361: Austin’s Meanwhile is Making Bold Bets With Beautifully-Constructed Lagers and IPAs

The world may know Austin’s Meanwhile for the GABF and World Beer Cup medals they’ve won, including golds for Helles and Pilsner, and silver for Secret Beach IPA. But the locals know it as a great beer garden with a playground for kids, an outdoor concert stage, a wide array of food trucks, and tasty beer that can be either dissected or just digested. It’s a beautiful place to spend time with friends over beer, with beer that’s worth talking about (if that’s your thing).

In this episode, Director of Brewing Operations Robert Fulwiler, himself an alum of Seattle’s Fremont, discusses some of the keys behind Meanwhile’s successful lagers and IPAs, including:

• Blending pilsner malts for color and character
• Managing mash thickness with a slightly high-gravity brew
• Adjusting for the low alpha of the 2022 German hop harvest
• Building a range of hop flavor with addition timing and a variety of hops and formats
• Using Augustiner yeast and embracing the best side of sulfur
• Slow carbonation for more delicate lagers
• “San Diego-style IPA” and what it means
• Managing hop creep with ALDC
• Controlling the expression of funkier hop characteristics through temperature

And more.

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