Shortly before heading to the World Beer Expo, which took place on May 17 and 18 in Frankenmuth, the first-ever U.S. brew master for Labatt USA, metro Detroit native Ryan Brady, stopped into 香港六合彩图库资料鈥榮 Troy office to talk about his love for beer and the process of perfecting the company鈥檚 new easy-drinking lager, Labatt Blue Citra.
香港六合彩图库资料: How did you get started with beer?听
Ryan Brady: I grew up about a mile from here in Troy. I graduated from Troy High and went to U of M for undergrad. It鈥檚 fun to be back and representing the brand. I got started in this industry about six years ago. I took a position at a craft brewery in Washington, D.C. called DC Brau, just entry level, holding boxes and stuff like that and slowly worked my way up. Now I鈥檓 a Brew Master at Labatt USA. I鈥檝e been in this role for almost a year now.
For those of us that are not too familiar with the process, what goes into making beer?
There are four ingredients to beer: water, malt, hops, and yeast. The yeast is what turns the sugar into alcohol. The malt and the hops are what provide the flavor and aroma of the beer. The malt is the grain, that鈥檚 typically roasted barley and that鈥檚 what gives the beer its color, its body, and a lot of its flavor 鈥 especially the bread character because it鈥檚 the same grain you鈥檇 make bread with. Hops are a plant related to the cannabis plant. They鈥檙e cousins and are typically added during the boiling process to help preserve the beer and also provide a lot of its flavor and aroma. There are beers that smell like orange juice or grapefruit juice, but it doesn鈥檛 actually have any of that fruit in it. That鈥檚 all from the hops.
What trends are you noticing in the beer industry?听
Hops are everything now. General industry papers tell you what people are buying, and in beer right now, it鈥檚 easy to say that hoppy beer sells. It used to be that hops were a small part of the process, just to add a little bitterness and aroma. But as tastes have changed, starting mostly in America and filtering out to the rest of the world, at this point hops are almost like a drug. The more you have it, the more you want it, and the more intensely you want it. Twenty years ago, you might have a Sierra Nevada, which is still made and very popular, but people thought it was killing them it was so bitter. Now hard-core beer drinkers don鈥檛 even think that it鈥檚 bitter anymore. It just keeps progressing.
Can you tell us about the process of making Citra?
Our idea [for Citra] was not to make craft beer. We鈥檙e not trying to be Bells or Founders or [anything] like that. We wanted to give the consumer a taste of that [craft beer] without trying to be that. We added citra mosaic hops to the beer. Citra, obviously being the name, provides the fruity taste and aroma to the beer. They are more on the dry side. That was our goal in the innovation process, to give the Labatt Blue and Labatt Lite drinkers, someone who is not used to drinking craft beers, a little bit of a taste of what is popular with craft beer. But not go too far with it. After a lot of test batches, we narrowed it down to a hoppy, easy-drinking lager that fit our portfolio but was also a really good beer.
In your beer journey, how has it been transitioning from craft beer to a bigger brewery?
At the end of the day, it鈥檚 mostly like an attitude change. The process is the process. If you make beer well, you鈥檙e doing it the same way. The size of the tank is different, and the amount of ingredients is different, but if you鈥檙e doing it the right way, it鈥檚 little tweaks based on the equipment you have. But going from a craft brewery where you have this kind of brand identity 鈥 we鈥檙e independent, we鈥檙e craft, and people are holding you up here 鈥 and working for Labatt, they don鈥檛 think of you in the same way. They think of you as something different. It would be easy to go online and read reviews and get upset, feel bad about yourself, but that鈥檚 true even at some craft breweries. We get more of it because we鈥檙e 鈥渂ig beer,鈥 but everyone gets terrible reviews or get talked down about. Anything that people are passionate about, and people are very passionate about craft beer, which is great, there is hate involved. We deal with more of it, and I understand it.
Related: Going Undercover With a Craft Beer Reviewer
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