Hanabi (pronounced haNAbi) is a lager brewing project, born from a winemaking life and a passion for building things with their hands. These ‘grain-forward lagers’, are the brainchild of a husband-and-wife team, Nick Gislason and Jennifer Angelosante. They’ve been in the wine industry for decades; Nick is currently the head winemaker at Screaming Eagle and Jennifer, most recently, a viticulturist for Silverado Farming Company and a wine journalist. They’ve both been brewing beer since before they were legal. They wanted to make a beer that was as much about the fastidiousness of the process as it was about the provenance of the grain. Thanks in large part to the chefs and bakers that turned their focus to ancient grains in the last 10-15 years, Nick and Jennifer have been able to originate their beers from a menagerie of heritage, heirloom and special modern varieties of barley. They are also able to malt (sprout) their barley in small batches at artisanal malting facilities up and down the west coast, which, until recently, was not an option as there were only massive facilities that had no interest or ability to work with small plots of special grain. These grain forward beers are subtle, crisp and deeply enticing, as any good lager should be. They release their beers with the change of the season focusing on one variety of barley at a time, and have a flagship Pilsner that is brewed with a very rare historic heirloom called ‘Hana’.

We could go on about the water they use, the brand name (it’s such a cool story!), the special kettles they employ to brew their beers (Nick, along with fellow brewery engineer friend Jared and world-class fabricator Trevor, designed and built a custom, steam fired, 5-vessel decoction brewhouse from scratch)…etc.

This path of producing grain-forward lagers is distinct from hop-forward beers that showcase the flavors of hop flowers, or malt-forward beers whose flavors are largely derived from the malting process rather than from the grains themselves.

The Industrial Revolution spurred 180 years of massive innovation in the brewing and malting (barley sprouting) processes that have allowed for the production of more intentional and consistent beers. Now, with a well-established toolkit, we believe that a shift in focus from process to ingredients is a natural next step in the evolution. With respect to hops, this work is already well under way. However, with grains, the soul of the beer and main ingredient besides water, a deeper understanding of the unique flavors contributed by different varieties and terroirs is still highly underdeveloped.

Here at Hanabi Lager, we are using lager brewing as a methodology to explore the delicious range of flavors that grains can bring to beer. We design our processes to allow the flavors of the grains to shine, and the results are beers that are simultaneously refreshing and flavorful, distinguished by their elegance and complexity. If this intrigues you, please join us on our journey to discover what delicious flavors can be found in the heritage, heirloom, and special modern varieties of barley that we work with and beyond.

Inspired by
History and Tradition

For the uninitiated, lager is a traditional beer fermented at low temperature by the yeast Saccharomyces pastorianus. These yeasts are believed to be the love children of a cold-hardy Saccharomyces native to the Patagonian Andes, who mysteriously met with established ale fermenting microflora within ancient brewery caves in Bavaria. Although the story of how this might have happened some 500 years ago has been sewn into the wilderness of history, these wild lager yeasts took residence in the wooden fermentation vats of the Bavarian Alps, and a highly localized lager brewing tradition quietly developed around them in Germany and Bohemia over a period of several hundred years.

Then, in the late 1800s, lager brewing suddenly flared to life and spread throughout the world. These yeasts were fermenting beers that people just couldn’t resist. Very different in character than the opulent, strongly flavored, fruity ales of the time, they instead offered something much more subtle, crisp, and deeply enticing. These are beers that resonate with our palates.

To read more about past seasonal beers check out their website.

Photos courtesy of Emma K Creative, Suzanne Becker Bronk & @beauneimports