Justin Burnsed

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Posted by Justin Burnsed on Monday, 10 May 2010 in Brew School

(Above: An old delivery truck parked outside our classroom at Sudwerk)

“Drink all the beer you can and hope the company sells the rest.” - An unamed mentor of Scott Ungermann, Brewmaster at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Fairfield, CA

I wonder if that used to be their company mission statement? Probably not. This week we had the pleasure of meeting Scott, who received a degree from UC Davis in Fermentation Science back in the day. Marketing tactics and beer styles aside, A-B (Now A-B InBev) has probably done more to further advances in brewing science than any other company in the U.S. and quite possibly the world. They spend a good deal of money on research in their own laboratories and I’m pretty sure that they have donated funds to the school I am attending now. The real benefit to us as students from Scott’s visit in my opinion, was to hear about his journey from college grad to Brewmaster. His first position upon finishing school involved trying to impose changes on how things were being done upon a group of salty old teamsters he was supposed to manage at an A-B facility on the east coast. Sounds like they were throwing the rookie to the wolves to me. Needless to say, resistance was met. He was able to win them over eventually and worked his way up the ladder for the better part of nearly two decades. He seems to love his job, the beer they make and that is something I can respect.

On the curriculum front we have begun to delve into the world of yeast, the little workhorses that beer as we know it would not exist without. We went over the important characteristics of a good brewers yeast such as flavor profile, rate of fermentation and flocculation. This was all familiar to me as a homebrewer. When you are trying to repitch yeast for 8, 12 or even 20 generations like some breweries do, there are other important factors like vitality and viability. Those sound pretty similar right? Vitality refers to how “vigorous” the yeast is, which is its ability to ferment down to the intended final gravity in a reasonable amount of time. A particular batch of yeast that has been used for many generations tends to become exhausted after a while and will simply drop out of the race, so to speak, before reaching the finish line. Tests can be performed on the yeast to measure oxygen uptake, pH change, carbon dioxide production or even glycogen levels to give you an idea of when it’s time to retire the current batch and start anew. Viability is pretty simple. It’s the percentage of yeast cells in a given sample that are alive vs dead. A test using Methylene blue is used to stain the dead cells and leave the live one’s colorless. A viability of 90% and up is typically considered acceptable and anything below 85% is ready to be discarded.

Other areas we touched on were the fermentation vessels that are used today. Some traditional breweries still use open square, Yorkshire stone or Burton Union fermenters, but the most common today is the Cylindro Conical Vessel (CCV). They are usually temperature controlled, have natural circulation from carbon dioxide production, provide an environment for rapid fermentation and use the least amount of space in relation to the volume they hold. This gave the instructors a nice segue to Stokes Law. It’s a formula that allows you to calculate the rate of yeast settling using it’s size, density of both the yeast and beer, viscosity of the beer and gravitational acceleration. When dealing with a 100+ barrel fermenter, it’s probably nice to have an estimated time frame as to when you can move on to filtration.

Next week, we get to go on an educational excursion to one of the most famous craft breweries in the world. I won’t spoil the surprise, but I will say that I can’t wait to have a Celebration after we finish the tour. Hint, hint.

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Last modified on Monday, 11 February 2013

Justin Burnsed

My desire to make my own barley-based creations was first born from discovery as a consumer. I started by cutting my teeth on malt beverages that probably would have tasted better if I had ate the brown paper bag it came in as a food pairing. I quickly learned that the world of beer has so much more to offer, and it wasn’t long before I started getting funny looks for showing up to beachside bonfires in Ventura County, CA with the likes of Pilsner Urquell, Samuel Adams Double Bock and many other beers that contained high quality ingredients and were made with superior craftsmanship.

This carried on during my stint at Cal State Chico, which is of course the home of the Sierra Nevada Brewery. After a few visits and many pints of the various styles they produced, I had a new appreciation for local, fresh beer. My curiosity as to how it was made was beginning to grow. In 2003, I finished college and was fortunate enough to land a job in another great beer producing area — San Diego. It was there that my homebrewing journey began. Little did I know at the time that a tub of malt extract and one addition of hops was not going to yield what I had gotten used to at school. The good news was that the early stuff ended up being drinkable and nobody went blind from it. The not so bad news was that I had a lot to learn.

Over the course of the next five years I brewed once every couple months and was slowly getting better at it, mostly from trial and error. In 2008 my time of working at a desk job came to a screeching halt and I found myself taking hard look at what I wanted in life. I realized one of the things that makes me the happiest is putting together a recipe, making it with my own two hands and seeing the smile on someone’s face when I share it with them. This motivated me to start brewing much more frequently and make various upgrades in equipment to support all-grain batches.

One day while flipping through a brewing magazine, I discovered the UC-Davis Master Brewers Program and quickly realized this could be my shot at getting into the professional side of brewing. My main objective in writing this blog is to give you a weekly account of my experiences and observations during this 18-week program and what one can expect upon completion. Perhaps it will inspire you to one day brew your own — and get paid for it!