It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No, not Christmas. The Craft Brewers Conference! Every year brewers and industry friends gather for an epic celebration of craft, camaraderie, and of course, great beer. This year we will gather in Philadelphia, and we’ll be pouring a lot of that wonderful beer at the RahrBSG Village at Booth 1603. Some of what we’re most excited to share with you include four beers produced in-house by Jake Thompson and Sean Tynan, the brewers at Rahr Eagle Brewery at our Rahr Technical Center. They have brewed a selection of beers for CBC 2026 that showcase new and long-time favorite ingredients, from chit malt to thiolized lager yeast.

Here’s a sneak peek!

Chit Czech Pale Lager: That’s Good Chit!

If you haven’t been introduced yet, Gambrinus Chit Malt, the newest malt out of Gambrinus Malting ® is your North American solution for enhanced foam, body, and haze retention, built for just about any beer style from traditional lagers to NEIPA. It is lightly modified and kilned to a low color, so it retains the high molecular weight proteins that positively impact beer foam without influencing beer color. 

“When I think of beers with good foam and head retention I think Czech lagers,” said Thompson. “And, if the Chit Malt had any flavor to consider you would definitely taste it against Pils malt. If we were to have brewed, say, a Hazy IPA you might get great head retention, but you wouldn’t necessarily know if you’re getting any flavor inclusion from the Chit Malt. The Czech lager seemed a much better test case for a fairly large amount of Chit Malt.”

Chit Czech includes a base malt of Gambrinus Pilsner Malt. A small percentage of Gambrinus Honey Malt adds a blush of color and slight bit of sweetness. And a “not playing around” amount of Gambrinus Chit Malt – 20 percent of the grist – fills out the malt bill. Thompson says part of the reason for using the higher amount of dextrinous Chit Malt was to mimic the flavors of the decoction process (typical with Czech-style beers) without actually performing a decoction. 100% Saaz hops from top to bottom give the beer floral, herbal, woody, and spicy notes. So, what of the Chit Malt

Gambrinus Pils Malt isn’t known for being super malty. It’s more grainy and grassy than Rahr North Star Pils and other Pils malts. So, one might expect this beer to be a bit more neutral. But that’s not the case. “I feel like the Chit Malt and Honey Malt are boosting the perception of maltiness,” said Thompson. “This has a more layered malt character to it with subtle honey Graham malt sweetness. There is nothing to hide behind with this beer. If the Chit Malt did give some degree of flavor, it would be more obvious. I don’t think it provided much flavor. But, if it did, I like what it’s doing.”

The brewers said at 20% inclusion they were pleasantly surprised to find they didn’t have any issues lautering. They also expected to see a more noticeable decrease in fermentability. But, it was only 3%, at the most, ADF (Apparent Degree of Fermentation) difference from similar mashes they’ve done with much higher percentages of Pils malt.

Chit Czech has amazing head retention leading Tynan and Thompson to describe Gambrinus Chit Malt the perfect malt for the popular presentation of uber foamed Mliko poured beers, or any style where you want to boost body and/or head retention, especially if you’re looking to maintain a light color. “In the West Coast Pils race to be the lightest color beer, this would be a good inclusion,” said Thompson. “Its color is actually lighter than some of your typical base malts!”

Simpsons Slumlord: Mighty Fine Bitter, Guv’ner!

When our brewers were asked what they would like to brew for showcasing Simpsons Finest Golden Promise™ among other Simpsons specialty malts, their thoughts immediately went to Richard Simpson’s favorite beer, Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. Simpsons Slumlord is a nod to that beer and the treasured styles of English Pale Ale and Best Bitter. We’re talking English malt, American yeast, and hops from both sides of the Atlantic.

“Golden Promise is such a well-known malt,” said Thompson. “We wanted to accentuate it in a way that would be easy-drinking. At the same time, Simpsons crystal malts (like Simpsons Munich Malt, Simpsons Crystal Medium, and Simpsons Extra Dark Crystal) are some of our favorites to brew with; they bring such wonderful caramel, toffee, and raisin flavors. I believe Timothy Taylor gets a lot of color and richness of flavor from a direct fire kettle. Since we don’t have that, we subbed in crystal and Munich malts to get that round malt profile.” The brewers said they chose to ferment the beer with Fermentis Fermentis SafAle™ US-05 instead of the more traditional Fermentis SafAle™ S-04 English yeast strain to help push the malt flavors to the absolute forefront.

“We don’t make many English ales,” said Tynan, “so getting to use Golden Promise with this beer was perfect for trying a new style. We used the Fuggle late addition to make sure we had some classical English ale aroma from a more traditional variety.”

At only 3.9% ABV, the beer is shockingly rich and malty, easy-drinking, with firm bitterness to balance out the residual body. Flavors of dark biscuit, citrus and orange peel, earthy black tea. In our taste panel it was joyfully comparable to other Pale Ale / Extra Special Bitter crossovers like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (you know, the one that last year won a World Beer Cup gold medal for ESB!?) or closer to home for us here in Minnesota, Summit Extra Pale Ale.

“I think it will fill a spot on our CBC taplist for people who enjoy the style but don’t get to drink it often,” said Tynan. “If someone is looking for it, I think they are going to like this.”

West Coast Pils Two Ways: Release the Thiols!

Holy side-by-side, Batman! Visitors to the RahrBSG Village at CBC will have a unique opportunity to taste beer fermented with the newly released Fermentis SafLager™ SH-45, a carefully selected lager yeast, ideal for expressing some of the aromatic compounds coming from the raw materials in beer, specifically the hops. This strain possesses the capability to release and esterify thiols. As a result, Fermentis says beers crafted with Fermentis SafLager™ SH-45 may present enhanced levels of fruitiness and intensified citrus and tropical notes. (Learn more about Fermentis SafLager™ SH-45 in this intro video from Fermentis.) 

To see how this yeast performed, the Rahr Eagle Brewers developed a fairly simple beer leaning on ingredients that recent research has shown are often accentuated with thiolized yeast strains. A single stream of wort was split into two smaller tanks, each pitched with different yeast – Fermentis SafLager™ SH-45 in one, the much more classic and cleaner Fermentis SafLager™ W-34/70 in the other. They were also dry hopped in the fermenters at about 50% fermentation.

The brewers say they didn’t want to produce something that was overly hoppy, but wanted something that would theoretically be hoppy enough to show the differences between thiolized and non-thiolized yeast.

“The goal was to introduce the only variable being the two different yeast,” said Tynan. “If we were to overwhelm it with a bunch of hops, especially varieties with a lot of free thiols in them already, then we might not notice the difference. So, we did a smaller hop addition. One-third pound per barrel of varieties with more bound thiols to see if the yeast was showcasing its potential.”

The beers are a lot more similar than most of our taste panel thought they would be, but the differences are appreciable. In broad terms, Thompson says he thinks the W-34/70 version drinks more like an Italian Pils, more herbal and floral. To him, the SH-45 version drinks like a light West Coast Pils, leaning more tropical.

“The W-34/70 is more mild on the hop aroma with a more rounded flavor and aroma,” said Tynan. “Some of the fruity and tropical aromatics come through more on the SH-45, with also more hop character in the finish. I get pineapple now. When the beer was a bit younger I got more grapefruit notes.” 

Our panel also noted an increased mouthfeel with SH-45. The W-34/70 was more crisp, SH-45 was more rounded. One taster noted it had the hallmarks of Hazy IPA, but in a very clear, crisp beer: tropical fruit, lingering fruity hop flavor, a softness to the body.

“Neither of these are as overwhelming as a lot of dry hopped beers could be,” said Tynan, “but I think customers will find the comparison very interesting. These beers will be a great conversation starter.” 

What’s That? More Thiols? Let’s Go!

You’ll also find Thiolized Hoppy Lager on tap at RahrBSG Village. “The goal with this one was to increase the dry hop from the side-by-side,” said Tynan, “and really punch up the hoppy aroma to further showcase Fermentis SafLager™ SH-45. We wanted to use something closer to a dry hop that our customers would be doing. It’s also a higher ABV beer, so it will be on that yeast for a bit longer, and I think that a bit of alcohol note often plays very well with hops.” 

Our tasting panel noted boosted flavors of lemon, lemon zest, Lemonheads candy, pineapple, and floral-leaning lychee fruit.

“More hops seem to make a difference,” said Thompson. “This beer with increased dry hop amount seems to have more character. Not sure if that’s linear. Or if maybe increasing the bitterness supports those unique hop flavors.”

Jake Thompson and Sean Tynan raise a glass at Rahr Eagle Brewery 

Come find out for yourself! Jake and Sean would love to know what you think of the beers and talk about using these malts, hops, and yeast in your brewhouse. Please stop by RahrBSG Village at Booth 1603 to share some beer, talk shop, play some games, and have a few laughs. See you in Philly!