Kelly McKnight could have done a lot of other things—she was a sponsored pro skateboarder and snowboarder in her younger years, and she studied pre-med at Harvard—but she found such solace and relief in brewing that she changed paths to brew professionally. Now, she’s lead R&D brewer in one of the beer world’s most successful innovation programs, using all of tools at the their disposal to understand flavor and expression in beer.

In this episode, the New Belgium brewer touches on:

bench testing new ingredients
the process behind reinventing Fat Tire
chemical analysis of hops and hop blends
using natural flavors in IPA
process engineering to move ideas to large-scale production
exacting dry-hop automation
offbeat fruits that work well in beer

And more.

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Episode 350: Kelly McKnight of New Belgium Highlights the R&D Behind Some of Craft’s Biggest Beers

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