Podcast Episode 197: Nick Gislason of Hanabi Lager and Screaming Eagle Wines Admires the Magnificence of Grains By the Canvas of Lager

Hanabi Lager Company’s Nick Gislason has always been a builder, and that same Do-it-yourself sensibility drives his lager-targeted brewery venture right now. For the previous decade, he’s been head winemaker for Screaming Eagle, a tiny estate vineyard that can make some of the most coveted wines in California. But before wine, he was a brewer, and Hanabi is his way to keep linked with this parallel enthusiasm.

Crossover stories are ripe for criticism—Michael Jordan taking part in baseball was not the achievement he might have envisioned—and it’s simple to think that a winemaker dabbling in the beer earth is practically nothing more than a dilettante. The Hanabi tale is distinctive. Decades of piloting, several years of hand-making a bespoke brewhouse, and an rigorous emphasis on the devices to make the beer established a various background for the Hanabi tale.

Notably, Hanabi is a lager brewery. Gislason’s affinity for checking out the flavors of grains led him to concentrate on lager brewing, as the fragile structure of lager permits for clearer malt expression. Hanabi releases only one particular beer per quarter, which they brew then patiently lager prior to releasing as a a person-time function. Every single beer is an party and an exploration.

In this episode, Gislason discusses this rather one of a kind structure and aim, while also touching on:

  • Creating the brewhouse from scratch, welding their have vessels, and building the brewhouse particularly for lager brewing
  • The Hanabi beer advancement approach
  • Brewing with heirloom barley varieties
  • Exploring for