471: Source Material with Firestone Walker: Quality is a Verb

About this episode

This episode discusses the importance of relationships in sourcing quality ingredients for brewing, featuring insights from Firestone Walker and Allagash Brewing.

When you look at the top restaurants around the world, no matter what cuisine they may focus on, there’s one commonality they all share, and that’s deep relationships with those who grow and raise the very best ingredients. It’s the same in beer—you can’t be the best at what you do without the meaningful, personal, financial, and long-standing relationships that ensure the brewery has access to the very best quality ingredients. These relationships don’t materialize overnight, but for Firestone Walker, they’re the product of 30 years of work. In this series, we highlight a number of these crucial growers, brokers, and processors who have played a role in the world-class beer that Firestone Walker makes. * Episode 1: Quality is a Verb * You don’t get great hops by accident, and the work doesn’t start with selecting them from brokers’ lots. The work starts with breeding the right hop varieties with the perfect mix of aroma and flavor compounds as well as the functional things that make them viable to grow as a commercial crop—disease resistance, robust hop-cone production, lower water and fertilizer needs, and more. Since its inception, Firestone Walker has been involved with the…

People in this episode

Guests: Sam Tierney, Patrick Chavanelle

Topics covered

• quality ingredients
• brewing relationships
• hop breeding
• craft beer
• Firestone Walker
• Hop Quality Group

Keywords

• craft beer
• quality ingredients
• hop breeding
• Firestone Walker
• Allagash Brewing
• Hop Quality Group

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Firestone Walker, Allagash Brewing, Hop Quality Group

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