Counterpoint Brewing & Blending is a home brewery located in Hanover Pennsylvania. I’m Shawn, and I’ve been brewing since 2003- minus a six year hiatus from 2005-2011.
For me, brewing is more art than craft or science- although it is in part all three. While some brewers take great pride in their equipment, their process, their control and repeatability; and while those things are indeed important to me, my greatest source of satisfaction is the finished product. Outside of that, nothing else matters. Brewing, fermentation, and blending are an outlet for me, and every beer that makes it to packaging is an expression as deeply personal to me as any artist’s work is to them.
In recent years I’ve had a strong focus on the long, slow, graceful transformation of beers by mixed culture fermentation, and at any one time I may have half a dozen or more mixed fermentation beers of varying ages resting in carboys and corny kegs waiting until the time is right for them to be blended, fruited, and/or bottled. However my inspirations are not limited to mixed fermentation. I love the subtle, nuanced expressions of malt and hops that lagerbiers can present, as well as the full round phraseology of malt-focused beers complemented by expressive fruity yeast, the more aggressive hop flavors and aromas layered over bready malt and neutral fermentation, or the more expressive pure strain fermentations balanced with the right combination of malt and hops.
I enjoy beers with complexity and simplicity alike, but above all I enjoy subtlety, nuance, and elegance. I have no aversion to the use of adjuncts, but I prefer the playful suggestion of marshmallows by the campfire that can come from the right beer spending the right amount of time in the right barrel without the use of a single marshmallow, or the sultry whisper of cocoa that comes from the right combination of roasted malts without any actual chocolate added.
I love to share my beer with others, and while I know that not everyone will appreciate every beer, I find it exceedingly gratifying when my beer makes people happy- especially because it was produced as a personal expression, without any target audience in mind.
I brew in 5-10 gallon batches, on the same orange cooler, two kettles and propane burners that I’ve used for years. The equipment profile may or may not change over time, but that’s incidental and entirely secondary to the beer that eventually makes it into the glass.
Counterpoint Brewing and Blending 