Questions You Wish You Could Ask Commercial Craft Brewers

[tryhardbrews]

Hey All,

I'm thinking of interviewing some brewers in the Southwest Michigan Area and wanted to pick your brain. If you could ask TWO questions to a brewer or brewpub owner, what would you ask? I want to get a solid set of questions together for people that are interested in learning about brewing techniques, a brewer's past, or what they make think will be part of the future of brewing. Hoping to make this into a podcast form if I could, so maybe one day you could all hear it! If nothing else I'll post it on the thread Thanks a ton and looking forward to what you peeps are interested in!

 

[foam_top]

1. Can I have some free samples?
2. Can I have some more?

 

[Sailingeric]

How do you decide what to make and how much of it?

 

[Pariah3j]

Did you start as a homebrewer ?
If so, do you still homebrew ?

 

[Paps]

*Sorry if this is off topic*
I've had the opportunity to ask the brewer of a 7-barrel brewery some of these questions.

"How do you decide what to make and how much of it? "

Like any business "sales" dictate what gets made or more accurately "made again and again"
Whatever `season` it is will say what is selling the most on the taps.
Going on memory alone i beleive they have 6-taps
1-Wheat beer. 2-IPA. 3-Stout. 4-Amber. 5-Another IPA. 6-Rotating Tap (Cherry Saison ATM)

I was told that the IPA`s are the best/fastest selling beers regardless of the season. Wheat sells alot in the summer, porter/stout sells alot in the winter.

The brewer still homebrews...kinda.
He does 5 gallon batches but does them at the brewery itself.
These 5 gallon batches are consumed by the staff for feedback.
If they are really well liked then they will do a 7 barrel batch of it and put it on their `seasonal/rotating tap.

As far as the "How much of it" gets made. That is dictated by their equipment size. They have 7-barrel fermentors so thats how much of it gets made. If that particular beer sells like crazy then it gets `made again` right away and repeatedly. If it barely sells/moves then they shelf the recipe.


@ O.P. How far are you able to travel for your brewer interviews?
I might be able to arrange a meeting with the "Evil Czeck Brewery" but it's located in Mishawaka Indiana which you may or may not want to drive that far.

 

[tryhardbrews]

*Sorry if this is off topic*
I've had the opportunity to ask the brewer of a 7-barrel brewery some of these questions.

"How do you decide what to make and how much of it? "

Like any business "sales" dictate what gets made or more accurately "made again and again"
Whatever `season` it is will say what is selling the most on the taps.
Going on memory alone i beleive they have 6-taps
1-Wheat beer. 2-IPA. 3-Stout. 4-Amber. 5-Another IPA. 6-Rotating Tap (Cherry Saison ATM)

I was told that the IPA`s are the best/fastest selling beers regardless of the season. Wheat sells alot in the summer, porter/stout sells alot in the winter.

The brewer still homebrews...kinda.
He does 5 gallon batches but does them at the brewery itself.
These 5 gallon batches are consumed by the staff for feedback.
If they are really well liked then they will do a 7 barrel batch of it and put it on their `seasonal/rotating tap.

As far as the "How much of it" gets made. That is dictated by their equipment size. They have 7-barrel fermentors so thats how much of it gets made. If that particular beer sells like crazy then it gets `made again` right away and repeatedly. If it barely sells/moves then they shelf the recipe.


@ O.P. How far are you able to travel for your brewer interviews?
I might be able to arrange a meeting with the "Evil Czeck Brewery" but it's located in Mishawaka Indiana which you may or may not want to drive that far.

In short, I'm really open to going anywhere. I'd love to try and interview at least the people from Kalamazoo area and potentially beyond.

I just have been considering ways to start understanding brewing in general and have noticed that a lot of brewing podcasts are very long and can sometimes be technical. I thought it would be interesting to get to know who these people are, where they came from and what they love about their industry.

Thanks for the questions so far, maybe I can add them to the list I have going so far.

 

[TxBrew]

Why can't dogs look up?