9 Steps To Beerdom

Christophe Gagne Co-founder and brewmaster, Hermit Thrush Brewery.

- Paul McMorrow

Christophe Gagné’s brewing philosophy is simple: “Mother earth is good, and nature is better at things than I am.” Belgian brewers, he argues, “approach recipe formulation more like writing a song than figuring out how to bake a cupcake.” Hermit Thrush Brewery, the Brattleboro, Vt., business Gagné co-founded in 2014, follows a similar path, showcasing local microorganisms by nurturing more than a dozen house cultures of wild yeast and bacteria and embracing spontaneous fermentation. “We allow the region’s micro flora to define our brand,” he says. “My favorite thing is getting someone in the tasting room who has just had 40 different DIPAs … but they’re making this one last stop. And they say, ‘Oh my God, this is the best beer on the trip,’ because there’s nothing else like it.”

1 Chase mystery

Gagné came to home brewing after working as a cheese monger and as a sous chef in a farm-to-table operation. The hot side of brewing felt familiar, but he found what came after—the pitching of yeast and the transformation of wort into beer—to be mysterious and wonderful. He was puzzled, however, by the industrialized way most American brewers treated yeast. He wondered, “Why does Belgium have all this particularly good yeast? Or are they the only culture keeping alive a Zen approach to beer; an acceptance of not having complete control in the behavior of yeast?”

2 Work—and drink—the long game