Brew Day!

As you are probably aware of by now, we completed the first brew day on our new 20 barrel brewhouse.  It was a fantastic and exhilarating day.  We spent the two days leading up to brew day running water tests of all our procedures to make sure we minimized any surprises.  We also spent a very long time cleaning the brewery on Monday (owning a brewery means cleaning a brewery, don’cha know).

We posted updates throughout the day on social media on each step of the process, from milling our grains to pitching our yeast.  The day took us about 12 hours in all, including cleanup.  We took our time with every step and documented everything we did.  What was great was performing all the steps we had thought about and planned out over the last three years; for the most part, everything went as planned.  We hit our intended original gravity and our intended volume, as well as our mash pH, dissolved oxygen content, and yeast pitch rate.  

24 hours after brew day we had positive signs of fermentation, and 24 hours after that it was downright vigorous.  We took a sample at that point and the batch was about half completed with fermentation.  We tasted the sample, and while the beer is still very, very green, it had a powerful hop aroma and tasted clean and crisp.  We think you’re gonna be happy, Buffalo.

Which beer did we brew?  Soon enough, grasshopper.

We plan to brew 2-3 more times next week.   This week we’re fixing the few issues that did come up on the first brew day.  Once the first batches of all the beers are done, we’ll announce an opening date.  Stay tuned!
Until then: pictures and video...

Corey contemplating the transfer

Matt studying yeast under the microscope

Milling the grain

Hops!

Pitching yeast