Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

As always, our annual Best in Beer issue includes different perspectives. Our subscribers and listeners—that’s you!—have spoken, and we’ve compiled your votes for the Reader’s Choice lists, including your Top 25 Beers. Plus, our Craft Beer & Brewing Best 20 Beers in 2023 are the culmination of a year of blind tasting by our review panel and then by our editors, achieving an internal consensus on beers of the greatest character and technical excellence. However, this issue also is a chance for some of our writers and editors to sound off a bit, as we share our favorite beers and highlights of the past year. No blind tasting here—for these hedonistic picks, we fully embrace the contexts in which we enjoyed these beers. That’s the idea behind our Best in Beer Critic’s Lists, and those are what we explore in this special, once-per-year episode. Featuring thoughtful (and at times heartfelt) takes from Alex Kidd, Kate Bernot, Stan Hieronymus, Courtney Iseman, and Joe Stange—for Jamie’s, be sure to read the print edition—these lists give us the chance to spotlight many more of the most enjoyable beers and drinking experiences of 2023, as well as some thoughts on the state of the brewing industry and beer culture today. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): BSG and HVG bring you Amira. With its classic hoppy, slightly herbal, and zesty lemon aromas it’s the ideal hop for those looking to capture the traditional flavor of a classic German lager. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email contactus@probrew.com. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. Colorado Craft Beer Summit (https://cacraftbeersummit.com). Join the craft beer community in Sacramento March 12-14 for the California Craft Beer Summit. Bring your entire team from production to marketing to hospitality–there’s something for everyone. Early bird registration on sale now through Dec 22 at cacraftbeersummit.com The Perfect Purée (https://perfectpuree.com/beer): The Perfect Purée is offering a free sample box of their frozen fruit purees, concentrates and blends to professional brewers. Choose from 40 plus flavors and build a free sample box at perfectpuree.com/beer. Complimentary to professionals only. Yakima Chief Hops (https://www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blend): The 7th Annual Pink Boots Blend is now available for pre-order! $3 of every pound of the Pink Boots Blend purchased will be donated to the Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit organization that support women and non-binary individuals in the fermented and alcoholic industry through education. Learn more at www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blendSupport Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

Jamie Bogner and Joe Stange discuss the best beers in 2023, including reader's choice and editor's picks. They explore the process of selecting the best beers, reveal top beer cities in the US and internationally, and highlight the rise of tap rooms and top beer bars. The hosts also delve into specific beers, like a gold medal-winning 'Fatheads Headhunter' and a bourbon barrel-aged barley wine. They celebrate the creativity of brands and encourage craft brewers.

Art History Brewing focuses on brewing traditional styles well and making them relevant. They discuss achieving decoction flavor results through other brewing means, building color in Czech-style pale lager, using the Hochkurz mash, and choosing yeasts for regionally-inspired English-style ales. They also explore their passion for brewing, experiences tasting beer in the Czech Republic, and the use of English ingredients in their beers.

In this GABF Gold! edition of the podcast, the last of our 2023 focus on GABF gold medal winners, Jamie is joined by Rob Malad, director of brewing operations for Metazoa in Indianapolis, Indiana. Metazoa recently won gold for William Walrus, a Scottish-style ale and product of necessity, that employed brewing techniques to overcome ingredient challenges while staying true to the spirit of the style. In this episode, he touches on: brewing beers meant to be consumed more than once using double decoction to build malt character in lieu of a broad range of speciality malt building a recipe with pale malt, Munich malt, and small amounts of low-Lovibond speciality malts but no English malts using English ale yeast typically employed in their hazy IPA brewing with minimal hops but balancing with carbonation their medal-winning approach to saison the mouthfeel impression of high Saaz loads elements that set beers apart in competition And more. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): BSG invites you to experience one of the newest hops from their Hop Solutions line, HS Grove™. Developed for hop-forward beer styles, HS Grove boasts incredible biotransformation qualities, giving you the power to transform your next IPA into a stone fruit powerhouse. Visit BSGCraftbrewing.com to learn more. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email contactus@probrew.com. ZBiotics (https://zbiotics.com/pages/beerandbrewing) We all have busy lives these days and can’t afford to waste a day stuck on the couch because of a few drinks the night before. ZBiotics is the answer we’ve all been looking for. ZBiotics is the world’s first genetically engineered probiotic invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Give ZBiotics a try for yourself. Go to zbiotics.com/BEERANDBREWING to get 15% off your first order when you use BEERANDBREWING at checkout. ZBiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. The Perfect Purée (https://perfectpuree.com/beer): The Perfect Purée is offering a free sample box of their frozen fruit purees, concentrates and blends to professional brewers. Choose from 40 plus flavors and build a free sample box at perfectpuree.com/beer. Complimentary to professionals only. Yakima Chief Hops (https://www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blend): The 7th Annual Pink Boots Blend is now available for pre-order! $3 of every pound of the Pink Boots Blend purchased will be donated to the Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit organization that support women and non-binary individuals in the fermented and alcoholic industry through education. Learn more at www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blendSupport Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

In this GABF Gold! episode, we dive into the saison category. First up is Jason zumBrunnen, cofounder of Denver's Ratio Beerworks, recent gold medal winner for their King of Carrot Flowers carrot saison (and 2020 silver medal winner in American-Belgo style ale for their Dear You saison dry hopped with Citra, upon which King of Carrot Flowers is based). He dives into saison standards, like building body despite fermenting with diastaticus saison yeast, single infusion mashing in saison, before drilling down on the particulars of using carrot juice—processing, addition timing, maintaining color and haze, and even the secret ingredient that helps promote the idea of sweetness in the very dry beer. Next is Jeremy Claeys, head brewer for Charlotte's Protagonist Beer, recent gold medal winner for the Kal-El classic saison (and 2022 gold medal winner in American-Belgo style ale for the dry hopped saison Bizarro, as well as 2021 gold medal winner in Specialty Saison for Air is Beautiful). He talks through their philosophy of brewing classic styles with small twists that make traditional beers their own, building character through grain, simplified step mashing, the benefits of high temperature fermentation, blending saison yeasts, bottle conditioning, and lagering both bottled and kegged saison for a cleaner and smoother beer. This episode is brought to you by: G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): For years G&D Chillers has chilled the beers you love, partnering with 3,000+ breweries across the country along the way, and they’re proud of the cool partnerships they’ve built over the past 30 years. Reach out for a quote today at gdchillers.com or call to discuss your next project. BSG Craft Brewing (https://Bsgcraftbrewing.com/): BSG are distributors of Gambrinus Malting, Canada’s original small-batch, artisanal malthouse. They combine European-influenced malting practices with the finest barley, wheat, and rye to produce some of the finest Canadian malts available. Visit BSGCraftBrewing.com/Gambrinus to explore their full line. Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Old Orchard's new brewing customers often mention discovering Old Orchard through the word-of-mouth recommendation of another brewer. To join the core of Old Orchard's brewing community, learn more at oldorchard.com/brewer Accubrew (https://accubrew.io) The AccuBrew system is designed to give you unprecedented insight into the fermentation process. Monitor gravity, fermentation activity, clarity, and temperature, schedule reminders, and receive alerts anywhere, anytime. To learn more about AccuBrew head over to AccuBrew.io ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) The ProFill series of rotary can fillers from ProBrew are accelerating plant production everywhere. For more information, visit www.probrew.com or email contactus@probrew.com. Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Thiolized yeast are a new tool for brewers to bring intense guava and passionfruit aromas out of your malt and hops. And wait, there’s more! Omega Yeast makes yeast-to-order with a consistent one week lead time ensuring peak freshness and reliability. The Perfect Purée (https://perfectpuree.com/beer): The Perfect Purée is offering a free sample box of their frozen fruit purees, concentrates and blends to professional brewers. Choose from 40 plus flavors and build a free sample box at perfectpuree.com/beer. Complimentary to professionals only. Yakima Chief Hops (https://www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blend): This episode is brought to you by Yakima Chief Hops. The 7th Annual Pink Boots Blend is now available for pre-order! $3 of every pound of the Pink Boots Blend purchased will be donated to the Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit organization that support women and non-binary individuals in the fermented and alcoholic industry through education. Learn more at www.yakimachief.com/pink-boots-blendSupport Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

Three panel guests, Jake Gardner, Marni Wahlquist, and Sean Buchan, discuss the evolution of IPA, from hazy to clear. They cover topics such as selecting hop lots, maximizing hop saturation, designing malt support, and avoiding sweetness in hazy IPA. They also touch on bittering hops for smoothness and maximizing hop quality. The podcast explores the impact of hazy IPA on West Coast IPA and the reversion to drinkability in hop-forward styles.

Kyle Vetter, founder of 1840 Brewing, talks about his gold-winning kriek-inspired beer, including using oak as an ingredient, alternative brewing grains, selecting barrel stock, and Brettanomyces strains. Joel Stickrod and Spencer Longhurst from Barrique discuss their gold-winning Wet Hop Strata, including open-top fermentation, blending libraries, unmalted Tennessee wheat, aged Cascade hops, and building unique beer blends.

Vasili Gletsos, a brewer with a decade-and-a-half of experience, talks about his focus on making mixed culture beers that tell stories. He discusses differentiating Wunderkammer from Hill Farmstead's program, choosing Brettanomyces strains, brewing on a wood-fired brewhouse, blending stainless fermentation and wood puncheon aging, using foraged ingredients, and more.

Explore Nat West's beer-centric approach to cider making and his use of beer yeast and hazy IPA yeast to create unique flavors. Dive into the process of crafting cider that aligns with Portland's beer culture and regional influence. Discover the complexity of cider making, the importance of yeast selection, and flavor experimentation. Learn about the creation of diverse and innovative ciders for different seasons and drinking occasions. Nat also shares his experience blending tepache with local beers and expresses excitement for future collaborations.

Chris Baum, Owner of Varietal Beer, discusses designing hoppy beers that aren't confrontational, brewing IPA with 100% craft malt, manipulating pH to soften bitterness, balancing cryo hops with "American Noble" low-alpha hops, and brewing with fresh kilned hops and pelletized T-90's in this episode. They also talk about the challenges of brewing with fresh hops, their brewing process, and upcoming travel plans.