Main & Mill's 'Pliable Process' pushes the science of brewing

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The creativity of brewing never fails to amaze me.

From hops to yeast, to using obscure or common ingredients, brewing up something new and making it work, or not – must give brewers the equivocal contentment I feel after writing a story like this.

I hope that is what Denny Foster at Main & Mill is feeling this week, after I saw his team’s newest experimental brew.

Pliable Process 001: HAZY IPA ???

Main & Mill’s ‘Pliable Process’ pushes the science of brewing

One beer, experimentally brewed with four strains of yeast. Blending brewing practices with scientific research, Pliable Process is a new, ongoing, collaborative and experimental brewing series.

“So when we were originally designing the brew system one thing we really wanted to do was have an incredible amount of flexibility,” said Foster. “So we had a 4BBL brew system installed that coincides with the 20BbL system, allowing us to brew bigger batches that can be split off into small kettle and then to our 4BBL fermentors.”

As soon as that design was final, Foster and the team immediately wanted to do some sort of science based series that focuses on the differences between one specific variable. This release is the very first in an ongoing series that will span anywhere from different yeasts, hops, malts, fermentation temps, dry-hop methods, etc.

“It’s something we are incredibly excited about,” said Foster.

Pliable Process uses Cashmere hops, dry-hopped with 4lbs/BBL mix of Citra, Mosaic, and El Dorado. But the science here is in the yeast. Main & Mill collaborated with St. Louis based Omega Yeast on this particular release. The following yeast strains were used.

British Ale V (OYL-011)
Cosmic Punch (OYL-402)**
Hornindal (OYL-091)
Sundew (OYL-401)
**this strain is currently unreleased otherwise ~ and exclusive to this beer!

“The idea of a mixed 4-pack from the exact same brew but fermented with 4 different yeasts is unique in anything we’ve seen out there,” said Foster. “Every part of this process was done the same way outside of the yeast strain and the temperature that Omega suggested for fermentation temps.”

The result is a Hazy IPA from one batch but all 4 cans taste incredibly unique. All from the power of the yeast. It’s awesome tasting the four side-by-side knowing they’re equally fresh, from the exact same brew, dry-hopped the same, and still totally different.

The Beer Name

The vision was to name this series rather than just call it ______ IPA or name it after the yeast. The brewing team dialed in on their goals for the series and their plans moving forward.

“We kept coming to the idea that this series will involve a lot of different and ever changing processes, leading to growth as brewers and hopefully increased consumer knowledge of what goes into beer. After that it just kind of came up as an option and stuck. We think it fits perfectly,” said Foster.

Availability

The cans are currently available at the Festus brewpub or can be ordered on their online shop. They’re likely to see very very limited distribution through Craft Republic in a couple of weeks.

Tasting Notes:

All 4 are slightly different. The Horindal and Sundew strains are slightly less hazy being that they are a Kviek and a Belgian strain. Other than that, they all pour a golden hazy.

On the nose, Sundew pumps out the strawberry while also maintaining some of the stone fruit and pineapple notes. British V is full of peach notes. Cosmic Punch is a tropical cornucopia of aromas and flavors. The Hornindal is pineapple and peach but not quite the intensity of the other 3.

On the taste, the four are all different but each have varying notes of peaches, tropical, pineapples with Sundew throwing in a nice strawberry like note as well.