Struise Brouwers is scrappy, in the best sense of the word. Small and underfunded from the start, they’ve always made the best of what they have, and figured out no-cost solutions to brewing problems. After all, you can’t spend money you don’t have.

Today, the brewery operates with a brewhouse that is as unique as their beers—two mash tuns, with internal vessels and screens that lift and drain the mash, to feed three separate kettles. The team brews four turns per day on the system, filling a fermentor one-quarter full as fermentation starts. Over the following days, subsequent brews fill the tank as the carefully controlled fermentation progresses. By adjusting the mash temperatures of each day’s brews, they’re able to approximate a step-mash regimen without tight temperature control and automation in the brewhouse.

In this episode, cofounder Urbain Coutteau discusses the creative and the technical, including:

And more.

Launched on a shoestring budget, the Struise team has always had to rely on clever problem-solving—what Coutteau refers to as “peasant intelligence.” That spirit is alive and well at the brewery today, scaled to address bigger challenges, in bigger ways.

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