487: Ben Allgood and Brady Jones of Geisthaus are Finding their Brewing Identity by Focusing on Lager

487: Ben Allgood and Brady Jones of Geisthaus are Finding their Brewing Identity by Focusing on Lager

June 12, 2026 · 1h 22m · Episode 487

About this episode

Ben Allgood and Brady Jones discuss their journey in brewing lagers at Geisthaus in Sacramento.

For brewing industry veterans Ben Allgood and Brady Jones, the chance to open their own brewery in Sacramento, California— Geisthaus —meant endless possibility, but they chose to intentionally limit themselves to lagers. Despite that self-imposed restriction, they’re finding space for a range of creative expressions within the familiar worlds of pilsner and helles—but they’re also not shying away from experimenting with hazy pale lager. In this episode, Allgood and Jones discuss: the choices they make in seven different pils recipes hops such as Spalt Select and Mittlefrüh and their impact on pils brewing pils with local and regional craft malts building “rustic robustness” in helles finding character with the White Labs WLP833 German Bock strain testing lager recipes head-to-head with house yeast and 34/70 the importance of high carbonation pulling levers to boost haze in pale lager the ins and outs of Lallemand’s NovaLager strain using New Zealand hops for haze stability in lager And more. G&D Chillers G&D’s new Elite 290 Micro-series runs on a Natural Refrigerant with near-zero Global Warming Potential—built for brewers who care about sustainability and performance…

People in this episode

Guests: Ben Allgood, Brady Jones

Topics covered

Keywords

Sponsors

G&D Chillers

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Geisthaus, New Belgium Brewing

Products: White Labs WLP833 German Bock strain, Lallemand’s NovaLager strain, G&D Chillers, Elite 290 Micro-series

Places: Sacramento, California

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