“Brewing is both a science and an art”

Brewing is both a science and an art. To make an excellent beer, a brewer must have a complete grasp of water chemistry, yeast propagation, and many other chemical processes. They must also have a vision for flavors; a sense for how the water, grain, yeast, and hops will come together to create a brew worth enjoying. At the Van Nuys Anheuser Busch facility, or the Irwindale Miller brewery, or at the Los Angeles Pabst Brewing plant, brewers achieved one of the great feats in the art and science of making beer. Their beers were consistent; a Budweiser from Van Nuys tasted the same as it did in St. Louis, Newark, or Fairfield. The ability to brew the same beer, every day of the year, across the nation is truly a remarkable feat. It is the culmination of hundreds of years of American brewing heritage. The American Lager is a difficult style to brew as well. By nature the flavor of this beer is bland, plain, effervescent, crisp, and typically served cold. There are no distinct flavors for imperfections to hide behind; whereas one can miss a defect in an aggressively hopped India Pale Ale or strong Barleywine.

Eric Ortega, “The Golden State of Brewing; California’s Economic and Cultural Influence in the American Brewing Industry” (Master’s thesis, California State University, Fullerton, 2015), 75.