A Behind the Brew, SPECIAL: Interview with Lamplighter's Head Brewer, Simon Flaim
When I arrived at Lamplighter, I was greeted by the smell of 125lbs of freshly ground coffee. Simon Flaim, head brewer at Lamplighter, and another staff member was working on the next batch of Cuppa—Lamplighter’s British Ale blended with cold-brew coffee. The staff member was shoveling (yes, you read that right) ground coffee beans from Barrington Coffee Roasters out of a beer tank and into trash bin, and Simon was busy maneuvering equipment in said tank.
Once they finished cleaning out the tank, I got to properly meet Simon—sporting a Lamplighter hat and easy-going smile, he asked if I wanted something to drink while he gave me a tour of the brewing area. I asked for a funky sour, and he proceeded to pour me a glass of a dark purplish-amber beer from a slim, silver tank labeled “Funkman”. It was Lamplighter’s Ulysses—a dry Irish stout aged on marionberries and blackberries. Simon told me that it was one of Tyler’s (the brewmaster) creations: “We had an extra little bit of dry stout that we weren’t going to package, so Tyler came up with the idea to age it in the Foeder (a large oak vessel/oversized barrel where beer is fermented) on some different cultures, toss some fruit at it, and let it just age and do its thing—and it came out great. I mean, it’s very unique: it’s almost got like a tobacco, coffee aroma, and the aftertaste of those berries hit you. It’s really a beautiful beer.” (I definitely agree and thoroughly enjoyed it)
Simon then gave me a step-by-step in the process of brewing beer as we walked through the mill room (think bags and bags of tiny grains in a room that smells like Cheerios) and then through the narrow paths between the large silver tanks.
1.) Mill and mash the grain
Simon: “We get all our grain whole-kernel, malted from a couple of different suppliers we use. One of my favorites is a local supplier called Blue Ox up in Lisbon, ME. Anyways, we get the whole kernel grain and we mill everything by hand here. So that's the beginning of the process: We'll mill the grain, put it into a grist case and then we'll mash that grain in different temperatures, depending on the style and what we're shooting for.”
2.) Transfer the now-wort to a kettle and boil
Simon: “From the mash, we'll then run that beer off into the kettle and in the kettle we'll add different brewing salts. We'll add different hops and boil that for about 90 minutes.” (Wort is technically unfermented beer. Think of it as sort of a “beer-starter”. Wort gives beer all its flavors from the grains and hops. Wort will usually be sweet and malty to the taste due to the process of converting the grain starches to sugar during mashing.)
3.) Post-boil, transfer the wort to the whirlpool
Simon: “Post boil we'll transfer the wort to the Whirlpool, and in the whirlpool we'll be spinning out any unfermentables that we don't want to send it to the fermentor. Then from the whirlpool, we're gonna go from about 190-ish degrees down to mid 60s to create a nice, happy environment for the yeast. In the whirlpool, we also add additional hops for beers like our IPA's and beers that are more hop-driven.”
4.) From the whirlpool, the beer travels to the heat exchanger and into the fermenter
Simon: “We're going to hit the beer with oxygen, post-whirlpool, as it's going through the heat exchanger into fermenter. This is the ONLY time we want oxygen in the beer. Any time after that, you're just going to get off-flavors and it's going to be detrimental for the beer. So yeah, that first day of it going from wort to actually being beer when we pitch yeast is when it's going to see oxygen. And then, it'll be in the fermenter. IPA's and ales are usually around two and a half/three weeks from grain to can.
Lager, we're giving five to six week just because of the yeast works a little bit slower to create the flavors and profile that we're looking for. Lagers are going to work at a lower temperature. Lagers are going to work anywhere from the high forties to low fifties. And then the ales are going to work from like low sixties to low seventies, depending on the strain of yeast and the style, how much Ester formation we want, and what we're kind of looking at for that yeast and that beer style. Lagers work a little bit slower, tend to produce that sulfur that I was talking about. Still have that green Apple in early fermentation as do they any, any beer style, um, and just take a little bit longer to kind of clean up and make that more balanced beer versus the ales all right, well, it just needs a little bit of conditioning and time and then we'll Can it, especially with the IPA's there's enough hops in there that even if it tastes like a little green and bitter, give it a couple of days to let some of it out. Even if we do can it, when it's still a little green that sediment will set out and they'll be like, all right, it can condition a little bit in the Can and is ready to go before we actually send it out to stores or put it in packaging.”
5.) After fermentation is complete, the beer is transferred into a bright tank and can finally be bottled/canned!
Simon: “So then it'll, finish up fermentation, we'll put it into our bright tank, um, and it conditions further in there. And then we can either keg, bottle, or can off our bright tanks.”
Our first stop was at a tank housing a young West Coast IPA that was fermenting. Simon poured me a little glass.
Simon: “Okay, so we can taste the beer at different stages of fermentation. Now that you know the brewing process that I just explained, we can taste to see the different characteristics that come through with the different styles that we have fermenting right now. This is our West Coast IPA-- we had a different yeast strain than our flagship IPA for our New England strains. So, you get a lot of green apple flavors… that's a sign that it’s in early fermentation. It's going to be very bitter, and very, very sweet.
What you’re smelling from the beer are the byproducts of early fermentation and the hops that we use. These hops we actually get from the Midwest, from Chinook-- very pineapple-y.”
Simon then motioned to the little valves and tracking clipboard on the side of the tank. I noticed all the tanks had a similar set up. Pointing to a little circular valves and dials, he explained to me how they track the various stages of fermentation during the brewing process, and usually when you can tell it’s done:
Simon: “So in the beginning, this is our gravity, which is measured in degrees Plato. It's basically just measuring the sugar content in the now beer. When it's over on the hot side, we're making wort, like I was saying before. However, once we pitch yeast, then it technically becomes beer. So, this (the West Coast IPA) is a young beer that starts with the gravity around 16. If we look over here at one of our New England IPA, Bunnies, right now, it's at a 5. Therefore, the yeast has ate up most of the sugar that's in the solution.”
Simon gave me a taste of Bunnies, informing me that it was the freshest uncarbonated beer at Lamp currently!
Me: “That’s really good. To what level do you want the gravity to go down, usually?”
Simon: “You want to see a nice, slow decline. You don't want to see go from like 16 down to 3 in two days. Some yeast, especially Belgian yeast, can do that… but that West Coast IPA is very young still, (remember the green apple taste?) and that sweet taste is because the yeast hasn't eaten all the sugar yet. However, this IPA (Bunnies) has just crashed.
Me: “What does that mean?”
Simon: “Okay— so when looking at the gravity, we're getting around 16, for example. The gravity will slowly be working its way down. What we want to see this, start to plateau off and see like the same number consecutive days. With batches like Bunnies that we have brewed pretty regularly and consistently, we kind of know based off of what day during fermentation the gravity is, sometimes without even taking a reading.
When Tyler is restructuring the brew and putting it into all our online database he’ll sometimes be like, "Oh yeah, we know we're going to crash this beer to 32 degrees," because again, temperature is super important during fermentation. So, let’s break down the crashing process: remember, we start at a certain temperature with brewing and bump it up a little bit to get it warmer and create different esters depending on the yeast profile. Then we slowly drop the temperature to help flocculate that yeast out and get it to sit in the cone of the kettle, and we harvest it and reuse it for different beers. So now is when the cold temperatures come into play with the crashing part. We drop the beer to 30-33 degrees (this is cold!) and let it condition right before it’s ready to be canned. It's not carbonated yet, so it's flat beer, but this will get transferred over.
Me: “I take it the carbonation process happens after its transferred?”
Simon: “Yep. That'll kind of work itself out as it sits a little bit colder with some CO2 in it, and get ready to be canned. Even in the cans, it can be a little green, but then we'll give it like a week and it's like, "Oh, this is just drinking really nice right now."
We moved to another tank to another style of beer that Simon was particularly excited for: lagers.
Simon: “This is my first baby.
Me: “Oh, this is one of yours!”
Simon: “Yes! Rosie, our Mexican style lager. We just recently started doing this process with these valves that are called spunding valves. It's a German process of kind of fermenting under pressure a little bit. What we do is we let the beer ferment freely. We let it get down to a certain gravity reading where we know there’s still has some sugar left for the yeast to eat. And as the yeast is eating the sugar, you’re obviously creating two byproducts: alcohol and CO2. What this valve does is it it will carefully control the release of CO2 in the tank, and this pressure forces CO2 back into the solution. So, it's naturally carbonating the beer for us. You actually get a different mouthfeel and the process helps lock in some of those aromas that are normally blown off in the traditional process. I think it creates a totally different beer. We actually started using it for New England IPAs to see if the aromatics come through a little bit stronger in them because we're getting more tropical flavors from the fermentation; that's ultimately going to be what we're trying to achieve with the beer anyway—that balanced beer that we strive to make here.
We don’t try to make any one-dimensional style beers. You know, a lot of the hype breweries will have these beers that just taste like juice. And here we think, "well, no… if you're drinking a beer, you're going to drink a beer that is going to be bitter and not all sugar and fruit. Especially doing an IPA, you want to have a touch of bitterness. So, we’ll make a beer that WILL have that juiciness, that WILL have that dankness and a little bit of maltiness… you’re going to drink a full bodied and balanced beer.”
I totally agreed with Simon there. I definitely could tell from the quality of beer that Lamplighter put out that a lot of care and deep thought went into their recipes.
We turned back to the tank housing Rosie and I asked Simon what his inspiration was for the lager.
Simon: “I think we were just looking to brew a new lager for the taproom, and it was going to be released around Cinco de Mayo. And I was just like, “well, I love Mexican lagers because they're basically just like Vienna lagers but lighter.” We have our Vienna lager in the tank that just got put in last week. So you'll be able to taste a young lager versus Rosie, which has been in for about a month. Rosie will get about another two weeks-- it's finished its lager-ing time. Now it's just conditioning on colder temperatures. This could technically be packaged, but we like to give it an extra week or two and really clean up any, any flavors that have been left around that we don't want.”
We tasted Rosie, and it was easily one of the best lagers I’ve had to date (not just saying that because it’s Simon’s recipe… I’m 100% serious).
Me: “It’s such a nice full mouth feel when you drink it! It’s almost a little nutty?”
Simon: “Yeah, that's what I was kind of going for. When you think of your Mexican lagers, you think of Modelo, Tecate, or Corona. I went more of the maltier and on the darker, amber side. At their core, Mexican lagers are Vienna lagers. It was just German immigrants that came over and started breweries in South America or Mexico, and just were like, "all right, we’re gonna put a twist on it." That's what I was kind of going for. It was this light Vienna lager with a Mexican strain of yeast. Also, the only beer we use with that yeast strain. The yeast helps balance out that malt flavor—gives it mouthfeel that’s a little bit fruity (the esters do that) and complex, but not too in your face like an IPA. This has flaked corn in it, the hops we use are a German variety that are this balance of floral and earthiness. You get like that nuttiness, a little bit of floral notes from the hops and the yeast, and then that grounding earthiness from those hops as well. It’s definitely a lighter beer, but the yeast kind of gives it that fuller mouthfeel and perceived creaminess. I was happy with how it came out.
Me: “It’s seriously delicious. Do you experiment with the recipe still?”
Simon: “Oh yeah. We’re constantly tweaking it and we're constantly like, "Oh hey, maybe we could try this a little differently". For example, for this batch of Rosie, they were out of the corn that I usually use so I used a different corn. We try and save previous batches of all our beers, especially when there's been an ingredient change, so we can be like, "how did this sub play with our original one? Do we want to stick with it? Do we want to try something new? Do we want to keep the hops the same? Do we want to look at the gravity? When did it finish this time? When we finish last time? Did we like that?” We’re always asking those questions, because the beer is a little bit different every time.
So yes—we’re constantly trying to evolve different recipes and tweak them, pivot and be like, "well, I kind of liked batch one. Let's try and stay on batch one" and be like, "Oh, we're on batch three. Do we like batch one or two?" We try and take as good as notes as we can on every batch of beer, even ones that are flagships that we're making all the time. Every week we're doing QC on.
We’re just make trying to make the best beer that we can make. Anyways, this lager is the closest to being packaged lager that we have. Like I said, probably another weekend, it'll get transferred over then sit for a week and then we'll can it. It definitely tasted nice. Again, I'm super happy with this batch-- It got down to the gravity that I wanted, where It's a little dry but still has a little bit of sweetness left and a little bit of body.”
I secretly wanted more of that Rosie, but as promised, it was time to taste a lager on the other end of the spectrum: a very young, recently transferred Vienna lager.
Simon: “So here we are on our second lager... we just started lagering this. It's a very young beer and it's good that we could try this after the more mature Rosie. This one is a light Vienna lager. This one's still sulfur-y. You definitely can smell it, meaning that it's still in the beginning stages of its lager phase. We're just dropping the temperature in small increments every day, it'll sit there until we transfer and then it will sit at 32 degrees at the transfer, and finally condition at colder temperatures for about a week.
Anyways, this is our house lager strain that we use. We use some of those same hops and that we use I in the Mexican lager that are the balance between earthiness and flora, but we also use another German hop that is a little bit more floral than the other variety. It’s going to clean up and condition a lot over the next month I would say. So yup… still tasting like a little bit like sulfur, but it's coming along great so far.”
Me: “What do you look for when you’re tasting a lager?”
Simon: “As they're fermenting, we want to try and expel as much sulfur out of them as possible. There are certain styles that you DO want to keep a little sulfur around for longer, but these ones that we have specifically, we're trying to drive off any sulfur formation. Oh, and diacetyls especially. We do a diacetyl test when we're not getting as much diacetyl, and then we know, “okay, then we can start the lager drop.” You can tell that a lot of places that will rush a lager. You'll get that diacetyl, buttery, cream corn, smell and taste. And you're like, "wow, this is a rushed lager.” The lager could have used a couple more weeks to condition, kind of drive that out."
Me: “You like lagers right? Do you have an all-time favorite, desert island beer?”
Simon: “A desert island beer? It’s a very good tie between Coors, Banquet, Labatt Blue Light and Yuengling Lager. If I was stuck with any of those three, I would just be so happy. You can drink one or a hundred of them, and they're good for cutting the grass, just hanging, anything. They're just a good-for-all-situations type beer.
We just made an Italian pils for Pammy's down in Cambridge, and when they asked what my inspiration was to write the Italian pils recipe, I was like “Well, lagers bring this simple but complex/ drinking and relaxation to a complex and stressful world." You don't have to think about it, but you can think about it if you want, you know? Whereas IPA's and stuff, they're so in your face! Hops and juiciness!
But lagers with lagers, you can just sit down and session or relax if you like. That's one thing I think, especially in America, that people don’t do. People just don't go and session. I feel like lagers do a good job creating a relaxing environment where you can focus more on the conversation than on the beer (but you CAN focus on beer, if you want). It opens up more avenues for just being able to sit down and talk with a group of friends. That's what I like about lagers.”
It was time to transition out of more standard beers and towards more funky styles. I came face-to-face with a few wooden fermenting tanks (‘tanks’ sounds like an oxymoron here), something starkly different from the shiny metallic tanks that took up the majority of the brewery. These were the Foeder tanks—where Lamplighter kept their funky beer creations. Simon informed me that all the beers in the Foeders were very young, but that didn’t stop him from pouring me a small tasting glass.
Simon: “This is our lambic. It’s still young, but it’s going to be coming out of this Foeder in the next month or two. Pretty funky, still forming those acidic characteristics.”
Me: “Right. It has that smell and first initial taste of a lambic, but not quite like that kick you get with a sour.”
Simon: “Yep. It's still got that soft acidity-- we're looking for more of that acid formation and this'll be blended with older lambics eventually. This is our Rhapsody and is one that we’ll blend off into different fruit. We've done cherries, blueberries before. They are the two fruits that I would say that are best for fruiting sours. I think Tyler would agree with this too that, they kind of just mesh so well with the bacteria culture that we use. You do see us putting out a lot of cherry sours, but I think it's because they are so versatile and can create different sour blends. This particular lambic will probably eventually get hit with cherries. We do have another one on apricots right now though.”
Me: “At what point do you add the fruit?”
Simon: “Definitely secondary fermentation. It'll go through primary, either in barrels or in our stainless, then we'll put it in barrels or a Foeder or a tank that has that fruit. Next it'll either re-ferment any sugar that's leftover or kind of just absorb that fruit aroma and flavor. It’s usually a secondary fermentation just to kind of see how the culture did with just our base recipe. And then it's like "alright. I think this can use this fruit or use that other thing as a compliment." The beer can sit for like three months, six months, a year, two years on the fruit. Depends on the style and what you're looking for getting out of that specific style.”
Simon and I cheers-ed again with our little tasting glasses filled with an early-stage sour (what a fantastic, nerdy-beer thing to cheers with), and that concluded our tasting and tour. In such a small span of time, I felt so much more educated and appreciative of what goes into the brewing process. Before I left Lamplighter, I wanted to find out more about Simon’s personal journey in the industry and what he thought made Lamp different.
What would you say makes Lamplighter different from other breweries?
Simon: “I do think having Tyler at the helm and then the two of us being together for so long helps us create innovative beer. I know how he wants things done and I kind of have my style of getting them done. So definitely just like putting our heads down and getting the product out there but getting it out there with a mindset of as having as many eyes on the brewing process, teaching anybody along the way, even if it's someone that's been in the industry. Also, always have that mindset of being like, "Oh, this can get better, this can get better" and then carrying that over every day and just having love and passion for the industry. You have to have passion and love for whatever you're doing and translate that into the final product. So that's what we try to do on a daily basis here, with any recipe that we have. I'm not knocking any breweries or anything, but you can definitely tell when breweries rush something or don't put as much attention into their product. I think that the attention to detail that Tyler instills gets us to make like a world-class product, which is what we’re striving for.
In addition, we’re continually trying to improve every brew that we make, always striving to make it better the second time around and maintain that consistency in quality. That's key: the quality and consistent product. I think what really works for us is being able to have a voice and say, "we didn't like this, we don't think it should be like that". I'd rather something go down the drain then go in a can and be subpar and not be what we know as a Lamplighter beer. I mean first, we're going to try put it in the barrels to try and fix it, but I've never, never put a bad product out. I think what makes us different than a lot of people is that we’re not just trying to “get by.” I don't think getting by is good enough. I think that's what really makes us different from a lot of other places. We try our hardest that's for sure.”
“How did you get started in beer?”
Simon: “I worked in the restaurant industry to start, which I feel like most of the people here have as well. I found out that Sam Adams was hiring down in Pennsylvania. Didn't really know anything about brewing, never home brewed before that. I was 23 at the time, so still pretty new to drinking, but knew that I loved craft beer and it was like, “Oh yeah, I’ll try it out!” I got hired there and worked there for two years. I was like, man, I really love the brewing industry. I love being around it. I like that I can apply science and critical thinking in a fast-paced environment… plus, it was like an art form. From there, I wanted to go smaller where I would have more hands on the whole process. At Sam Adams, you're so focused on one department. I thought, "all right, I want to stay in the industry, but I want to go smaller." I moved up here from Philadelphia to work at a smaller brewery on the Cape and was there for a little bit. And again, I was like, "I really want to get even smaller. I want to see build out." I was fortunate enough to find Lamplighter in the early stages. It was like, "we're going to be opening a brewery. We're looking for an assistant brewer and you're going to help with build out; You're going to see everything from the beginning." It was exactly what I wanted, and I was super fortunate to get hired. I may have not been the most knowledgeable candidate, but I think I just meshed well with Cayla, AC, and Tyler. Now five years later, best career decision in my life, for sure. It’s been it's been a ride. I've learned so much under Tyler and not only in the brewing process, but through life and different experiences as well. It’s awesome.”
How has COVID affected your job and Lamplighter?
Simon: “I mean, I've been super fortunate to have a job the whole pandemic and be able to stay afloat here. Also, to be able to do well and have the support of the community and bring in more canned sales has been huge. I know there's a lot of other breweries that haven't been able to make it through or have struggled. I just feel like the hardworking nature of everybody here and the communication has been great.
The first couple months it was a little tough to pivot and get our like footing. I feel we’ve always had that mindset of just like, "Oh, we really don't ever have our feet underneath us", we're always kind of just like, "how do we need to do this? And that?” I think having all of us (the Lamplighter staff) at the core helps keep the ship righted. We kept saying, “we'll get through it, it'll be okay.” Cayla and I were talking, and the whole pandemic has felt like build-out where it felt like there was really no end in sight. Then we knew that there was going to be that two day period where it just clicks and we're back to normal. It really did feel eerily similar to build out and that stress of it being like, "Oh, we don't know what the future holds, but we're just going to keep on keeping on.” I can't stress enough how fortunate we've been. To stay afloat and to have the support of the community has been incredible.
I love hearing the support. I'm always down to talk to anyone that supports us and our product. I can't thank them enough too. It’s a mix of all the hardworking individuals here, mixed with such a great community and love for us. I never thought just making beer for a living would have such an impact nor did I think I would be able to make a career out of it. But it's been great.”
Is there anything in Lamplighter's near or long-term future that you're excited about or looking forward to?
Simon: “Definitely, probably my top three things I'm most excited about, is a farmhouse project. I'm really stoked for that. I think it's going to make some interesting beer, definitely add to our portfolio of beers. We've made a few saisons in the past, but not quite so much barrel project saisons. That's where I'm really hoping this takes off. It showcases Tyler's skill at blending, and our skills at brewing and the use of bacteria and yeast and different malts. Also, it’s going to cool at how it’s going to ultimately educate the whole staff here too, especially for the barrel aging process and making more farmhouse styles. That's probably my favorite and most exciting part of my life right now.
We have batch one in now and we're going to be getting batch two in the next month or two. These are long-term projects that we're just going to see how they take off. It's a new blend of yeast and bacteria. Definitely going to be all saisons, from baby table saisons to more fuller, 6.5-7% saisons. All experimental at first and we’ll kind of see and pivot depending on where it goes. That'll be hopefully mid-summer and we're going to try and set up so that we're releasing them monthly, if we can.”
How do you want to continue your education about beer and the industry, as well as grow within the industry?
Simon: “Within the last like year and a half, I've definitely stepped more into a managerial role. Tyler and I call it “carpet walking,” which has been kind of a different pivot for me. I'm used to just being hands-on and putting my head down and doing grunt work. Transitioning into more of a mentor/teacher role has been pretty exciting. I like to lead and use those leadership skills, so I’m excited to be honing them in. I'm definitely looking forward to doing more of that as I grow within the industry.
I'd say that I'm looking to grow more into the managing and leadership aspect of the industry in general too. So, continue not only my own personal education and growth, but then pass on whatever knowledge I do know to the people that may be on the fence of like, "hey, is this industry for me? Is it not?" and hopefully be able to sway them and say, "hey, this could be a potential career path based off how I started” I never saw myself here, but I want to show others they can do it if they have passion and love for it. Treat it as an art form and just love what you do every day, that type of mentality. If I can pass that onto future brewing generations, that'd be great. You know? I think Tyler holds the same kind of mindset of just being that teacher and mentor.”
Thank you to Simon for the tour, tasting, and education about both beer and Lamplighter’s brewing process!