Brian started out in the culinary world but made the switch to brewing in 2010, becoming Volunteer Assistant Brewer to Davin at Rockbottom in Chicago. While the brewing world has not brought Brian any exotic experiences like opening a Mongolian restaurant in Mongolia (he did that), it did bring him to us in Memphis, and we couldn't make delicious beer without him.  As he says in the video, he is "the mom" of WISEACRE beer, managing and taking care of its every need for 2-5 weeks before sending it on to packaging and out into the world. 

Brian will tell you all about it and much more in this almost 8 minute video (cut down considerably).  He goes "big on words", challenging the makers of Mountain Dew to challenge him, sings a little, graciously forgives five year olds, talks way too much about the drummer from The Police, references the Hot Dog and Sausage Council and explains Malort.

Irusu is the Japanese word for an idea that transcends time and culture: pretending you’re not at home when visitors come a-knockin'. Our Irusu, a super dry pale lager, is made with rice. Though some only associate the use of rice with mass market industrial lagers, rice has been used in fermented beverages for thousands of years and by many different cultures. The addition of rice lightens the body and flavor of barley beers, and though we still love our complex sippers, there is a time and a place for everything.

The oldest known barley beer was discovered in the mountains of Iran and dates back to 3400 BC; however, the oldest known fermented beverage (over 9,000 years old) was discovered in China and made with rice, honey and fruit. Though we call sake rice wine, it is technically closer to a beer (fermented beverage made with a cereal grain, not fruit). Rice has also been used in American brewing for many years (a hundred plus, though, not thousands). 

It was German immigrants who first involved rice in American beer. Trying to make the pale bright (clear) and bubbly lagers they were accustomed to at home was tough with the higher protein 6-row barley available at the time in America.  

Barley is full of starch, proteins and other compounds that make it great for brewing. Enzymes (specialized proteins in the barley) are responsible for breaking down starch in the barley into simple sugars which makes alcohol production possible (yeast can eat sugar but starch is too big). Some of the proteins also contribute to the body and texture of the beer. However, too many proteins lead to cloudy unstable beer, and some barley varieties have more than others. The barley the Germans used for brewing at home had a good balance, but the varieties they had access to here in early America had a lot more protein. Something starchy with very little protein was needed to bring it all back into balance, and this is where rice (and corn) come into play. 

Rice and corn have very little protein and specifically lack the specialized proteins (enzymes) that break down starch.  When making all-rice or all-corn fermented products, enzymes must be introduced from another source*.  However, when rice or corn is used with barley, especially the higher protein 6-row, the rice has access to plenty of enzymes to break down its starch into fermentable sugars.

In fact, the beers made with corn and rice were even lighter in body and flavor than the all-malt pilsner and helles style beers they were trying to replicate. Since rice is almost only starch and nothing else, once the enzymes from the barley have a go at them, the starches break down into very small sugars. After fermentation, very little besides alcohol remains.  With all-barley beers, even the very nicely ratio-ed 2-row, there will be more leftovers (starches, proteins and other compounds the yeast did not eat) after fermentation that contribute to the flavor and body of the beer.  These pre-prohibition lagers were the model for the mass market industrial lagers that sprang up after prohibition. 

Though it all started with 6-row barley, we used our usual higher quality 2-row (now easily accessible in ‘merica) to make this beer. It still has a richer, better malt flavor than the typical American Adjunct Lager the big guys make. However, it is much lighter in body and flavor than our Tiny Bomb Pilsner or Memphis Sands Helles. It is not very highly hopped but there is a smidge of bitterness to balance.

*For sake, the rice is inoculated with a fungus the produces the enzymes needed to break the starches down into fermentable sugars.  For chicha, an all corn beer, the corn is chewed first. Human spit adds the enzymes needed to break down the starch in the corn.

Originally from Florida, Andy attended Siebel Institute in Chicago and Doemens World Brewing Academy in Germany. This is where he met Davin (one of the Bartosch brothers), quickly bonding over snarky quips, nonsensical graphs and creating ridiculous ficticious brewery names for class projects (Endagered Feces).  

Upon graduation, they went their separate ways.  Davin to Chicago to brew for Rock Bottom, and Andy to Montana to brew for (at least self proclaimed) America's most remote brewing company, Lang Creek.  After 9 months, Lang closed (it was quite remote) but Andy scored a job at the Great Northern Brewery in Whitefish.  

Over the next 6 years, Andy had a lot of fun.  He skied Big Mountain, hucking cliffs on his back.  He hiked and rafted.  Looking for a bit more fun in his work life, he came upon a photo shared on Facebook.  The Bartosch brothers finally started their brewery, WISEACRE, and were documenting their set up with silly photos like this one:

Andy wanted in.  In the spring of '14 (about 6 months after WISEACRE opened its doors), Andy moved with his wife and dog to Memphis.  His favorite activity is drinking Rumpleminz on the back patio of The Cove.  It was in this home-away-from-home, with Andy plied with many beers, that this interview takes place: 

1. Lovin’: It is National Potato Lovers Day, and we at WISEACRE love spuds in all forms: fried, smashed, scattered, smothered and covered.  What former US president is generally credited with introducing the french fry to the US?
   Answer: President Thomas Jefferson; he supposedly fell in love with them while in France and had them served up at a formal White House dinner.
2.  Dunkin’: Who was the tiny 5 foot 7 inch “Spud” who won the NBA Slam Dunk Competition on this day in 1986 (full name please)?  Answer: Jerome "Spud" Webb; he was over a foot shorter than former champion and teammate Dominique Wilkins, who beat Michael Jordan the year before.
3. Brewin’: In Cooley’s Cyclopaedia of practical receipts and collateral information in the arts* (1832-1888) under the heading “Beer, Potato” a recipe for an “excellent beverage” calls for the “mixing the pulped potatoes with about 1/12 of their weight of” what ingredient? (without which, even if seasoned with hops and fed to yeast as the recipe continues, the concoction would remain mashed potatoes ...good with butter and cheese but not beer).  Answer: Malted Barley.  Potatoes can only provide starch, and you need starch and enzymes to produce sugar, a necessary ingredient in alcohol production.  Yeast eats sugar and excretes alcohol; it cannot eat starch.  Malted barley has starch and provides the enzymes necessary to break its own starch and the starch from the potatoes into sugar.  The mash is now useful for alcohol production and can be seasoned with hops and fed to yeast (upon which the yeast will eat the sugar and make the beer).   Barley's amazing package of starch and enzymes are what make it so specially suited for alcohol production, as opposed to other starchy grains, like corn, that has no enzymes of its own.  One can make an all-corn or all-potato "beer" like certain ancient tribes of South America have done for millennia...by chewing these up and spitting them out (your spit contains enzymes).

*The full name of Cooley’s book is: Cyclopaedia of practical receipts and collateral information in the arts manufactures, professions, and trades including medicine, pharmacy, hygiene, and domestic economy : designed as a comprehensive supplement to the Pharmacopoeia and general book of reference for the manufacturer, tradesman, amateur, and heads of families. Phwew!  It contains many useful recipes for making beer with ingredients your average early settler may come across.  On the same page, it also contains loads of information on Bees.