Talking Terpenes

There’s a good chance you’ve heard or read the word terpenes being bandied about the beer world of late. If you haven’t, there’s a very good chance you will at some point.

What we can confirm with certainty is that you have definitely had them in a beer – they’re aromatic compounds found in most plants and herbs, including hops. The reason they’ve become one of the hot terms of 2024 for brewers, suppliers and beer geeks, however, is the way they’re now being provided to and used by brewers in beers.

Without giving too much away – not least because you’ll gain a much better understanding from listening to the experts in this podcast episode – brewers now have access to terpenes in concentrated form which allows them to add specific characters to their beers, whether that’s enhancing a particular fruitiness in a pale ale or giving an IPA an aroma very much like the one emanating from the cupboard of your uni weed dealer.

They’re one of a growing number of new tools at the disposal of brewers, so we invited one who has been among the first to jump on them in Australia, Scott McKinnon of Wolf of the Willows, and Sam Bethune, who handles technical sales for Bintani, onto the show to tell us all about them: what they are, where they come from, how they’re used, and why they like them.

That’s only part of the discussion, however. Before we get to the technical stuff, they share their stories: how they fell in love with craft beer and later ended up making it their livelihood.

Scott’s story starts out as a ski bum on the slopes of Colorado, while Sam’s begins while touring the States in another guise – with a mate who’s also now in beer. With Wolf of the Willows’ tenth anniversary coming up, we chat about their XPA – one of the very first in Australia – and their evolution as a brewing company, while Sam takes us back to his days as Fixation’s first head brewer at the Incubator and to the High Country and the small hop farm he’s nurturing.

Come for the knowledge, stay for the laughs!

Links referenced in or relevant to the show:

Sydney Royal Beer & Cider Awards winners: https://craftypint.com/news/3575/more-trophy-success-for-esker-beer-co-in-sydney

Last Rites & T-Bone Move In Together: https://craftypint.com/news/3569/t-bone-and-last-rites-move-in-together

A Taste Of Old Blighty: https://craftypint.com/news/3572/a-taste-of-old-blighty

Turning Towards Terpenes: https://craftypint.com/news/3363/turning-towards-terpenes

Wolf of the Willows’ terpene beers: https://craftypint.com/beer/10433/wolf-of-the-willows-gelato | https://craftypint.com/beer/10259/wolf-of-the-willows-king-louis-xiii | https://craftypint.com/beer/10189/wolf-of-the-willows-pineapple-express-california-ipa

In Hop Pursuits: A Guide To New Hop Products: https://craftypint.com/news/3559/in-hop-pursuit-a-guide-to-new-hop-products

Australia’s Generation XPA: https://craftypint.com/news/2844/australias-generation-xpa

Sydney Beer Week: https://sydneybeerweek.com.au/