WMSE SMASH – An Interview With Brewer and Creator Drew Walther
POSTED:: June 2, 2015
FILED UNDER:: General, Interviews
Want to know the story behind WMSE SMASH Ale?
WMSE’s Music Director Erin Wolf recently sat down with the creative mind and brewer behind it all — Drew Walther, WMSE DJ (of Poundcake Punk) and MSOE faculty member — to talk about his love of beer, engineering and how the two went hand-in-hand to create WMSE’s first brew.
What is your first memory of beer that doesn’t involve the usual suspects of Miller, Schlitz, Budweiser, Heinken, etc.?
My first beer [like that] was Leinie’s Red.
And what did you think?
It was just different…it tasted completely different than the usual suspects. Still to this day, it’s one of my favorites.
So it made a good impression?
Yes [laughs]!
Okay, so what beer made you want to try to create your own at home? Was it a home-brew or craft beer that inspired you?
I don’t know if it was necessarily a beer, per se, that made me want to do that, but it was just that I loved beer. I’ve always enjoyed having beer, and I’ve always been the kind of person that likes to make my own things…likes to, you know, cook my own food, so making beer went kind of hand in hand with that.
So you are into the craft of taste?
Yeah! I got way into the craft of making beer.
How long have you been honing your craft?
I think I made my first batch in 2008. That was the first year of actually making beer…
So, you’ve been at this for a while?
Yeah, a little while. Not as long as a lot of others, but…
Was it a steady process or did you really ramp up recently?
Well, I started the same way everybody started – it’s a kettle on the stovetop and you’re making beer that way, and you spill a lot on the floor and it boils over and all that. Me being an engineer, I took that, and blew it way out of proportion.
What kind of engineering do you do specifically, and what did that lend into beer-making for you?
I graduated from MSOE in architectural engineering with a specialty in electrical power, which doesn’t sound like it’s in line with the beer-making process at all, but what it ended up doing, the engineer in me always tries to improve everything I do, touch or see. I looked at this kettle on the stovetop thinking, I can do this easier, I can make this better, so I incorporated it with my electrical engineering background and built a system, so to speak.
Can you explain this system?
Yeah, what it is, it’s almost like a scaled-down version of a commercial brewing system. It’s a three-kettle system: one holds the grains that soak at a specific temperature, one holds water that flushes the grains at a specific temperature and one boils. It’s continuously pumped and temperature sensors are located throughout the system that keep the heat on, turn the heat off, whatever it is to make sure the process is seamless.
Typical breweries have the vats and a process that happens in the steps you described with this specific equipment, so did you go to a homebrewer’s store or a catalog, purchase things, and monkey with the standard equipment? If so, what was the thing you were most proud of monkeying with?
The thing I was most proud of was is the fact that it worked [laughs]…because everything on the system that I built, was scratch-built. I drilled out and tapped out all of the kettles, inserted all the probes, all the temperature sensors, all of the valves, all of the fittings, everything like that, and all of the pumps and the control panel that I built, everything was built out of raw components, so when I tried it and it actually worked, that was a very satisfying experience.
I’d say! It worked out great, it sounds like. Were there any funny mishaps leading up to that satisfying moment? Any “haha moments” that go along with the learning process?
About brewing beer in general?
Yeah.
There was definitely a “haha moment” – it’s “haha”, now, but it sure wasn’t at the time. I had made a batch of very strong beer…a Scotch Ale. What had happened was, I made it, then put it in the fermenter, and at the time, the airlocks I was using on the fermenters were not the best and I had left to go by my girlfriend’s house that night, and when I got back, it had clogged up and the pressure had built up so strong in the fermenter, that it blew the top off the fermenter. It geysered somewhere around seven feet, hit the ceiling and proceeded to flow all over my dining room. The second I walked in the back door, I knew immediately what had happened. That smell is a very unique smell with the yeast, so it was all over everything. It took a really long time to clean up and I’m sure I still haven’t really gotten it all.
That is epic. So, you probably haven’t made many mistakes like that in a long time, I’m guessing?
Well, let’s just say I’m more careful now…
Fair enough. What’s the best tip you could give to anyone thinking of trying out home-brewing for the first time, given your experiences?
Just try it? I don’t know. Everybody learns how to do it differently. I know some people who have bought all the stuff and really wanted to do it, and then hated it and realized that they would rather go to the store and buy the beer off the shelf. You really have to want to do it. You really do have to have a passion for it. One of my most favorite things to do is I’ll make beer and I keg it, so whenever I have it on hand, and I’m going someplace, I’ll grab a keg and I’ll take it to the party with me and let people have whatever they want. That, to me, is the most satisfying part of it.
I’m sure you’re everyone’s best friend at those parties.
Yeah!
Switching back to talking about that seven-foot beer geyser, without that in mind, is there a smell that pervades your house, being a home-brewer? Does it smell malty and yeasty all the time?
Not all the time. Actually, most of what I brew right now, I’ve been brewing outside of the house. When I was brewing in the house, yeah, there was a malty smell in the air and the smell of hops when they’re boiling. That does go away over time, but it will take a day or so to dissipate.
So, you have to be really into the aroma…
Yeah, and so does everyone else in the house [laughs].
When did you first hear about the SMASH style of beer?
Ironically enough, it was not long before we started this project. I was on a project for work down in Charlotte, North Carolina at a brewery called Heist Brewing and I was having a beer and just about to leave and I was talking to the bartender, who was telling me about all the different style of beers. He said, “before you leave, we have a bit of the “Comet SMASH” left. And I said, “What is that?” He said, “well, it’s a ‘SMASH’ beer – Single Malt And Single Hop and we use Comet hops, so we call it the Comet SMASH.” I said, “well, that seems simple enough – yeah, I’ll try some.” It was delicious. It was balanced really well. That stuck in my head, so when we started the project of a WMSE beer, that was what was in my mind.
Did you think of it in terms of the fact that you liked the beer, that it was new but also because it incorporates a popular WMSE icon, the guitar smasher logo and phrase?
Yeah, the history almost wrote itself on this one. It was the “SMASH” beer and the station was looking for a simple beer. This was a very simple beer – it was single malt, single hop and you could make it anything you wanted, but it was going to be a really good light, summer beer. I guess the guitar smasher and SMASH beer really went hand-in-hand.
Beer fans are really good at nailing flavor and aroma descriptions of their favorite brews. How would you describe the WMSE SMASH to someone – aromas, flavors, all that?
Well, it’s a Pilsen-base so it’s a medium to light-grade beer. It’s just a really good summer day, lawn-mowing type of beer. It was tough to come up with a recipe that satisfied everything that everybody would like, because a lot of people like the hops, a lot of people don’t like the hops, a lot of people like the malt, a lot of people don’t like the malt. So, I tried to do something really middle of the road with it, so hopefully people are nice and they try it [laughs].
With Sprecher being involved with actually brewing it, what were the steps you took getting your recipe to Sprecher and making it into a big-scale thing?
Actually, we were in the process of moving while I was trying to make this beer, so all of my brewing equipment that I normally would use was packed away and was inaccessible. So, when we went to make the beer, I actually went back to my roots and made these test-batches on the stovetop. It was kinda fun to go back to that moment in time when I used to do it that way, but I also appreciate all the effort I put into the big system. Aside from that, I made two batches, two different ways, with two different types of hops and two different yeasts. So, there were four different test-batches, altogether. I fermented them for the same amount of time, all proportions being equal, and then kegged them and carbonated them and we had a taste-test at the house among all of the boxes that were packed. WMSE staff was there, Sprecher was there, and we picked the majority favorite and Ryan from Sprecher took what was left of the chose beer in a growler and took it back to Sprecher. After that, I forwarded the recipe to Sprecher – what my proportions were – and hopefully they’re good at math [laughs].
This is going to be a strictly tap-based beer, correct?
Yes, it’s going to be an 80-barrel batch. One round of 80 barrels, all kegs.
Well, how do you feel going forward with your unborn beer, ready to be presented to the public?
I’m excited! Amongst the staff and everyone who had the taste-testing and even some people who tried it outside of that, they’ve all had good things to say. I’m positive about it and even said that out of the four batches that that was my favorite, and I even joked that well, if that’s not the one that’s picked, I’m going to make it anyway, in my little brewery…
Do you see yourself doing something like this again? Is it a road to pursuing your passion on a more full-time basis?
I would think so. That was one of things that I always kinda had in the back of my mind. I mean, I love brewing beer, I do okay at it…maybe someday this could turn into a full-scale, small brewery of my own, just to have fun and do something on the weekends with beer in a bigger system. I only brew ten gallons. I would love to do something that’s more of a seven to ten-barrel system. But, this would definitely be a stepping stone towards that.
So the SMASH is where you start?
I start with the SMASH [laughs].