347: Preston Theony of Wren House Embraces Change as a Constant and Flavor Over Style

Black Caddis began as one of Preston Theony’s homebrew recipes, but rather than create a take on an existing style, he started with the flavor he wanted to achieve and built a recipe to realize that. Now, after brewing the beer commercially at Wren House for the better part of the past decade, he’s still not done experimenting with changes to not just the recipe, but the core of fermentation itself. More recently, the beer has moved from ale fermentation with a Kölsch strain to lager fermentation with a 34-70 strain, in order to amplify the “clean, cutting characteristic” that Theony sought. It’s dark beer in the 4% ABV range sold in one of the hottest of the United States, and drinkability is paramount.

Similarly, Theony has never stopped tinkering with their hazy IPA recipe, despite core beer Spellbinder’s gold medal in the juicy or hazy IPA category at the 2020 GABF. Note that anything he mentions doing or using in this podcast is subject to change, and this is only a snapshot of where they are at this brewing moment. But with that said, through the conversation, he touches on:

• switching to lager fermentation with a shorter lagering time to give Black Caddis porter more edge
• layering Carafa, C120, Carafoam, and Chocolate Rye malt for broad flavor in a small beer
• hyperfocusing on pH throughout the brewing process
• reducing whirlpool hops and boosting dry hops to improve drinkability
• using Galaxy as a bridge between Citra and Mosaic
• dry hopping early and capping the tank
• their approach to awards season as a time to reflect and improve beers
• evaluating competition feedback

And more.

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