Category: Other Ingredients
Ingredients other than hops and malt used in the production of craft beverages
Expert Topic The Emergence of Hemp Derived Cannabinoid Beverages
At an increasing clip, brewers are getting into the CBD and THC beverage arena. This makes sense for a variety of reasons, even more so than brewers making hard seltzers. There is a direct relationship between cannabis and hops so many brewers feel comfortable working in the space, there is also a needed level of skill, science, and creativity in the cannabis beverage space that just does not exist with alcoholic flavored malt beverages.
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Expert Topic The Future of Fruit Beers
Chris Hodge has seen a lot of change in the 30 years he has worked in and around the American craft beer industry. Whether in his roles working for distributors and importers or as the CEO of Worthy Brewing, Hodge has seen trends come and go. After seven years in his role as Director of Sales for Oregon Fruit Products (OFP), he has watched craft beer’s relationship with fruit evolve.
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Expert Topic Brewers are Innovating in New Beverage Spaces
There was a period of time, and it wasn’t too long ago, when craft brewers were urging other brewers to stay in the beer lane. Focus on the beer, don’t think about flavored malt beverages, or other liquids, some industry leaders said. Be beer manufactures, stick to the mission, they urged.
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Expert Topic Understanding Uncommon Adjuncts
Craft brewers hated adjunct beers and told everyone willing to listen. They derided beers made with rice and corn, claiming they cheapened the industrial lagers they were used in. Opposition to adjuncts helped define an early era of craft beer. Then that all changed.
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Expert Topic The Brewery That Pickle Beer Built
Pickle beer helped build Martin House Brewing. Located near downtown Fort Worth, the brewery recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, during which time it has grown to become one of the largest independent breweries in Texas and the largest self-distributor. The brewery makes the usual suspects, including an IPA, a Pils, and being the Lone Star State, a Bock of course. But it was a simple and unsuspecting collaboration with a location pickle brand that really helped Martin House grow.
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News Brewery Creates First Commercial Beer Using All Unmalted Barley
Cool Cousin Brewing in New York had made a beer entirely from unmalted barley, instead creating wort by adding an exogenous enzyme cocktail in the mash. The process is ostensibly to save water and carbon dioxide in the brewing process.
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Expert Topic Brewing Beer with Tea
There are endless ingredients available to brewers these days, from fresh fruits and herbs, to candies, salts, coffee, and more. Tea is a fascinating ingredient, but not often used by brewers. It can bring depth of flavors to nearly every style and the varieties in the tea realm bring unexpected character to the glass.
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Sponsored What is Brix level and why does it matter to brewers and distillers?
Why do we crave sweetness?
In his classic book Sweetness and Power, anthropologist Sidney Mintz speculated that every human culture has a word for “sweet.” You might even say the “sweet tooth” is a universal human trait. Why do we crave sweetness? Scientists suggest it’s because our most energy-rich food sources, especially fruits, vegetables, and milk, are also rich in natural sugars. In other words, your sweet tooth is a survival mechanism.
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Sponsored Explore the world of fruity beers with the Great American Beer Festival
Every autumn, beer lovers from around the world gather in Denver, Colorado for the Great American Beer Festival. In addition to sampling some of the nation’s best brews, the festival’s professional panel of judges choose gold, silver, and bronze award winners in 98 unique categories.
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Sponsored Why Use Fruit Puree instead of a Fruit Extract?
The addition of fruit to beer is an ancient practice. Beer is an ancient craft with a basic recipe that predates writing, so it’s no wonder that brewers have experimented with a variety of ingredients during that time. The addition of fruit is a natural way to add interest to a traditional base style as well as increasing strength and nutritional value. Fruits can add sweetness or tartness. They mingle with malts and hops for greater aromatic complexity. They add novel qualities to beer flavor and color that can’t be accessed by grains alone.
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Sponsored Is My Fruit Pureé Aseptic (and Why Should I Care)?
The word aseptic comes from two Greek roots that mean, in essence, not toxic. The aseptic manufacturing process preserves foods and beverages through rapid heat treatment followed by rapid cooling under sterile conditions. By using aseptic processing, potentially harmful microbes are eliminated from products, making perishable fruit pureés shelf-stable and safe for consumption. But that’s not all that aseptic processing and packaging does.What is aseptic fruit pureé?
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Sponsored 2022 Flavor Trends that Brewers Should Know About
In 2022, people are more motivated than ever to eat and drink healthier. Retro themes are popping up as people escape to pre-pandemic days. On the other hand, they’re also feeling a little stir crazy and ready to travel. It’s likely that two years of global pandemic are having a big impact on lifestyle trends. As a result, consumers are motivated by health concerns, nostalgia, and the call to adventure. That combo should give daring brewers plenty of inspiration for novel fruit beers.
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Expert Topic Best Practices For Fruit Purees
Fruit beers are having a moment. Once subjected to derision among serious beer geeks, often due to the abundance of sickly sweet versions, modern fruit beers often employ a steadier hand and seek to achieve some balance. The days of adding blueberry juice to a bland base beer are in the rear view and the technology fruit infusions employ have substantially improved from the days of having to hand juice fresh fruit.
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News Brewers Publications Releases ‘Gluten-Free Brewing: Techniques, Processes, and Ingredients for Crafting Flavorful Beer’
No barley, no wheat, no rye? No problem! Gluten-Free Brewing: Techniques, Processes, and Ingredients for Crafting Flavorful Beer is the latest book release from Brewers Publications.
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Expert Topic Dan Suarez on Using Local Farms for Fresh Brewing Ingredients
While the act of adding fruit, vegetables, and herbs is nothing new for beer, the pace in which brewers have been tinkering with recipes using those ingredients has certainly increased. There are companies that make it easier than ever to get garden-fresh flavors into beers via powders, purees, and extracts, but for smaller operations or special one-offs, using fresh is still best.
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Expert Topic Chris Lohring of Notch Brewing Discusses Brewing Craft Beer with Corn
Chris Lohring once called corn “the most vilified grain in all of American brewing.” He also argues that it is one of the most traditional and historically important brewing ingredients. As the founder of Notch Brewing in Massachusetts, Lohring has long fought against such unjust brewing notions, has brewed multiple beers with corn, and offers some advice for those who may be interested in exploring this historic often ridiculed ingredient.
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Expert Topic James Priest Talks About Using Honey as an Ingredient
In a world where just about everything is added to beers to increase flavor or bring new delight to a pint, it is fitting that honey, the sweet nectar that mankind has been enjoying for more than 8,000 years, is enjoying a renewed turn in ales and lager.
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Expert Topic Keith Villa on CBD and THC in Drinks: Now and in the Future
The buzz around CBD and THC infused drinks has steadily grown in recent years, from faint whispers to celebratory screams. Once a pipe dream for cannabis enthusiasts, spiked seltzers and other beverages are increasingly big business. And near the center of the action is an unlikely advocate, the creator of the famous Blue Moon Belgian White.
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Expert Topic A Thoughtful Approach to Brewing with Adjuncts
Brewing with adjuncts is more than just dumping a specialty ingredient in the mash or adding it into a fermenter. As experimentation grows in the beer space, consumers are savvy about recipes and have expectations. Brewers need to understand what they are working with and how different flavors can impact beer.
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