CHAMPIONSHIP SUDS: Award Winning Beer Crafted in Topeka’s Micro-Brew

John Dean has been the Brewmaster for Topeka’s own Blind Tiger Brewery & Restaurant for eight years, and during this time has won four Gold and four Silver medals at the Great American Beer Festival and one Bronze at the World Beer Cup. A native Topekan, Dean’s curiosity for the process of building a better beer led him to him to a local homebrew store back in 1990 for a do it yourself beer kit. He then joined the local homebrew club, The Greater Topeka Hall of Foamers, and learned the ropes of brewing. His big break into pro brewing came when Barleys Brewhaus at 8th and Kansas hired him in 1996. He spent two years there before going to the Highnoon Saloon brewery in Leavenworth, Kansas. His two years there was capped off by winning his first Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal for Raspberry Wheat Beer.

How does he make such consistently winning beers? A behind-the-scenes tour of his beer making “lab” at Blind Tiger shows a fascinating and scientific process for brewing Topeka’s finest beers and ales.

	Two-Row Malted Barley, which is grown in Minnesota and comprises about 75% of Blind Tiger’s malt bill. The other 25% is specialty malts from the U.S., Germany, U.K., Belgium and Wheat from right here in Kansas.
	Dean grinds the malt into grist in a malt mill which exposes the starchy center. From here it travels to the Grist Hopper where it will be augured into the Mash Tun.
	Dean stirring the grist into the Mash Tun. The malted barley is mixed with hot water to and from an Infusion Mash. This process will activate enzymes which will convert the starch into simple sugars.
	Brewmaster Dean watches the boiling kettle fill with the sweet liquid from the Mash Tun. This sweet liquid is called wort (pronounced wert) and the brew crew fills the kettle with 500 gallons of it.
	After the wort is chilled to room temperature, it is transferred to the temperature-controlled Fermentation Vessel. Yeast is pitched into it at this time which will convert the available sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This primary fermentation takes about a week and, when the zymurgy is complete, results in beer that is ready to be chilled down to near freezing for cold conditioning and maturation.