Insight Brewing Maestro Ilan Klages-Mundt took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to answer our questions about his background, brewing, and the forthcoming Insight Brewing Company.

When did you start brewing?
In 2007, I traveled to Denmark with a list of the top 50 beers in the world. I walked into a bottle shop and asked the owner if they had #7 on the list, which was a Danish beer. The owner replied, “no,” but did mention that they had the #1 on the list, which was the Westvleteren 12, a Belgian Monastic brew. Having tried nothing like this in my life, before, I purchased two bottles and left. Later that day, I opened one of the bottles and had a true epiphany moment. The beer was out-of-this-world good, with complex, yet amazingly balanced characteristics! The sun seemed to start shining and my lip began to quiver. The beer really was that good!

From that moment onward, I knew that my calling was beer. I thought to myself, “Ilan, you MUST learn how beer is made, who makes it, where it came from, and what the history of this magical drink is!” Upon my return to the States, I hunkered down and began reading every brewing book I could get my hands on, while also joining a local brewing club, where I was by far the youngest member. This was the beginning of my brewing adventure, and the more learned, the deeper in love I became with the significance of beer and its cultures from around the world.

What is your “go to” commercially available beer?
It all depends on the situation, but I will readily grab Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout, Rodenbach Grand Cru, and Summit’s Saga IPA. I could list another several hundred more, but so could everyone else. There are a lot of great beers out there!

You pretty much traveled the globe brewing, biking, and documenting it on bikeforbeer.org. How big a role did it play in your decision to open a brewery?
My brewing began in college, where I was studying classical music and preparing to be a teacher. My professors saw the passion that I had for beer, and nearly forced me to apply for the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, a program that pays for recent graduates to travel around the world for a year studying what they are passionate about; the only rules were that you had to be passionate, as well as out of the country for a full year on your own. Continue reading Getting to know Insight Brewing with Ilan Klages-Mundt →