
Master Brewers Podcast
Each week, thousands of brewers download The Master Brewers Podcast to hear interviews with the industry's best & brightest in brewing science, technology, and operations. The show is known for featuring technical deep dives, a bit of brewing history, cutting edge research, hard lessons learned, important industry contributors, and no fluff. If you make beer for a living, this show is for you.
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Latest episodes

May 19, 2025 • 49min
Episode 334: Haná
What happens when you resurrect an old world landrace barley variety and give it to a bunch of brewers in CA?Special Guests: Colin Johnston and Josh Wurzbacher.Sponsored By:Hopsteiner: Proximity Malt: BSG: Berkeley Yeast: The Lupulin Exchange: Links:Exploring the World’s First Malting Collaboration — 2025 District Northern Cal presentationUpcoming Events - Master Brewers CalendarBrewing Summit 2025 — August 13-15 Palm Desert, CAJoin Master Brewers

May 12, 2025 • 44min
Episode 207: Spent Hops Disposal Dilemma
How The Matt Brewing Company deals spent hop material & other things you wish you knew before you built a brewery.Special Guest: Jim Kuhr.Sponsored By:Hopsteiner: Proximity Malt: BSG: Berkeley Yeast: The Lupulin Exchange: Links:Lessons Learned Regarding Spent Hop Material Recovered from Wastewater Stream and the Final Composting Solution — 2020 MBAA TQFocus Issue: Sustainability — 2020 MBAA TQUpcoming Events - Master Brewers CalendarBrewing Summit 2025 — August 13-15 Palm Desert, CAJoin Master Brewers

May 5, 2025 • 33min
Episode 333: Six Irish Brewing Yeasts
Effects of regional location on the genotype and phenotype of historical Irish brewing yeastSpecial Guest: Daniel Kerruish.Sponsored By:Hopsteiner: Proximity Malt: BSG: Berkeley Yeast: The Lupulin Exchange: Links:Effects of regional location on the genotype and phenotype of historical Irish brewing yeast — FrontiersThe origins of the Guinness stout yeast — Nature Communications BiologyThe Guinness Yeast — Master Brewers Podcast EP187Upcoming Events - Master Brewers CalendarBrewing Summit 2025 — August 13-15 Palm Desert, CAJoin Master Brewers

Apr 28, 2025 • 43min
Episode 216: Profiling 34/70
What happens the world's most popular yeast strain gets fermented at different temperatures and pitch rates?Special Guest: Anne Flesch.Sponsored By:Hopsteiner: Proximity Malt: BSG: Berkeley Yeast: The Lupulin Exchange: Links:IMPACT OF THE FERMENTATION CONDITIONS ON THE WEIHENSTEPHAN LAGER STRAIN — 2020 District Northern California presentationUpcoming Events - Master Brewers CalendarBrewing Summit 2025 — August 13-15 Palm Desert, CA
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Apr 21, 2025 • 59min
Episode 332: Substitutes for the Substitutes of the Substitutes
The last of the three-part series of Technical Quarterly articles providing insights to the upcoming MBAA publication The Inspiring and Surprising History and Legacy of American Lager Beer: 1941–1948, the focus of this paper is a review of the American brewing industry during the tumultuous years of World War II (1941–1945) and those immediately following in support of global famine relief (1946–1948). This is perhaps the most remarkable 7 year period ever in the history of the American brewing industry, with production rising by just over 36 million barrels of beer—a staggering increase of 65.3%. While the beer before and after this period was very similar, the beer in between was anything but. Surprisingly, the brewing materials that were scarcest during this period were rice and especially corn-based adjuncts, not malt. But perhaps the greatest surprise of all was that the beer fueling the explosive growth was a significantly lighter, lower original gravity, and lower malt-to-adjunct ratio beer. Indeed, for a time during 1945, the industry's overall use of adjuncts exceeded 50%. A stunning array of materials—many never used prior or since—were employed to brew America's adjunct lager beer. Included in the “adjunct potpourri" were an astounding 141.5 million pounds of cassava products (e.g., manioc and tapioca) and 12.8 million pounds of potatoes. Surprisingly, however, both were first used after World War II, during the Relief years, triggered by federal mandates restricting the use of rice and corn in brewing. All material restrictions lifted in the summer of 1948, and supplies of all brewing materials returned to pre-war levels, but few in the industry could ignore that the lighter lager of the war and famine years had triggered a profound upward step-shift in sales. In the decades that followed, annual industry volume remained largely static, even declining on a per capita basis. Not until 1964 would the industry finally reach 100 million barrels of domestic production, followed in 1970 by the surpassing of the post-Prohibition per capita record of 1948. Buoyed by the 1973–1982 introduction of the modern 100 calorie light adjunct lagers, new records were subsequently set with per capita consumption of domestically produced beer reaching 26.17 gallons in 1981 and domestic production of 203,658,410 barrels in 1990, records that still stand. However, despite the phenomenal growth experienced by the American craft brewing industry over the past 30 years, by 2019 overall industry performance against per capita and annual domestic production metrics has declined by 9.26 gallons and 24.6 million barrels of beer, respectively. Insights to spur 21st century growth, for both macro and craft brewers alike, can be found in the lessons of the past.Special Guest: Greg Casey.Sponsored By:Hopsteiner: Proximity Malt: BSG: Berkeley Yeast: The Lupulin Exchange: Links:Inspiring History and Legacies of American Lager Vol. 1-2 — By Gregory Paul CaseyAmerican Beer (1941–1948): Years of Myths, War, and Famine — 2021 MBAA TQUpcoming Events - Master Brewers CalendarBrewing Summit 2025 — August 13-15 Palm Desert, CAJoin Master Brewers

Apr 14, 2025 • 39min
Episode 224: Can Liner Quality & Testing
This week on the show, something that most brewers new to canning never consider but can make or break a brewery.Special Guests: Hannah Krieg and Vivian Poteat.Sponsored By:Hopsteiner: Proximity Malt: BSG: Berkeley Yeast: The Lupulin Exchange: Links:Can Liner Quality and Testing Methods — 2021 District St. Paul - Minneapolis PresentationDistrict Presentation ArchiveUpcoming Events - Master Brewers CalendarBrewing Summit 2025 — August 13-15 Palm Desert, CAJoin Master Brewers

Apr 7, 2025 • 41min
Episode 218: Including Fermentation in Your Beer Recipe
Why you need a fermentation recipe just as much as you need a recipe in the brewhouse.Special Guest: Tim Faith.Sponsored By:Hopsteiner: Proximity Malt: BSG: Berkeley Yeast: The Lupulin Exchange: Links:Fermentation Quality Control: Including Fermentation in Your Beer Recipe — 2021 MBAA TQ (includes links to templates)John Bryce's SOP seminar — 2021 Craft Brewers ConferenceTechnical Quarterly Author Guidelines — Submit Your Own TQ Article!Upcoming Events - Master Brewers CalendarBrewing Summit 2025Join Master Brewers

Mar 31, 2025 • 1h 3min
Episode 331: How USDA ARS Funding Affects Your Brewery
What’s going on with the recent funding cuts to barely & hops research, and how does that affect your brewery?Special Guests: Alicia Adler, Ashley McFarland, and Scott Dorsch.Sponsored By:Hopsteiner: Proximity Malt: BSG: Berkeley Yeast: The Lupulin Exchange: Links:USDA ARSAmerican Malting Barley AssociationImpact of federal terminations to barley researchHop Research CouncilUpcoming Events - Master Brewers CalendarBrewing Summit 2025Join Master Brewers

Mar 24, 2025 • 45min
Episode 330: Brewery Plant Integration & Automation
How automation enabled one of today’s largest craft brewers to grow to scale.Special Guest: Kevin Martini.Sponsored By:Hopsteiner: Proximity Malt: BSG: Berkeley Yeast: The Lupulin Exchange: Links:Brewery Plant Integration & Automation — World Brewing Congress 2024WBC RewindUpcoming Events - Master Brewers CalendarBrewing Summit 2025Join Master Brewers

Mar 17, 2025 • 47min
Episode 204: Confined Space Entry
Is your brewery prepared to rescue a team member from an FV or other confined space? Do you train & practice rescue regularly or do you plan to just wing it when seconds matter?Special Guest: Andy Troccoli.Sponsored By:Hopsteiner: Proximity Malt: BSG: Berkeley Yeast: The Lupulin Exchange: Links:Confined Space Entry: A Regulatory and Best-Practices Review — 2020 MBAA TQConfined Space Entry Resources — MBAA.comHow to Establish Rules for Confined Spaces in a Brewery — 2019 MBAA WebinarBrewery Safety Resources — MBAA.comUpcoming Events - Master Brewers CalendarBrewing Summit 2025Join Master Brewers