504: Kyle Gregorash of Young Blood Brews Indulgent Fruit Beers Balanced Through Thoughtfully Shaped Acidity

Kyle Gregorash of Madison, Wisconsin’s Young Blood didn’t initially set out to build a brewery around fruit beer, but over the past six years he’s worked tirelessly to perfect it and solve that intractable brewing problem—how can you make something that’s sweet and crowd-pleasing but that finishes with a snap and encourages the next sip? And how do you do that when brewers’ favorite tool—hop bitterness—is off the table? Through years of experimentation and practice, Gregorash has dialed in fruit beers and those beers have fueled the brewery’s growth to the point where they now make up 60% of the brewery’s production.

In this episode, he outlines some of the ways he makes sweet and fruity beers that feel indulgent but that encourage a second pint. Along the way, he touches on:

coming at quick sour beer from a mixed culture sour background

using Sourvisiae yeast for quick soured fruit beer

scaling pH in inverse to ABV

top noting real purée and juice concentrate with extracts and natural flavors for full spectrum impact

varying the fruit strategy in beer-based and gluten-free fruited sours

blending phosphoric, lactic, citric, and malic acids for ideal expression in fruit beers

understanding the impact levels of various fruits

spices that make fruit flavors pop

And more.

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