June 28, 2024

366: St. Bernardus Uses Modern Tools and Ingredients to Stay True to Historic and Classic Recipes

1 hour 20 minutes

Carrying the weight of history and expectation poses a particular challenge for some European brewers, but nowhere is that more apparent than in the world of Belgian brewing. How, in the face of changing technology and consistently variable ingredients, does a brewer stay true to the ideas behind the classic recipes that underpin the core beers that their brewery produces? Over the past two decades, these are exactly the questions that St. Bernardus brewmaster Wouter Dely and sales and marketing manager Marco Passarella have had to face.

In this episode, they discuss:

Adjusting classic recipes to today’s modern brewhouse reality

Working with barley that varies year-to-year by adjusting step mash times and temperatures

Using Belgian candi sugar in brewing abbey-style beers

Maintaining healthy fermentations using techniques like drauflassen

Fostering ester production by limiting head pressure in cylindroconical tanks

Using different temperature glycol in fermenter jackets through the course of the fermentation

Time as an ingredient in brewing

The mechanics of bottle conditioning

And more.

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