269: GABF Gold! Deadwords and Wye Hill Talk Winning with Light Lager and Hazy Pale Ale

In this special GABF Gold edition of the podcast, Greg Winget of Wye Hill Brewing (https://wyehill.com) in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Alex Sarames of Deadwords Brewing (https://www.deadwords.com) in Orlando discuss their specific (and often unconventional) approaches to their respective gold medal–winning beers.
Winget and Wye Hill won gold with Luminous Beings, a hazy pale ale that uses a variety of current techniques to maximize flavor expression. He discusses:
brewing with 100 percent craft malt
mash-hopping for thiol precursors, character, and as a pH buffer
employing an unusually long whirlpool spin and soak cycle
fermenting at cooler temps with Cosmic Punch
two-stage dry hopping to avoid over-saturation
slow and measured transfers
the importance of soft water
packaging on a very small but low-DO canning line
Meanwhile, Sarames and Deadwords won gold with Bridge, an American light lager with an unusual hop choice. He discusses:
selecting Rahr North Star Pils for its light character
single-infusion mashing
using Vista as the sole hop in the beer
120-minute boils to drive off DMS precursors
switching to BSI’s Andechs Lager strain for fermentation
using the RO system to strip down and rebuild water
maintaining a clean facility
And more!
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