Show Notes
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.com Going 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.
More from The Escarpment Labs Podcast
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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), leading to sluggish fermentations and yeast stress. However, many off-the-shelf nutrients were originally formulated for wine or distilling rather than beer—sometimes adding massive doses of calcium or unwanted pro-oxidant metals like iron and copper. In this episode, Mark and Richard open up the laboratory vault to share findings from a multi-brewery study evaluating 47 samples across 16 commercial craft breweries. We break down: Precision Zinc Delivery: How Yeast Lightning reliably lifts zinc deficient worts (+0.125 ppm avg. increase) straight into the ideal 0.2-0.3 ppm sweet spot.
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.
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.