Master Brewers Podcast

Do you know how much DO is in your wort? What percentage of injected oxygen is solubilized? Derek Dawson set out to answer these questions at Modern Times Beer. 

LINKS:

• 2018 Brewing Summit Poster: Developing a practical method for determining dissolved oxygen levels in knockout wort and its effects on the health of Saccharomyces strains in the brewery

Sponsored By:

• ABS:
• Barnum Mechanical:
• DraughtLab:
• Hopsteiner:

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 Casey
• American Beer (1941–1948): Years of Myths, War, and Famine — 2021 MBAA TQ
• Upcoming Events - Master Brewers Calendar
• Brewing Summit 2025 — August 13-15 Palm Desert, CA
• Join Master Brewers

Kerry Caldwell suffered severe injuries from an accident in the brewhouse. She was airlifted and overcame the 34% chance of survival calculated by the hospital. This episode is both the story of her accident and a description of a simple, inexpensive device that should be installed in your brewery to prevent similar accidents. 

Special Guest: Kerry Bloxham (Caldwell).

Sponsored By:

• Hopsteiner:
• Proximity Malt:
• BSG:
• Gusmer:
• Precision Fermentation:
• Brew Ninja:
• MoreBeer:

Links:

• Boil-Over Protection
• Brewery Safety — Master Brewers Brewery Safety Website
• Brewery Configuration for Craft Brewing Optimization — 1997 MBAA TQ
• Upcoming Events - Master Brewers Calendar
• 2021 Master Brewers Conference — REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!
• Technical Quarterly Author Guidelines — Submit Your Own TQ Article!
• Join Master Brewers — Use promo code BEER2021 to save 20% on dues

Kerry Caldwell suffered severe injuries from an accident in the brewhouse. She was airlifted and overcame the 34% chance of survival calculated by the hospital. This episode is both the story of her accident and a description of a simple, inexpensive device that should be installed in your brewery to prevent similar accidents. 

Special Guest: Kerry Bloxham (Caldwell).

Sponsored By:

• Hopsteiner:
• ABS:
• Proximity Malt:
• White Labs:
• BSG:
• Malteurop:

Links:

• Boil-Over Protection — Boil-Over Protection
• Brewery Safety — Master Brewers Brewery Safety Website
• Master Brewers Live!

When Madtree Brewing Co. expanded from a 15 bbl brewhouse to a 100 bbl brewhouse, they experienced intermittent acetaldehyde spikes in one of their brands. Becca Ransohof & Trent Leslie walk us through the troubleshooting process that resolved the issue.

Links: 

• Get the fishbone diagrams
• Brewing Summit Poster: A practice in problem solving—Managing acetaldehyde in a 100 bbl brewhouse
• Get the Brewing Summit Proceedings

Special Guests: Becca Ransohoff and Trent Leslie.

Sponsored By:

• ABS:
• Barnum Mechanical:
• DraughtLab:
• Hopsteiner: