Meet the Brewer: Twin Span Brewing
The story of human civilization is directly tied to the story of beer. Twin Span Brewing’s Head Brewer and Certified Cicerone, Adam Ross, is continuing to tell the story of beer with his historical and innovative brewing style. Twin Span’s love for great food and great beer is a match made in heaven for one of the newest breweries in the Quad Cities. Adam tells all about his love for collaboration brews, connecting with customers, and his passion of Iowa corn.
Along with being the Head Brewer at Twin Span, you also continue to work your full time job. How long have you been brewing and what is your job other than brewing?
I started homebrewing in 2006 and quickly became obsessed. I read all the books and magazines I could find and listened to all the podcasts. For quite a while there, I was brewing 3 or more times per month. My career is in corporate tech. Lately, it's been media management—making and sending videos across the Internet.
How do your skills in your other profession benefit your position as a head brewer?
There's little overlap. I feel like they're kept in separate sides of my brain at least. I have coded some programs to analyze sales and trends in order to better decide what to brew when and how much. If anything, I guess my tech skills help us maintain the website.
You’re a Certified Cicerone. What does that mean and how does it help you with your job?
It's the beer equivalent of a Wine Sommelier - someone that knows the many styles of beer and their history, characteristics, how they're made, how they taste, and how they pair with food. It's a holistic approach to beer for the service industry. Since I'm deciding what to brew and then brewing it for a dining room, I find the knowledge I gained in studying for the Cicerone to be invaluable.
The food at Twin Span is extremely unique with several vegetarian options and dishes that seem to be inspired by several cultures. Talk to me a bit about the food and it’s connection with your beer.
I can't take any credit on the food - that's all chef Juan Hernandez and his kitchen team. He keeps me on my toes making sure the quality of beer is on par with the quality of his food. And I strive to make sure every beer I produce pairs well with at least something on the dining menu. We used to host monthly beer dinners. Juan and I would sit down together and create a unique, one-night-only menu of 4 or 5 courses each with their own beer pairing. We plan on bringing those back soon!
Juan uses our beer in a few of his dishes too. He likes to experiment with blending different beers into the cheese sauce for our pretzels and chips. He'll steam clams or mussels in beer. The syrup that comes with the chicken and waffle dish uses beer too. He's had a lot of fun using beers with chocolate, fruit, and pepper flavors.
As for the vegetarian options, his commitment to offering vegetarian and vegan dishes drives decisions in the brewhouse. All of our beers are vegetarian, and most are vegan. I want a vegetarian or vegan to have the option of a full meal with drinks at Twin Span. That's hard to come by around here.
You brew quite a few “historical” brews from pre-prohibition American styles to centuries old European recovered recipes. Why is beer history something you’re passionate about sharing with your customers?
I'm passionate about history in general. You can get a much better idea about where you're going if you know where you came from. The Quad Cities, due to being a group of river towns, has such a rich brewing history. I don't want to lose that. If I can brew one of these old recipes, or something inspired by one of them, it keeps that history alive and helps us connect with our past.
I tend to keep two pre-prohibition style beers on at all times. Liffey Light is a pale lager with loads of old school 6-row barley and corn. That would have been standard fare around here 120+ years ago around here, but no one is brewing it. It's not based on any one recipe, but it's a tribute. It wouldn't be out of place in a Davenport bar in 1901.
Davenporter is a pre-prohibition porter that again is a tribute to our brewing past. It uses 6-row and corn too, but also has a ton of molasses in it - all ingredients common in porters back then. It's not big and chewy either. It's meant to be a really easy drinker. I use a hop in it they probably weren't using back then, but it throws this hint of tobacco - at least to my palate - and we had such a big cigar industry back then, it's there as another little nod to our past.
They're both a balancing act between being as historically accurate as possible, and brewing for modern palates. Some of these old recipes from the US, I don't think they'd have many fans today. Tastes have changed so much. So I do my best to translate them while maintaining that spirit of the original. I have made some German and British beers from the 1890s, where I tried to keep them as true as possible. They have been well received. I plan on doing more of that.
You’re an Iowa native who was known in the local homebrewing circles for your love of brewing with corn. Can you share a bit about that?
Corn has received a bad rap in beer in the past few decades for what I believe to be some wholly unfounded reasons. Like any ingredient, you need to know how to use it correctly in a beer. It can bring characteristics and flavors nothing else can.
I grew up surrounded by corn fields and there’s a corn field across the street from Twin Span. Iowa is known for its corn. We should be proud of that and celebrate it.
You recently brewed collaboration beer with Midwest Ale Works and Geneseo Brewing. You’ve also brewed a collaboration beer with the late homebrewer, Kurt Smelser. How important are collaboration beers to you and Twin Span?
I’d love to have a collab beer on tap at all times. I know so many brewers personally that if anything, these collab brew days are a chance to hang out and catch up. Every brewer, professional or not, has their own skillset and brings their own touch to a given beer. Kurt had an endless knowledge of brewing Belgian beers and was a good friend of mine so I invited him in as soon as I could. I consulted with him on a few other beers too, so he deserves some extra credit there.
My favorite collabs are when I can try the same recipe brewed by different brewers. It really shows off what those unique skills are for each brewer. I’ve done a couple of those and I definitely want to do more.
During and even after the pandemic shut downs, you’ve been known to go live on the Twin Span Facebook page to talk openly about beer with your customers. Why is it important to you for your customers to have that open communication with you?
I don’t really think of the pandemic as factoring into that. It’s more of a scheduling thing. With my tech career and family life, I don’t get nearly as much time as I’d like in our dining room talking to customers. If I’m at Twin Span, I’m probably brewing and can’t break away. So these little impromptu video chats are my chance to catch up with customers. We have some regular participants. That’s really cool.
Transparency is really important for us. A lot of restaurants have show kitchens, so that diners can see how their food is being prepared, and it keeps the restaurant owners and kitchen staff honest and clean. At Twin Span, we have a show brewery – those big windows into the brewhouse let you see everything. It is a bit strange working on the brew deck, hovering just above and behind a family eating dinner, and extra stressful when a seal breaks and I spill beer in front of them, but it’s all commitment to that transparency.
So the monthly chats are more of that. I say what I’ve been working on, what hasn’t worked, and what’s coming up. I let people know when I’ve tweaked the recipe on one of their favorite beers and why. And I look to them for feedback and suggestions. It’s as much for me as it is for our customers.
What’s coming up at Twin Span?
We just started distributing! A few kegs have been sent out around the city and state. It’s a whole other ballgame. It’s keeping me really busy and I’ve started building up a mini QA/QC lab. I can’t control a beer from grain to glass within our 4 walls, but not so when we’re sending out kegs. So I’m doubling down on QA.
Recipe-wise, I have a whole backlog of beers I’m really excited about, but I don’t have enough time to brew all of them. I’ll get to them all eventually. A lot of them are lagers, and there are a few historic recipes of course. In the much closer future, we’re transitioning into autumn, which is my favorite season for beer. Things are going to get a little darker and there will be liberal use of apples and pumpkin spice. And I’m starting to think about Christmase and a seasonal flavor.
About the Author:
Charlie Cole is a professional brewer and multimedia beer promoter. He is a graduate of St. Louis University in Brewing Science and Operations as well as University of Vermont and San Diego State University in Business of Craft Beer. He has been a previous brewer at three Quad Cities breweries and co-hosts the What’s Tappening weekly local beer segment on 97X FM.