very clean without any off notes from kettle souring or significant Brett funk. A balanced version of the style but could use a bit more Brett complexity, tartness, or something more dynamic to help set it apart.”

Hill Farmstead Arthur

| ABV: 6% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Crafted from American malted barley, American and European hops, our distinctive farmhouse yeast and water from our well. Unfiltered and naturally carbonated.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Light sweetness, a touch of grapefruit, pear and lemon, and a hint of floral rose and iris. The aroma is slightly bready with the expected white-pepper spice, and a mild funk says “Brett.”Flavor: “Tart note up front with strong grapefruit and lime notes. Moderate carbonation amplifies the acidity and creates a puckering finish with a slight peach sweetness transitioning to a dry Lacto finale. Pear and lemon, dry stone-fruit flavors, and funky earthy Brett.”Overall: “Moderate acidity and a strong bitterness toward the end make this a beer for aficianados more than casual drinkers. Very complex with pear, citrus, and slight floral notes. Finishes with a palate cleansing dryness that’s very drinkable. Funky, earthy, and rustic notes are well-balanced with the strong citrus lime notes, and the creamy head is nice to see. Acidity was strong but not too strong. One of the more drinkable beers we’ve tried.”

Libertine Saison

| ABV: 5.25% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Our saison is crisp and funky, allowing the Brettanomyces to dry it out. Dry-hopped with Lemon Drop and Boadicia, this is the perfect San Luis Obispo hot summer beer.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Lemon zest and lemon juice dominate, with a very subtle hint of leather. A blend of fruity pineapple, earthy Brett funk, and earthy and herbal tea-like hops. A light apricot note as the head starts to break.”Flavor: “Lemon flavors abound, with hints of lemon zest and lemon juice. When combined with tartness, it comes across as lemon drop or Warheads can-dies. Tartness is somewhat sharp and a bit lingering in the finish. Somewhat balanced (not too dry or too sweet), but tartness helps give a perception of dry-ness in the finish. Moderate sour lemon note up front with the sourness that grows throughout the sip to the end.”Overall: “Interesting take on the style, with a ton of lemon character from the Brett and/or hops. Great showcase of pineapple fruity and earthy Brett funk. An interesting profile with moderate grapefruit and raspberry notes. Tart but not overly sour and still very drinkable.”

9191 95 95AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 10APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

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Perennial Artisan Ales Regalia

| ABV: 8.5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Inspired by the rustic farmhouse saisons of southern Belgium, Regalia is brewed with barley, wheat, and spelt and fermented with Brettanomyces. A sturdy malt character supports the array of flavors that the yeast provides.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Raisin and honey oxidation. A bit of orange and pineapple behind that. Fruit notes of lemon, apple, and peach. A nice blend of all the traditional saison flavors, with heavy peppery character with some nice apple and pear esters.”Flavor: “Fairly oxidized. Raisin and honey up front. Orange, apple, and a bit of almost cinnamon. A wheat-like sweetness with some lemon and slight acidity. Fruity esters add complexity. Low carbonation and finishes with a slight silky sweetness. Odd sweetness that lingers a bit too long, but it does dry out and the hops and carbonation keep it from feeling heavy.”Overall: “A nice orange, apple, cinnamon thing, but it’s fairly oxidized and very low carb so it comes across somewhat sweet. A pretty ’between the lines’ saison that is punching in a higher weight class than most. Needs more carbonation.”

Sante Adairius Rustic Ales Hoeybier

| ABV: 6% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Hoeybier is an homage to Peter Hoey and his legendary Odonata Saison. You could say science is art and art is a science. This beer is a blend of a varying proportion of those two focuses.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Moderate tart note with light Lacto and mild Brett. Very mild fruity esters comparatively—touch of lemon, peach, and apricot but much more sub-tle than other examples. Subtle leather and barnyard funk layer at the end.”Flavor: “Dry and vaguely fruity from the start with grapefruit, peach, apricot, and lemon notes and a strong carbonation that leaves a bite or slight astringency toward the end of the sip. The acidity lingers and slowly fades into the finish. Lemon-lime flavors dominate and are accentuated by the lactic tartness, followed by some hints of apricot. Dry finish adds to the tart character.”Overall: “Big tart notes with moderate grapefruit and lime. Dry throughout the taste with moderate carb. A somewhat classic take on the Brett saison (if such a thing exists), exhibiting a nice Brett- ester character and a bit of funk coupled with a moderate tartness and acidity. Very drinkable and layers of complexity.”

9291 86 94AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 20MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

Perennial Artisan Ales Foeder Saison

| ABV: 5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Mixed-fermentation foeder-aged saison.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Moderate apricot fruity esters with medium Brett tartness. Some sour mash/kettle sour dirty funk creeps through as it warms up a bit. Nice fruit notes (passion fruit), and the Brett contributes apricot and peach notes up front, with just a hint of Pilsner malt sweetness.”Flavor: “Moderate apricot and pear notes with a mild Brett note toward the end of the sip that sticks around after the taste and coats the tongue. Light on the spices with a medium amount of sweetness right at the end of the sip. Orange and vanilla up front followed by a pleasant lemon/citrus tartness. Mostly dry finish accentuates the tartness.”Overall: “Very estery up front with big apricot, orange, and pear notes in the flavor. Very well-executed saison that focuses squarely on the stone-fruit con-tributions of Brett, producing a beer that tastes and smells like it has been aged with peaches or apricots. Like biting into an orange creamsicle. It lacks a bit of the complexity of the best Brett saisons but still very well done.”

Oddwood Ales Saison

| ABV: 6.4% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Fermented entirely in oak barrels with a magical blend of Belgian and Bretta-nomyces yeasts. Months of aging lend this ale its soft notes of tropical fruit, wine-soaked oak, and glorious funk.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Big peach with some wet-dog Brett funk in the background. Earthy, almost woody, aroma. Moderate tart notes up front with orange and Brett.”Flavor: “Peach dominates with slight Brett funk in the background but the acidity dominates. Dry flavor profile with high raspberry fruitiness that pushes almost to astringency. Aftertaste is tart and long lasting with peach-skin and raspberry notes. Tons of juicy stone-fruit flavors (overripe apricots and nectar-ines) with a subtle tartness that cuts through the fruit character. Balance is a bit toward the dry side, but not bone-dry, which keeps it refreshingly drinkable.”Overall: “This is like a greatest hits of everything I look for in a mixed-fermen-tation saison. Complex ester profile, subtle phenolics, restrained acidity but still very present, great mouthfeel and perfect balance. Only potential gripe could be the lack of ’funk’ but still plenty of other Brett character. Seek this out.”

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Sante Adairius Rustic Ales Saison Bernice

| ABV: 6.5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Saison Bernice is an exquisitely fermented farmhouse ale. Dry and refreshing, Bernice is made of the freshest on-hand and locally available ingredients. She receives multiple yeast additions, including Brettanomyces, and is further aged in the bottle.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Lemon, apricot, and a hint of leather funk up front give way to a touch of Pilsen malt sweetness and some white pepper. Very light compared to the rest—Brett funk is in the background and very subtle.”Flavor: “Ripe juicy apricots with a hint of lemon zest, perfectly complemented by a lactic tartness that cuts the fruit-iness. Some nice phenolic and funk layer the complexity, and the finish is balanced with a subtle lingering tartness.”Overall: “Extremely well-executed farmhouse beer that exhibits Brett complexity, a perfectly balanced malt bill, and enough tartness to enhance complexity and drinkability. Delicate and very intentional, with a beautiful balance of flavors. Nice crisp citrus clean tartness with just a hint of funk to give it complexity. One of the best we’ve had.”

Side Project Bière du Pays

| ABV: 4% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“An airy and fluffy malt bill is fermented with wild Missouri yeast and bacteria and our house saison blend. This refreshing and delicate farmhouse ale was aged in wine barrels before it was naturally conditioned in this bottle.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Moderate lemon note with light tart and Lacto. Moderate fruity esters including grapefruit and a light orange. Brett funk with some tropical fruit, passion fruit, slight wet-hay.”Flavor: “Highly carbonated but light carbonic bite, probably due to the Lacto, and a malt bill that provides creaminess despite being weightless. Bright fruity notes with tart lime, grapefruit, and a light spiciness. Tropical passion fruit is forefront with some earthy wet-hay barnyard Brett funk. Bright lemon zest opens up to some stone and tropical fruit—so much gorgeous Brett flavor.”Overall: “Very refreshing. Light, dry, tart, and fruity with a supporting funky complexity. A very delicious, crushable, funky saison that uses a very light malt bill and well-selected hops to paint a beautiful canvas of Brett complexity. Extremely drinkable and endearingly complex, with a perfect finish.”

Smuttlabs Daily Brett

| ABV: 5.9% | IBU: 10 | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Tart Belgian golden ale with Brett.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Slight orange candy and pepper with a grape juice–like note and a touch of light Brett and spiciness. As it warms, a bit more peach, orange, and Brett funk.”Flavor: “Very cidery with mousey funk. Earthy, fruit punch, slight orange, and peppery spice. Light sweetness and light acidity. Very dry and a bit watery. Big carbonation up front and a big grape juiciness that reminds me of one of those grape frozen popsicles. Finish is semisweet with big fruity peach and light grape notes. Some subtle bready malt tones come through and a hint of THP/Cheerios. A nice tartness and most-ly balanced, but somewhat dry finish.”Overall: “Well-balanced with a good fruitiness mixed with a light sweetness transitioning into a light Brett tartness toward the end of the sip. Great light mouthfeel. Big orange/tangerine. Not a lot else going on. Nice unique Brett character and a pleasant tartness, but otherwise lacks a bit of complexity. Car-bonation is nice with the tartness and dry finish. A bit too much THP character for me, but not a huge drawback.”

Brasserie St. James 1904

| ABV: 7.5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“This 100 percent Brettanomyces- fermented ale is fermented in white-wine barrels for 4–6 months as the flavors and aromas develop. An earthy nose of dried flowers and straw lures you in to this dry farmhouse beer.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Banana, white pepper, and orange citrus. A nice Brett character comes through with a light citrus lactic tartness. An interesting corn-chip, Cheerios, biscuit note at the back end with hints of oak woodiness.”Flavor: “Big banana and orange, plus peppery phenols. A nice citrus fruity sweetness plus hints of peach. The funk gives it a nice blend of complex-ity. Some lemon notes hit and carry through. Almost white wine–like, with light tartness and fruitiness. A touch of tannin character lends to the white-wine comparison. Subtle minerality and alcohol warmth.”Overall: “Lots of sweetness along with the strength and lower carbonation leaves a bit of a syrupy finish. Banana character is a bit out of style, and the sweetness amplifies it. A bit astringent in the finish with higher alcohol harsh-ness and excessive woody notes.”

10099 85 87AROMA: 10APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 17MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 8

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 20MOUTHFEEL: 5OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 20MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 10APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

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Wicked Weed Bretticent

| ABV: 6.5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“This traditional saison is brewed using North Carolina–grown barley, wheat, and rye from Riverbend Malthouse and is open fermented. The beer is then finished with our house culture of Brettanomyces.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Barnyard Brett funk, apricot, and peach. Herbal and a bit of woody character from hops. Citrus notes and earthy with very slight touch of funk that increases as it warms.”Flavor: “Brett funk dominates with stone fruit esters playing a supporting role. A bit of sweet and tart but not overly sour. Very dry finish with moderately strong carbonation. Some sweet citrus and peach. Has a touch of oak-like astrin-gency in the finish. The spicy Noble hops are a nice touch. A nice dry finish with just a hint of bitterness in the finish.”Overall: “Moderate carbonation, mild funk, and a big peach and grapefruit note. Very nice Brett showcase with supporting fruit and earthy notes that’s more subtle than others in the category. A well-balanced beer that offers some nice funk—the hops bitterness is welcome and plays nicely with the Brett.”

Adelbert’s Scratchin’ Hippo

| ABV: 6.9% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Brewed in the style of a traditional arti-sanal French farmhouse ale. Its complex malt-driven flavor elicits notes of toasted caramel, roasted malts and cocoa, complemented by a mild sweetness.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Nice Munich malt character, restrained with dark fruit undertones and noble hops. Fruity esters of pear and cherry. Rocky head hides a bit of the aroma, but as it opens there develops a nice earthy, spicy hops character.”Flavor: “Big toasted malt, big kettle car-amelization, mouth-filling carbonation, a touch of black pepper and black licorice, moderately nutty. Earthy/minty hops, light pear, touch of apple, moderate raisin. Woody hops finish is complemen-tary with the cherry esters.”Overall: “Fun beer. Lots of fruit notes with touches of dark caramel notes. The apparent kettle caramelization gives lots of fun dark caramel, toastiness, dark fruit, and roasty flavors. Many will love the hops despite them bordering on minty. Acidic finish is slightly at odds with the malt base. A bit over-carbon-ated, gassy. A decent enough beer that has been through some stuff, but its not ready to talk about yet.”

9498 94 85AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

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Transient Artisan Ales Cuvier

| ABV: 6.3% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Oak barrel–fermented farmhouse ale. A lactic-forward barrel-fermented saison, aged 6 months in fresh wine barrels.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Juicy peach and lemon with a hint of vinegar, followed by pleasant oak sweetness and vanilla. Moderate tart note with dark cherries and Brett. Peaches with a hint of vanilla.”Flavor: “Lots of stone fruit and cherries up front with a hint of citrus, followed by a pleasant lactic tartness and oak flavors of vanilla and toffee. Finish is mostly balanced with the tartness lingering every so slightly. Light vanilla and sour peach right before the end of the sip. This beer is very, very sour.”Overall: “Well-executed farmhouse ale that is enhanced by the subtle nuances contributed by the oak. Great balance of acidity and oak. Not a ton of barrel notes but a slight vanilla toward the end. The sour level is pushing the saison category, but it is still very good. High carbonation helps push the perception of acidity even more. Moderate cherry and peach fruitiness adds a level of complexity. Nice oak notes in the finish. I really like the peach character and the hint of vanilla that came through.”

Tired Hands Ourison

| ABV: 4.8% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Ourison is our SaisonHands left to condition in oak and then allowed to fully express itself via a lengthy bottle- conditioning period. The result is a snappy and pungent saison…”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “There’s a strong Brett funk on the front of the nose—an earthiness along with tangerine and lemon tart-ness. The citrus aroma is like fresh zest from lemons and limes.”Flavor: “A bold lemon tartness comes through up front. The Brett funk is nice and helps cut through the acidity. Nice citrus and pineapple, plus good carbon-ation and a clean finish. The citrus char-acter is the star of the show, but doesn’t steal too much from the prominent, yet delicate Brett character.”Overall: “This beer has bold flavors yet has a delicateness and strong personality about it—a pleasant acidity, nice tartness, good warmth, and a clean finish, with alluring and endearing Brett character. A perfect marriage of citrus and funk. I’m not sure how they got these flavors to work so well together, but the brewers made a wonderful beer that I feel lucky to have enjoyed.”

| BRETT & MIXED FERMENTATION SAISON | | BIERE DE GARDE |

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Au Baron Cuvée de Jonquilles

| ABV: 7% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Cuvée des Jonquilles has a strong affinity with the classic Belgian saison beers. Although described as a bière de garde, it is refreshingly well-hopped. It is also one of very few French beers that is bottle-conditioned.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “A pleasant yeast complexity that has everything I would expect for the style: peppercorn, lemongrass, overripe apple, pear. As the yeast flavors degas, a complex malt aroma emerges with light biscuit, soft bread crust, and a touch of mild caramel.”Flavor: “Big mouth-filling carbonation, touch of apple, light pear, big apricot, big melanoidins, and light earthy bitterness. The yeast complexity acts as the focal point, with many different flavors working quite well together; pep-percorn spice, apple, pear, lemongrass, floral notes. A restrained but needed hops bitterness gives a nice balance to the slight malt sweetness.”Overall: “Lots of apricot/peach and touches of apple and pear throughout, with a malt backbone reminiscent of honey and flower and then just enough bitterness to balance, finishing dry, but not bone-dry. Lively and refreshing.”

B. St. James Red Headed Stranger

| ABV: 6.6% | IBU: 17 | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Our gold medal–winning red farmhouse ale uses a lesser-known Belgian yeast strain at higher temeratures to create a rich palate. A blend of spices and whole-cone hops add a peppery floral nose, and finest specialty malts create a smooth delicate body that finishes dry.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “A pleasant malt complexity with a healthy amount of yeast phenolic spiciness and noticeable earthy hoppi-ness. Apricot, pear, light fig, moderate toast, a touch of caramel, light black licorice, light earthy hops.”Flavor: “A subtle mix of malty complex-ity and restrained yeast spice and es-ter—very pleasant. Nice pear and date yeast esters with a healthy amount of pepperiness and noble hops character. The malt is mostly just a light caramel with a bit of bread crust.”Overall: “Good beer with moderate hops bitterness, dark malts, big fruit esters, and a rather dry finish to make it easy drinking. Dry, spicy, slightly austere. This beer would complement rich gamey foods very well—the dry crisp finish and pepper phenols would cut through the fat. Pleasant, but restrained.”

Two Brothers Domaine Dupage

| ABV: 5.9% | IBU: 24 | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Inspired by the brothers’ time living in France, this food-friendly ale is deep amber in color, with a toasty and sweet caramel start. It finishes with just enough hops to clean off the palate. Bon Appétit!”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “A rich bread-crust malt aroma hits initially with some pleasant yeast esters of pear, plum, dark raisin, and overripe apple. An almost chocolate-like sweetness develops as it warms.”Flavor: “Moderate nutty malt, a touch of plum, raisin, light date, with some light sherry oxidation. Finishes dry despite the massive malt aroma with a hint of toasty caramel. The depth and richness of the malt are hard to overstate and range from light biscuit to medium caramel to rich toast. Moderate sweetness is enhanced by the wonderful, yet restrained yeast esters.”Overall: “This is a good, dry, easy-drinking ale for the warmer months. Very expressive and refined malt-forward beer. Dark fruit—dried fig or date—adds a savory note. An ex-cellent example of the style that layers a seemingly endless malt complexity with a wonderful yeast profile.”

Two Roads Holiday Ale

| ABV: 7.3% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Our Holiday Ale is inspired by the little known bière de Noel style, a subset of bière de garde. Bière de Noel, which translates as “Christmas Beer,” tends to exhibit a more malty profile than a typical bière de garde.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Munich malt aroma is first note. Light earthy hops. Dark fruity esters—dried figs, plums, and dates. Darker malt character with light choco-late, bread crust, sweetened biscuit.”Flavor: “Smooth malt base allows restrained earthy hops flavor to come through. Finishes dry while spicy phenols enliven the flavor. The yeast character hews more estery, with enough spice to add a nice note.”Overall: “Quite enjoyable if you want a slightly less dry bière de garde. Great balance between malt and spicy hops flavors. The Munich and melanoidin malt flavors provide a great background for the spicy hops/yeast character. A fine beer that would be a perfect alternative to the bulking beers that are trying to claim the winter season for their own—I wish more winter beers would return to this level of simplicity.”

9398 97 94AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 5OVERALL: 10

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Smuttlabs Kisses & Kittens

| ABV: 3.8% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Petite saison with coriander and or-ange peel fermented in oak with Brett.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Fantastic fruit bomb with Brett funk and a nice spice character. Floral and a little citrusy with notes of peach, apple juice, green tea, sweet tangerine, and earthy Brett.”Flavor: “Low malt complexity but a wonderful tartness that lingers from start to finish. Big carbonation helps brighten up fruit flavors. Finish is extremely dry and refreshing. Moder-ately strong cherry, blackberry, and blueberry. Light acidity gives it a crisp refreshing finish and the earthy notes gives it some interesting complexity.”Overall: “Loved this beer—tart, fruity and refreshing with complex acidity and big notes of tropical fruit and citrus. This beer is refreshing and tart yet clean and crisp in execution. The blend of different berry characters takes it in a different direction than the typical citrus of this style. Very light and refreshing, just young. Could use a touch more carbonation to complement the crisp tartness. Great earthiness and just a touch of Brett. I enjoyed this one.”

Wicked Weed The Parking Lot Grissette

| ABV: 5.2% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“A foeder-aged tart farmhouse ale brewed in collaboration with our friends at Jester King Brewery. Dry-hopped with Mandarina Bavaria and Huell Melon.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Slight herbal oolong tea with a bit of wet hay and old-leather-in-a-barn musty Brett notes. Very mild hops aroma of slight orange and pear.”Flavor: “Lots of flavor and very drink-able—slight tartness and fruity notes with hints of apple juice, pear, orange, and lemon. The tartness hits toward the finish to help clean the beer out. Big tropical Brett funk with pineapple, tangerine, peach/apricot, and herbal tea in the background. Moderate-to- strong tart character throughout that fades into the dry finish. Carbonation is spot on. Very refreshing yet complex.”Overall: “I enjoyed the fruit complexity and sweetness with the slight funk and tartness. The finish helped to enhance the beer as well. Big fruit Brett funk but still light and refreshing. Huge tropical fruit with a bit of herbal-tea character to support. Very drinkable, reminiscent of peach champagne. Very refreshing and would love to drink this on a nice summer day/evening.”

9493 95 98AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

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Jester King Le Petit Prince

| ABV: 2.9% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Le Petit Prince is a dry, unspiced, highly attenuated table beer unique to our land in the Texas Hill Country. Naturally occurring wild yeasts impart a sense of place to this unfiltered, unpasteurized, 100 percent naturally conditioned ale.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Big fruit esters of white grape, grape skin, and pear. A very mild tartness on the nose. Hints of lemons with a slight earthiness and light peppery phenols.”Flavor: “Very well-balanced—the fermentation is the star here with some fantastic fruity flavors and a tartness that provides balance. Nice carbonation that carries well and provides a slight carbonic bite. Light and crisp in the body with some slightly sweet and tart lemon fruit notes. Finishes so dry the beer almost evaporates off the tongue.”Overall: “Fantastic beer that provides a wonderful citrus tartness with slight pear and apple notes, balanced acidity, and mild funk. It’s very delicate yet filled with flavor, and quite amazing how they’ve balanced each of these elements—fruit, funk, dryness—in an obviously low ABV sessionable beer.”

The Brew Gentlemen Runaway

| ABV: 4.2% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Runaway is a sessionable farmhouse style ale that is light and crushable.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Wonderful big funky Brett horse-blanket aroma with pear and lemon fruit esters. Low aroma overall but very delicate. Some earthiness, a little funk, citrus notes lemon and slight orange.”Flavor: “Medium malt sweetness with a slight huskiness that plays well with a light lemon and earthy flavor from the hops. Hops flavor of white grape. Light funk keeps this beer interesting and complex. Very smooth drinking and light—finishes very clean. Light and crisp. Fruity—pears, some peach. Very slight earthy. Bit low on the carb. Touch of tartness.”Overall: “Nicely balanced beer that provides a well-rounded array of flavors. Fruity yet some funk with a slight malt sweetness. Very well-balanced. Very light and dry. This reminds me of drinking a glass of tea with a splash of lemon. Very refreshing in the way a good pils is refreshing. There is nothing that jumps out but all the subtle characters come together nice. A working beer for sure.”

| GRISETTE & TABLE BEER |

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Casey Brewing and Blending East Bank

| ABV: 6.5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Farmhouse ale with honey.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “An interestingly funky aroma, with very fruity flavors emerging not typically associated with Brett; blue-berry, strawberry, and light eucalyptus. Strong Brett-funk earthiness. Some lemon and orange sweetness with some honey-like sweetness on the back.”Flavor: “Ripe stone fruit, tropical, tangerine, and a bit of Brett. Very citrus-forward and tart (verging on sour) throughout, but the acidity is soft and not harsh or abrasive. Some strong lemon and unripe strawberry notes. Very dry and high carbonation. This beer is full of flavor.”Overall: “Very juicy citrus and tropical notes with a touch of funk. The acidity plays nicely into the juicy character. Even though the acidity level is high, it’s not harsh. A wonderfully unique aroma that’s coupled with a very complex and funky flavor. This beer is layered with complex flavors, but the flavors came together well. Balanced acidity, nice tartness, with some complexity in the fruit sweetness made this a really nice beer.”

Dupont Bière de Miel

| ABV: 8% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“This amber beer has strong pro-nounced honey aromas and flavors. It isn’t sweet at all, but full of honey aromas and taste. A real refermenta-tion in the bottle, which continues for a long time in your cellar, make this a really complex beer.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Heavy honey and mead fla-vors, leaning more toward floral, herbal, and earthy notes. Lots of peppery spice and a strong thick honey character up front. Some fruity notes—almost berry like. Strawberry?”Flavor: “The honey flavors are a bit more restrained than the aroma, with the peppery phenol character domi-nant. Considerable herbal and floral character. The honey notes are present but not overpowering; they add some nice sweetness. Clean and refreshing in the finish. Spearmint carries all the way through, and the spiciness can be felt retronasal and also very floral.”Overall: “A tasty beer that showcases the honey well, without losing its beer essence. Refreshing and clean. This beer had a nice body and good flavor, but also had a delicateness about it that I liked. Showcases honey well.”

Jester King Bière de Miel

| ABV: 6.1% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Our Bière de Miel is a dry, well attenu-ated, unspiced farmhouse ale brewed, fermented, and bottle conditioned with raw Texas wildflower honey. Naturally occurring wild yeast and bacteria im-part a sense of place in this unfiltered, unpasteurized, 100 percent bottle- conditioned beer.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Light citrus and pineapple fruity Brett funk. A wonderfully curious blend of sweet honey floral notes. Brett funk and fruitiness and expected saison estery fruitiness.”Flavor: “A lemon acidity hits up front and carries throughout with a lemon sweetness and hints of orange, as well as a bitterness in the back. A spicy honey flavor up front that’s quickly overshadowed by a prominent tartness. Remarkably dry for the amount of honey flavor that is retained.”Overall: “Lemon and pineapple funk define this beer. Some light peppery complexity in the background. Tart and refreshing overall with great personal-ity. A bright beer full of unique flavors that all manage to work wonderfully together, with the honey flavors able to peek out and complement the Brett.”

Wicked Weed Fille de Ferme

| ABV: 4.1% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“A tart farmhouse ale brewed in the rustic spirit of Belgian-style farm beers. Primary fermented with our house Brett culture and blended with golden sour ale. We then add honey-suckle and fresh orange peel and age the beer in our foeder.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Barnyard and sweaty pine-apple Brett funk, white grape, orange citrus, and a bit of spicy and floral in the background. Funky and earthy. Light spice in the back end.”Flavor: “Sour throughout that builds and falls leaving a lingering acidity like after eating sour candy. Moderate carbonation and very dry finish. The honey character adds sweetness in the back. Light funk helps to cut the sweetness and clean the beer out in the finish. Like a glass of lemonade.”Overall: “Very good citrus and tropical fruit complexity with the Brett funk. Pushes a bit past the farmhouse ale level of tart into full-on wild ale sourness, but a nice beer overall. The funk gets overpowered by the acidity. A unique and fun farmhouse beer with a heavy dose of Brett that’s well expressed and not too extreme.”

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Avery Perzik Saison

| ABV: 6.4% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“A classic saison—dry, crisp, fruity, spicy, and refreshing—with a dose of summer—peaches!”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “A healthy blend of saison fruity esters (lemon, apple), light peppery spice, and sweet peach. Me-dium earthy hops aroma. Floral esters (geranium). Light citrus ester notes.”Flavor: “Heavy peach up front, as if I bit into a ripe one in the middle of August. The saison flavors emerge as the peach fades, with a noticeable peppery character and pleasant lemony ester. The peach comes back in the aftertaste, but is just subtle enough to encourage another sip. Perhaps a little sweet or heavy on the body for a saison, but overall tasty.”Overall: “Good peach saison—big peach notes, classic black pepper with light esters, a bit of bitterness, and a moderately dry finish. An easy-drinking summer beer that’s a bit on the sweet side with a strong balancing bitterness. A solid combination of a well-crafted saison with choice selection of peach. Could finish drier for even better drinkability. Having said that, I liked it. I want to drink all of this.”

Beachwood Propagation Series 256

| ABV: 6.4% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Saison brewed with Saccharomyces in stainless steel, then aged in French oak barrels with Brettanomyces and long peppercorns for seven months.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Nice funky Brett aroma with big notes of lemon and lemon-peel esters. Noticeable acidity on the nose. Slight peppery earthiness in the back. The Brett really plays into an almost overripe banana-bready character.”Flavor: “Slight malt breadiness that provides a smooth body. Big lemon, tangerine characteristics with a noticeable peppery spice that balances the sweetness and tartness. Tartness, funk, and acidity are fantastic and provide a refreshing beer—dry yet smooth. Ripe banana and a bit of earthy Brett funk. Finishes clean.”Overall: “Really refreshing beer with great acidity and tartness. Spicy notes balance the acidity. Although the banana character is strong and often frowned upon in saison, it works well with this Brett funk. Nice complexity between the estery sweetness and spice character. Peppercorn gives it a mild spicy finish and helps balance the sweetness.”

9099 96 95AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

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AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

Adelbert’s Contemplating Waterloo

| ABV: 9.1% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Philosophizer, our spicy and citrusy saison, aged in Treaty Oak Distilling Co.’s Waterloo Antique Gin barrels. A complex array of lavender, juniper, and oak from the barrel balanced with the Philosophizer to create a smooth, warming ale.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Juniper and pine, lots of banana, and a bit of pepper. The wood and barrel character are very present as well. Slight fruity sweetness on the back and a strong booze character. Mild floral and cedar aromas.”Flavor: “Big banana and banana peel with herbal juniper and pine plus pepper in the background. The piney gin character hits first but transitions smoothly into orange notes. Finishes dry with a pine taste lingering. Slightly under-carbonated.”Overall: “I really like the herbal gin characteristics and the tart carbon-ated finish. This is a really interesting beer—complex and nuanced—but I’d love a bit less banana and sweetness. It’s like a gin/beer cocktail throughout. Wonderful complexity between the malt sweetness and the earthiness of the juniper-berry flavor.”

Almanac Elephant Heart De Brettaville

| ABV: 6.5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“This bright farmhouse ale balances the candy-like sweetness of the fruit and El Dorado hops with Brettanomyces funk to create a complex brew.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Big hops, light minerality, big plum, big apricot, touch of black pepper. The wine/Brett combination has a depth of expression that I like. Heavy barnyard funk. A pleasant fruity, juicy hops note, with strawberries, peach, and light citrus.”Flavor: “Earthy Brett character layered on top of vanilla and wine from barrel aging. The aroma did not prepare me for this beer—a punch of tart, coupled with a heavy amount of plum was a bit of a curve ball from the heavy-handed Brett and hops in the aroma. Still a healthy amount of funk that works well with the acidity and fruit. ”Overall: “Fun, fruity, barrel-aged saison. The sour culture is dominant, but the oak backbone gives it structure for the acidity and fruit to hang from. An incredibly complex beer that zigs one way and zags another, like a fast-ball pitcher with a nasty change-up. I like to be surprised and this beer did it perfectly.”

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Council Beat-itude Mango Tart Saison

| ABV: 4.5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Aging on mango and bottling with precision and care yield a beer with a Lacto-foward nose, an intensely tart mango flavor, a dough complexity from our no-boil process, and takes the word ’refreshing’ to a whole new level.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Up front—ripened mango flavors, with overripe apple and pear esters. Yeasty—smells like it isn’t done fermenting. Fruity esters and real fruit. No hops aroma.”Flavor: “A combination of bright acidity and tart mango with noticeable Brett characteristics. The acidity lightens up the beer, but does drown out the man-go. Some malt notes, but the Brett is doing its best to chew up what’s left.”Overall: “Good saison. The acidity was a bit larger than I’d like, but the initial mango flavor was quite nice. A little age should clean up the sulfur/yeasty notes and bring out the Brett, as this tastes very young. A pleasant and bright beer with nice complexity and restrained mango that complements the base funky beer. Wild, wild mango that’s a bit over tart, and a bit mild on the phenols for a saison.”

Crooked Stave Colorado Wild Sage

| ABV: 7.2% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Brewed with Colorado in mind as a saison, which embodies the high altitude Rocky Mountains. The raw materials were sourced throughout Colorado, including fresh white sage and lemongrass foraged from the Rocky Mountains.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “A nice lemon-like lactic tart-ness underpinned by subtle herbal sage and basil notes and esters that hint of orange and pears. Lots of black-pepper phenols. Slight floral lavender aroma with an evident funk.”Flavor: “The tartness is very pleas-ant—tastes of fresh-squeezed lemon with a subtle earthiness from the sage, clearly culinary inspired. Finishes clean and fresh with good carbonation. Big herbal sage flavor is cut through with a wonderful tart apple flavor.”Overall: “Spiced beers can be hard to execute deftly, but this is textbook—the sage is present but not overpower-ing, and the tartness is just enough to keep me wanting more. Fantastic beer. Bright, herbal, fruity, and tart. The sour-sage combo is nuanced and much better then I would have thought—I’m a convert.”

Ecliptic/ Dogfish Head Sagitarrius B2N

| ABV: 7% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Saggitarius B2N is a saison brewed with hibiscus, grapefruit, and lemon juice and dry-hopped with Amarillo hops.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “All the prototypical saison flavors, but heightened—strong citrus, floral, and peppery character plus a touch of grapefruit pith/peel and a bit of pink Szechuan peppercorn. The grapefruit and lemon are hard to pick up as they can easily be confused with the saison ester character.”Flavor: “Similar to the aroma, all the expected saison flavors are present but slightly enhanced—black pepper, lemon, a bit of banana. A nice citrus- rind character. The peppery character is well situated to counterbalance all the other esters. Body is dry, but I wouldn’t complain if it were drier. ”Overall: “The grapefruit and lemon notes with a touch of pith/marmalade bitterness were quite pleasant, and then this floral note popped in every once in a while to say ‘hi.’ It’s like a saison that got the Instagram filter treatment—a traditional beer with the contrast cranked up and a nice patina filter added to make it feel sexier. Could drink this all summer long.”

Elevation Raspberry Gulch

| ABV: 8.25% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Brewed to evoke the coming of spring in the high country, Raspberry Gulch’s aroma is dominated by raspberries but is mellowed by a slight white pepper note, thanks to a nice dose of spicy Saaz hops.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “The raspberries are so pronounced on the aroma that I could grow a raspberry bush out of my nose after quaffing this beer. Missing the spicy saison yeast character. Honey malt notes in the background.”Flavor: “Strong raspberries with a touch of sweetness and the expected light saison esters and phenols. It’s hard to pick out other flavors in the beer because the raspberries are so dominant. No astringency from rasp-berry seeds. Sweet for a saison and sacrifices the spicy saison notes.”Overall: “All raspberry, all the time. This is not the beer to drink if you’re looking for a beer that balances fruit and beer flavors—this one goes all-in on raspberries and pushes the other saison flavors out of the hand. Like a summer blockbuster, it’s not going to win an Oscar, but it’s well-made good clean raspberry fun.”

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Hardywood Goldrush

| ABV: 6.4% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Aged for six months in white-wine barrels. Primary fermentation with Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces, then refermented in freshly dumped petit Manseng wine barrels with unpas-teurized Goldrush apple cider. Features tart notes of lush white wine and juicy pineapple.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Strong cider notes with a touch of minerality. A back-end funk appears as the apple mellows, but the cider is front and center and not back-ing down. A mix of Golden Delicious and Granny Smith.”Flavor: “The apple cider thins the beer body and adds fruitiness. Mild astrin-gency in the aftertaste from tannins. A very dry beer/cider hybrid with a nice oak and tannin complement. A touch of funky phenols to keep it interesting, but it doesn’t get in the way of the cider and spicy saison notes.”Overall: “Surprisingly tannic and bitter notes balance the sweetness of cider. The apple notes are quite strong de-spite the dry finish. The more you drink, the less bitter it appears, and the more enjoyable it is making it a quaffable, light-bodied apple Brett beer.”

Jester King Colour Five

| ABV: 6.3% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“To make Colour Five, Texas blueberries were added to mature, sour, bar-rel-aged beer and allowed to referment to dryness. Unfiltered, unpasteurized, and 100 percent bottle-conditioned.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “An interesting mix of overripe and underripe blueberries with a curious floral note that provides a intriguing depth. Light horsey notes in background give a pleasant funk.”Flavor: “The heavy blueberries almost instantly dry out, leaving just a subtle amount of light malt and just a bit of funk. To call this beer dry would be an understatement. The fruit character, though pleasant, is gone as soon as it arrives as the bitterness and esters overpower it.”Overall: “Blueberry fruit and tannins dominate, with a touch of acidity and light Brett funk. A very curious but refreshing beer. Almost has a sparkling wine character, without the cloying sweetness and with a much more rugged appeal. This beer is beautiful, and the aroma is spot-on, but a bit less hops bitterness would let more of the fruit push forward in the flavor to meet the expectation of the aroma.”

9887 94 94AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 20MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 10APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 17MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

Green Flash Natura Morta Plum

| ABV: 5.5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Natura Morta Plum begins as a Belgian-style saison fermented in foedres with Brettanomyces, then is aged in red-wine barrels with Italian plum puree… It renders notes of tart plum, rosewater, and almond, balanced by tannins and a refined dry finish.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Tart lactic, touch of earthy horse blanket, light vanilla and wine/tannic notes, light plum and raspberry. A wonderful fruit aroma—not sin-gularly plum. Subtle peach and even blueberry like a mixed-fruit yogurt cup.”Flavor: “Plum is very much present in the taste, but a considerable amount is going on—a mineral character adds to the dryness and subtle brinyness of the beer, a subtle earthiness works with the undercurrent of funk and tartness, and it finishes surprisingly dry given the fruit character. Wonderful woody Brett aftertaste, with some tack room leather component.”Overall: “Very fruit-forward saison with a complex multidimensional Brett character. Slightly bigger body than expected, but still finishes dry. A deliciously complex beer that I want more of.”

Fonta Flora Brine Oyster Saison

| ABV: 5.2% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Smoked and salted oyster saison.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “High salty aroma. Slight lem-on plays nicely against the salty aroma. Woody, smoky aroma up front. Some white wine and a bit of white pepper. Salty and minerally.”Flavor: “Big salt complexity with slight tartness. Acidity is very nice with this beer as it complements the salty characteristic. Very dry with wonderful carbonation that does justice to all the flavors and helps carry them. The salt and sweet bounce off each other with tartness and malt/fruity sweetness from start to the finish. The smoky character is a bit unexpected and comes through pretty strong—BBQ (hickory?) smoky. Almost BBQ sauce or ribs, except quite tart.”Overall: “Salty, tart, acidic, and refreshing. Very complex beer between the citrus tartness and salt character-istics. Enjoyable—a very different take on a saison, but it came together nicely. Tart and light, but the smokiness is pretty strong. A bit strange like a hybrid gose/gratzer with the dance of salt and smoke. Not a beer I’d drink every day, but an enjoyable experiment.”

| FRUIT OR SPICE SAISON & FARMHOUSE ALE |

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Libertine Rye Saison

| ABV: 6% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“A rye saison fermented with our house mixed culture of Brett. Light acidity and tartness with a crisp dry finish.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Big Brett funk on the initial aroma with some nice citrus hops aroma that sits in the back. Slight white-grape ester with some funky wet blanket that play well together. Light malt sweetness.”Flavor: “Earthy barnyard Brett with apple and slight minty spice. A bit of white pepper and peach. Tart throughout, with a dry finish and high carbonation. A sweetness hits up front with orange and lemon that follow with some nice Brett funk. A pepper-like spice helps to cut the sweetness. Big juicy apricot and lemon flavor with a fantastic tartness that carries all the way through. Medium hops flavor or grapefruit and lemon with a slight herbal peppery and spiciness of rye.”Overall: “Complex blend of fruity, spicy, and funky—nothing dominates. Tart character and high carbonation make for a very crisp and refreshing beer. Complex and all the flavors from the malt, hops, and fermentation characteristics play well together.”

Schlafly Farmhouse IPA

| ABV: 7.2% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“The focus of this beer is twofold: the farmhouse ale characteristics imparted by the French saison yeast and the IPA hops profile founded in Mosaic’s characteristics and complemented by Centennial.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Herbal hops and lots of floral iris and rose. A bit of white pepper in the background. Lots of fresh grassy hops come through. American hops seem to be evident as the citrus and floral stands out.”Flavor: “Rose-like floral hops hit in the front and carry through the finish with a slight bitterness. The lemon/orange notes sit in the back behind the more dominate hops flavor. Carbonation is good, and the finish is slightly dry with a lingering bitterness. Dry yet somewhat creamy.”Overall: “Hops character is super floral but other than that, it’s lacking any character that would make it related to an IPA. This beer had a lot of flavor to it—hops were nice on their own, as were the citrus fruity notes, but it’s not significantly different from other saisons we’ve tried with American hops that didn’t claim the ‘IPA’ moniker.”

Stillwater Cellar Door

| ABV: 6.6% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“A base of German wheat and pale malts accented with Sterling and Citra hops that provide a blend of herbal grass and tangerine flavors and aroma. Gently finished off with white sage, lending a mild earthy spice character, and, of course, our house saison yeast.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Big sage, pine, camphor, lemon, and mint with some fruity esters. Medium citrus aroma of grapefruit and orange with some light pear.”Flavor: “Sage comes through strong with a slight medicinal lemon spice behind it. Moderately sweet then slowly fades into a sweet and bitter finish. Herbal notes really shine in this beer. Carbonation is low and balances the herbal and malt sweetness well. Dry and crisp. Finishes clean yet hoppy.”Overall: “Sage comes through nicely with some lemon and spicy compo-nents. The sweetness and low carb keep it from being quite as refreshing as it could be, but that sweetness also helped balance the herbal sage character. A bit heavy in the finish and has a fair amount of bitterness. A great juxtaposition between herbal notes and fruity hops characteristics.”

Stone Saison Du Buff

| ABV: 6.8% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“This saison has been infused with a herbaceous blend of locally harvested sage, lemon thyme, rosemary, and parsley and dry-hopped with Citra hops for a refreshing finish.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Lots of fresh herbs—sage is very strong, but it is hard to get anything else off of the nose. Some mild sweet-ness in the back. Intense herbal aroma of basil, mint, lavender, and sage.”Flavor: “There is a bounce between the herbal sage notes and the sweetness from this beer, however the beer is left with a bitterness from the spice that takes over in the finish. Low car-bonation and astringent on the finish. Crazy herbal notes—sage, juniper berry, pine taste like you’ve grabbed a bunch and rubbed it in your hands.”Overall: “Too much sage for this one—the herbal spice took over both the nose and the flavor. Very herbal beer with lots of basil and floral notes. A genuinely crazy amount of herbs—like a very strong cup of tea with a shot of gin. Could be fun to use as a mixer in a cocktail.”

9099 87 82AROMA: 10APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 20MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 10APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 17MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

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Two Roads Worker’s Stomp

| ABV: 7.5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Using a variant of our classic saison recipe and aging it in white-wine barrels, this beer is the newest in our ‘Road Less Traveled’ series. Majorly fruity and spicy with a hint of dry white wine notes.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Some nice Brett funk and wood character with mild tartness. White grapes and a little lemon with earthy notes as well. Vanilla, grape, pears, some pine notes. Slight wood throughout with some evident funk that complements all of the fruit.”Flavor: “Starts sweet with big white- grape notes, then gently fades into a mild tart acidity. Biscuit bready malt sweetness is balanced by peach/apri-cot stone-fruit character and a bit of vanilla, while the high carbonation lifts all the flavors off the palate. Finishes really refreshing and tart.”Overall: “The wood-and-barrel char-acter give it a nice structure, and the controlled funk and mild acidity make it refreshing and tart. It’s subtly funky without being overwhelming—a light and confident beer that doesn’t have to go overboard on acidity to create depth. A really great beer.”

Wicked Weed La Bonte with Figs

| ABV: 5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“La Bonte is open-fermented with our house Brettanomyces culture, then blended with a portion of Golden Sour and onto a half pound per gallon of whole figs. La Bonte is then aged in our Foeder until it reaches perfection.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Figs are there somewhere, but it’s difficult to pick them up over the intense phenols. As the beer warms and degasses, the intense phenolics back off, opening it to more convention-al farmhouse aromas.”Flavor: “A tart fruity initial impression. Figs, or is that cherry Jolly Rancher? Brett offers a grounding woodiness, and fortunately it tastes much better than it smells. A significant amount of funk, but in a good way—a punch of acidity to complement the light maltiness and subtle fig taste.”Overall: “Classic saison with a subtle touch of extra acid and fruit from the fig plus earthy tannins that help make the beer seem even more attenuated. The acidity might be a little high for some, but the balance works. The Brett needs a couple more months to break this beer in, but it has the base for a solid funky farmhouse beer.”

9393 99 90AROMA: 12APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 20MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 11APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 10APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 19MOUTHFEEL: 5OVERALL: 10

AROMA: 10APPEARANCE: 3FLAVOR: 18MOUTHFEEL: 4OVERALL: 9

Trinity Menacing Kumquat

| ABV: 6.5% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Saison brewed with oats, Citra hops, and fresh Florida winter-harvest kum-quats and grains of paradise.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Spicy and fruity with a generic rather than specific citrus note. Earthy funkiness—the Brett character is restrained, with mineral undertones.”Flavor: “Heavy citrus/kumquat up front that carries through the entire taste. A mild bitterness, either from hops or fruit, complements the citrusy sweet-ness, but a touch too much. The spice and vanilla are present as well, but only slightly. A noticeable tartness keeps everything in line. Bright fruit character bursts out of the glass.”Overall: “Interesting beer. Brett and Lacto notes are low or muted. If I knew kumquats tasted like this, I would have been eating a lot more of them all these years. A well-executed farmhouse beer with pleasant ester components that heighten both the fruit and the beer in their combination. Tart without being sour and a fruit character that’s vaguely citrus without being identifi-able. Earthy background, but Brett was light and restrained. A refreshing, light- bodied fruit beer.”

Transient Ardent with Apricot

| ABV: 6% | IBU: N/A | SRM: N/A |

What the brewer says“Our flagship barrel-fermented saison, aged on apricots and fermented with a mixed culture.”

What our panel thoughtAroma: “Light acidity/tartness with moderate apricot, light pear, and a touch of apple and vanilla. A wonderful presentation of the fruity apricot aromas with light floral aromas similar to honeysuckle.”Flavor: “The apricot dominates the front end, but a moderate amount of tartness prevents it from becoming too sweet and fruity. A healthy amount of funk also complements the fruit. Surprisingly, a subtle amount of spice, typical of saisons, makes an appear-ance, a rarity for these fruity farmhouse styles. Light barrel character, but the fruit and funk are the stars.”Overall: “Apricot is there throughout and adds a decent acidity. It’s a little sweeter than I was expecting for a saison, but a little more age will clean up the young Brett notes on the tail end as well as dry it out. A great beer that succeeds in its use of apricot and execution of the base farmhouse/saison beer.”

| FRUIT OR SPICE SAISON & FARMHOUSE ALE |

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Brewery Ommegang Hennepin

Schlafly Biere de Garde

Aspen Brew-ing Saison

Perennial Saison de Lis

The Bruery Saison Rue

Boulevard Tank 7

Prairie Artisan Ales Birra

Crooked Stave Vielle

Brasserie Fantome Saison

Southern Tier Grand Arbor

Jester King Noble King

Firestone Walker Opal

Stone Brewing Co. Saison

Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere

Funkwerks Saison

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Goose Island Sofie

Lost Abbey Avant Garde

Allagash Saison

94

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90

| SCORES FROM THE ARCHIVES |

Read More New Reviews On BeerAndBrewing.comWe did it again—our intrepid review panel tackled a dozen more beers than we had space to run in this issue, and rather than hoarding them away to keep for ourselves, we opted to share and have added them to the reviews section on our website—beerandbrewing.com. Visit today for the panel’s thoughts on more great beers from Upright, Blackberry Farm, Council, Allagash, Hopfenstark, Jester King, and much more. While you’re there, read the full tasting notes for the archived reviews above.

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CREATING A NEW HOPS hybrid is a matter of boy meets girl. Just introduce a male hops plant of one variety to a female of another and let nature take its course. Of course, that’s way oversimplifying things in the age of genome mapping and controlled pollination and given the big business of hops and their importance to craft beer, but essentially it’s the same mechanics as two wild, star-crossed young hops plants whose pollen and pistil hap-pen to meet and produce offspring.

Only these days—and beginning with Professor E.S. Salmon at Wye College in England, who crossbred a cultivated English hops of unknown origin with a wild seedling in the early 1900s to create Brewer’s Gold—there’s an entire industry of profes-sional matchmakers selectively breeding for desirable traits and agronomic viability.

It doesn’t always work out, given the multitude of possible combinations and variables involved, but when it does? Think Nugget, El Dorado, Brewer’s Gold.

While actually creating a new hops variety is straightforward, developing and evaluating the plant’s viability, establish-ing a production base, and successfully introducing it commercially is a long and involved process with no guarantees. It often takes at least a decade to bring a new hops to market—whether through a private or public breeding program—and tastes can change quickly.

Only a scant few strains end up passing muster, as breeders and growers have to

Striking GoldDeveloping and bringing a new hops variety to market is a tricky proposition fraught with expense and uncertainty. Here’s how breeders, growers, and brewers are working together to bring promising new strains to beers near you. By Tom Wilmes

be reasonably confident about the pros-pects and their ability to sustainably grow it before even introducing it to brewers.

“It takes a commitment to produce it from whoever developed it—you have to produce it before you get contracts—and that’s hard to do,” says Eric Desmarais, owner of CLS Farms in the Yakima Valley region of Washington. “Growers don’t like to go out on that limb. The trick becomes selecting the one you want and that brew-ers might want.”

As in any commodity-driven business, hops growers primarily respond to market economics when deciding which crops to cultivate. It’s an equation based on yield and what’s going to give them the highest gross revenue per acre. Currently, and for at least the past decade among many American commercial growers, that means aromatic varieties with medium- to high-levels of alpha acid and lots of essential oils—varieties such as Simcoe,

Amarillo, and Citra that are in demand by American craft brewers and can be used for both bittering and to impart unique aromas and flavor.

Push and PullBreeders are attuned to these trends too, which helps in narrowing down likely crosses and selecting for desired traits. Then they need to make sure that a plant is agronomically sound before taking it any further, Desmarais explains. Breeders consider whether it grows during the right time and with a sufficient yield; whether it is resistant to pests and disease; and whether it is relatively easy to harvest and process.

Desmarais estimates that there are currently at least 100 promising new hops varieties in some degree of development among all the different breeders and pub-lic programs. “They’re all solid agronom-ically, but they haven’t been named yet; some have been tested by some brewers, but what it really comes down to is production and distribution,” he says. “It becomes a matter of push and pull.”

The “push” comes from establishing a solid production base behind a new variety, as well as from generating buzz through

Hops growers primarily respond to market eco-nomics when deciding which crops to cultivate. It’s an equation based on yield and what’s going to give them the highest gross revenue per acre. Current-ly… that means aromatic varieties with medium- to high-levels of alpha acid and lots of essential oils—varieties such as Simcoe, Amarillo, and Citra. PH

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| BREAKOUT BREWER: EL SEGUNDO BREWING COMPANY |

pHop HeadsThe

From wet-hopped beers to the freshest possible bottles o�ered to drinkers to the unquenchable desire to keep re�ning and keep showing drinkers a new side of hoppy beers, El Segundo Brewing has become L.A.’s premier IPA brewery. By John Verive

IN A SLEEPY BEACH TOWN less than twenty miles from downtown Los Ange-les, a ve-year-old craft brewery is on a mission to change how people see—and taste—hoppy beer. El Segundo Brewing Company has quickly evolved from a favorite of local beer geeks to a destina-tion in L.A.’s thriving South Bay craft-beer scene. And now, the hops-obsessed brewery is gaining national attention for a unique collaboration with an icono-clastic entertainer. At the end of 2015, El Segundo Brewing (ESBC) partnered with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin—legendary professional wrestler turned reality TV

star and podcaster—to craft Austin’s ideal IPA. The result was Broken Skull IPA, and it’s more than just an o�-the-shelf IPA adorned with a celebrity name. The beer, which ESBC Founder and Brewmaster Rob Croxall calls a “hybrid of old-school and new-school IPAs,” was designed from the ground up to appeal to Austin’s tastes, and it has become a massive crossover hit with a whole new demographic.

“He’s got a pretty good palate,” Croxall says. “He knows what he likes, and he’ll tell you if he doesn’t like something.” The ESBC team got to know Austin’s pref-erences, which tend toward the classic California craft �avors of C-hops, and Croxall wrote a recipe that combined the iconic character of Cascade and Chinook hops in the kettle with a Citra-heavy dry hop. Showcasing a bold mid-palate hops �avor and more subdued bitterness and aromatics than the typical ESBC IPA, PH

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| BREAKOUT BREWER: EL SEGUNDO BREWING COMPANY |

Hop HeadsHop HeadsThe

Hop HeadsThe

Hop HeadsFrom wet-hopped beers to the freshest possible bottles o�ered to drinkers to the unquenchable desire to keep re�ning and keep showing drinkers a new side of hoppy beers, El Segundo Brewing has become L.A.’s premier IPA brewery.

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With just a typical grist, you can create a wide variety of deliciously di�erent saisons simply by varyinghops selection, timing, and quantity. Your favorite commercial brewers are doing it, too.

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marketing efforts and early brewing tri-als. Desmarais and other breeders often send out samples of experimental hops to hundreds of craft brewers to introduce them to a variety and gain their feedback.

The most promising prospects are of-ten backed by targeted marketing cam-paigns, which often include a presence at high-profile events such as the Great American Beer Festival and the Brewers Association’s Craft Brewers Conference. Some strains even have their own social media accounts.

“And you need a hops dealer to really go out and promote it, in conjunction with you, as the owner, promoting it,” Desmarais says.

The “pull” comes when enough brewers begin contracting for and using the hops in their beers that it becomes profitable for farmers to grow.

El Dorado, a proprietary strain devel-oped by Desmarais and CLS Farms, is a good example. Although in widespread use now, it took a concerted effort to propel the hops from obscurity and into beers when it was first introduced in 2010.

“With El Dorado, we’re definitely in the pull stage now, but it took a lot of time and effort to get there,” Desmarais says. “There was a lot of emphasis on the marketing and on social media, and we partnered with a hops dealer who deals exclusively in the craft space. It’s gotten into the beer channels, and brew-

ers have figured out how to brew with it and what they like to do with it.”

Voices Growing StrongerHistorically the big brewers have called the shots on which projects receive fund-ing through public breeding programs and which base traits are encouraged. A small group of the world’s biggest brewers combined efforts to establish the non-profit Hop Research Council in 1979, which today is the largest organization devoted to funding and directing research to benefit the continued development of the American hops industry.

But increasingly, and as craft beer continues to gain market share, the voice of smaller brewers has grown stronger in aggregate, leading to increased experi-mentation among the breeding programs and a broader, more diverse support base for growers and breeders.

“There [are] more than 4,000 craft brew-ers in the United States now, and if you can get maybe 700 of them who like [a new strain] and each buys a couple thousand pounds—which is miniscule—you have a hugely successful commercial variety right there,” Desmarais says. “That would be almost 1.5 million pounds of demand.”

Increased communication between breeders, growers, dealers, and brewers has also helped provide meaningful feedback and streamline the development of new varieties.

Roy Farms, in the Yakima Valley, has

developed and brought to market Sum-mit, Azacca, Pekko, and Jarrylo varieties of hops, among others. Managing Partner Jim Boyd says that direct involvement with brewers—both through feedback gained by sending out small samples to brew with and through on-site visits to the farm—has been invaluable in the breed-ing program’s success.

“It’s great during harvest when they come to visit us and we can do a walkthrough of our new varieties,” Boyd says. “The feed-back supplied by the brewers is wonderful and makes it a lot easier to select varieties to move forward for evaluation.”

Some larger craft brewers are also taking a more active role and formalizing the process by which they evaluate and incorporate emerging hops varieties in their beers. “That’s something where we’ve really stepped up over the past five years,” says Mitch Steele, brewmaster for Stone Brewing Co. “We’ve joined the Hop Quality Group, which is a brewer-led organization, and we’ve also joined the Hop Research Council, which is a joint organization consisting of hops farmers, breeders, researchers, and brewers.”

Stone representatives regularly make site visits to see what breeders and grow-ers are up to, Steele says, and the brewery has also established a new hops-evalu-ation program. “We’ll typically brew an IPA with [a new hops] to get a feel for how a hops might work in a beer like one of ours,” he says. “We can evaluate that and send the evaluation off to the supplier or the breeder, and also send them some beer and let them taste it for themselves.

“It gives us an opportunity to help them see what their hops is going to do in a craft beer, and we’re also on their radar, which is what it’s all about,” Steele says. “It’s developing those relationships and making sure that they’re reaching out to us when they come across something that’s really neat or new and has a lot of potential. At the same time we’re asking them, ‘What have you got coming?’”

“ There [are] more than 4,000 craft brewers in the United States now, and if you can get maybe 700 of them who like [a new strain] and each buys a couple thousand pounds—which is miniscule—you have a hugely successful commercial vari-ety right there,” Desmarais says. “That would be almost 1.5 million pounds of demand.”

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Page 120: Craft beer & brewing magazine

Please visit one of these fine shops wherever you are.

If you would like to be listed in our directory, please contact Rachel Szado,[email protected], (888) 875-8708, ext 705.

Humboldt Beer Works(707) 442-6258110 3rd St., Ste. DEureka, CA 95501humboldtbeerworks.com

O’Shea Brewing Co.(949) 364-444028142 Camino Capistrano, Ste. 107Laguna Niguel, CA 92677osheabrewing.com

Monrovia Homebrew Shop(626) 531-08251945 S. Myrtle Ave. Monrovia, CA 91016

Murrieta Homebrew Emporium(951) 600-000838750 Sky Canyon Dr., Ste. AMurrieta, CA 92563murrietahomebrew.com

J&M Brewing Supplies(415) 883-7300101 Roblar Dr., Ste. CNovato, CA 94949jmbrew.com

The Bearded Brewer(661) 418-63484855 W. Columbia WayQuartz Hill, CA 93536

NorCal Brewing Solutions(530) 243-23371768 Churn Creek Rd.Redding, CA 96002norcalbrewingsolutions.com

Rose’s Tasting Room(619) 293-76732754 Calhoun St. San Diego, CA 92110rosestastingroom.com

Rose’s Tasting Room on Congress2609 Congress St. San Diego, CA 92110rosestastingroom.com

The Homebrewer(619) 450-61652911 El Cajon Blvd., Ste. 2San Diego, CA 92104thehomebrewersd.com

Pacific Brewing Supplies(800) 448-2337240 S. San Dimas Ave.San Dimas, CA 91773pacificbrewingsupplies.com

Alaska

Brew Time(907) 479-020029 College Rd., Ste. 4Fairbanks, AK 99701

Alaska Home Brew Supply(907) 863-0025Wasilla, AK 99654alaskahomebrew.com

Arizona

Brew Your Own Brew Gilbert(480) 497-0011525 E. Baseline Rd., Ste. 108Gilbert, AZ 85233brewyourownbrew.com

What Ales Ya Homebrew(623) 486-80166363 W. Bell Rd., Ste. 2Glendale, AZ 85308whatalesya.com

Brew Your Own Brew Scottsdale(480) 625-42008230 E. Raintree Rd., #103Scottsdale, AZ 85260brewyourownbrew.com

Brew Your Own Brew Tuscon(520) 322-50492564 N. Campbell Ave.Tuscon, AZ 85719brewyourownbrew.com

California

Baycrest Wines & Spirits(949) 293-3609333 E. 17th St., Ste. 1Costa Mesa, CA 92627

HopTech Homebrewing Supplies(925) 875-02466398 Dougherty Rd., Ste. 7Dublin, CA 94568hoptech.comOperated by 2 passionate home brewers. Over 60 hops, loads of grain and extract. Equipment and ingredients. Military and AHA discount!

Seven Bridges Co-op Organic Homebrew(800) 768-4409325 River St., Ste. ASanta Cruz, CA 95060breworganic.com

Simi Valley Homebrew(805) 583-31104352 Eileen St.Simi Valley, CA 93063simivalleyhomebrew.com

Valley Brewers(805) 691-9159515 4th Pl.Solvang, CA 93463valleybrewers.com

Colorado

The Brew Hut(303) 680-889815120 E. Hampden Ave.Aurora, CO 80014thebrewhut.com

Avon Liquor(970) 949-4384100 West Beaver Creek Blvd.Avon, CO 81620avon-liquor.com

Boulder Fermentation Supply(303) 578-00412510 47th St., Unit IBoulder, CO 80301boulderfermentation supply.com

Hazel’s Beverage World(303) 447-19551955 28th St.Boulder, CO 80301hazelsboulder.com

Castle Rock Homebrew Supply(303) 660-22751043 Park St.Castle Rock, CO 80109castlerockhomebrew.com

Cheers Liquor Mart(719) 574-22441105 N. Circle Dr.Colorado Springs, CO 80909cheersliquormart.com

Argonaut Wine & Liquor(303) 831-7788760 E. Colfax Ave.Denver, CO 80203argonautliquor.com

Al’s Newsstand(970) 482-9853177 North College Ave.Fort Collins, CO 80524

Hops and Berries Old Town(970) 493-2484130 W. Olive St., Unit BFort Collins, CO 80524hopsandberries.com

Hops and Berries South(970) 493-24841833 E. Harmony Rd., Unit 16Fort Collins, CO 80528hopsandberries.com

Old Town Liquor(970) 493-0443214 S. College Ave., Ste. 1Fort Collins, CO 80524

Savory Spice Shop(970) 682-2971123 N. College Ave., #100Fort Collins, CO 80524myecard.pro/savory

Barley Haven Homebrew(303) 936-23371057 South Wadsworth Blvd., Ste. 20Lakewood, CO 80226barleyhaven.comColorado’s only Homebrew and Distilling supply stores with online ordering for national customers.

Wyatt’s Wet Goods(303) 485-94631250 S. Hover Rd., Unit CLongmont, CO 80501wyattswetgoods.com

Warhammer Supply(970) 635-26021112 Monroe Ave.Loveland, CO 80537warhammersupply.com

Bruin Spirits(303) 840-167811177 S. Dransfeldt Rd.Parker, CO 80134bruinspiritsinc.com

Barley Haven Draft n’ Still(303) 789-23374131 South Natches Ct., Unit BSheridan, CO 80110barleyhaven.com

Ski Haus Liquors(970) 879-72781450 S. Lincoln Ave.Steamboat Springs, CO 80477

Retail Shop DirectoryApplejack Wine & Spirits(303) 233-33313320 Youngfield St.Wheat Ridge, CO 80033applejack.com

Connecticut

Stomp N Crush(860) 552-4634140 Killingsworth Turnpike (Rte. 81) Clinton, CT 06413stompncrush.com

Maltose Express(203) 452-7332246 Main St.Monroe, CT 06468 maltoseexpress.net

Florida

Brew Story(239) 494-192320451 S. Tamiami Trail, #11Estero, FL 33928

Hanger 41 Winery and Brew Shop(239) 542-946310970 South Cleveland Ave., Unit 304Fort Myers, FL 33907www.timetomakewine.com

Hop Heads Craft Homebrewing Supplies(850) 586-762626C NW Racetrack Rd.Fort Walton Beach, FL 32547hopheadsfwb.com

Biscayne Home Brew(305) 479-26917939 Biscayne Blvd. Miami, FL 33138

Sanford Homebrew Shop(407) 732-6931115 S. Magnolia Ave.Sanford, FL 32771sanfordhomebrewshop.com

Georgia

Beverage World(706) 866-56441840 Lafayette Rd.Fort Oglethorpe, GA 30742ourbeers.com

Tap It(770) 534-00411850 Thompson Bridge Rd. Gainesville, GA 30501tapitgrowler.com

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Hops & Barley Craft Beer(912) 657-2006412 MLK Jr. Blvd.Savannah, GA 31401hopsandbarleysav.com

Barley & Vine(770) 507-59981445 Rock Quarry Rd., #202Stockbridge, GA 30281barleynvine.com

Idaho

Brewer’s Haven Boise(208) 991-46771795 S. Vista Ave.Boise, ID 83705www.brewershaven.com

HomeBrewStuff(208) 375-25599165 W. Chinden Blvd., Ste. 103Garden City, ID 83714homebrewstuff.com

Brewer’s Haven Nampa(208) 461-31721311 12th Ave. Rd.Nampa, ID 83686www.brewershaven.com

Rocky Mountain Homebrew Supply(208) 745-0866218 N 4000 E.Rigby, ID 83442rockymountainhomebrew.com

Illinois

Bev Art Brewer & Winemaker Supply(773) 233-757910033 S. Western Ave.Chicago, IL 60643bev-art.com

Brew & Grow Chicago(312) 243-000519 S. Morgan St. Chicago, IL 60607brewandgrow.com

Brew & Grow Chicago(773) 463-74303625 N. Kedzie Ave. Chicago, IL 60618brewandgrow.com

Brew & Grow Crystal Lake(815) 301-4950176 W. Terra Cotta Ave., Ste. ACrystal Lake, IL 60014brewandgrow.com

Perfect Brewing Supply(847) 816-7055619 E. Park Ave.Libertyville, IL 60048perfectbrewsupply.com

U BREW(309) 524-52191525 3rd Ave. AMoline, IL 61265ubrewqc.com

Windy Hill Hops(312) 834-467775 Hopyard Rd.Murphysboro, IL 62966www.windyhillhops.com

Brew & Grow Roselle(630) 894-4885359 W. Irving Park Rd. Roselle, IL 60172brewandgrow.com

Indiana

Great Fermentations West(317) 268-67767900 E. US 36 W.Avon, IN 46123greatfermentations.com

Great Fermentations Indy(317) 257-94635127 East 65th St. Indianapolis, IN 47220greatfermentations.com

For You Brewing Supplies(812) 244-277950 North 15th St.Terre Haute, IN 47807foryoubrewingsupplies.com

Brewhouse Supplies(219) 286-72851555 West Lincolnway, Ste. 102Valparaiso, IN 46385brewhousesupplies.com

Iowa

C & S Brew Supply(515) 963-1965315 SW Maple St.Ankeny, IA 50023www.candsbrewsupply.com

Kansas

Brew Lab(913) 400-23438004 Foster St. Overland Park, KS 66204brewlabkc.com

All Grain Brewing Specialists LLC(785) 230-21451235 NW 39thTopeka, KS 66618allgrainbrewing.biz

Louisiana

LA Homebrew(225) 773-91287987 Pecue Ln., Ste. 7GBaton Rouge, LA 70809lahomebrew.com

Brewstock(504) 208-27883800 Dryades St. New Orleans, LA 70115brewstock.com

Maryland

Nepenthe Homebrew(443) 438-48463600 Clipper Mill Rd., 130ABaltimore, MD 21211nepenthehomebrew.com

Brews Up(443) 513-47449028 Worcester Hwy.Berlin, MD 21811brewsup.net

Maryland Homebrew(888) 273-96696770 Oak Hall Ln., #108Columbia, MD 21045mdhb.com$7.99 flat rate shipping. AHA and military discounts available. Large selection of all things fermentable! Beer, Wine, Cheese, Cider, Kombucha.

Flying Barrel(301) 663-44911781 N. Market St.Federick, MD 21701flyingbarrel.com

Massachusetts

Craft Beer Cellar Belmont(617) 932-188551 Leonard St.Belmont, MA 02478craftbeercellar.com

Boston Homebrew Supply(617) 879-95501378B Beacon St.Brookline, MA 02446bostonhomebrewsupply.com

Modern Homebrew Emporium(617) 498-04002304 Massachusetts Ave.Cambridge, MA 02140beerbrew.com

Drum Hill Liquors(978) 452-340085 Parkhurst Rd. Clemsford, MA 01824drumhillliquors.com

Strange Brew(508) 460-5050416 Boston Post Rd. East (Route 20)Marlboro, MA 01752Home-Brew.comVisit New England’s Largest Retail Home-Brew Store! Save 10% off Craft Beer & Brewing online courses with coupon code “strangebrew”.

Austin Liquors Shrewsbury(508) 755-8100 20 Boston Turnpike Rd. Shrewsbury, MA 01545austinliquors.com

Francis Food Mart(617) 484-01461084 Belmont St. Watertown, MA 02472francisfoodmart.com

Craft Beer Cellar Winchester(781) 369-117418 Thompson St.Winchester, MA 01890craftbeercellar.com

Beer and Wine Hobby(781) 933-8818155 T New Boston St.Woburn, MA 01801beer-wine.com

Austin Liquors Worcester(508) 852-8953117 Gold Star Blvd.Worcester, MA 01606austinliquors.com

Michigan

Adventures In Homebrewing(313) 277-27396071 Jackson Rd.Ann Arbor, MI 48103www.homebrewing.orgServing HomeBrewers Since 1999. We specialize in Beer Making, Wine Making and Kegging.

Electric Brewing Supply(906) 523-234442021 Willson Memorial Dr.Chassell, MI 49916ebrewsupply.com

Bell’s General Store(269) 382-5712355 E. Kalamazoo Ave.Kalamazoo, MI 49007bellsbeer.comAvailable online - a wide variety of wearables, trinkets, cheese and homebrewing supplies. Check our website for popular brands and current promotions.

Capital City Homebrew Supply(517) 374-1070623 E. Michigan Ave.Lansing, MI 48912capitalcityhome brewsupply.com

Pere Marquette Expeditions(231) 845-72851649 South Pere Marquette HwyLudington, MI 49431pmexpeditions.com

Cap N Cork Homebrew Supply(586) 286-520216776 21 Mile Rd.Macomb, MI 48044capncorkhomebrew.com

Adventures In Homebrewing(313) 277-273923869 Van Born Rd.Taylor, MI 48180homebrewing.org

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Retail Shop DirectoryMississippi

Brew Ha Ha Homebrew Supply(601) 362-02014800 I-55 North, Ste. 17AJackson, MS 39211brewhahasupply.com

Missouri

St. Louis Wine & Beermaking(636) 230-8277231 Lamp and Lantern VillageChesterfield, MO 63017wineandbeermaking.com

Brew & Wine Supply(636) 797-815510663 Business 21Hillsboro, MO 63050brewandwinesupply.com

Grains & Taps(816) 866-5827224 SE Douglas St.Lee’s Summit, MO 64063grains-taps.myshopify.com

The Home Brewery(417) 581-09631967 W. Boat St. Ozark, MO 65721homebrewery.com

Montana

Rock Hand Hardware(406) 442-77702414 N. Montana Ave.Helena, MT 59601rockhandacehardware.com

Summer Sun Garden & Brew(406) 541-8623838 West Spruce St.Missoula, MT 59802summersungarden andbrew.com

Nebraska

Kirk’s Brew(402) 476-74141150 Cornhusker HwyLincoln, NE 68521kirksbrew.com

Nevada

BrewChatter(775) 358-04771275 Kleppe Ln., Unit 21Sparks, NV 89431brewchatter.com

New Hampshire

Lebanon Brew Shop(603) 448-370090 Hanover St.Lebanon, NH 03766cafeandhomebrew.com

New Jersey

Keg & Barrel Homebrew Supply(856) 809-69312 S. Rt. 73, Unit IBerlin, NJ 08009kegandbarrel homebrewsupply.com

Love2Brew North Brunswick(732) 658-35501583 Livingston Ave., Unit #2North Brunswick, NJ 08902love2brew.com

Love2Brew Paterson(973) 925-400527 East 33rd St. Paterson, NJ 07514love2brew.com

New York

Arbor Wine and Beer Supplies(631) 277-3004184 Islip Ave.Islip, NY 11751arborwine.com

The KegWorks Store(716) 929-75701460 Military Rd. Kenmore, NY 14217kegworks.com/store

Saratoga Zymurgist(518) 580-9785112 Excelsior Ave.Saratoga Springs, NY 12866saratogaz.com

Hop & Goblet(315) 790-59462007 Genesee St.Utica, NY 13501

North Carolina

Bull City Homebrew(919) 682-03001906 E. NC Hwy 54, Ste. 200-BDurham, NC 27713bullcityhomebrew.com

Atlantic Brew Supply(919) 400-90873709 Neil St.Raleigh, NC 27607atlanticbrewsupply.comWhether you homebrew, new to the commercial brewing scene, or expanding, Atlantic Brew Supply is ready to set you up!

Ohio

The PumpHouse Homebrew Shop(330) 755-3642336 Elm St.Struthers, OH 44471pumphousehomebrew.com

Oklahoma

High Gravity(918) 461-26057142 S. Memorial Dr.Tulsa, OK 74133highgravitybrew.comElectric Brewing Systems from High Gravity. Simple. On Purpose. $7.99 Flat Rate Shipping on most items.

Oregon

The Brew Shop(541) 323-23181203 NE Third St.Bend, OR 97701thebrewshopbend.com

F. H. Steinbart Co.(503) 232-8793234 SE 12th Ave.Portland, OR 97214fhsteinbart.com

Pennsylvania

Back Alley Beverage(484) 463-8518Corner of State Rd. & Lansdowne Ave. Drexel Hill, PA 19026backalleybev.com

Simply Homebrew(570) 788-23112 Honey Hole Rd.Drums, PA 18222simplyhomebrew.com

Hamlin Distributors(570) 689-2891590 Hamlin HwyHamlin, PA 18427hamlindistributors.com

Scotzin Bros(717) 737-048365 C North Fifth St.Lemoyne, PA 17043scotzinbros.com

Weak Knee Home Brew Supply(610) 327-14501277 N.Charlotte St.Pottstown, PA 19464weakkneehomebrew.com

Bailee’s Homebrew & Wine Supplies(717) 755-75992252 Industrial HwyYork, PA 17402baileeshomebrew.com

Tennessee

Rebel Brewer(615) 859-2188105 Space Park NorthGoodlettsville, TN 37072rebelbrewer.com

Texas

Black Hawk Brewing Supply(254) 393-0491582 E. Central Texas ExpresswayHarker Heights, TX 76548blackhawkbrewing.com

DeFalcos Home Wine and Beer Supplies(800) 216-27399223 Stella Link Rd.Houston, TX 77025defalcos.com

Texas Homebrewers(855) 744-273919909 Morron Rd., Ste. 100Katy, TX 77449texashomebrewers.com

Yellow House Canyon Brew Works(806) 744-1917601 N. University Ave.Lubbock, TX 79408www.yellowhousecanyon brewworks.com

Cypress Grape and Grain(832) 698-140224914 State Hwy 249, Ste. 145Tomball, TX 77375cypressgrapeandgrain.com

Utah

Salt City Brew Supply(801) 849-0955750 E. Fort Union Blvd.Midvale, UT 84047saltcitybrewsupply.comCall us with your brewing questions and make whatever beer you want with our selection of hops, yeast, and grain.

Ogden City Brew Supply(385) 238-49952269 Grant Ave.Ogden, UT 84401ogdencitybrewsupply.comBig selection of hops, grain, and yeast, for every level of brewer, as well as wine, cider and mead kits.

Vermont

Craft Beer Cellar Waterbury(802) 882-80343 Elm St.Waterbury, VT 05676craftbeercellar.com

Virgina

My LHBS(703) 241-38746201 Leesburg PikeFalls Church, VA 22044mylhbs.comHuge selection of ingredients and equipment conveniently located inside the Beltway. Check out our unique and delicious store recipe kits!

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Advertiser Index

For more information about advertising in Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine™, please contact Media Sales Manager Alex John-son at [email protected] or 888.875.8708 x707.

Air Blast Inc 35

Alaskan Brewing 5

Aspen Brewing 43 Company

Barrels Unlimited 39

Beer Cap Maps 9

BeerGifts.com 113

Best of Cooking 57 With Beer

BH Enterprises 10

Blichmann 15, 35 Engineering

Bottle Keeper 18

Brew and 49 Wine Supply

Brew Central Inside NY Back Cover

Brew Jacket 113

Brewers 23 Publications

Brewers Retreat: 60 Devil’s Thumb Ranch, Colorado

BrewHug 113

Brewmation 49

Cascade Floors 51

Cicerone 13

Corvus Coffee 45

Craft A Brew 10

Craft Beer 115 & Brewing Apps

Craft Beer Kitchen 57

Craftsman Soap 113 Company

Custom Metalcraft 35

Electric Brewing 47 Supply

ExChilerator 112

FastBrewing & 113 WineMaking

Five Star Chemicals 7

Fizzics 113

GiveThemBeer.com 112

Grainfather 10

Grandstand 1

Great 51 Fermentations

GrogTag 43

High Gravity 47

Homebrew Label 59 Awards

Homewetbar.com 47

Industrial Test 39 Systems

Klean Kanteen 25

K-Malt/Corosys 37 Kellerworks

Krome USA, Inc. 31

LabelNator 41

Learn to Homebrew 111

Left Hand Brewing 29

My LHBS 114

New Belgium Back Brewing Cover

Odell Brewing 17

Oxford Companion 84 to Beer

Pop Chart Lab 112

Rodenbach/ 18 Latis Imports

Ruby Street 41 Brewing

Salt City 114 Brewing Supply

Ska Brewing 39

Society of Beer 114 Travelers

Southern Tier 41 Brewing

Spike Brewing 113

SPINE 112

Ss Brewing 2 Technologies

The Beerded 112 Beard Co.

The Dudes’ 31 Brewing Company

The Home Brewery 114

Thirsty Dog Brewing 33

Total Beverage Inside Solution Front Cover

Tröegs Brewing 13

Vin Table 45

Yakima Valley 45 Tourism

Our advertisers help make it possible for us to bring you great content from the best contributors, issue after issue!

Wine and Cake Hobbies(757) 857-02456527 Tidewater Dr.Norfolk, VA 23509wineandcake.com

Washington

Olympic Brewing(360) 373-10942817 Wheaton Way #102Bremerton, WA 98310olybrew.com

Homebrew Heaven(425) 355-88659121 Evergreen WayEverett, WA 98204homebrewheaven.com

Cascadia Homebrew(360) 943-2337211 4th Ave. E.Olympia, WA 98501cascadiahomebrew.com

Sound Homebrew(206) 734-80746505 5th Place S.Seattle, WA 98108soundhomebrew.com

Wisconsin

Corks and Caps(920) 757-9270N1788 Lily of the Valley Dr.Greenville, WI 54942corksncaps.com

International Shops

Australia

Clever Brewingcleverbrewing.com.auWe’re here for all your clever brewing needs and are the CB&B Magazine distributor for Australian retail shops. Contact us!

Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden

Humlegardens Ekolager AB46 7 049 50168Bergkallavagen 28Sollentuna, SE 19279humle.seWe’re the exclusive distributor of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® to independent retail shops in this Nordic Region. Contact us!

Germany

Hopfen und mehrRudenweiler 16Tettnang 88069www.hobbybrauerversand.deIn Germany? We’re the exclusive distributor of CB&B magazine here! Check us out!

Mexico

The Beer Company Monterrey (Anahuac)(81) 1588-4979Av. Topo Chico 855 Local 2, Col. AnahuacSan Nicolas de los GarzaN.L. 66450thebeercompany.com.mx/home

New Zealand

BrewShop64 7 929 4547PO Box 998Hamilton 3240brewshop.co.nzBrewShop is the exclusive distributor of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® to independent retail shops in New Zealand. Contact us today!

Hauraki Home Brew64 9 442507017 N. Douglas Alexander PdeAuckland 0632haurakihomebrew.co.nz

Home Brew West64 9 8377177Shop 1, 4 Waipareira Ave.Auckland 0610homebrewwest.co.nz

Home Brew West64 9 377154419 Mt. Eden Rd.Auckland 1023homebrewwest.co.nz

Norway

Bakke Brygg AS+47 73 20 16 40Fjordgata 9BTrondheim S-T N-7010bakkebrygg.no

Portugal

Oficina da Cerveja+351 911 555 851Rua Bernardim Ribeiro 59Lisbon1150-069www.oficinadacerveja.ptVisit our website! We’re the exclusive distributor of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® to independent retail shops in Portugal.

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Essential Brew Day PlaylistGreat music is almost as integral to your brew day as the beer you drink while brewing—both help make the drudgery of cleaning, sanitizing, and waiting a little

more bearable. But what to listen to while you’re mashing in? Here, we’ve pulled together a few on-topic tracks sure to make brew day a little more fun.

BeerReel Big Fish

An obvious one by title alone, but here’s a fun fact: Reel Big Fish are such big craft-beer fans that the band brewed a collaboration brew in 2015 with Ska Brewing and Wynkoop Brewing. The resulting beer, Reel Big Stout, was served at Denver’s Collabfest 2015. This horn-driven ska song will get you moving and brewing.

One BeerMF Doom

Abstract beats, next-level rhymes. MF Doom rhymed about beer, and that’s enough for us.

I Drink AloneGeorge Thorogood & The Destroyers

An attitude-driven blues rock classic that deserves to be on any drinking and brewing playlist. Brewing and drinking are always good with friends, but sometimes you’ve just got to do it alone.

BeercanBeck

Solid groove, catchy hook, classic break—Beck might be a loser, but this track is anything but. Grab a beercan out of your sack.

Beer :30The Reverend Horton Heat

It’s (mostly) instrumental, but no matter what time it is, it’s always Beer :30 when the song plays.

Drinkin’ BeerJimmy Witherspoon

“You drink too much ale / they put you in jail / so I think I’ll stick to homebrew.” That line says it all. A solid blues tune from 1963 that reminds you of the fact that when Witherspoon sang that line, homebrewing was against the law.

Beer Drinkers & Hell RaisersZZ Top

If ZZ Top had a quarter for every brewer mim-icking their beard game, they’d be even richer than they are.

Beer For BreakfastThe Replacements

The ‘Mats have two songs for this playlist—this one, and the far more sentimental “Here Comes a Regular,” but “Beer For Breakfast” captures a manic energy and seems very appropriate for those days we’re in the garage at 6 a.m. to start mashing in that imperial stout.

Drunken LullabiesFlogging Molly

Classic folk songs are great, but you can’t beat Flogging Molly or the Dropkick Murphys, mash-ing up those classic jigs with a relentless energy and unrepentant attitude.

BeerPeople Under the Stairs

Name-dropping Trappist abbey brewers Chimay, Stone Brewing’s Arrogant Bastard, and Lagunitas all in one hip hop track? Yes, this might be the most craft-centric song about beer ever made. Bonus points for the guys rolling a keg on a skateboard on the cover. “With ales, Pilsners, lagers, or the stouts / Hops ’til the party stops, I make the people shout.” Pure gold.

God Save Every Brewing Man The Poxy Boggards

“Raise a toast to the brewing man.” There might not be a better Irish folk-style ode to the craft of brewing than this. “Never do your brewer wrong... It’s his fine work that fills your glass.” There are at least a dozen other songs from The Poxy Bog-gards that would be at home in your brewing and drinking playlist, but this is the most appropriate.

Roadhouse BluesThe Doors

“Well, I woke up this morning, and I got myself a beer / The future’s uncertain, and the end is always near.” The Doors sure lay on the exis-tential angst, but the message is clear. There’s no better day to crack open a beer (or to brew one) than today.

Cigarettes & AlcoholOasis

No one had swagger like the Gallagher brothers. In their prime, they were a walking bar fight—half cocked accusations followed by clumsily thrown punches—but anyone with a few bar-leywines in them will understand exactly how the brothers felt when they claimed they were bigger than the Beatles.

More BeerFear

A complex treatise on the nature of longing, Fear synthesizes complex emotions .... nah, they just want more beer. This song is about one thing, but the gratuitous prog rock vocal breakdown is an epic troll long before trolling was a thing.

The Juice of the BarleyThe Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem

A classic Irish folk song, this one has been done over and over by everyone and their mother, but there’s just something enjoyable about hear-ing the Clancy Brothers’ take on it, where the audience is in on the absurdity of the joke. From the same artists, “Beer, Beer, Beer” is another great one for your brewing playlist.

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| CHILL PLATE |