If you’ve been keeping up with my BJCP class posts, you’ve seen Les White’s name tossed around quite a bit. Les is the president of the Free State Homebrewer’s Guild, and leads the BJCP study course in the Baltimore area. He also recently started a catering business. Having tasted some of the food he prepared for the “Guess That Beer” party I attended at his house, I can accurately say that pretty much anything he whips up for a party is going to be excellent. Les is incredibly helpful, knowledgeable, and willing to give his time to those of us with less experience.
I designed the questions below to learn a bit more about how someone with so much brewing, and beer tasting experience got his start, and also to ask some questions that I think a lot of young brewers would like to be able to ask their respective beer gurus.
Enjoy:
What was the first beer you really remember drinking, and how do you think this affected your formation as a zymurgist?
I remember drinking domestic swill on occasion in college but I can’t say it was “memorable”. So in college and the couple years after I mostly drank mixed drinks and wine coolers. I became quite the mixologist crafting my own drink recipes and even making homemade wine coolers in a 5 gallon beverage dispenser some of us 5-fingered from the dining hall.One of my first memories of craft beer was Oxford Class, a British amber ale brewed by Maryland’s first post-prohibition microbrewery. It had flavor and body – unlike most beer I had tasted before. In the early 90’s there were few choices for craft beer and my friend Glenn mentioned brewing my own. He invited me to another friend’s house to help him bottle his latest batch. I remember being quite excited about learning to make beer and how to bottle it. While I still enjoy brewing beer, the novelty of bottling wore off after the first 4 or 5 batches!
What is your favorite beer? Why?
The classic answer is “the one in my hand” but I tend to like Belgian beers, especially the sour lambics. It’s so cool how the Belgian’s break all the rules of brewing and let their chilled wort hang out in a barn loft or other spider, fruit fly and wild yeast/bacteria infested place to inoculate with infection. Sounds disgusting but somehow it works!
How long have you been brewing? What was the first beer you brewed? How did it turn out?
I’ve been brewing for 17 years. My first batch was the extract kit that came with my first homebrew setup. It was probably an American Pale Ale but it should have been hoppier. First lesson – don’t use “hopped” extract. It’s just not that hoppy and you boil out all the hop flavor and aroma. I thought this beer was the best thing since sliced bread. I remember taking home a 6 pack of my first creation during the holidays. My family aren’t avid craft beer fans so they hated it. So 3 of the bottles lived in my parents fridge for almost 2 years untouched. About 15 batches or so later, I pulled them out and had a taste. What crap it was!
What got you into BJCP, and what is it about the organization that you find appealing/rewarding? What would you like to see done differently with it?
I don’t remember the exact story but I know there were 5 or 6 of us, mostly Free State Homebrew Guild reps from different homebrew clubs that all decided we wanted to judge. Thought it would be a good learning experience and it sounded enticing that we’d be sampling dozens of different styles of beer. To my knowledge, only 3 of the original gang still judge. I do it for the knowledge and experience. It helps me grow in my own brewing. I’ve been teaching the BJCP course now for 4 years and I still learn something new with each year’s class.The only thing I’d like to see done differently is some further revision to the style guidelines. I think unless I get on that committee, my revisions will never be seen.
This or that: Ales or Lagers? Hops or Malt? Why?
Ales – more flavor, easier to brew, more variety and more readily available.
Malt – I’m not a hop head. I enjoy a hoppy beer on occasion but don’t seek them out. There are so many complexities that can come from malts in how they’re processed/malted, mashed, and how the resulting wort is boiled
How do you feel about the state of American brewing both on a commercial and homebrew level? What direction do you think craft brewing will take in the next five years? Where would you like to see it go?
I think the American brewing industry is probably in the best shape it’s been in since pre-prohibition. Prohibition killed off hundreds of small local breweries and what emerged were large companies able to survive during the depression. But now, of those large companies still in existance (AB, Coors, Miller, for example) are majority owned by non-American companies. The largest American owned brewery is now Sam Adams – a craft brewery! Unfortunately, the international ownership and partnerships of the big 3 give them lots of leverage in the market and lots of disposable cash to buy customers and breweries. Despite that, we have seen a continous climb in craft beer sales for several years now, chipping away little by little. It’s caused the big breweries to rethink their business plans. They’re marketing new products geared towards the craft beer drinker. Budweiser has even gone as far as producing commercials claiming to be a “craft” brewer. They’re buying up or partnering up the successful microbreweries who are struggling to survive. They even keep the small brewery names like Blue Moon (Coors) and Widmer/Redhook (AB). I think the mentality of the big guys is if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Those in the beer industry know that the large breweries control distribution in most areas. Money talks. It’s nowhere near a fair playing field but the partnerships with larger brewers helps open doors to these small craft brewers that were all but nailed shut before. Would I rather see them do it on their own? Of course, but if it means I get better selection at my local “packy” and prices come down due to bulk purchase contracts on ingredients then I’m OK with it.
Scenario: You’re taking a total beer n00b to Max’s. What do you order for them, and why?
There are a couple of philosophies on this. One says find out what they drink now and pick a beer that’s simlar to that. The other says pick Your favorite beer regardless of what it is and put it in front of them – sort of the “shock therapy” method. I’ve tried both and I’m not convinced either approach is best for every situation. It really depends on the noob’s previous experiences.
Describe the perfect brew day.
When nothing goes wrong! It’s almost inevitable that Murphy’s Law is a part of every brew session. Rarely do I hear from a homebrewer (and rarely myself) does at least one thing not happen the way it should. And don’t dare mention you’re having a perfect brew day or it will quickly sour – like a badly infected beer!
Is there a piece of brewing equipment you think is essential that many homebrewers overlook?
A water filter. One of the most prevalent problems I see in homebrew a chlorophenol presence. This is usually due to chlorine in municipal tap water. It’s easy to get rid of either by active charcoal filtration or the use of potassium metabisulfite (camden tablets). I have a simple household filter from the hardware store that I connect to my marine (drinking) grade hose and saw a noticable improvement in my beer after that purchase.
If you could have a beer with any historical figure, who would it be, why, and what kind of beer would you have with them?
I was asked this same question a couple years ago on a live radio broadcast and not being prepared, I quickly came up with Ben Franklin. I don’t remember why at the time but he seemed like a “jet setter” of his generation. There are lots of t-shirts and other beer gear with different “quotes” attributed to Ben about beer but I’m not sure there hasn’t been some twists in interpretation over the past couple hundred years. I believe that I’d probably be drinking wine with Mr. Franklin. I think he enjoyed the grape a lot more than he enjoyed the barley.
How did you get involved with the Maryland Homebrewer’s Guild? What was the initial club you joined?
The Free State Homebrewers Club Guild was formed in 1998 by a handful of Maryland homebrew clubs. I became the club rep for Frederick’s Original Ale Makers (FOAM) in 2000. It was very convenient for me since I lived in Baltimore where Guild meetings were held. I joined FOAM in the mid-90’s after meeting one of it’s members at MASHout, a camping weekend for homebrewers.. The drive to Frederick once a month for meeting is a little much but it was my first club and I have built strong friendships with several of it’s members.
Tags: Beer Guru Interview, Les White
Good stuff as always.
Les sure knows his stuff. Looks familiar too. I see that pic was taken @ the Clipper City tasting area / front office. Maybe I’ve run into him there.
Anyway, keep up the good work! (both of you!)
Thanks, Brad.
All of our classes were held at Clipper City.
I know that CRABS and some other clubs meet there occasionally.
That Les White is a good egg. I have learned so much about beer and brewing from him and thanks to his class I became BJCP Certified and he hasn’t been able to get rid of me . We brew together often and have taken beer trips to Boston, NYC and everywhere-in-between. You think he knows alot about beer? Get this man in a kitchen and you will have some great food.
I’ve tasted the man’s Lasagna. Excellent stuff, and I’m not easy to please with Italian cuisine.
[...] prepare for all of this, I asked our class leader— Les White — to set up a practice tasting and subsequent judging in the fashion we would expect to be tested [...]
[...] water profile. It’s between 80% and 97% of your beer! Oddly — as you may have noted in one of my questions with Les — a lot of brewers don’t even think about it until they’ve reached a certain level of [...]