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Stomping Ground - Lindsay Astarita: Sensory, Quality Control and Beer Judging
There were many reasons why we were eager to invite Lindsay Astarita on as a guest for The Crafty Pint Podcast.
She's developed the sensory and quality program at a brewery that has a happy knack of winning major trophies. The tale of how she ended up in that position, after years spent travelling the world seeking out good beer wherever she went, is an excellent one. She's about to head back to her home country, the US, so we needed to get her on quickly. As with many of the ongoing series on the main website, we're keen to use the podcast as a platform to shine a light on people in all parts of the beer world, not just owners or founders. And, as a mutual friend from outside the beer world put it, Lindsay is a superstar.
Then, as we sat there listening to her take us behind the scenes in the world of beer judging, it occurred to us we needed to get her on ASAP as the Indies awards were coming up sharpish.
So, following our debut episode with Sailors Grave, here she is as the star of the second show.
Our chat with Lindsay features insights into how installing quality programs can help breweries produce consistently great beer, the importance of beer education, and the day in the life of a beer judge – as well as Lindsay's personal journey from beer-loving traveller working front of house to someone who's just landed a gig judging at this year's Great American Beer Festival.
We've published it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube ahead of the Indies awards ceremony in Perth (at which Lindsay was one of the judges, of course). If you're reading this in time and can't make it to the Rendezvous Hotel on the night, you can livestream the awards or join one of the streaming parties around the country. Details of both here.
Aside from that, thanks for all the amazing feedback we've received following the first episode.
Cheers!
We're keen to work with partners looking to reach new audiences and achieve their objectives in fun and creative ways. So, if you'd like to be part of the action, get in touch.
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
