176: The Austin Beer Garden Brewery Is Committed to All the Little Things that Make Great Lagers
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Great lagers require commitment and focus, and it\\u2019s no surprise that the Austin Beer Garden Brewery has been so successful at making them\\u2014with three-plus decades of lager-brewing experience between them, cofounders Brian \\u201cSwifty\\u201d Peters and Amos Lowe have put in the time and learned through brewing thousands of batches of pils, helles, and more.
\\n\\nThe accolades they\\u2019ve accumulated together under the ABGB banner have been impressive as well\\u2014seven GABF medals in five years (including six golds), plus 2016, 2017, and 2018 GABF Large Brewpub of the Year honors. The ABGB approach is a dedication and focus on doing all the little things right\\u2014there are no off-days, there are no shortcuts, there is no \\u201cgood enough.\\u201d
\\n\\nThere are, however, the realities of production, budget, and business that every small brewery has to face. Over the years of brewing lagers for other Texas breweries, Lowe and Peters have devised ways to work around every type of challenge. Brewing is problem-solving, and Swifty has made lagers in everything from horizontal fermenters to unjacketed Grundy tanks. Today, the ABGB uses conicals, but it employs a multi-stage tank transfer process to sequentially clear and lager their beers.
\\n\\nIn this lager-focused episode, the brewing minds of the ABGB discuss:
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- Designing a hybrid, pub-focused lager brewery
- Why decoction isn\\u2019t necessary, but extended lagering is
- The importance of great ingredients
- Brewing to a sense-memory standard informed by memories of great lagers
- The yeast and fermentation magic necessary for perfect lager brews
- Optimizing \\u201celegance\\u201d in lagers
- Editing lagers through filtration
- The impact of water chemistry on everything from fermentation to hop character
- Finishing lagers with natural carbonation
They\\u2019re unabashed traditionalists, but firmly focused on those techniques and elements that directly impact flavor. From decoction (\\u201cIt\\u2019s just too much work for an everyday [thing]\\u201d) to lagering time (\\u201cPeople are proud to say \\u2018I have a four-week lager,\\u2019 and for us it\\u2019s like, \\u2018Whoa, that\\u2019s pretty young\\u2019\\u201d), they both embrace and reject lager dogma, leaning into their own experience to make lagers that taste exactly how they want them to. But for the ABGB, the key to making great lagers is doing all of the little things, every single time. Not some of the time, not most of the time\\u2014all of the time.
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