Brian 鈥淪pike鈥� Buckowski, the man behind Terrapin Beer Company in Georgia, will share his knowledge of big beer at the Jasper Brewing Co. next week.
Big beer is another name for high gravity beers, or highly alcoholic brews, with more than eight per cent alcohol.
鈥淏ig beer has a lot of alcohol and a lot of flavour,鈥� said Buckowski over the phone from Georgia.
Although that鈥檚 the topic of the evening, Buckowski, who hosts beer tastings all over the world, said he likes to open the discussion up to the floor, allowing people to ask him anything they want to know about brewing.
The award-winning brewer started his career home brewing in 1993 and four years later graduated from the American Brewers Guild in California. In school his curriculum included intensive brewing science and engineering.
In 1996, as an underdog, his Rye Pale IPA was named No. 1 beer at the Great American Beer Festival.
Six years later, he and his business partner John Cochran started Terrapin, a 40,000 square foot brewery located in Athens, GA. Since his early success in the beer festival, Buckowski has won many other awards and has become known for using rye malts. Terrapin, though, brews about 23 different styles of beer each year, including a 鈥渟ide project鈥� every three months where the brewery 鈥減uts out something totally off the wall,鈥� he said.
Buckowski isn鈥檛 as involved in the process of brewing these days, as he does a lot of travelling and speaking engagements, but he is still writing most of the recipes and doing the quality control for Terrapin.
He said right now is an exciting time to be a brewer and to be in the craft brewing business because people are starting to realize there are many options and flavours out there.
鈥淐raft brewers are so into experimentation. We want to push the envelope with flavour and colour and aroma and all that stuff, and craft brew drinkers want what鈥檚 new. They鈥檙e just more aware of good flavour,鈥� as opposed to the inoffensive, watery flavour of beers created by large manufacturers, he said.
鈥淲e brew it all and we make up styles, too. I鈥檝e brewed beers where I鈥檝e used local honey, local coffee. I did a peanut butter chocolate porter. We鈥檙e always coming up with cool things to brew.
鈥淲e try to find other ingredients that we can put in beers, not just malt, yeast, water and hops.鈥�
Buckowski will be at the Jasper Brewing Co. at 9 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 8.
Nicole Veerman
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