Subjective Elements Of Excellence Craft Brewery
- Aug 14, 2021
- 194
- tiantai
For building a micro brewery, why does this craft beer seem so good? Below are dimensions, some mandatory, others optional, that describe the best beers.
Harmony and Balance
These are the subjective elements that should present in all styles, even ones that feature intense flavors. It’s the heart of excellence. All the pieces should come together in beautiful harmony. We use the term “balance” a lot in beer, and it usually refers to the contrast between hops and malt. But really, it’s the relationship between whatever elements are prominent. So in a Belgian beer, one of those elements will usually be fermentation characteristics. Often they’re balanced by alcohol warmth and attenuation. In a Bavarian weizen, that peppery clove note adds ballast to what is otherwise a delicate and sweet beer. In intense beers like lambic or IPA, if the intensity of the acid or hops doesn’t have a balancing element, it will overwhelm the beer. Finally, the balance point varies across styles. With barley wines, the sweet, syrupy malt requires a lot of booze or hops (often both) creating a high balance point, while in delicate lagers, the flavors are gentle and create a low balance point.
Distinctiveness
It’s possible to make an excellent beer, one that ticks all the boxes for quality and style appropriateness, but which nevertheless lacks interest. An exceptional beer will have a quality of distinctiveness that separates it from the crowd. As the years fall away from my visit to Bavaria, the helleses merge in my mind—except for Augustiner. The yeast they use, and the way they yeast it was unusually “rustic.” It had hints of flavor compounds I’d never encountered before. Many of the beers I drank on that trip impressed me, but Augustiner, because of its distinctive flavors, rose above the rest and remains memorable to this day. Most of the best beers will have some quality that similarly elevates them above their peers.
Subtlety
Another element I like to see in every beer is an element of subtlety. The entire beer can be a meditation on delicate flavors, but even in strongly-flavored beers, subtle flavors and aromas fill in the spaces between bombast. That whole (false) “pilsners are the hardest beers to make” notion derives from brewers’ appreciation of subtlety. Yet while pilsners are especially naked in revealing these subtleties, every style can express them. It’s where brewers show they can produce meaningful flavors through deft use of process, rather than overwhelming drinkers with tons of intense flavors.
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Surprises
It’s not necessary for a brewer to add an unusual, surprising element to the beer, but when done well I always appreciate it. I mentioned Level’s clever use of acidity in a recent witbier. From a purely gustatory standpoint, it was a great move, adding crispness to a quenching beer while harmonizing with the citrusy spices. But it was also a wink to those who know that before Pierre Celis reinvented witbier after its extinction in Hoegaarden in the 1950s, it was a wild ale, something like lambic. Level’s example was an excellent use of process, but also a clever, knowing touch. I love the use of corn in Tank 7, a farmhouse ale. Those styles used hyper-local ingredients, and corn would be automatic for a Midwest American farmhouse ale, had that traditions existed. Brewers don’t have to surprise us, but it’s a delight when they do and it works.
Refinement
This is a the inverse of the item below, and a quality more often seen in older, European beers. When breweries make a beer thousands of times over decades, the brewers fine-tune absolutely every element. So for example, if an ester note is present, it is perfectly calibrated in intensity and taste to match the malt and hop notes. I began to appreciate this quality by tasting Trappist ales and comparing them to similar beers made by Americans. Both might have the same ingredients and similar processes, but the monastic examples inevitably seemed more accomplished, more focused, more refined.
Novelty
I include this one last, because it has been overused, abused, and misused far too often by American breweries. Just doing something new does not make it good. “Innovation” by itself is no virtue. Yet we would never get new beer styles or new traditions in brewing if someone wasn’t out there screwing around. Hewing to tradition is a time-honored practice in breweries, and critically important in maintaining continuity. But so is invention. What happens if we conduct a lactic fermentation in the brew kettle so we can then boil the wort and kill the Lactobacillus? What would happen if we dosed wort with dry hops during fermentation? What would happen if we did separate fermentations with regular and wild yeast, and then blended everything together?
How much does it cost to start a microbrewery? TIANTAI company is turnkey micro brewing equipment manufacturer. Breweries for sale UK, breweries for sale in Canada, breweries for sale Australia, breweries for sale America......
Harmony and Balance
These are the subjective elements that should present in all styles, even ones that feature intense flavors. It’s the heart of excellence. All the pieces should come together in beautiful harmony. We use the term “balance” a lot in beer, and it usually refers to the contrast between hops and malt. But really, it’s the relationship between whatever elements are prominent. So in a Belgian beer, one of those elements will usually be fermentation characteristics. Often they’re balanced by alcohol warmth and attenuation. In a Bavarian weizen, that peppery clove note adds ballast to what is otherwise a delicate and sweet beer. In intense beers like lambic or IPA, if the intensity of the acid or hops doesn’t have a balancing element, it will overwhelm the beer. Finally, the balance point varies across styles. With barley wines, the sweet, syrupy malt requires a lot of booze or hops (often both) creating a high balance point, while in delicate lagers, the flavors are gentle and create a low balance point.
Distinctiveness
It’s possible to make an excellent beer, one that ticks all the boxes for quality and style appropriateness, but which nevertheless lacks interest. An exceptional beer will have a quality of distinctiveness that separates it from the crowd. As the years fall away from my visit to Bavaria, the helleses merge in my mind—except for Augustiner. The yeast they use, and the way they yeast it was unusually “rustic.” It had hints of flavor compounds I’d never encountered before. Many of the beers I drank on that trip impressed me, but Augustiner, because of its distinctive flavors, rose above the rest and remains memorable to this day. Most of the best beers will have some quality that similarly elevates them above their peers.
Subtlety
Another element I like to see in every beer is an element of subtlety. The entire beer can be a meditation on delicate flavors, but even in strongly-flavored beers, subtle flavors and aromas fill in the spaces between bombast. That whole (false) “pilsners are the hardest beers to make” notion derives from brewers’ appreciation of subtlety. Yet while pilsners are especially naked in revealing these subtleties, every style can express them. It’s where brewers show they can produce meaningful flavors through deft use of process, rather than overwhelming drinkers with tons of intense flavors.
Surprises
It’s not necessary for a brewer to add an unusual, surprising element to the beer, but when done well I always appreciate it. I mentioned Level’s clever use of acidity in a recent witbier. From a purely gustatory standpoint, it was a great move, adding crispness to a quenching beer while harmonizing with the citrusy spices. But it was also a wink to those who know that before Pierre Celis reinvented witbier after its extinction in Hoegaarden in the 1950s, it was a wild ale, something like lambic. Level’s example was an excellent use of process, but also a clever, knowing touch. I love the use of corn in Tank 7, a farmhouse ale. Those styles used hyper-local ingredients, and corn would be automatic for a Midwest American farmhouse ale, had that traditions existed. Brewers don’t have to surprise us, but it’s a delight when they do and it works.
Refinement
This is a the inverse of the item below, and a quality more often seen in older, European beers. When breweries make a beer thousands of times over decades, the brewers fine-tune absolutely every element. So for example, if an ester note is present, it is perfectly calibrated in intensity and taste to match the malt and hop notes. I began to appreciate this quality by tasting Trappist ales and comparing them to similar beers made by Americans. Both might have the same ingredients and similar processes, but the monastic examples inevitably seemed more accomplished, more focused, more refined.
Novelty
I include this one last, because it has been overused, abused, and misused far too often by American breweries. Just doing something new does not make it good. “Innovation” by itself is no virtue. Yet we would never get new beer styles or new traditions in brewing if someone wasn’t out there screwing around. Hewing to tradition is a time-honored practice in breweries, and critically important in maintaining continuity. But so is invention. What happens if we conduct a lactic fermentation in the brew kettle so we can then boil the wort and kill the Lactobacillus? What would happen if we dosed wort with dry hops during fermentation? What would happen if we did separate fermentations with regular and wild yeast, and then blended everything together?
How much does it cost to start a microbrewery? TIANTAI company is turnkey micro brewing equipment manufacturer. Breweries for sale UK, breweries for sale in Canada, breweries for sale Australia, breweries for sale America......
