![]() ![]() I have brought beer to a business networking breakfast and somehow it turned out to be a great icebreaker. "And sometimes when it is not so appropriate. "If it’s appropriate to bring beer, I will," Kehoe says. Like any other profession, brewmasters can sometimes be greeted with an expectation that their services and goods are free for friends and relatives to enjoy at gatherings and family events. It's part of Tröegs's Splinter Cellar, and each foeder was custom made and shipped to the brewery. Brewmasters know they're expected to bring beer to most gatherings.įoeders are large wooden vats that age a beer to create a unique flavor profile. "I’ve taken baths in yeast and beer sludge," Trogner says of his early days, explaining it's a hazard you face when you're opening the valves on the brew tanks. Depending on the valve and your luck that day, that could sometimes mean an unintentional beer shower for workers. Just because the breweries are kept clean doesn't mean the brewmasters are quite as lucky. Workers spend most of their time scrubbing." It’s like a chef keeping a kitchen clean. Physical cleaning is probably 80 percent of it. “People usually think you’re sitting around all day dreaming up recipes and tasting beer,” Trogner says. According to John Trogner, co-owner with brother Chris of Tröegs Independent Brewing in Hershey, Pennsylvania, most of the job is making sure beer is made in clean conditions. The stereotype of brewmasters sipping beer all day and hovering over batches is slightly misguided. Sanitation is one of the most important parts of being a brewmaster. "They got a real briny, oyster thing going." 4. ![]() This one came from Liberty Station, one of Stone Brewing’s locations in San Diego. "We’re constantly learning about new ingredients.” One that impressed Moynier recently was an oyster stout, a style that was originally billed as a beer that simply paired well with oysters more than a century ago, but has since evolved to include actual oyster meat and stock in modern recipes. "There are so many different styles, flavor, and aroma profiles you can hit," Moynier says. There’s no shortage of creativity among brewmasters, with breweries constantly experimenting with different flavor profiles, from tea to chocolate to fruit. Brewmasters are always trying novel flavors. Thankfully, Moynier picked up on that change in noise, and the problem was corrected before the machine required a more expensive repair. He discovered that the tank that held the crushed malt was backed up, which would eventually ruin the conveyor belts if no one noticed in time. ![]() Once, Moynier heard an unusual squeaking noise in the factory. Your senses being in tune are important." If something sounds wrong, you know there’s a problem somewhere. "Breweries are noisy, and there are sounds you get attuned to. "You use all of your senses, from taste to sound," he tells Mental Floss. And if one instrument sounds off, he can tell. It becomes a symphony of sorts, according Moynier. Yards Brewingīreweries come in all shapes and sizes, but all of them implement a lot of machinery, stainless steel vats, pumps, and bottling lines to concoct their brews. This is just a sample of the brewing equipment employed by Yards. Brewmasters use sound almost as much as taste to evaluate the brewing process. "A home brewer is used to making a few gallons," Moynier says. According to Jeremy Moynier, brewmaster of Stone Brewing in San Diego, California, people are surprised when they see the scale of some brewing operations. The environment working in a brewery is a lot different than brewing at home.” ![]() However, good brewing practices need to be learned on site. “The basic knowledge of how beer is made is exactly the same. While home brewing can be a good start, Kehoe says that there’s a limit to how much you can learn in a garage setting. That number has only grown with time, and now he says as many as 90 percent of current brewers experimented with home brewing before moving on to larger productions. This was back when there were only around 649 breweries in the country, according to Kehoe. “When I started, I would say about 50 percent ,” Tom Kehoe, co-owner of Yards Brewing Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, says. While brewmasters sometimes attend college to study chemistry or even specific brewing courses, a fair number get their start in their own homes. A brew kettle from Stone's Richmond, Virginia, location. ![]()
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