Since our last episode, a pipe burst in the ceiling of our studio and so tonight we’re on location at the Rahr and Sons Brewery. They were gracious enough to give us the space and so we wanted to take advantage of our location and start our show with discussion of yeast handling and health with professional yeast wrangler, Nick Bigham, the Lab Manager for Rahr. Nick has been instrumental in helping Rahr get the best out of their fermentations, which means getting better beer on the shelves for all of you. We also have Lead Brewer and Barrelmaster for Rahr, Austin Heisch, who will hopefully join us in our discussions.

In this episode, we were live at Hop Fusion Aleworks in the ever-growing Southside area of Fort Worth, TX, with co-founders Matt Hill and Macy Moore and a crowd of locals, the Cap and Hare Club happy hour group, and even a few Come and Brew It Radio listeners to try our first night of recording on location live.

Matt and Macy were both homebrewers with the same dream many of us have of opening their own brewery. But unlike most of us, they actually executed a plan and built Hop Fusion Aleworks from the ground up over a period of a year and a half, with a massive amount of their own blood, sweat, and tears. All with the goal of delivering great local experiences in their taproom, while also distributing their unique and tasty craft beer throughout Texas. And in just a few short months after opening, their popularity has soared and they are well on their way to accomplishing their goals.

In this episode, we discuss some recent malt experiments we did for a tasting at the last Cap and Hare meeting and we start a regular discussion about the many types of hops available to brewers, covering American, English, and Noble hop varieties. This time around, we cover Cascade and Northern Brewer for the American variety, East Kent Goldings and Target for the English variety, and Hallertau Mittelfruh and Saaz for the Noble variety.

In this episode, we talk about making the best out of your brew year by planning brews in advance to make sure you get what you want, when you want it. Whether it’s a specific style for a season or because you want to enter competitions or because you need to brew certain styles based on the weather being in your favor. All you have to do is consider your needs, what options you have, and how you can best use them. And with a plan, you can be sure you get those brews scheduled before those best times pass.