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Are the "golden rules" in your brewhouse actually rooted in science, or are they just leftover dogma from 40 years ago? Many traditional brewing guidelines were completely true back when malts were less modified, yeast handling was imprecise, and hop processing was in its infancy. But thanks to modern maltsters, hop breeders, and yeast scientists, many of those old rules no longer apply. In this special Mythbusters-inspired episode, Mark and Richard turn off the Yeast Lightning Round timer and take the time to bust common brewing myths once and for all. We tackle: Myth 1: Three Hop Additions: Do you really need early, middle, and late kettle additions for optimal hop aroma? Myth 2: Pressure Fermentation: Is pressure fermentation an absolute requirement for clean homebrews and lagers? Myth 3: Hot Side Aeration (HSA): Is HSA still a threat with modern malts and brewhouse equipment, or an overblown fear? Myth 4: Complicated Recipes: Why simple grist profiles often outperform complex 10-grain bills. Myth 5: Yeast Versatility & Tradition: Can modern, non-traditional yeast strains deliver authentic classic beer styles? Bonus Rapid Fire: Dry vs. liquid yeast, the Carafoam necessity myth, and whether hop quality trumps varietal name!

How can breweries leverage their fermentation expertise, equipment, and brand loyalty to expand beyond beer without losing their core identity? The craft beverage landscape is evolving fast, and more breweries are becoming "CPG curious." Whether exploring non-alcoholic options, functional pre/pro/postbiotic drinks, energy beverages, or protein trends, moving into new categories brings real operational and brand challenges. In this episode, Richard sits down with Sara Heitmann (Brand Marketing & Strategy) and Dan Beaudoin (Product Development & Food Manufacturing, ex-AB InBev) from Birdway CPG. Together, they break down what craft breweries can learn from the wider consumer packaged goods world, examining case studies of non-beer fermentation ventures, product expansion pitfalls, and how brewery skillsets naturally translate into broader food and beverage innovation. In this episode, we cover: What to Brew (and What to Avoid): Evaluating brand extensions—from waters and functional pre/postbiotics to energy drinks and "protein-maxxing." Translating Brewer Skills: Why experience in mass-scaling, fluid handling, and sanitary cellar operations makes brewers prime innovators in food tech (including alternative seafood and beyond!). Product Development SOPs: Starting small, running customer-facing pilot tests, and embedding strict food safety protocols into non-beer innovation. Spotting Trends Early: How to track broader F&B movements using industry resources like Snaxshot and Natural Products Expo West. Featured in this Episode: Learn more about Birdway CPG at birdwaycpg.com

Are your yeast nutrients giving your fermentation precision support, or are they overloading your kettle with heavy metals and unpredictable mineral shifts? Many commercial worts are naturally deficient in zinc (0.15 ppm) in competing nutrients triggers Fenton reactions, driving premature lipid oxidation and cardboard off-flavours in packaged beer. Electrolyte & FAN Balance: Delivering vital cofactors like potassium and magnesium without triggering drastic, unwanted water chemistry shifts or lowering free amino nitrogen. The Future of Precision Nutrition: Where yeast nutrition research is heading next—from amino acid profiling to custom wort management. Featured in this Episode: Check out our newest blog, "What's In Your Nutrient? What 16 Breweries Taught Us About Wort Nutrition".⚡ Need bulk nutrition in the brewhouse? We’re excited to introduce the new 20kg bulk size for ⁠Yeast Lightning⁠! It’s the perfect option for larger production facilities or breweries looking to unlock a major bulk discount on their essential yeast nutrition.

Why do yeast pitch rates vary so drastically between brewing shifts, even when everyone is using the same hemocytometer? Manual microscopic cell counts are standard practice, but they take time, carry operator bias, and can fall short when slurry densities change across strains. If you've ever faced stalled fermentations or batch-to-batch flavour shifts, inconsistent pitching volume might be the hidden culprit. In this episode, Mark and Richard are joined by Nick Brown (Brewing Sales Specialist at Aber Instruments) and Matt Cummings (Brewmaster at Equals Brewing) to explore capacitance technology — a real-time method for measuring viable yeast biomass directly in the line or tank. We cover: The Limits of the Scope: Where manual cell counts, slurry weight, and optical density fall short in a fast-paced production cellar. The Science of Cell Capacitance: How live yeast cells with intact membranes act like tiny rechargeable batteries under a radio-frequency field, and why trub, dead cells, and hop debris are completely ignored. Real-World Production at Equals Brewing: How switching from manual sampling to automated, real-time dosing saved labour and tightened fermentation timelines. SOPs for Success: Best practices for multi-strain handling, sensor calibration, and proactive yeast health monitoring. Featured in this Episode: Aber Instruments — Including products for cell counting, pitching, and cropping. For a more manual approach, check out our FREE Cell Counting Guide. To download our comprehensive Yeast Management & Repitching Guide, click here.

Why does a beer taste squeaky clean at final gravity, only to turn into a slick, buttery mess three weeks after it hits the can? Diacetyl and its sneaky, odourless precursor (alpha-acetolactate) remain every brewer’s absolute worst quality control nightmare—especially during peak production season when cellar turns are tight. While dropping ALDC enzyme into the fermenter has become standard practice, relying on it as a silver bullet without fixing underlying yeast nutrition can leave your beer vulnerable to hop creep and post-packaging spikes. In this episode, Mark and Richard break down the complete cellular biochemistry of diacetyl prevention, ALDC limitations, and cellar-tested QC checks. We explore: The Precursor Trap: How alpha-acetolactate hides in clean-tasting beer and oxidizes into buttery diacetyl after packaging. Yeast Nutrition as Defence: Why Free Amino Nitrogen (FAN), zinc, and magnesium suppress precursor formation at the source. The Limits of ALDC: How hop creep, bacterial spoilers, and low pH can overwhelm your enzyme insurance policy. The Forced Diacetyl Test: A step-by-step walkthrough for executing a foolproof heat-forced sensory test—and why boiling your sample creates dangerous false negatives! Featured in this Episode: Learn more about ALDC from Escarpment Labs here.For more information about Diacetyl, you can check out our blog posts "The Forced Diacetyl Test" & "5 Off Flavours Caused by Beer Yeast (And How to Prevent Them)", and our Knowledge Base "Troubleshooting Diacetyl in Beer".

Why do some bottle-conditioned beers carbonate perfectly in two weeks, while others stall out, develop mousy off-flavours, or turn into dangerous bottle bombs? Relying on exhausted or stressed primary yeast after a high-gravity or low-pH fermentation is a gamble. In this episode, Mark and Richard break down the cellular science and step-by-step protocols behind reliable bottle conditioning. Moving past simple sugar additions, they explore how living yeast acts as a powerful antioxidant engine that protects beer from oxygen and cleans up lingering off-flavours. In this episode, we cover: Re-Yeasting Strains & Myths: Why Champagne yeast (like EC-1118) won't over-attenuate your beer, and how targeting 1 x 10^6 cells/mL ensures uniform carbonation. The Acid Shock Protocol: How to build a 48-hour acclimatization starter to condition high-ABV or low-pH (3.5) sour beers without killing your yeast. Natural Oxygen Scavenging: Leveraging active re-fermentation to metabolize dissolved oxygen, protect delicate hop aromas, and clean up mousy THP off-flavours. Commercial Packaging SOPs: Priming syrup calculations, homogeneous blending, and managing warm conditioning temperatures (18-22ºC). Featured in this Episode: Check out our article, "Best Practices for Bottle Conditioning", on our Knowledge Base, and the packaging guides on the Milk the Funk Wiki.Learn more about the products mentioned: Voss Kveik, Hornindal Kveik Blend, LalBrew House Ale, and LalBrew CBC-1.

What does it take to oversee the yeast, science, and flavour profile of one of the world's most recognizable lagers? In this episode of the Escarpment Labs Podcast, Richard sits down with Willem Van Waesberghe, Global Master Brewer at Heineken. Together, they trace the profound impact Heineken has had on global lager brewing, starting with the fascinating history and genetics of the legendary Heineken A-yeast strain. Willem also takes us behind the scenes of two groundbreaking projects: the development of H41—a unique lager brewed using Saccharomyces eubayanus, the rare mother strain of lager yeast—and the Heineken Studio, where his team experiments with innovative blending techniques and mixed fermentations. If you’re interested in scaling a clean lager, fascinated by wild yeast genetics, or curious about how legacy brands push the boundaries of modern brewing, this conversation will bridge historic scale with cutting-edge experimentation.

We're back with Part 2 of our interview with Master Cicerone & Keeping Together founder, Averie Swanson! In this episode, Richard and Averie get granular on recipe development, fermentation mechanics, and beer style philosophies. They explore Averie’s renowned approach to brewing Saison, what it means for a mixed-culture specialist to approach "clean" beers, and the technical realities of managing Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus. Plus, they break down their recent collaboration brew and discuss fascinating biotransformation interactions—like how lactones influence hop aroma in mixed-fermentation environments. Featured in this Episode: To learn more about the effect of lactones on biotransformation, download our Brewer's Guide to Yeast Flavour & Biotransformation.For advice on mixed fermentation, visit our Knowledge Base article, Mixed Fermentation and Sour Beer Advice.Check out our saison, sour, and clean beer strains available for purchase at escarpmentlabs.com

At Escarpment Labs, we love connecting with beer’s brightest minds to help brewers make better, more impactful beer. In Part 1 of this two-part interview, Richard sits down with Averie Swanson—celebrated brewer, Master Cicerone, and founder of Keeping Together Brewery and Beverage Garden in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Averie shares her journey from Chicago to Santa Fe, detailing the triumphs and obstacles of opening a unique beverage space centred on connection, thoughtful brewing, and community. She dives deep into her philosophy on house cultures, the realities of brick-and-mortar execution ("it’s hard when everything goes right"), and how to design a hospitality concept that truly reflects its surroundings.

Is decoction mashing a timeless secret to world-class lager brewing, or just an outdated, energy-draining waste of brewhouse time? As lager brewing continues its massive resurgence in craft beer, many brewers hit a wall with thin mouthfeel, poor head retention, sluggish cold fermentations, or stubborn off-flavours. While it's easy to blame the yeast, the real problem might actually be hiding back in the mash tun. In this episode, Mark and Richard break down a landmark Czech brewing study by Enge et al. (2005) to explore how boiling physical portions of your mash fundamentally changes wort chemistry, yeast health, and final beer drinkability. We unpack: Natural Yeast Fuel: How decoction acts as a brewhouse nutrient engine, driving Free Amino Nitrogen (FAN) up to 207 mg/L to prevent cold fermentation stalls. Thermal Cell Rupture: The physical mechanism behind boiling mash fractions to unlock bound proteins and starches. Cleaning Up Off-Flavours: Why triple and double decoctions significantly reduce fusel alcohols, suppress unwanted esters, and cut acetaldehyde nearly in half (6.0 mg/L vs. 10.7 mg/L in infusion). Finding the Sweet Spot: Weighing the energy costs of a 3.5-hour triple decoction against the practical efficiency and sensory benefits of a modern double decoction. Whether you're team single-infusion or a traditional step-mash diehard, this episode will change how you look at lager wort preparation. Featured in this Episode: Check out the research: Technological Aspects of Infusion and Decoction Mashing (Enge et al., 2005) Read our companion blog post: Does Decoction Mashing Actually Do Anything? (Plus Free Decoction Volume Calculator)Our full Lager Collection can be found here.

What happens when you bring the world's most dedicated fermentation rebels into one room? In this special monologue episode, Richard takes the mic solo to share his recent experience at Carnivale Brettanomyces—the legendary Amsterdam festival dedicated entirely to wild, funk-forward, and alternative fermentations. Far from a typical corporate trade show, Carnivale operates with a fiercely independent, "punk-rock" ethos. Richard explores why this hyper-niche gathering is so vital to the global brewing community. We trace the historical significance of the homebrew market as the original sandbox for craft beer innovation and discuss the immense power of finding and maintaining your specific "tribe." Most importantly, Richard makes a case for why commercial breweries must prioritize and fund experiments that aren’t immediately viable for the bottom line if they want to survive and innovate long-term. If you’ve ever felt like your creative brewing spark is getting bogged down by production schedules and core brand KPIs, this episode is a rallying cry to get weird, stay curious, and keep fermenting on the fringe. Featured in this Episode: For more information Carnivale Brettanomyces, visit https://wildegist.nl/

It’s official: wheat beer summer is in full swing, and sales for Hefeweizen, Witbier, and Belgian yeast strains are up a whopping 40% in 2026. But these styles require a masterfully delicate touch. In this episode, Mark and Richard tackle the "Holy Trinity" of wheat beer flavour drivers—Citrus, Banana, and Clove—and show you how to move past guesswork to orchestrate absolute balance in the cellar. Whether you want to drop an intentional banana bomb or keep your Witbier's crisp citrus notes from being buried under a mountain of heavy phenols, we break down the precise chemical and process levers you need to pull. In this episode, we unpack: The Isoamyl Acetate Equation: The exact relationship between glucose, leucine (FAN), and the metabolic flux that drives classic banana esters. The Bio-Citrus Route: How to leverage the biotransformation of geraniol-rich hops rather than just leaning on orange peel additions. Universal Ester Levers: How underpitching by 10–20%, raising temperatures, and restricting oxygen alter your ester-to-phenol ratios. Temperature Suppression: Why keeping things cool (17–18°C) is actually the best way to let delicate citrus profiles shine. Featured in this Episode: Check out our full Knowledge Base Article: Controlling Esters in Wit and Weizen YeastsCheck out our German and Belgian strain collections at escarpmentlabs.com

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of The Escarpment Labs Podcast—and to kick off Season 5—we want to thank our amazing community of over 5,000 listeners who have racked up more than 4,200 consumption hours with us over the last 44 episodes. We couldn't do this without your endless curiosity. For this milestone episode, Mark and Richard tackle a massive topic that is often completely misunderstood: Phenolic Off Flavours (POF). How is it that yeast can take flavourless grain precursors and transform them into complex aromas like cloves, baking spice, wood smoke, barnyard, or even band-aids? As it turns out, the traditional "POF+ vs. POF-" industry label is a massive oversimplification. Phenol production is a highly tunable spectrum. In this episode, we break down: The Phenol Nuance: Why a compound that is an essential "feature" in a Belgian Saison or Hefeweizen is a catastrophic defect in a clean Hazy IPA. The Role of the Grist: How wheat and rye carry exponentially higher levels of ferulic and p-coumaric acids than barley, and how a step-mash rest at 43-45°C unlocks them. Hidden Adjunct Danger Zones: Why adding coffee, chocolate, grapes, or stone fruit to a beer can accidentally introduce phenol precursors that your yeast will aggressively biotransform. Testing & Genetic Engineering: How CRISPR-Cas9 can delete the FDC1 gene to turn a wild strain "clean," and how to run a 72-hour "Forced Phenol Test" in your own brewery. Featured in this Episode: Want to view the full presentation from this year's Carnivale Brettanomyces? Click here.For a talk and Q&A on Berliner Weisse with German Brewer and Historian, Benedikt Koch, click here.If you're looking to troubleshoot phenols, you can visit our Knowledge Base page on the subject.

"Crash cold, crash fast." It’s the standard operating procedure in thousands of cellars—but according to physics and biology, it might be completely wrong. In this episode, Richard is joined by Escarpment co-founder Nate Ferguson to demystify beer clarification, settling, and the highly debated mechanics of cold conditioning. Based on our high-performing May blog post, we look under the hood of the fermentor to see what actually happens when you drop the temperature. It turns out that clearing a beer isn't just about making it cold; it’s a delicate coordination between genetics and physics. And if you rush it, you might be trapping haze in your beer permanently. We break down: The Biology (FLO Genes): Why dropping to 2°C instantly panics your yeast and stops them from producing the proteins needed to form dense, easily packable flocs. The Physics (Stokes' Law): Why the mathematical "squared factor" means you need tight, organized particle meshes to make solids drop four times faster. The Tetris Analogy: How slow crashing mimics early-game Tetris (perfectly packed blocks) while fast crashing is like the high-speed end game (gaps, traps, and chaos). The Protocol: Weighing the legendary Ludwig Narziss standard (1°C per day) against modern commercial throughput demands. Cone Hygiene: The "paste" problem, avoiding tunneling, and why waiting for a single "one-and-done" yeast harvest risks autolysis. If you’ve been battling stubborn cellar haze or inconsistent yeast harvests, this episode will completely change how you manage your cooling jackets. Featured in this Episode: To follow along with our blog article that inspired this conversation, check out "Slow vs. Fast Crash: How Cold Crashing Affects Your Beer"Learn more about Lagers, including understanding haze in lagers, visit our YouTube series: Advanced Lager Techniques.You can also download our FREE Yeast Management & Repitching Guide here.

The draft is over, the rosters are locked, and now it’s time to actually build the business. In Part 2 of our Ultimate Yeast Fantasy Draft, Mark and Richard take their 5-strain yeast lineups from last week and put them to work. The challenge is strict: design a competitive, 10-to-12-beer mainstay taproom menu where every single strain must be featured at least twice. Things get wildly creative as the hosts reveal their completely contrasting brewery concepts, full tap lists, and seasonal rotations. Plus, we introduce the Food Item Sub-Draft and "Special Teams"—the three non-beer features designed to maximize taproom margins and drive foot traffic. The Brewery Showdown: Richard’s "Crooked Rain Brewing Co.": An indie-rock-inspired hangout running Superlager, Biergarten, Foggy, Ardennes, and House Ale. Expect an ultra-crispy Rice Lager, Nitro Stouts, Matcha Witbiers, and a literal money-printing Slushy Machine program. Mark’s "Cereal Killer Brewing Co.": A darkly funny, true-crime-themed powerhouse running Hydra, Premium Pils, English II, Weizen I, and Pomona. Featuring high-attenuation East Coast Hazies, a "Kaczynski Kolsch," nitro porters, and a summer backyard Mini Putt course. Who designed the ultimate taproom experience? Listen to the breakdowns, check out the menus, and then head to our social media to cast your official vote! Featured in this Episode: Explore all the strains mentioned here at escarpmentlabs.comGoing to Carnivale Brettanomyces this week? We hope to see you there! Join us on June 19th at 10AM for "The Spice Will Flow: Tasting and Origin of Phenolic Off-Flavours" where Richard will take you past the POF +/- binary.