Direct Fire Kettles and the Manual Brewing Process

Over the course of his decade-and-a-half, bicoastal brewing career, Vasili Gletsos has brewed a wide range of beer styles on an equal wide range of brewing systems. But after launching Wunderkammer as a personal brand while serving as head brewer for Hill Farmstead, he ultimately decided to make it his focus, building out a simple brewery with an old dairy tank mash tun and a wood-fired copper kettle to make mixed culture beers that tell stories.

Through foraging and engaging with the landscape around him, he continues to make beer that feels not just rooted and local, but thoughtfully considered and artful. He’s particular about ingredients and fermentation, searching for mixed culture expressions that don’t simply lean on clichés of the genre.

“Part of the power of mixed culture beer is that I find it very transportive,” he says. “It brings you to a time and place—but I don’t always want that time and place to be a barnyard.”

In this episode, Gletsos discusses his mixed culture process, including:

• differentiating Wunderkammer from Hill Farmstead’s mixed culture program
• choosing Brettanomyces strains for more favorable flavors
• brewing on a very simple wood-fired brewhouse
• working in layers
• blending stainless fermentation and wood puncheon aging
• using foraged ingredients like yarrow
• cold side versus hot side additions of foraged ingredients

And more.

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