Toronto Star
October 15, 2002
By MICHAEL DOJC

Brewing Beer is like cooking, says Sowade

A barkeep at Steam Whistle Brewing where Sowade is brewmaster has just poured a couple of pints of the microbrewery's lone beverage, a smooth German pilsner. It takes her a few draws to get it the way its maker likes it - European style, heavy on the suds.

Sowade, 59, grins broadly and his eyes sparkle as he marvels at how the pen almost magically holds its place in his beer, like a bookmark - a testament to the viscosity and overall quality of the drink. "You can put a coin on top of a head of Guinness and it will also stay there when you drink it," he says. Another sign of quality Sowade points out are the lacy circles of froth that cling to the interior of the stein as beer is consumed. Then there are the small bubbles of carbon dioxide continually rising to the head, enlivening the golden drink with their fizzy spectacle. Beer is clearly a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach.

Amidst this impassioned pub talk, Sowade gulps his beer with the lustful thirst of a college student doing a keg stand. He has been brewmaster at Steam Whistle, located at the foot of the CN Tower, since the company's inception in March, 2000.

"Beer is my woman," Sowade says half joking. An unmarried workaholic Sowade refers to himself as a confirmed "beer bachelor."

Brewmaster is a unique profession - a fusion of microbiology, quality control, and chemistry combined with some old-fashioned recipe making. On average, it takes 15 years of schooling and apprenticeship before attaining the grand title.

"In brewing academy what you learn is not only about chemical processes and brewing processes, you also learn mathematics, physics, and chemistry," says Sowade, who attended Doemens, a prestigious brewing academy in Munich.

In Germany, brewmasters are restricted by the Beer Purity Laws where only four ingredients may be used to make beer: malt, hops, yeast, and water. In North America, preservatives and chemicals are added to enhance flavour and increase shelf life so there is a great emphasis on chemistry.

"Cleanliness and accuracy are the prerequisites for excellent beers. That's my motto, it's on every schedule on all my tanks," says Sowade.

From malting, to fermentation, to filtering, to bottling, brewing is a logistics-heavy process and the brewmaster is ultimately responsible for the final product.

"The main job is making sure that everything is done: setting up brewing schedules, bottling schedules, and lab tests, and seeing that all the work is done properly," he adds.

While scientific rigour governs the process of brewing itself, an atmosphere of old fashioned craftsmanship permeates the tanks of a micro brewery. What it boils down to is that the batch-making process that is brewing is all about, well, cooking.

"A good brewmaster is a good cook, too. They go hand in hand. I know how to put my ingredients and the mash together to get a good product," says Sowade.

His skills translate to the kitchen, where venison and Hungarian stew number among Sowade's specialties.

Brewhouses run like finely tuned machines, fully automated with computer systems handling everything from washing bottles to hopping.

Sowade has been in the industry since the '60s and remembers when his job was more manually intensive and tanks had to be cleaned by hand with brushes.

"It was fun, it was very hard work but in the end of the day we were all tired, the beer was delicious, and we slept very well every night."

But, he concedes, "automation has made for better, more consistent beer."

In medieval times - beer's golden era - quality control was almost laughable.

"In Germany, there was a guy who specialized in testing beer and at this time the beers were dark, very malty, and sticky, with lots of sugar," Sowade explains.

"This guy was called a bier kieser (beer taster). He went to a brewery in his lederhosen and they poured beer on a bench and he had to sit on it for one hour. If, after that hour, he was stuck to the bench then the beer was okay, but if not, the beer was no good, and the brewmaster had to destroy the whole brew."

Forty years into his career, Sowade has never dumped a brew.