A Swift Pint With: Oswin
What’s your name, and what do you do at PerfectDraft?
Hi I am Oswin, and I work in the buying team. I'm a Beer Expert and seem to be the guy people come to with their beery questions!
So, we've just released Ninkasi Flower Lager, what can you tell us about the beer and how you and the team launched it on PerfectDraft?
To me, the flower lager is a hybrid lager with a French flair.
The base recipe is inspired from the Kolsh beer style. The beer is brewed with lager yeast but top fermented at a higher temperature (rather than bottom fermented at lower temperatures). The twist is the addition of acacia flowers which gives a floral bouquet & mild honeyed notes. Then the beer is matured for a long period to refine. It’s a bridge between a lager & ale. Combining German techniques (lager style) & Belgian (addition of spice. Instead flowers here to make it more subtle). Hence, I like to call this a hybrid lager or a bridge between two brewing worlds.
We were very eager to have a new French beer but took a lot of time to choose a right partner. Our previous launch - Castelain Grand Cru was more of a traditional offering with strong Belgian brewing roots & a higher ABV. For the next beer, we wanted a more modern, craft & unique offering at a lower ABV. Also, Ninkasi is not just a brewery, it's a place to be and a lifestyle which makes it very unique.
What was the last beer you had on PerfectDraft?
Lowenbrau Oktoberfest as it’s the season. Enjoyed at home (sadly not Munich) but still, what a beer and what a time of year for us beer lovers!
If you could bring any beer to PerfectDraft what would it be and why?
Westmalle Tripel. It’s the mother of all tripels & a trappiste beer. Its big, bold & dangerously drinkable!
You're the font of all knowledge of beer here at PerfectDraft, what started your love of beer?
I fell into the real world of beer by accident around 15years ago. Long story short, my first craft beer was Thornbridge Jaipur in a bar in Lille (France). I ordered the beer as it said India Pale Ale. As I’m from India, I was thrilled to have a beer from India (at least that’s what I thought then)... Little did I know that this beer is going to knock me over with its hoppy notes. Until then, I had never tasted anything like this. I loved it so much that I had many pints & had a discussion with the bar owner applauding him to bring a beer from India… Very politely he told me that the beer was brewed in UK & IPA is a beer style.. none of this made sense so I went home & probably kept reading about beer all night & that’s how I got my adrenalin kick for beer.
This led me to meeting fellow beer lovers, home brewing & travelling on beer tours around the world, participating in various festivals, buying too many beer books & finally I decided to work in beer. I’m also a Certified Cicerone® & enjoy educating people about beer.
Of all the beers you have tasted, which one has left the biggest impression?
This is a really hard one as there are many. However, from a taste & affordability experience it is Aecht Schenkerla Marzen (a Rauchbier). I never expected I would love drinking a beer with flavours & aromas of bacon. It's so well balanced, quite quaffable & very affordable. It’s also a very interesting beer for food pairing & one of the beers I like to use to break the ice at a beer tasting.
What is your favourite beer style and why?
