When Barry Chan and his partner started Lucky Envelope, they were concerned with appearing “too Chinese.” The craft beer world at the time wasn’t ready for that, they thought; they wanted to fit in and not alienate their core clientele. Today, with a GABF medal under their belts in the Munich-style helles category, they’re more comfortable knowing they make classic styles in a compelling way. They’re also exploring more deeply how to connect their Chinese-American heritage—and its culinary traditions—with the broader world of craft beer.

In this episode, Chan discusses how they’ve approached that, including:

• locking down base styles before embarking on experimentation
• building “smoked” beers using smoked tea as an ingredient
• finding effective ways to extract flavors from challenging ingredients
• searching for inspiration in unexpected places
• ingredients that don’t work in beer
• risking failure with ingredients such as durian
• creating nuanced beers with habañero and shishito peppers
• pushing into European styles such as Czech dark lager
• working to increase diversity in craft beer
  

And more.

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