place/local/ingredients/sensory

Monday beer reading: Lager yeast, sexism & premiumization

Lager fermenting at Brauerei Schönram

Lager fermenting at Brauerei Schönram in Bavaria

A Washington Post story yesterday discusses how “scientists in Chile harnessed the biodiversity of Patagonia to make novel yeast hybrids, potentially paving the way for new lager beer flavors.”

Early on, the principal investigator (that means he has skin in the game), says, “All the lager beers that we drink now come from a single event from a yeast generated 500 years ago. That makes most of the lager beers quite similar.”

Coincidentally, last week Good Beer Hunting posted almost 4,000 words about lager yeast.

My nit to pick in the first is that lagers don’t have to taste quite similar. In the second, this is not what I think the best brewers do: “When we think about the history of lager, we’re talking about the history of brewers and scientists trying to understand how to get yeast to do what they want.” My experience is that the real skill is figuring at what yeast want and giving it to them. That’s when the magic happens.

The strains coming out of Patogonia may well produce unique flavors, but that’s no excuse to diss what brewers are already using. In “Modern Lager Beer,” the authors point out that there are “notable difference even within lager strains bearing the same 34/70 moniker.”

Two brewers traveled around Bavaria sourcing yeast directly to assist Brewing Science Institute mapping out variations. The samples they selected displayed differences in maltotriose fermentation, attenuation, sulfur production, acetyaldehyde production, diacetyl removal, and ester production. The authors also cite research that confirms that lager strains adapt to their environment, finding that chromosomal variations can begin to occur within a dozen generations.

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LEDE OF THE WEEK

DEI is so 2021. For many in the beer industry, as well as in the wider world, diversity, equity and inclusion has become old news, no longer worthy of column inches.

“I believe that the progress of social advocacy work in craft beer is in danger of stalling out completely or even rolling backward,” academic, activist and DEI professional Dr. J. Jackson-Beckham stated in a post on Crafted For All in September 2023. It echoed the feelings of many other DEI activists and advocates in the industry: One of powerlessness, frustration, and lack of support and progress has led to large-scale burnout.

— From Apathy Has Rained On Me — On DEI Burnout in the Beer Industry

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Process: Where greatness and quality meet

Jack's Abby Porch Fest

A can of Jack’s Abby beer

Thirty-eight years ago, Brewers Publications released its first title, “Brewing Lager Beer.”

Ten years later, when an expansive update, “NEW Brewing Lager Beer,” was published, author Greg Noonan wrote, “The trickle of knowledge available to craft and homebrewers when this book was first published has become a flood.”

Twenty-eight more years later, the newest book from Brewers Publications is “Modern Lager Beer.”

The flood has not abated, but new information is not all about MLB that is different. BLB was never just about lagers. It followed a “how to” approach, and served as a manual for home- and microbrewers, as they were known at the time. MLB is only about brewing lager and takes more of a “how they” approach. Authors Jack Hendler and Joe Connolly of Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers spoke with more than 70 brewers and beer professionals before they wrote the book.

What is the same is an important lesson: There is no one way to brew great beer, but there is a way.

The authors get right to the point in the introduction.

“When American craft brewers create lagers, they often do so without changing any of the processes or brewing techniques they use for their ales,” they write, later adding, “while American craft ale fermentation is at the absolute cutting edge of quality, American craft lager is lagging woefully behind.”

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Send your best homebrews to Denver (please)

Is purple a beer style?
Beer judging: You meet the most interesting beers

If you read Monday’s post before American Homebrewers Association executive director Julia Herz added more about Homebrew HQ at GABF, and the connection between commercial brewers and homebrewers now would be a good time to visit the comments.

I am a big fan of Homebrew Con, even though it is the only place where I’ve seen somebody fall asleep during a presentation I was giving (Baltimore 2016). However, I am down with the idea that “anyone who attends GABF in October as an AHA member will be exposed to an incredible beer and homebrew related experience unique to any other event in the U.S.”

Also, that the National Homebrew Competition awards will be handed out at GABF also has a nice ring to it. Bringing us to the point of this post. The entry window for NHC is open. You may pick which site you want to send your beer to for first round judging. If it is really good, I propose you send it to Denver. That’s where I have signed up to judge.

Dank. Dankitydankdankdank

Sierra Nevada Dank Little Thing
The subject line on an email from Sierra Nevada Brewing about the newest edition to its hazy IPA series reads, “Say high to our new Dank IPA.” Not “hello,” not “hi.”

And the headline atop the message within reads, “Stop & smell the hops. Wait, is that . . .”

Here is the entire message, with a couple more winks and nods, “For the latest Limited Edition in our Hazy IPA Series, we rolled up a mix of sticky, floral, and tropical hops into a Dank Little Thing. Amarillo, Chinook, and CTZ varieties help pack that resinous flavor, while botanical terpenes spark an aroma that fills a room. Stash it while you can because Dank Little Thing is only here through February 2024.”

Oh, those terpenes. Consider what Kate Bernot wrote about Seventh Son Pineapple Express in Craft Beer and Brewing. “Once you get a whiff of this beer, you understand why the brewery has to say explicitly that it contains no THC. This pineapple sour is brewed with cannabis terpenes that are, yes, pungent, but they’re also thoughtfully integrated with the fruit and acidity. There’s a pineapple-core earthiness that passes the baton directly to the minty terpenes before the two elements dance back and forth across the tongue. I’ve never tasted a beer like it.”

Humulus lupulus (hops) and cannabis are part of the larger Cannabaceae family. Many of the same botanical terpenes are found in both, as well as many others plants (for instance, basil and lavender, a few of many profiled in “Brewing Local”). That’s a topic for another Wednesday.

Right now, consider the name Sierra Nevada chose for this release. Not everybody agrees that “dank” is a proper hop aroma descriptor. But who doesn’t understand what it implies?

Dank has been part of the hop sensory lexicon at Yakima Chief Hops for years, explained YCH sensory and brewing research manager Tessa Schilaty.

“We define it as smelling like cannabis, which is on the ASBC lexicon under herbaceous. We wanted to avoid having the word cannabis appear on our product descriptions, as we do a lot of work internationally with countries where cannabis is both frowned upon and very illegal,” she wrote in an email.

“People use the word dank to describe a variety of aromas, but most of them appear elsewhere on our ballot, for example musty (which we have under earthy) or onion/garlic (which is its own category). It therefor made sense for us to use the word dank to define something which was not elsewhere represented on our ballot, and which is one of the common uses of the term by brewers.”

In contrast, there is the American Society of Brewing Chemistry list of terms to describe the aroma of hops. Included are 107 words. As Schilaty points out, cannabis is filed under herbaceous. Dank is not to be found.

That did not limit the team at Sierra Nevada in charge of new beer names.

A Better Burden: Forest & Farm, indeed

Narrow Path Brewing beer menu

The description of A Better Burden on the menu at Narrow Path Brewing outside of Cincinnati lists the ingredients, then two words: Forest & Farm.

“Those words are my attempt to help the ones tasting the beer to envision and place themselves within a setting,” Narrow Path owner/brewer Chad Powers explained. “That description is a hopeful reminder to folks that this beer has true origins in our natural world and that the resulting liquid is as much an offering from the land as it is from the brewer.”

A Better Burden is on my “Best in 2023” list in the current issue of Craft Beer & Brewing magazine. I expect you understand that means it was one of the beers I enjoyed most from a universe of choices I had not tasted previously. Otherwise, the “best” list would be scattered with well known, and deserving, beers such at Rochefort 8. Nine of the 10 beers described were new to me; the exception being Urban Chestnut Stammtisch. (The collection of contributors’ lists is also available in podcast form.)

I’m writing about A Better Burden because 70 words in the magazine did not seem like enough about this combination of smoke and cedar that I find sublime, and many other people may not. A Better Burden is a collaboration between Narrow Path and Nine Giant Brewing, and Powers and Mike Albarella have brewed it together at Narrow Path the past three years.

They had both read ”Historical Brewing Techniques” by Lars Marius Garshol right when the book became available. They wrote the initial recipe together and have subtly changed it each year. The base malt and the alder wood smoked malt come from Sugar Creek Malt Co. in Indiana. “We knew that Caleb (Michalke) had built a Såinnhus, and we wanted to use ingredients that were as local as possible and that were produced as traditionally as possible,” Powers said.

They chose his Stjørdal malt knowing it would be the most polarizing ingredient in the grain bill. Smoke is particularly assertive in this batch.

Finding cedar for Narrow Path Brewing A Better Burden

Powers harvests the cedar every year from the same hillside across the river in Kentucky. “A good friend of mine is an ecologist at Eastern Kentucky University, and he oversees several conservancies across the state,” Powers said. The friend plants seeds while Powers cuts off the ends of branches. “I like to do it when the weather is cool and brisk but also when there’s enough sun to feel some warmth on my face.”

The first year they fermented the beer with a commercially available Voss kveik strain. The last two years we’ve used strains that were not, until recently, commercially available. Caleb Ochs-Naderer, now the program chair of the brewing science program at Cincinnati State, was brewing at Nine Giant when they brewed the beer the second and third time.

He has been a long-time kveik fan/evangelist, and traveled to a homebrew gathering in Norway several years ago. He brought back a catalog of dried kveik that he stored in his freezer. “We selected a strain called Stalljen because it was described as saison-like without any phenolic notes. We rehydrated the yeast from their dried flaked state and fermented in the upper 80s to low 90s,” Powers said.

Cedar for A Better Burden arriving at Narrow Path Brewing“I think the thing I love most about the beer is that it certainly makes me feel something, often several things. The time and effort spent harvesting the cedar with my friend realigns my heart to a deeper connection and purpose in brewing.

“I can feel the sun on my face as I’m reaching to trim a branch in the cool autumn air. I can feel the wind on my face as I give thanks to the grove of trees that play such an important part in the entire experience. Something in me awakens each time I sip.”

(Nine Giant often takes names of beers from song lyrics. Powers was looking through Nordic and Viking poems/chants and found a translation of Hávamál that had the phrase “a better burden” in it. “That idea and the specific turn of phrase resonated with me.”)