Bring the Tart, Bring the Funk - Mixed Cultures, Spontaneous Fermentation, Aging and Blending (Panel Discussion)
Ready to graduate from "accidental" sours to award winning wild beers? This session will focus on sour and wild beer production on the homebrew scale. Oregon Brew Crew President Jim Thompson will moderate a panel discussion with professional brewers from The Commons, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales and Breakside to review modern and traditional techniques including wort production, mixed-culture fermentation and aging, blending techniques, as well as capturing your own local flavors with spontaneous fermentation. Attendees will also get the chance to sample both commercial and homemade sour beers during the discussion.
Ben Edmunds, Breakside
Ben is the brewmaster at Breakside Brewery in Portland, Oregon, where he oversees the company's production brewery and two pub breweries.
As founding brewer of Breakside, he helped grow the company from a small brewpub into a successful regional brewery. Under Ben's leadership, Breakside has won many medals at international competitions, including 5 World Beer Cup awards and 9 Great American Beer Festival medals since 2011. Educated at the Siebel Institute and Yale University, he is a former President of the Oregon Brewers Guild, a judge at the Great American Beer Festival, a founder of the Oregon Beer Awards, and a visiting lecturer in brewing science at Lewis & Clark College.
Sean Burke, The Commons
Sean Burke is the Head Brewer at The Commons Brewery in Portland, Oregon. A native Oregonian and true beer enthusiast, he holds a Master Brewer certificate from the World Brewing Academy. Extensive traveling throughout Europe has helped to influence the styles and processes he has brought to The Commons Brewery. The brewery is known for its continental European styles of beer with the main focus being Belgian and French farmhouse beers as well as traditional European lagers.
Shilpi Halemane, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales
Shilpi Halemane joined Logsdon Farmhouse Ales in 2015. His responsibilities include brewing, blending, packaging, barrel-work, and yeast propagation/management. Previous brewery experience includes brewing and quality work at Portland's Widmer Brothers Brewing Co. and Philadelphia's Yards Brewing Co., respectively. Prior to brewing, Shilpi completed B.S programs in Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics from Drexel University, and Food & Fermentation Science from Oregon State University.
Session Track
History and Styles
Experience level
Intermediate