About this episode

Anthony Chen of AleSmith discusses the brewing process and accolades of their Handgeplukt Kriek beer.

For San Diego’s AleSmith , funky Belgian-style mixed-culture beers aged on whole fruit may not be impactful to the bottom line. As brewers, however, they love the process challenge of these multi-phase beers as well as the unique flavors made possible by complex fermentations and highest-quality fruit. Late last year, our blind panel at Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine ® rated their Handgeplukt Kriek a 98 , and our editors we selected it as one of our Best 20 Beers in 2025 . Then, at the 2026 World Beer Cup, the beer further cemented its elite status by taking home a gold medal. In this episode, AleSmith head brewer Anthony Chen walks us through the brewing and maturation process, from ideation and ingredients to step-mash, barrel-aging, maceration, and more. Along the way, he discusses: why commercial pitches work better for them then culturing dregs for mixed-culture beer how malted and flaked wheat produce more “chunkies” using a pre-acidification process to protect the beer in the early stage of fermentation avoiding Pediococcus in mixed fermentation cherry processing and maceration And more. G&D Chillers G&D’s new Elite 290 Micro-series is built for brewers who care…

People in this episode

Guest: Anthony Chen

Topics covered

• brewing process
• mixed-culture beers
• fermentation techniques
• fruit processing
• beer awards
• sustainability in brewing

Keywords

• AleSmith
• Handgeplukt Kriek
• mixed-culture beer
• fermentation
• beer awards
• sustainability
• brewing techniques

Sponsors

G&D Chillers, G&D Elite 290 Micro-series

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: AleSmith, Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine

Products: Handgeplukt Kriek, G&D Elite 290 Micro-series

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