CleverRoot

1 4 | t h e c l e v e r r o o t TOOLS OF THE OF THE TRADE The Problem: Getting precise measurements during the brew-making process. The Solution: My Weigh KD-8000 Digital Weighing Craft Tabletop Scale. The Problem Solver: Danny Bruckert, Brewmaster, Circa Brewing in Brooklyn, NY. IN A RECENT INTERVIEW, MODERNIST culinary icon and Microsoft billionaire Nathan Myhrvold observed that of all the high-tech toys in his beyond state-of-the-art kitchen, the one that means the most to him, more even than his PolyScience Immersion Circulator, is his digital scale. He said, the scale "allows you to apply more precision to your recipe mea- surements." But then, his recipes are insanely demanding molecular dishes. By contrast, what Danny Bruckert makes is . . . beer. Craft beer in many flavors and styles. But still, it's beer. Which he cranked out at Brooklyn's much-loved Sixpoint Brewery, and is now producing at the newly opened Circa Brew- ing—part of the suds factories that have made Brooklyn a hotbed of artisanal beer (and pretty much artisanal everything else as well). Merrill Shindler: You're a great fan of theMy Weigh KD-8000 Digital Weighing Craft Tabletop Scale, which ison Amazon for under 40 dollars. Shouldn't you be using some sort of super lab scale that can weigh a single human hair? Danny Bruckert: It's one of many scales that I use. But I've found it to be a good general- purpose all-around scale, accurate to within 0.1 gram. It's great for measuring, because it can bounce between American measurements and metric. I've used lots of scales over the years, but I keep coming back to the My Weigh. MS: I think of baking as be- ing very exact. But beer, brewed in hundreds of gallons, seems to have a lot of leeway… DB: That's not exactly true. You want reproducibility, to create the same beer over and over again. I think brewing is more exacting than winemaking. Though it is hard to measure ingredients, because it's such a reactive process. MS: Meaning? DB: You want the hops to be very exact, so the flavor stays the same. But you also have to constantly adjust, because nothing is quite the same. Flavor additives have to be very exact. I count yeast cells under a microscope. On the other hand, malt is a lot more forgiving. It's all about tasting at every step of the process. MS: Did you grow up in a culture of beer- making? DB: I grew up in Barrow, Alaska, with my twin brother, Luke, who's the pizza chef at the brewery. MS: Say what? You grew up in complete darkness half the year! DB: Yeah, you do start to miss the sunlight thing. Our parents were teachers, and it paid well to teach in Barrow. So there we were. MS: So. . . you filled your time making walrus beer? DB: I started brewing in Oregon. My then- girlfriend, now wife, got me a Mr. Beer Kit. I started making beer at home. And I loved it, and making good beer for cheap. MS: Sounds like you were destined to make beer. Portland is a major craft beer city. And Brooklyn has a brewery on every block. Is there a Brooklyn style of beer? DB: The style people love here is what's known as New England IPA. It can be really strange. One batch might look like a glass of milk. Others are maybe a little hazy. And, of course, our local flavor owes its taste to Brook- lyn water. Only Brooklyn water is Brooklyn water. You can't reproduce it. MS: What else sets your beer apart? DB: We use a process called dry-hopping, which involves dangling a bag of hops inside a tank through the life of the beer. It's constantly pulling flavor, adding aromatics. MS: And do your beers go well with your twin brother's pizzas? DB: Do you even have to ask? Beer and pizza, made in Brooklyn. It's not our food. It's our culture. BREWMASTER DANNY BRUCKERT MAKES BROOKLYN-STYLE BEER by Merrill Schindler PHOTO COURTESY OF CIRCA BREWING CO. The Weight of Hoppiness Danny Bruckert, Brewmaster of Circa Brewing Co. in Brooklyn, NY. Bruckert is a fan of the My Weigh KD-8000 Scale because of its accuracy and American-to- metric conversion. PHOTO COURTESY OF CIRCA BREWING CO. ■cr

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