In this bonus episode of the All About Beer Podcast, Chris Meadows, Head of Brewery Operations at Peaceful Side Brewery in Maryville, Tennessee, shares how Hopsteiner’s advanced hop products helped the brewery reformulate two flagship beers while achieving improvements in cost, yield, shelf stability, and flavor.
IPA’s are a double edge sword for most breweries. IPA’s sell the most but are often more expensive to make and distribute sustainably. By tweaking a few key ingredients, Peaceful Side Brewing was able to reduce production cost and routinely gain an additional 1.5 to 2 barrels of finished beer from each production run.
By adding Salvo® and SalvoPlus® the American IPA’s dry-hop load fell from approximately 60 pounds into the 40-pound range. With less vegetative material entering the brewery, Peaceful Side experiences smaller trub loads, improved wort and beer recovery, easier cleaning, faster transfers and less water used for rinsing.
Most importantly, the beer has improved. In blind internal tastings, participants consistently preferred the reformulated versions. The American IPA gained a clearer grapefruit-and-citrus direction, more balanced bitterness and a cleaner finish without the lingering astringency of the previous recipe.
Meadows also credits the reduced hop load and shorter tank exposure with slowing oxidation and keeping the beers tasting fresher for longer.
“Consumer response has been overwhelmingly positive, and sales have increased—even though Peaceful Side never promoted the recipe changes to the general public,” says Meadows.
Listen to the whole conversation where you download podcasts including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, and Overcast.
This episode is sponsored by:
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Don Tse
Living near seven malthouses, Don Tse is a freelance beer and malt writer and consultant known globally as The Don of Beer. He has been active in craft beer for over 25 years and has famously sampled and written tasting notes on almost 27,000 different beers. He is the co-host of the All About Beer podcast. Don has also written for magazines and presented on beer in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Ukraine and Singapore. Nobody in those countries thinks his jokes are funny.