359: Ryan Miller of Vermont’s Freak Folk Finds Unique Flavors in Layered Fermentations
May 10, 2024
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Ryan Miller, cofounder of Freak Folk Bier, discusses their unique approach to saison and hazy IPA, including using unusual ingredients, advanced hop products, and copitching yeast strains. They share insights on building compelling grain bills, controlling acidity, and adjusting gravity, highlighting their love story intertwined with brewing.
Freak Folk brewery excels in blending unique sason recipes with diverse yeasts for flavorful profiles.
Innovative use of foraged ingredients and local hops enhances complexity in Freak Folk's sasons.
Freak Folk's transition to crafting hazy IPAs involves meticulous grain bill selection and yeast experimentation.
Deep dives
Freak Folk's Journey on Crafting Saisons and Hazy IPAs
Freak Folk brewery, nestled in Waterbury, Vermont, initially gained recognition for its unique sasons before venturing into the realm of hazy IPAs. Starting with sasons, their approach involves blending varying base recipes, utilizing a mix of Pilsner malt, wheat, and oats. They ferment these with a diverse range of yeasts and microbes, such as DuPont, Bret Twa, and Klose, creating a harmonious blend of mango, floral, and hay-like flavors. Moving into oak barrels for aging, they focus on wild fermentation and prolonged maturation, culminating in a distinctive sason profile.
Innovative Ingredients and Foraged Additions in Saison Brewing
Freak Folk's creative flair extends to incorporating unique and foraged ingredients in their sasons, enriching their flavor profiles. From using sumac added on the hot side to impart a distinct character to infusing marigold foliage for an herbal twist, they experiment with diverse elements to craft standout sason offerings. This innovative approach also extends to blending local hops, such as Champlain Valley hops, for wet hop additions, adding layer and depth to their sasons. Their commitment to utilizing fresh and unconventional ingredients elevates the complexity of their brews.
Transition to Hazy IPA Crafting with a Saison Maker's Touch
Venturing into crafting hazy IPAs post-pandemic, Freak Folk leverages their expertise as sason brewers to offer a unique take on this popular beer style. Embracing a meticulous process for creating Hazy IPAs, they focus on high carbonation for expressive flavors, blending selected hops, including New Zealand varieties like Nelson Sauvin and Motueka. With a keen eye for detail in conditioning and bottle aging, they aim to imbue their Hazy IPAs with depth, character, and a touch of their sason brewing heritage, creating a fusion of styles that captivates discerning palates.
Crafting Hazy IPAs - Part 1: The Recipe Evolution
After a two-year process of experimentation and recipe tinkering, the brewer at Freak Folk Brewery crafted a distinct hazy IPA by focusing on a grain bill comprising 60-70% of either two-row or Pilsner with oats blending. The use of a mixture of oats contributes to achieving the desired opaque white color in the hazy IPAs, emphasizing the significance of grain selection in determining the visual appeal and character of the final brew.
Crafting Hazy IPAs - Part 2: Yeast Varieties and Fermentation Techniques
Utilizing a house yeast blend designed to accentuate mango and passion fruit flavors crucial in the hazy IPAs, the brewer at Freak Folk Brewery explores different strains, including UK yeast from Lallemand Verdant IPA, to enhance specific fruity and citrusy notes while maintaining a preferred powdery mouthfeel in the final product. The brewery's continuous experimentation with yeast strains and fermentation parameters aims to optimize hop expressions, ensuring a balance between fruity hop profiles and desired mouthfeel.
Ryan Miller and Lillian MacNamara—both experienced brewers and cofounders of Freak Folk Bier—are partners in business and life, making the brewery, as Miller says, “a love story interwoven with brewing.”
Both share a love of saison, and Freak Folk began with a focus on special-release saisons that has since expanded into a broad selection of styles to fill the tap lines of their Waterbury, Vermont taproom. But even the other styles they brew exhibit the same kind of delicate balance and nuanced structure that they honed in saison experimentation.
In this episode, Miller discusses both their approach to saison and hazy IPA, touching on:
Building and maintaining mixed cultures
Brewing attenuated saison with a single infusion mash and controlled primary and secondary fermentations
Controlling acidity in saison through the mash
Using unusual ingredients in unusual ways in saison
Building a compelling grain bill in hazy IPA
Blending base malts for the right balance of flavor and color
Copitching yeast strains
Adjusting gravity based on ABV
Using advanced hop products
And more.
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