{"id":16500,"date":"2026-07-28T19:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beersmith.com\/blog\/?p=16500"},"modified":"2026-07-28T19:56:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:56:03","slug":"abita-brewing-na-beer-and-hops-with-mitch-steele-beersmith-podcast-347","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beersmith.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/abita-brewing-na-beer-and-hops-with-mitch-steele-beersmith-podcast-347\/","title":{"rendered":"Abita Brewing, NA Beer and Hops with Mitch Steele &#8211; BeerSmith Podcast #347"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-via=\"beersmith\" data-count=\"vertical\" data-url=\"https:\/\/beersmith.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/abita-brewing-na-beer-and-hops-with-mitch-steele-beersmith-podcast-347\/\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mitch Steele joins me from Abita Brewing to discuss his new position as Director of Operations, Non-Alcoholic (NA) beer brewing and his experience with hop derived products.<\/p> <p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Subscribe on iTunes to <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/beersmith-home-beer-brewing\/id398500515?mt=2\">Audio version <\/a>or <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/beersmith-home-beer-brewing\/id824963861\">Video version<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/7vwQRBi8HJBpePV3I7Dpj5\">Spotify <\/a>or <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/music.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLmt3Is-jbBLXos-tmhHJ2e_tCMQooh7gj&amp;si=JnITvPpXDFmKOO_I\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Google Music<\/strong><\/a><\/p> <p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/beersmith\/BSHB-347-Steele.mp3\">Download the MP3 File<\/a>&#8211; Right Click and <strong>Save As<\/strong> to download this mp3 file.<\/p> <audio controls=\"\"> <source src=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/beersmith\/BSHB-347-Steele.mp3\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\"\/>\nYour browser does not support the audio element.\n<\/audio> <hr class=\"wp-block-separator alignfull has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/im6W0MF1U8o?si=B0Dn2Nu_fHsQC-b5\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <h3 id=\"topics-in-this-week-s-episode-50-46\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Topics in This Week&#8217;s Episode (49:27)<\/h3> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This week I welcome back Mitch Steele. Mitch is author of the book <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2oWQrpM\">IPA: Brewing Techniques, Recipes and the Evolution of India Pale Ale<\/a> (Amazon affiliate link). Mitch is also the former brewmaster at Stone brewing and is has recently taken a new job as Director of Operations at <a href=\"https:\/\/abita.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Abita Brewing<\/a>.<\/li> <li>We start with a discussion about Mitch and his transition this year from New Realm Brewing to Director of Operations at Abita which is a fairly large regional brewery.<\/li> <li>I ask Mitch about his brewing career which actually spans Annheuser-Busch, Stone, New Realm and now Abita.<\/li> <li>After discussing his career, we switch to talking about Non-Alcoholic (NA) beer. While Mitch was previously using vacuum distillation, he has now switched to instead using a combination of high mash temperatures, maltose negative yeast, and other process changes to make NA beers.<\/li> <li>Mitch and I discuss lower alcohol beers (3%) and whether this might be a new trend or just a fad?<\/li> <li>We next switch to discussing the many new hop derived products which can be applied to just about any phase of the brewing process to reduce losses, and enhance bitterness and aroma.<\/li> <li>Mitch explains the advantages and disadvantages of using many of these new hop products.<\/li> <li>We have a short discussion on fruit beers, which are very popular at Abita. Mitch tells us how he best applied fruits to accent his beers. He also explains which fruits work best for providing structure and flavor.<\/li> <li>He shares his closing thoughts.<\/li>\n<\/ul> <h3 id=\"sponsors\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sponsors<\/h3> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Thank you to our sponsor <a href=\"http:\/\/beerandbrewing.com\">Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine<\/a> for sponsoring this episode. I encourage you to subscribe to their great magazine!<\/li> <li>Also check out <a href=\"http:\/\/beersmith.com\">BeerSmith<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/beersmithrecipes.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">BeerSmith Web<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/beersmith.com\/mobile\">BeerSmith Mobile software<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/beersmith.com\/dvd\">DVDs John Palmer and I filmed<\/a> &#8211; How to Brew with Malt Extract and How to Brew All Grain are available now. You can <a href=\"https:\/\/beersmith.com\/blog\/subscribe\/\">subscribe to the BeerSmith newsletter<\/a> for free to get some great articles on home brewing.<\/li>\n<\/ul> <p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br \/><strong>iTunes Announcements<\/strong>: I launched a new <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/beersmith-home-beer-brewing\/id824963861\">video channel for the BeerSmith podcast on iTunes<\/a>, so subscribe now! At the moment it will only feature the new widescreen episodes (#75 and up). Older episodes are available on my revamped <a href=\"http:\/\/youtube.com\/mrbeersmith\">Youtube channel<\/a>. Also all of my <a href=\"http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/podcast\/beersmith-home-brewing-blog\/id398500515\">audio episodes are on iTunes<\/a> now &#8211; so grab the older episodes if you missed any.<\/p> <h3 id=\"thoughts-on-the-podcast\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Thoughts on the Podcast?<\/h3> <p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leave me a comment below or visit our <a href=\"http:\/\/beersmith.com\/forum\">discussion forum<\/a> to leave a comment in the podcast section there.<\/p> <h3 id=\"subscribe-to-the-podcast-on-itunes-or-beersmith-radio\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes<\/h3> <p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can subscribe to the audio or video using the iTunes links below, or the feed address<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Audio feed on iTunes &#8211; <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/podcast\/beersmith-home-brewing-blog\/id398500515\"><\/a> (direct: <a href=\"http:\/\/beersmith.com\/content\/feed\/podcast\"><strong>http:\/\/beersmith.com\/content\/feed\/podcast<\/strong><\/a>)<\/li> <li>Video feed on iTunes &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/beersmith-home-beer-brewing\/id824963861\"><\/a> (direct: <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/beersmith.com\/tv\/category\/podcast\/feed\/\">http:\/\/beersmith.com\/tv\/category\/podcast\/feed\/<\/a><\/strong> )<\/li> <li><strong>Audio podcast <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/?feed=aHR0cDovL2JlZXJzbWl0aC5jb20vY29udGVudC9mZWVkL3BvZGNhc3Qv&amp;hl=en\">on Google Play here<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul> <p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And finally, don&#8217;t forget to subscribe to the blog and <a href=\"https:\/\/beersmith.com\/blog\/subscribe\">my newsletter<\/a> (or link at the top of the page) \u2013 to get free weekly articles on home brewing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tweet Mitch Steele joins me from Abita Brewing to discuss his new position as Director of Operations, Non-Alcoholic (NA) beer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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