367: Humble Sea Sails the Calm, Clear Waters of Modern Lager Through the Fog of Today’s IPA

Explicit content warning

07/05/24 • 56 min

The Humble Sea origin story told by cofounder and brewmaster Nick Pavlina is a common one: Avid homebrewer turns pro at the urging of family and friends. Yet that early experience with brewing, brewing, and brewing some more—on a one-barrel system—instilled a discipline for testing, evaluating, and adapting that stays with Humble Sea to this day.

A 2022 World Beer Cup silver medal for Munich-style helles gave them the validation they sought for the nascent lager program—but rather than anchor them in place, that success put more wind in their experimental sails. They continue to tinker with that beer, testing mash-step times and temperatures as well as fermentation parameters, in an ongoing quest to make it as perfect as possible.

Meanwhile, they’ve hitched a ride on the swift current of hazy IPA—or, in their lingo, “foggy IPA”—but they’ve done so in ways inspired by their West Coast locale. The result has been significant growth, and the brewery now has five different ports they call home.

In this episode, Pavlina and brewing operations director Nate Chesser discuss:

developing a house lager style by assembling pieces of various traditions and the practices of brewer peers
changing and adjusting their medal-winning helles despite its success
embracing decoction for both its tangible and intangible benefits
choosing and sourcing Noble hops for helles and pilsner
fermenting lagers with a less common yeast strain
building their initial “foggy” IPA out of a Pliny the Elder–inspired recipe
leaning into their unique water profile
spunding IPA for natural carbonation

And more.

This episode is brought to you by:
G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller!
ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at [email protected].
Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer
Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at [email protected].
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In this episode, Pavlina and brewing operations director Nate Chesser discuss:

developing a house lager style by assembling pieces of various traditions and the practices of brewer peers
changing and adjusting their medal-winning helles despite its success
embracing decoction for both its tangible and intangible benefits
choosing and sourcing Noble hops for helles and pilsner
fermenting lagers with a less common yeast strain
building their initial “foggy” IPA out of a Pliny the Elder–inspired recipe
leaning into their unique water profile
spunding IPA for natural carbonation

And more.

Previous Episode

366: St. Bernardus Uses Modern Tools and Ingredients to Stay True to Historic and Classic Recipes

Carrying the weight of history and expectation poses a particular challenge for some European brewers, but nowhere is that more apparent than in the world of Belgian brewing. How, in the face of changing technology and consistently variable ingredients, does a brewer stay true to the ideas behind the classic recipes that underpin the core beers that their brewery produces? Over the past two decades, these are exactly the questions that St. Bernardus brewmaster Wouter Dely and sales and marketing manager Marco Passarella have had to face.

In this episode, they discuss:

Adjusting classic recipes to today’s modern brewhouse reality
Working with barley that varies year-to-year by adjusting step mash times and temperatures
Using Belgian candi sugar in brewing abbey-style beers
Maintaining healthy fermentations using techniques like drauflassen
Fostering ester production by limiting head pressure in cylindroconical tanks
Using different temperature glycol in fermenter jackets through the course of the fermentation
Time as an ingredient in brewing
The mechanics of bottle conditioning

And more.

This episode is brought to you by:
G&D Chillers (https://gdchillers.com): At G&D Chillers they always strive to Build Great Chillers. Partner with them as you Build Great Beer. Choose G&D Chillers on your next Expansion or Brewery start up and receive 1 free year of Remote control and Monitoring of your new G&D Chiller!
ProBrew (https://www.probrew.com) By partnering with ProBrew, brewers can fill and seam their canned product at ranges from 100-600 cans per minute. Our unique filling process also ensures low dissolved oxygen pickup and focuses on product quality during the entire process. Visit probrew.com or email us at [email protected].
Old Orchard (https://www.oldorchard.com/brewer): Berry Blend, Blood Orange, Lemonade, and Tart Cherry are the latest additions to our lineup of flavored craft juice concentrate blends. To learn more and request your free samples, head over to oldorchard.com/brewer
Omega Yeast (https://omegayeast.com): Experience distinct transparency and juiciness with Omega Yeast’s DayBreak-V. We've genetically eliminated haze in the popular British-V strain, allowing you to preserve the fruit-boosting prowess while achieving crystal clarity. Learn more at [email protected].
ABS Commercial (https://abs-commercial.com). ABS Commercial are proud to offer brewhouses, tanks, keg washers, and preventative maintenance parts to brewers across the country as well as equipment for distilling, cider-making, wine-making, and more! Contact them today at [email protected] to discuss your customized brewery needs.
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Next Episode

368: De Dolle’s Kris Herteleer Takes a Natural Approach to High-Gravity Belgian Ales

Beers such as Oerbier, Arabier, and Stille Nacht may not be as familiar to today’s avid beer consumer, but for decades these unusual strong ales have been staples on the menus and cellars of more adventurous beer bars around the world. De Dolle Brouwers got its start in 1980, among the vanguard in a new wave of Belgian brewers who rejected the consolidation and cynical corner-cutting that had come to define the industry there. Cofounder Kris Herteleer was committed to a more natural approach to brewing, using real malt, whole hops, healthy yeast, spring water, and the highly manual mechanical tools of the decades-old brewhouse they purchased in the village of Esen, just outside of Diksmuide, in West Flanders.

Oerbier was, and still is, hard to classify. It limns the space between an overtly acid-forward oud bruin and a strong Belgian dark ale, borrowing from both where and when it needs to. Yet this ambiguity fits Herteleer’s approach; De Dolle isn’t concerned at all about adherence to styles. Herteleer would much rather get you asking questions than provide you with easy answers.

In this episode, recorded at the brewery as we sipped beers from their cellar more than 20 years old, Herteleer discusses:

switching from Rodenbach yeast in 2000, and the five-year process of getting Oerbier back to its intended expression
the prevalence of coloring and backsweeting in 1970s and ’80s Belgian ale
balancing acidity and sweetness in higher-gravity beer
using a coolship, Baudelot cooler, open fermentors, a Lactobacillus reactor, and French wine barrels to produce complex, flavorful beer that’s more than just “sour”
using relatively high IBUs to limit Lactobacillus and Pediococcus activity in mixed-culture fermentation
avoiding the crutch of spices in Belgian ale
barrel-aging in wine barrels rather than spirits barrels, to avoid “dead” barrels

And more.