For San Diego’s AleSmith, funky Belgian-style mixed-culture beers aged on whole fruit may not be impactful to the bottom line. As brewers, however, they love the process challenge of these multi-phase beers as well as the unique flavors made possible by complex fermentations and highest-quality fruit.
Late last year, our blind panel at Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® rated their Handgeplukt Kriek a 98, and our editors we selected it as one of our Best 20 Beers in 2025. Then, at the 2026 World Beer Cup, the beer further cemented its elite status by taking home a gold medal.
In this episode, AleSmith head brewer Anthony Chen walks us through the brewing and maturation process, from ideation and ingredients to step-mash, barrel-aging, maceration, and more. Along the way, he discusses:
- why commercial pitches work better for them then culturing dregs for mixed-culture beer
- how malted and flaked wheat produce more “chunkies”
- using a pre-acidification process to protect the beer in the early stage of fermentation
- avoiding Pediococcus in mixed fermentation
- cherry processing and maceration
And more.
G&D’s new Elite 290 Micro-series runs on a natural refrigerant with near-zero global warming potential (GWP)—built for brewers who care about sustainability and performance. We recently built one for New Belgium Brewing, delivering around 50 percent energy savings over CO2 systems and 9 percent more efficiency than A2Ls. That’s real-world impact from a brewery that knows what it takes. With 24/7 support and remote monitoring, your cold side stays dialed in—day or night. Learn more about sustainable chiller solutions at gdchillers.com/podcast.
Berkeley Yeast just launched Dry Tropics London! Our best-selling liquid yeast strain, now with all the ease-of-use benefits of dry yeast. Dry Tropics London delivers the soft, pillowy mouthfeel and juicy character you’d expect from a top-tier London-ale strain, but with a serious upgrade: a burst of thiols that unleashes vibrant, layered notes of grapefruit and passion fruit. A lot of brewers love the clean passion fruit you get from Tropics, but they don’t want every IPA to be a tropical-fruit bomb. At the dry-yeast price point, you can pitch and ditch without breaking the bank. Or, you can co-pitch with your house strain to adjust the intensity of the notes. And with nationwide free shipping, there’s never been a better time to try Dry Tropics. Order now at berkeleyyeast.com and experience the ease and impact of Dry Tropics London Yeast.
This episode is sponsored by PakTech—delivering craft-beer multipacking you can trust. Our handles are made from 100 percent recycled plastic and are fully recyclable, helping breweries close the loop and advance the circular economy. With a minimalist design, durable functionality you can rely on, and custom color matching, our carriers help brands stand out while staying sustainable. Trusted by craft brewers nationwide, we offer a smarter, sustainable way to carry your beer. To learn more, visit paktech-opi.com.
Oregon hop country is heaven to world-class lager varieties, and Indie Hops is proud to have introduced Oregon’s newest lager hop, Lórien, in 2022. Lórien is in a growing list of beers that have found their way to the podium and—more importantly—into the hearts of lager lovers across the country. Discover Indie Hops Lórien. (Side effects may include rampant festivity, sales bumps, and exceeded expectations.) Indie Hops—Life Is Short. Let’s Make It Flavorful.
If you’re like many podcast listeners, you’ve got a lot of beers at home, and your regular fridge is at capacity. Enter the Midea 50/50 Flex—the industry’s first dual-compartment three-way convertible freezer. Here’s what all that means for you: options! The 50/50 has the power to be all freezer, all fridge, or a little bit of both. But you’ll probably want to use those 20 cubic feet as a massive, garage-ready beer fridge. You can also change which side the door is on or how you want the shelves to be arranged—the 50/50 totally flexes to fit your life. Plus, it’s designed to maintain a stable temperature even in non-climate-controlled conditions—so you can crack a cold one even on the warmest days in the man cave. Take your garage to the next level! Check out Midea.com/us/ to get more info about this game changer today. Cheers!
Your brewery deserves a supplier that can keep your customers engaged with new flavors. That’s why Old Orchard releases juice concentrates and blends with trending flavor profiles such as White Sangria and Passion Orange Guava. If you need a custom solution, our R&D team wants to hear from you. Fruit ingredients that get you: get Old Orchard’s free samples at oldorchard.com/brewer.
You know the pain all too well. You’re guessing at market trends, left in the dark about how your liquids are performing on the shelves. You can’t tell whether your distributors are actually executing the objectives you gave them. You’re losing out on critical revenue opportunities. And that’s because access to data is controlled by a single antiquated solution, limiting who can benefit from it, creating little room for innovation in the industry. But now there’s a faster, more real-time, and value-packed way to get the full picture instantly and strengthen your distributor partnerships. It’s time to regain control of your data, sales, and operations. Introducing Orbit by Encompass. Orbit Data & CRM connects your production performance directly to the wider beverage market. Orbit Data provides real-time visibility into retailer data, sales, and inventory so you can make faster and clear decisions. It’s also a CRM for your supplier sales team that brings total transparency to your distributor relationships, keeping them accountable to what they need to sell and how. Orbit empowers producers to drive decisions with accurate data, discover new profit streams, and pivot faster than ever before. Go to encompasstech.com/launch-orbit for more details.
Running a brewery means juggling a lot—managing production, serving guests, selling online, and keeping everything moving behind the scenes. That’s where Arryved comes in. What started as a point-of-sale system has grown into the technology your brewery runs on—built specifically for the teams behind great beer. Unlike generic systems, Arryved brings together taproom service, online sales, brewery management, payments, reporting, and growth tools into one complete platform. So instead of bouncing among systems, you can brew, serve, and sell—all in one place. Visit arryved.com to learn more.
Pumps are critical to any advanced homebrewing setup. From mash recirculation to wort transfer, and even for cleaning, a quality pump is a key part of every brew day. The Ss Brew Pump from Ss Brewtech is engineered to tackle even the messiest brew days. Featuring an IP55 water-resistance rating, an easy-to-use DIN head with 360-degree rotation, and a flow rate of up to 11 gallons per minute, it has the power to keep your brew day moving. Visit www.SsBrewtech.com/Pump to learn more about how the Ss Brew Pump can upgrade your home brewery.