The Brewer's Apprentice: An Insider's Guide to the Art and Craft of Beer Brewing, Taught by the Masters - Softcover

Koch, Greg; Allyn, Matt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1592537316 ISBN 13: 9781592537310

Publisher: Quarry Books, 2011

Synopsis

Brewing craft and artisanal beer has become a labor of love for enthusiasts and epicures the world over, with new people joining the ranks every year. The Brewer’ s Apprentice is a behind-the-scenes guide to all aspects of this ancient art. However, instead of simply sharing brewing recipes, tasting guides, or buying recommendations as many other books do, our book gives readers unique insights into craft brewing culture, and lets the “ masters” share their own expertise. In a series of in-depth profiles, the legends, innovators, and rising stars of the beer world share their deep reserves of brew knowledge, insider tips, recipes, and more. Inside you’ ll learn: sourcing the best ingredients, brewing “ locally” and seasonally, farm-to-table brewing, fine-tuning your home-brewing skills, brewing chemistry, nontraditional ingredients, barrel-aging beers, and extreme brews, meads, lambics, ciders and other classic brews.

About this title

About the Authors

Greg Koch is co-founder and CEO of Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, California. Since 1996, Stone has become one of the fastest growing and highest rated breweries in the world. Greg passionately believes that environmental and social sustainability goes hand-in-hand with brewing mind-blowing beer, and he frequently speaks on topics ranging from craft beer to business to food to marketing.

Matt Allyn is a freelance writer living, drinking, and brewing in Allentown, PA. He's a certified beer judge, and has been homebrewing award-winning beers for five years. His writing has been published in Men's Health, Draft, Runner's World, and Bicycling.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Interview with Ken Grossman: Owner, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, California, U.S.

With a legendary craft beer to his name, an owner could Be complacent and coast, watching the profits roll in. But Ken is a beer geek first and foremost. After more than three decades in the business, he’s still relentlessly chasing a better beer.

What were the biggest challenges when you first opened in 1980?

There wasn’t a place to buy brewing equipment on the budget or scale we had. I couldn’t have afforded something from Germany or England. But I was lucky that UC-Davis was down the road, and they had a pretty extensive brewing library. I went back into books from the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s, and saw how technology was handled in simpler times.

A lot of the articles I read and copied were on older methods of brewing. We tried to mimic simplified brewing systems with nonpressurized fermentation tanks or heated mash tuns that we now have the luxury of owning.

But how did you handle the equipment?

I built my first malt mill myself. We built a mash tun out of an old cheese vat I found, and I milled a false bottom myself. I used a lot of fundamental, but simplistic, equipment designs, but it was enough to get us into business.

Building your own malt mill seems incomprehensible.

I purchased well casing pipes, welded in end plates, put bearings together, and pieced together a functioning, but crude, malt mill that got us started. Those kind of skills were something I thought I needed, so I went back to junior college and took many classes in fabrication, machining, refrigeration, and so on.

It took a year and a half to put all the pieces together to make our first batch of beer, the building included. I did the carpentry, Sheetrock, painting, and all the plumbing and electrical.

I think Sierra Nevada has a reputation for being the best example of the art and technical.

A lot of the small brewers that opened in the years before and after us are all gone. And part of their downfall was a lack of consistency, quality control, and getting a handle on brewing science. It’s certainly an art, but there’s science involved.

And you’ve been head of the technical committee for the Brewers Association.

It was great; my passion is the science of making beer. I’m boring and read brewing journals in the evening.

So how did that science manifest itself?

We studied iron pickup in beer kegs and from water. A little bit of iron is not detectable by most palates, but 40 or 50 parts per billion of iron from natural sources or kegs severely impacts the flavor stability of beer. The consumer will experience a lessthan- ideal beer down the road. It’s those subtle things that contribute to the overall long-term enjoyment of the product.

What sort of other things have you found improve flavor stability?

We blanket our mill with nitrogen, deaereate our brewing water, and we invest in analytical equipment that can look at ppb or lower of iron or other minerals. Not one of these things makes a huge impact by itself, but all these little bits can improve the consumers’ experience. That’s a core value: We always know we can do a little better here or there.

That makes me think of your switch to pry-off bottle caps.

We’ve done a lot of research on bottle cap liner materials and are still working with European manufactures to find the Holy Grail of bottle cap liners. That’ll have benefits for us as well as the rest of the industry. Bottle caps are an inherent detractor from beer flavor stability.

We studied leaving twist-offs for many years. There was certainly the convenience factor, an

Edition details

• Publisher: Quarry Books
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1592537316
• ISBN 13: 9781592537310
• Binding: Flexibound
• Number of pages: 192