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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Other Stuff Goin' On

A previous post told you about my acquisition of a couple of small bourbon barrels.

I ended up filling one with Doppelbock.  After a couple of months of aging, the beer was pretty amazing.  I ended up bottling it in Belgian 750 ml bottles and corking them.  We launched it as our "Pride" series, and the bottles sold out within a couple of weeks.

The next Pride will be a bourbon barrel aged Scotch Strong Ale, and it should be available around July 10th.  Get them while they last, as there are extremely limited quantities.

Due to the success of the bourbon barrel aged beers, I'm going to get my hands on some 53 gallon bourbon barrels and I've already brewed the beer that I intend to fill them with.  It's a Russian Imperial Stout--a really big beer.  You'll have to wait however--I intend to give them about a six month aging, so they'll be ready around Christmastime.

Oh, and if you haven't been around, our beer is in stores now!  I'll talk a little about that in a future post.

Sometimes Incompetence is the Mother of Invention

Yes, I know it's been ages since I've posted.

With my increased use of Facebook to relate the goings-on in the Brewhouse, I've neglected this blog.  There is no guaranty that this is the start of more frequent postings, but I'll indulge myself a little this morning.

Back to the post title, and a little back-story:

I order nearly all of my yeast through Brewing Science Institute.  In years past, I would either call in or email my yeast orders.  Now, they prefer that orders be submitted online.  They've got an online form that you fill out.  Idiot-proof, yes?

Apparently not.

BSI offers two ways to receive yeast.  Starters and Pitchables.  A Pitchable is the proper amount of yeast to pitch into a specific-sized batch of beer, and it is what I always order.  But, I clicked the wrong button and received a Starter.  A Starter is a very small (10%) amount of yeast for the beer you want to brew.  They are much more economical--about half the cost.  So, I open up my yeast box and I find this adorable little pouch of yeast.

I start to panic. 

A quick email to BSI later tells me that they can either ship out a Pitchable size late next week, or I can "easily" make my own starter with the yeast they sent.  Easy for someone who uses starters all the time, not so much for someone who has never done it professionally.  I make starters when I homebrew, but the scale and stakes are so much smaller, that I'm comfortable doing it.

A few minutes (okay, maybe hours) of brain grinding led to this solution:

Here you see one of my homemade homebrew fermenters.  Inside is about twelve gallons of wort with the starter added.  I'm happy to relate that is was chugging along great within 5 hours of pitching.

What happens is the yeast propagates (reproduces) at an exponential rate until the desired levels are reached.

Fast-forward 36 hours and I'm brewing one of our seasonal favorites:  Summer Night Saison.

I will pressure force all of this yeasty wort into the fermenter when I'm done brewing and with any luck, it will take off like a champ.

People ask my what my schedule is like here at the brewery.  I always say that I work around the beer's schedule.  My days are determined by what you drink.  Sometimes the days are relatively short.  Some are quite long.  But I also always say that a bad day in the brewery is still better than a good day at "work".  Today is one of the occasional Saturdays spent in the brewery.

So, depending on the success of this project, I may resort to starters in the future.  We'll see how it turns out.

Now, on to the Saison.

This is one of my absolute favorite beers every year.  It seems to be one of yours as well.  One of the luxuries of working in a small brewery is that I get to use the finest ingredients:
Castle Pilsner Malt Imported From Belgium

I also use the aforementioned special Belgian yeast strain, and British hops.

Saison is a Belgian-style ale that was first brewed as a low-alcohol ale offered to Belgian farm workers.  Saison translates to "season".  Like all good American bastardizations of traditional styles, that whole low-alcohol thing goes out the window.  The ABV will hover right around the 7% mark.

The tapping for the Mug Club is scheduled for July 10th and everyone else can have theirs starting the 11th.