Podcast Feature: Living a Stout Life

We had the opportunity to sit down with Ken and April Pishna, the creatives behind the Living a Stout Life podcast. During their time in Sioux Falls, we talked over some beers about Severance, why we do what we do, the Sioux Falls craft beer scene, and a whole bunch in between.

Listen to the end to find out what style of beer we think would best describe each other—a fun little activity you should do with your friends, partner or spouse. The results may surprise you!

Ken and April have a great story about severing ties in their own life when they decided to take their lives on the road in an RV and start a travel and beer blog and podcast. (Maybe a story for the next Severing Ties Spotlight, eh?!)

Sustainability at Severance

Did you know that sustainability is one of the values we hold as a business? Out of respect for our planet and it’s limited natural resources, we try to do our part to be good humans and keep our footprint as small as possible. Here are a few of the things we do to brew our beer sustainably:

Electricity

Our house yeast strain requires no temperature regulation during fermentation which gives our glycol chiller a huge break, especially during the summer months! 

If we’re not going to brew for an extended period of time, we drop our Hot Liquor Tank (HLT) temps or empty it altogether.

Our glycol chiller creates quite a bit of heat. That heat is pumped into The Cascade’s underground parking garage which helps reduce heating costs in the winter.

I brew in my underwear to save on air conditioning. (Kidding, no one wants to see that.)

Water conservation

That same yeast strain allows us to use less water when chilling the boiling wort down to pitching temperatures.

We capture that chill water in our HLT which allows us to use it for future brews or cleaning processes. This allows us to save over 13,000 gallons of water a year!

We also use on-demand water heaters for supplemental hot water so that we only heat the water we use.

Repurposed Grain

Not much goes to waste on brew day. We give our spent grain to a local farmer near Hartford to help feed about 250 head of cattle. Occasionally spent grain will also go to local bakeries for spent grain bread and dog biscuits!

Repurposed Hops

Three cheers for hop sustainability! Our “Re-Gifted” series of beers are brewed with re-used (re-gifted) hops from our Love Notes Hazy IPA to squeeze as much flavor and aroma as we possibly can out of the hop plants.

Taproom Recycling

Recycle bins are placed in the taproom to encourage recycling any plastic, paper and glass materials.

Spent grain gets pulled from the mash tun on brew days. It is then donated to local farmers to feed their cattle or local bakers for breads, desserts and dog biscuits.

Podcast Feature: Booze Brews & Reviews

We recently sat down with the guys of the Booze Brews and Reviews podcast to talk about brewery fails, how we started, how we pivoted and made a major investment at the height of the pandemic and gave a little background story on a few of our most popular beers including: Love Notes, DB Cooper’s Big Jump, Koala Drop Kick IIPA, Amber Alexander, and Smōktoberfest. Tune in here or click ‘play’ below and laugh along with us:

Ep. 153 – Severance Brewing Taproom Takeover

The Proliferation of IPAs

By Scott Heckel | CEO + Head Brewer | Severance Brewing Co.
Each year, the first Thursday in August is celebrated as National IPA Day. This sparked a conversation about the wide breadth of what an IPA can be—from dank and bitter to juicy and citrusy.

It’s really quite fascinating (or disheartening to some) how rapidly the IPA has evolved over the last couple decades. But before we get to the current state of IPAs, I thought I’d give you an abbreviated history about how IPAs came to be in the first place!

the backstory

India Pale Ales (IPAs) have been around for centuries, originally brewed by the British in the 1800s with higher alcohol content and hopping rates in efforts to preserve the ales during their six-month voyage from Britain to troops stationed in India. These early IPAs were malty with a fair amount of bitterness due to the amount of hops used.

While English-style IPAs are often more floral, grassy or herbal in nature, the American or West Coast IPAs that fed the IPA craze of the 2000s and 2010s tended to feature citrus, pine and dank characteristics by leveraging hops from the Pacific NW such as Cascade, CTZ (Columbus, Tamohawk, and Zeus), and Chinook - among many others.

In true American fashion, we quickly went in the way of excess with brewers attempting to see just how bitter and potent IPAs could be, creating double, triple and even quadruple IPAs with bitterness levels so high they’d annihilate your palate for the better part of a week.

Severance Brewing Co. has featured several American IPAs along these lines including Rampant Narwhals, Narwhal Hunter, and DB Cooper’s Big Jump.

An explosion of flavors

Along with the explosion of Craft Beer in the US, the last half of the 2010s saw a proliferation of “IPA” styles with hardly any resemblance of the traditional India Pale Ale.

In general “IPA” now refers to any beer with high hopping rates (even if they’re not overly bitter) or a higher ratio of bitterness - measured in IBUs (International Bitterness Unit) - when compared to original gravity (the amount of sugar present before fermentation).

Severance Brewing Co. frequently has five or more different IPA styles on tap at any given time.

Here’s a list of some of the most recent IPA styles to come about in no particular order:

Session IPA - These share many of the characteristics of IPAs with an ABV in the 4-4.5% range allowing you to drink them throughout an entire drinking session. They typically use late or dry hopping techniques to limit the amount of bitterness derived from the hops.

White IPA - Typically featuring hops with strong citrus character, these bright IPAs use wheat malt making them lighter in appearance than a West Coast IPA.

Red IPA - A bit of a hybrid between an American IPA and Amber Ale.

Rye IPA - An American IPA made with rye malt which lends a slightly spicy note that pairs especially well with more pine-forward hops.

Severance Brewing Co. beers have included: The Ryes and Wherefores

New Zealand IPA - IPAs featuring New Zealand hops with exotic fruit character.

Hazy IPA (aka Juicy or New England IPA) - Arguably the most popular style of IPA over the last several years. These IPAs are thick/juicy with very low bitterness but monstrous aroma due to the copious amount of hops used in whirlpool/dry hop additions. Hop character ranges from citrus, to stonefruit, to berry and beyond using Australian, New Zealand and American hop varieties like Galaxy, Wakatu, Citra, Mosaic, and Strata.

Like American IPAs, hazies also come in the session, double and triple varieties.

Severance Brewing Co. beers have included: Love Notes® (Hazy IPA), Koala Drop Kick (Double Hazy IPA), Levitating Falls (Hazy Session IPA). Wolf Pack Fanny Pack is a hybrid between White IPA and Hazy IPA.

Milkshake IPA - Milkshake IPAs really push the boundaries for what can be considered an “IPA”. They’re a spinoff of hazies but feature large amounts of fruit, lactose (milk sugar) for added sweetness and, often, vanilla to give the impression of a fruit milkshake.

Severance Brewing Co. beers have included: Midwestern Melkshake w/ Mango

Sour IPAs - Sour IPAs are a slightly newer trend and are just like they sound, an IPA soured through kettle souring or mixed-fermentation. This style can range from soured American IPAs to soured hazies.

Experimental IPA - IPAs using experimental ingredients or techniques that don’t quite fit into any other category.

Severance Brewing Co. beers have included: Graves of Touraine (Sauvignon Blanc Grape IPA), Gin Barrel-Aged DB Cooper’s Big Jump, Sauvignon Blanc Barrel Aged Graves of Touraine, Secret Double Cross and Re-Gifted Birthday Cards which re-used hops from a batch of Love Notes®!