398: River North Explores the Outer Limits of High ABV Brewing
Jan 31, 2025
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Join Matt Hess, founder of River North Brewery, and head brewer Matt Malloy as they dive into the art of high-ABV brewing. They discuss extraordinary techniques for making potent yet drinkable beers, exploring topics like healthy yeast management, careful malt selection, and innovative fermentation processes. Discover how they balance intense flavors in their award-winning brews and the challenges of barrel aging. This conversation unpacks years of experience, illuminating the complex, delicious world of ultra-high gravity beers.
River North Brewery has achieved significant recognition in the craft beer industry through multiple prestigious awards highlighting their exceptional brewing skills.
The brewery specializes in producing ultra-high gravity beers, maintaining complexity and drinkability through meticulous fermentation and yeast management techniques.
Innovative methods such as using fresh coffee beans and quality barrels are employed to enhance flavor profiles and quality of their brews.
Deep dives
Significant Achievements in Brewing
River North brewery has recently celebrated substantial achievements, including receiving the Mid-Sized Brewery of the Year award at the Colorado Brewers Cup. The brewery has also won multiple prestigious medals in various competitions, showcasing their excellence in crafting unique beers. Notably, their Nightmate Fuel and other products have garnered recognition at the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup. These accolades reflect River North's dedication to producing high-quality craft beers that resonate well with both judges and consumers.
Expertise in High-Gravity Beer Brewing
River North specializes in brewing ultra-high gravity beers with alcohol content exceeding 15%, and has developed techniques that ensure these complex brews remain flavorful and drinkable. The brewing process involves meticulous attention to detail, including the careful addition of fermentable sugars and a focus on yeast selection. The brewers utilize methods such as staged fermentation and specific pitching times to achieve the desired balance of flavors while effectively managing the fermentation process. This expertise allows them to produce distinctive and enjoyable high-ABV beers that stand out in the market.
A Bold Approach to Ingredient Selection
The brewing team at River North emphasizes the importance of using quality ingredients and innovative techniques to add complexity to their beers. This includes careful selection of malts, hops, and specialty adjuncts that enhance the beers' flavor profiles. Notably, they have focused on the use of dehusked malts to avoid astringency while achieving rich flavors, particularly in their stouts. They also explore a variety of adjuncts such as dextrins and specialized sugars to provide additional character, ultimately creating a cohesive experience in their brews.
Innovative Coffee Infusion Techniques
Nightmare Fuel, one of River North's standout beers, showcases their innovative approach to incorporating coffee flavors. The brewing process involves using whole coffee beans during fermentation to extract rich, aromatic qualities without compromising the beer's integrity. The team has experimented with various coffee roasters and methods, moving away from cold brewing to ensure that oxygen exposure does not detract from the final product. This method results in a vibrant, fresh coffee character that enhances the beer's appeal and keeps the flavor profile intact over time.
Embracing the Art of Barrel Aging
River North's approach to barrel aging emphasizes the importance of fresh, high-quality barrels from local distilleries to enhance the flavors of their high-ABV beers. Barrel aging allows for complex flavor integration and character development, contributing to the uniqueness of their products. They adopt a selective approach, using single cask techniques to maintain quality control, while understanding the risks associated with oxidation, which can benefit certain styles. The brewers continuously refine their methods to maximize the positive impacts of barrel aging and oxidation, creating exceptional brews that evolve over time.
Over the past few years, Denver's River North Brewery has collected accolades from top beer competitions around the world—four GABF medals, four World Beer Cup medals, four European Beer Star medals just to name a few—and beers like Father Time and Anniversary 11 have earned top scores from our blind panel. They most recently earned midsize brewery of the year honors at the inaugural Colorado Brewers Cup. While they brew a wide range of beers, including frequent medal winner Nightmare Fuel coffee stout, they're probably most well-known for the beers that push into the peaks of the ABV range—stouts, Belgian-style strong ales, and barleywines that regularly hit 15% and higher.
In this episode, founder Matt Hess and head brewer Matt Malloy share their techniques for making beers that not only turn heads for the their sky-high numbers, but also remain drinkable and as balanced as such beers could be. From controlling fusel alcohols through careful fermentation management, to building layers of flavors through malt selection, they share insights garnered from ten years of pushing the envelope. In this episode, they touch on:
using very high pitch rates and over-oxygenation to maintain healthy yeast
employing dehusked malts to soften roast character in big stouts
pushing yeast into an additional growth phase to increase cell count
keeping osmotic pressure low and feeding fermentations
selecting and adding coffee into stout
managing the oxidative process in barrel aging
And more.
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