Show Notes
From the very earliest days of what we now know as craft beer, flavor has been a defining factor and a guiding mantra for brewers casting themselves against the monolith of light macro lager that dominated American brewing for so many decades. If you track it back, fruits and spices have been ingredients in beer for as long as beer has been made, so this modern era of craft brewing is more rediscovery than revolution. But there’s no denying that familiar and enticing, or even exotic and intriguing, flavors have been an incredible draw in bringing people into the fold who might never have considered themselves beer drinkers.
Of course, the ways we can add those fruit and spice flavors to beer have evolved significantly from the earliest days of craft brewing, and brewers now have tools to target and dial in fruit and spice notes with incredible precision—something that is increasingly important as brewers explore low-ABV and nonalcoholic beers and beverages.
In this episode, produced in partnership with Amoretti, we explore best practices for delivering flavor impact that’s noticeable, authentic, seamless, and artful, but that also works to support the bottom line for breweries facing ever-increasing input costs.
Joining the discussion are:
Michael Lalli, brewmaster, Krebs Brewing and Prairie Artisan Ales (Krebs, Oklahoma)
Micah Rush, R&D manager, The Bruery and Offshoot Beer (Placentia, California)
Nic Bortolin, brewmaster and brand ambassador, Amoretti
To connect directly with Nic Bortolin for questions or more information, please email him at [email protected]. Support Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast
More from Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast
Masthead cofounder and head brewer Mike Pelechaty is no stranger to GABF medals, with five under his belt before adding two more to the collection in 2026, but winning both the light lager and rice lager categories suggests an approach that’s more than just coincidence. In this episode, he outlines the similarities as well as the differences in ingredients and techniques between the two lagers made with rice, and shares the brewery’s general approach to designing, brewing, and ultimately selecting and packaging beers for top-flight competition.
Earlier this year, Cloudburst founder Steve Luke announced that longtime friends at Bale Breaker would be buying the brewery while he and his wife relocated to New Zealand for her career. For many in the industry, it felt like an ideal outcome, with the beloved Seattle brand finding a home with the talented team at the Yakima-based brewery. But the move hasn’t taken Luke out of the game—he’ll be involved for at least a few years, and hasn’t let up on the tongue-in-cheek humor around craft beer history that has led to creative and award-winning takes on things like imperial hoppy red ale or hoppy amber ale.
Scott Selix of Lua in Des Moines, Iowa, started his career as a brewer before leaving for law school. After a brief stint as an attorney, the gravitational pull of the brewing world ultimately proved too strong for him to overcome. Now at Lua, he has the freedom to explore the creative front edge of progressive styles such as hazy IPA while also delving into low-ABV pale lagers—which, he admits, he and the brew team largely brew for themselves.
Denver's Off Script has built a rabid fanbase of hazy IPA drinkers who line up for can releases and special draft events like it's 2015 again, and founder Ryan Taylor has done it by focusing tightly on plush and saturated hazy IPAs. But he brews the beer themselves at Aurora, Colorado's Milieu Fermentation, where cofounder Rob Bessett also makes some high-scoring hazy IPAs of his own. Together in this episode, the pair discuss the ways the IPAs they brew are similar, as well as different, despite following a common path toward a similar end goal.
In this special episode produced in partnership with Scott Labs, we focus on beer spoilers and how to protect your beer from them. Today’s rapid growth in low- and no-alcohol craft beer and beverages presents quite a challenge for brewers because alcohol itself is one of the best ways to prevent microorganisms from turning the beautiful beverage you crafted into something less delicious or less healthy.