Busywork

Yesterday marked day 2 with Brewer Bear. I will try to restructure what I learned. We did not brew this time around. Today was a transfer/cleaning day. These two time-consuming tasks work well in conjunction together. Instead of hurryupandwait, we would bounce back and forth between the cold room and the brewery, as activated tasks ran their course. I think I will describe them as two separate events, for I fear my shortcomings as a writing stylist will muddify particulars of the actual events.

Transfer: The ESB from fermentor to serving tank. First thing to do is to taste the beer. Rough life, I know. Brewer Bear filled one pint from the side spigot on the side of the fermentation tank, after a quick sanitizing spritz from the iodophor bottle. This is a tiny spigot at the bottom of a 15 barrel tank. These tanks, pretty small to moderate in brewery sizes, hold 465 gallons of beer plus another 1/3 volume head space. One barrel is 31 gallons, if that helps. Some ancient measuring system that exists now chiefly to confuse number-retarded people like myself.

Oh the beer. This beer has been nitrogen-conditioned in the tank, after fermentation had ceased. There are different gas lines coming into the room, some with CO2 and some N. Conditioning post fermentation is as simple as capping the tank so no gas exits and plugging in one of those lines to carbonate. Since fermentation produces CO2 beer will carbonate itself if there is some yeast activity still present. Additional CO2 can be added to further carbonate, but is mostly use to create pressure to go from here to there.

Right, the beer! Besides the nice nitro cascade, it held a cool copper color and fresh hop aroma. Mild, semi-sweet with no punchy hops one would expect from American-style ales. This is a decent example of English-style ale as I understand it, though can't speak for its authenticity.

Hm, I haven't described any transferring so far. I think I'll devote more time to it in a future post when I understand it a bit better.

Bear Beer

Wholly Geeznuts, a lot of change in a short amount of time. To review, since November of '06 I have been in talks to open an upscale sportsbar with my bartender colleague Agent Smith. Last month the business partnership gained a lot of momentum and started rolling towards serious commitmentville. We stood on the precipice of a consulting contract in which we would pay $100K to a team to steer us through the process of getting Ferrum up and running over the course of 18-24 months. This prompted me to step aside and do some serious soul-searching and bank account-examining. At the end of my few day reflection, I had my answer: BAIL!

So I bailed. Lots of factors led to the decision, but the biggest one was my disenchantment with the concept. As I have previously stated, my goals tend towards the brewery and my ideas. I could no longer justify working for the next 5+ years on someone else's concept that is not a direct line to my goals. Plus, who wants to own a sportsbar anyway? Not this guy.

So back to the brewing, yes? YES, dear reader (as if you're out there). Through the classic connection of I-know-him-he-knows-her-she-works-at-a-brewery I was able to get into the furry underbelly of Thirsty Bear Brewing company for a day "working" with the brewer. I was there from 8-3 asking questions and pitching in when allowed. It was great, me and Brewer Bear alone with our rubber boots and water hoses for hours. I had to stop myself from giggling with glee several times throughout the day. It is supposed to be work after all. We brewed the Black Bear Lager, from grains to fermentor. I have to say there were no surprises. I understood the concept, and the work was no more or less glamorous than I expected. This bear's porridge was juuuust right.

After working for several hours, Brewer Bear seemed to warm up to my presence considerably. Those bears can be so territorial! Over lunch I ever so slyly let him know of my seriousness of the work, and offered to come back again. It was such a tightrope all day, of how eager to seem, to not be annoying, to be helpful but not in the way, and now I was asking to come back and bug him more! I was nervous, as probably I should have been, but it turned out well, he was open to the idea. So this Thursday, back for more! I've got my foot in the door, I will brew another day.

Like George J, I'm a movin' on up.