Why We Brew With Briess
Gary Fish, Jessica Cruzan, Ben Kehs, and Briana Francisco, Deschutes Brewery
We really started on a completely different premise than what has developed today. And we discovered Bend as a result of my parents having both grown up in and around Oregon and began our adventure to create and operate a small brew pub, not knowing what was to come.
We’ve always had a real keen focus on quality and the flavor sensation that consumers get when they drink our beer.
“The ability for Briess Chocolate Malt, particularly, to be able to produce that deep complexity with that drinkability without being heavy on the palate was something that really, it was that Eureka moment.”
Yeah, Briess Malt’s connection to Black Butte Porter is crucial and it’s been there for a long time. We started doing trials where we were cutting Briess in to help us deliver the chocolate experience that we were familiar with with Black Butte Porter from the pub setting. And so it came in at that point and is now the sole chocolate malt that’s in Black Butte Porter.
So there was a time that we worked with the Briess team to help us solve a problem that we had with one of our recipes. So in Black Butte Porter, we had two dark malts that were blending to achieve the character that we thought we wanted. But the other product from another supplier had really huge variations that was really causing both the color and flavor profile change in our final product that was getting to customers hands.
And so we called Briess up and we were able to work with them and we created a full scale production trial. To simplify our malt bill, it was a huge cost savings, our quality actually improved, and because Briess had such tight malt specs, it’s much easier to manage on a production level.
“So we now only have Briess chocolate malt in our recipe, and we haven’t looked back since.”
Briess specialty malt is that extra spice. Hops are also a spice, but Briess specialty malts bring in that depth of flavor when you have to have your base malt; you have to generate the sugar. But Briess specialty malts bring in even more flavor that goes in with that foundation of the beer.
“The Briess malt quality is essential to that transition from alcoholic to non-alcoholic beer.”
It’s almost like more essential that the malt there is really top notch because you don’t have the alcohol. So everything else is on display, even more so. And Briess dark chocolate is great for that.
I think if we hadn’t made that switch, we would be telling a different story right now.
Our hat goes off to Briess because if they didn’t have consistent high-quality chocolate malt, that defining characteristic of our number 1 Porter wouldn’t be there. I think of that Briess chocolate malt as the signature malt of Black Butte Porter.
“For the last 35 years, Black Butte Porter has been the best-selling porter in the nation. And Briess has been a key component of that success.”
I don’t know what else I can say.
