Behind the Tap Presents: Jason Yester of Trinity Brewing

Photo credit: Trinity Brewing

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"Behind the Tap Presents:" will be a series of interviews with various brewers, musicians, and other wonderful people within this glorious industry. 

Last year, it seemed, every time we turned around, Trinity Brewing of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was bestowed with another award. Trinity produces all things saison and the company is also extremely environmentally focused. We had the opportunity to interview Jason Yester, self-proclaimed Captain of the Pirate Ship at Trinity (also known as founder, owner, president, and head brewer). Jason has always fascinated us; he is a masterful artist of yeast, and has a pretty unique view of the world at large and brewing in particular. He was very kind and generous to take time out of his insanely busy schedule to respond to our questions while releasing his beers to New York City this week. While Trinity's beers started appearing on Columbus, Ohio, shelves this week, the release parties are scheduled for next week (schedule below).

Behind The Tap: Why Columbus? I mean, we know we are the 16th largest city in the country and our beer scene rocks, but most of the rest of the country lumps us in with flyover country. You recently released beers to Seattle, which has a decent beer scene, too. What drew your attention to our corner of the universe?

Jason Yester: I honestly don't look at a city and think about the beer scene too much when I look towards new territory.  I will be honest in stating that my personal career is rooted in science, however I feel like our beers have evolved past science and into an approach with more conviction towards a creative culinary approach.  What specifically attracted me towards Columbus is how well rooted the food scene is, specifically the farm-to-table dedication of the city... I was impressed to say the least. 

BTT: What did the pint glass do to you? You started #killthepintglass.

Jason: The 'shaker pint glass' has compromised beers for much too long already, and I refuse to be graceful in this response!  I don't think I've ever seen a wine poured into a 'shaker pint,' nor have I ever heard anyone complain about wine served in a stemmed glass...  beer is just as complex of a drink.  As a sincere brewer, we work extremely hard on every level of creating beer in a very real artistic direction.  Pouring all of that effort into a 'shaker pint' compromises the beer immediately: head retention, presentation, and loss of aromatics.  There are such better ways to experience a beer, and using the proper glass is a completion of that journey.

BTT: One thing we often hear about larger breweries is that consistency is key if you want to make it big. What do you do to ensure consistency within each batch?

Jason: Past the theme of a recipe, we pay almost no attention to consistency, Trinity is by heart a 'Saison' brewer, we specifically rely more specifically on 'live performance' from our brewers and their inherent talents rather than replication of a product.  Because of that approach, each time we brew a beer there are a large amount of factors we have to be flexible with.  We use a blend of at least 3 different yeasts for each of our beers, and as we re-crop the flavor definitely changes... We are also at the mercy of fresh harvests, which sometimes provide more than we need, or less than we need.  Those harvests can also vary in flavor dramatically from season to season, and we just have to roll with it and make a beer.  What you receive in a bottle of Trinity beer is true 'Live performance,' from folks who pay an unrealistic level of attention to raw materials, because we like that challenge.

BTT: Trinity Brewing is releasing a limited number of beers to Columbus. We'd love to hear the thought process that went into which beers to send here. Do you have any anecdotes to share about the beers coming to Ohio distribution?

Jason: We've opened up the choice for our distributor, 17th Star, to carry very small allocations of most of our line up.  Our company model is low volume/wide distribution ..... and when the beer is gone, it's GONE ;).  Several of the beers in our portfolio are only brewed once a year.  My goal is to send 4-5 shipments annually to C bus.

BTT: What do you say to a potential customer who has never had a saison or a sour beer? Worse, what do you say to the person who doesn't love sour beers?

Jason: I normally ask them what their favorite beer is to drink, then I like to place a similar beer we make in front of them and gently blow their mind.

BTT: Which beer drove you over the ledge and made you Saison Man?

Jason: I am not sure it can account a single beer for that ledge ... there are many factors past beer that lead into being a Saison brewer.  I've personally sold a good amount of art work, done thesis work in microbiology, grown organic gardens for 15+ years .... etc etc.... I know, it's all boring .... but, Saison is a life experience not just a beer.

BTT: We love to pair beers with music and food and cheese. Your thoughts on what would go best with each of the beers being released in Cbus? (And/or favorite brew day music?)

Jason: Man ... that is a huuuugggge conversation.  Some of our beers go best with a light flaky white fish like fluke, the cucumber saison goes best with west coast oysters, I love to pair our Black Saison Regal with chocolate cayenne mousse... sometimes I even like to pair our beers with foods only for texture matchings... there are nearly endless possibilities, and that's what makes our culinary approach towards crafting beers so much fun!

BTT: What is your favorite Columbus- or Ohio-produced beer you have had so far?

Jason: Every beer I've had from Hoof Hearted has been much past expectations, and I'd even extend to say 'exceptional.'  I haven't met the folks making the beer there, but they have a lot to be proud of :).  I've only had one beer from Rockmill, their 'straight' Saison, and it was literally shocking!

BTT: Care to give us a technical breakdown on how brettanomyces differs from saccharomyces cerevisiae?

Jason: Let's make it this as simple as possible.... the post fermentation treatment of Brettanomyces steers each strain in different directions metabolically.  Those pathways allow for serious funky changes with age.  Saccharomyces yeast flavors are mostly set after fermentation, an aged beer brewed with this yeast will only become more smooth and not specifically increase in yeast flavor.

BTT: No, for real. People want to taste and smell horse blanket and feet in a beer?

Jason: Of course!  Have you ever had a Pont l’Eveque or a Roquefort cheese? Before the advent of refrigeration, fermented foods were one of the most common ways to preserve food for long term storage.  As these foods aged, some of the flavors which only develop 'with time,' became delicacies and sought after.  Returning to more ancient yeasts/techniques in beer we should expect the same, and celebrate the effort to create the rare flavors. 

BTT: You have been brewing for a long time... unless we read your bio wrong, about the time you were legal to drink. What drove you to say to yourself, "I can make this better than anyone else?"

Jason: I did begin to brew professionally when I was 18 years old, and I've loved it .... It seems that I find another reason to love it every day too!  I wouldn't say I try to brew beer better than anyone, I think my position in this craft is to create change and inspire both drinkers/brewers artistically.

BTT:  Do you have an opinion on "brewpies"? You know, the chicks that just want to hook up with brewers, no matter that you have been a in a committed relationship for years?

Jason: These kind of ladies exist?  Hmmm.. I guess I haven't been paying attention ?

BTT: What would it take to have a beer together when you are in town? We know Dancing Kevin and we have some pretty stellar stalking capabilities.

Jason: Haha, it's pretty easy ... meet up with me at one of our launch events :)  ... here's a list:

Yellow Brick Pizza March 24

taps start at 4 we show up at 6

House Beer March 25
7:00

The Crest March 26
5:00

Growl on High March 27
7:00

Weiland's March 28
3-5

Hales Ales
7:00

BTT: Hockey or football? There is only one correct answer. (Not really. We like both.)

Jason: Football of course!! Go #PFM !!! ... I do like a double hotdog with a tall Yuengling at Bluejackets games though :) 

Brooklyn Sorachi Ace

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It's been a rough day, but I'll spare you the boring details of caring for my father and the minutia that is taking care of my favorite cancer and dementia patient. Both collided in spectacular fashion today. Nathan and I reside in one another's head enough that we both had in mind to drink the Sorachi tonight, without speaking to one another about it previously, as well as to share with you our opinion of the beer. We haven't done a lot from Brooklyn, and that is nothing but sheer oversight on our behalf. We enjoy their brews, and we do have one more special one stashed, so look for that review to come soon. We also just happen to love the Sorachi Ace hop strain; it's featured in our award-winning homebrew, Sourpuss. It stands apart from other hop strains because of its fantastic lemony and lemongrass-y qualities. When you brew with lemongrass, like we do, it's a natural addition. 

Let's get to Brooklyn's interpretation with this hop. This beer comes with a lot of hype. It's a saison or farmhouse style beer (currently very trendy in the beer world), that features the Sorachi Ace hop. Hell yeah. It pours the color of straw with a large, pillowy, white head. It is fairly hazy, which is expected in a saison. The aroma on this is very faint; I pick up tones of lemon, lemongrass, and straw in the nose, alongside some faint esters from the Belgian yeast strain. One thing I enjoy about many saisons is that they drink a little cleaner than a witbier or hefeweizen, with fewer esters clogging my taste buds and overwhelming my olfactory nerves. In other words, the banana and clove are much more understated in such a style. Taking a healthy sip (there may or may not be some residual head on my nose from accidentally dunking my schnoz into it -- huh? I wonder if beer will clear up that pimple that's growing on my nose?), this is a complex beer that is going to take me a few minutes to deconstruct. There is a strong lemon presence throughout the taste, weaving in and out of notes of cracker, straw, grass, and an ever-so-faint clove-tinged earthiness from the yeast. This is an exceptionally light drinking beer, despite it's 7.6% ABV. It has great carbonation and the body is quite light. It would make a fantastic lawnmower beer, but for its moderate alcohol content and that it's a small batch beer. 

Overall, this is a very good offering from Brooklyn. If you can find some, please do yourself a favor and pick up a bottle. The lemon and the saison yeast work very well together in this. It's a very well-built beer. I've had my eye on this for awhile now, and with some pushing from Jay at Wine & Brew Emporium, I'm very glad we purchased this.

4.7/5 caps

-Jennie

So, reading Jennie's description of this, I'm more intrigued than I was from the get go. I'll keep this short and sweet instead of my initial game plan (because Klansman Jennie won't let me use 'water heads' and 'spastic mongoloids' as descriptive adjectives about my work day. Good job there, Hitler. The sheer dumbstruck look of the nitwit coworkers is one of the reasons I wanted to escape in both beer and literary adventures). 

This has a cloudy straw color with a strong, thick, foamy stark white head. An interesting aroma of straw and lemongrass with backbones of typical Belgian yeast esters (clove and spices). The flavor on this is interesting. Smooth, balanced with the yeast esters with lemon. There's also hints of straw (having worked on a horse ranch, by straw, I also mean the sweet smell of it). The rest of the flavor, Jennie has nailed (hehehe, that's what she said). For a 7.6% brew, this drinks smoother than most American Adjunct Lagers. A creamy mouthfeel with low carbonation makes this a great warmer weather brew. There's a slight stickiness that I notice on the back end that I've only had with Sorachi Ace, it's hard to describe. It's a slight stickiness blended with a light numbing from the oils. Interesting how it pairs with the saison style. And, yes, spell check, saison is a fucking word. 

4.6/5 caps

-Nathan-

Cheese pairing: A block of queso quesadilla

Food pairing: Ceviche

Music pairing: A sassy Latin salsa dance tune