Julian Shrago, co-owner and brewmaster at Beachwood Brewing in Los Angeles, explains that he first thinks about the flavors he wants in his beer before thinking about the ingredients.
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Los Angeles-based Beachwood Brewing & Blending has proven it can try virtually any style of beer and win. Just consider this: Since its first full year in 2012, the brewery has won medals at the Great American Beer Festival every year—a total of 22 medals in 12 different categories, from coffee and chili beers to Belgian lambic and black IPA. During the same period, Beachwood has also won 13 World Beer Cup medals in eight different categories, including Golden Ale and Milk Stout.
In this 69-minute class, Beachwood co-owner and brewmaster Julian Shrago shares his best advice on approaching, brewing and mastering any style of beer—especially any style that is relatively unfamiliar to you. He discusses:
- Why you should consider everything as an ingredient and nothing as an additive
- his taste-oriented approach to recipe design
- why you should, if possible, go to the source to sample a style at its best
- How judging beer can help you learn about a style
- the usefulness of tasting other award-winning beers
- Step out of your comfort zone to improve your predictive skills
- why you can never have too many reference points for a style
- Get to know Milk Stout – and then win several medals for it
- Tasting of raw materials and wort as well as finished beer
- achieve the dry, aromatic, sparkling goal of a successful seasonal wine
- Why you should consider bottle aging Belgian wines for competition
- Working with diastatic yeast strains to achieve the desired result
- the origins of the award-winning Mocha Machine Imperial Coffee Porter
- Brew a great coffee beer by treating coffee as an ingredient (not an additive!)
- Bonus tips for choosing great coffee, brewing, and adding cacao nibs
- With the “taste first” approach, we are developing a new sub-style: Hyper IPA
And more.
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