Pilot Brewing

I have been making "pilot" batches of different beers for quite a while now, pretty much every beer is a pilot batch in some way or another. Yesterday I brewed up a 1/2 barrel batch of my pale ale on the pilot system at Schooner Exact Brewery. Beer specifics:

(Strong) Pale Ale
Malt: American 2-Row, Carahell, Crystal
Hops: Columbus, Perle
ABV: 6%
Playlist: KEXP, not my favorite station, but a establishment in these parts

First you might notice that I use "strong pale ale" and the beer is looking to be 6%, this wasn't by design but the way it is. The reason behind this is that I only ended up with about 13.5 gallons instead of 15.5. At home I pay great attention to the volumes of water that I use in all of the brewing steps, which is easy when you are filling things using a quart-sized pitcher, it gets more difficult when you go up in size. In my brewery I am going to find a way to track all of the water going into the mash and the pre- and post-boil volumes, I think it is very important to consistency from batch to batch. Anyway, when eyeing things on a system you have never used it is easy to be off. Matt had things to work on, so he showed me some things and then left me to brewing for the most part. My kettle-full volume was short, so my end product was short on volume and high on fermentable sugars. In a few weeks I am going to get a little drunker than I originally thought, not all that bad really. Every time I brew it is a learning experience, so the next time I make a pilot batch things should be more on target.

As for the beer, it is a scaled up version of my last pale with malted wheat being substituted for Carahell. The idea is to add a little more body to the beer. The yeast is also different because I am using Schooner Exact's house yeast, a lot easier and cheaper for me. It shouldn't make very big of a difference in the beer because it is similar to the one I generally use. As I have probably mentioned a bunch, temperature control is a problem for me. This batch is in a glycoled jacketed fermenter and the temperature can be dialed in, problem solved.

Pilot batch in the fermenter

It sounds like I will be able to use the pilot system a little more, so I need to decide on some beers to make before I get out of town. I am also going to need to pick a few more kegs to be able to hold everything I make. Beer suggestions will be taken...I am thinking about making either my Amber, Blonde or Brown.

Gotta Hop

Brewing on a "Real System"

Although my home brews are real beer, I can't call my equipment a "real system."

Friday morning started out a lot like my tenure at Boeing, early, but had a much different feel to it, brewing. I met Matt, one of the owner/brewers at Schooner Exact, a little before 6 AM and got the chance to help him brew a 7 barrel batch of their Gallant Maiden Hefeweizen. I am not going to give away the secrets to their beer, but it is a German Hefeweizen as opposed to the American Wheats that I have made in the past. It was a long hot day in the brewery, but it was great to get some work in on a real system. It was a lot better atmosphere to ask questions and share my thoughts compared to the other times that I had been at the brewery. As we went through the day, I could ask questions as they popped into my head and Matt shared multiple "things I would do differently" as he came across them. The experience really reinforced my level of brewing and brewery planning knowledge.

I will be brewing a 1/2 barrel batch of my Pale Ale on the pilot system at Schooner Exact this Wednesday. I am trying my best to keep the recipe tweaking at a minimum, so this one will be almost the same as the last Pale I made for my presentation. I am certain the beer will improve compared to previous batches because I will get to use a temperature controlled fermenter.

I need to remember to write down all of the genius beer names that I come up with, so here's one: Jackalope Belgian IPA, well I am not sure about the style (never made a Belgian IPA before), but I want to make it some sort of hybrid style of beer because of the nature of Jackalopes...hoppy as a jackrabbit and the reddish-brown of an antelope... This might need to be a seasonal or ale of no return, but I think this could be a really fun one. Any style ideas out there for "The Jackalope?"

Thursday 7/16 Rambling

Thursday...it's the new Monday as far as I am concerned. I am going to fight the power and write my updates on Thursday.

I will start with a review of the beer I made with/for Drew. The main goal was met and exceeded, the beer clocked in at 6.8%. Not only is it up there in alcohol content, it is a dangerous beer because you don't realize it is that boozy until you get into that second pint and go "damn, I'm getting buzzed." Amber beer are tough for me to judge because unlike some other styles, there is such a range of expectations. There are the super malty ambers and the super hoppy ambers with no real definition of which on is correct. This one is much more in the hoppy category, but not overly bitter. The chinook hops give their distinct grapefruit flavor to the beer, but the traditional floral and citrus aromas/flavors from the cascade hop are lost in this beer. I have found that my last few batches really lack in the hop aroma department, something I am troubleshooting right now. Dry hopping would really help this aspect of the beer. I plan on making this, or slight tweaks to this recipe again, it is a beer that has promise, but needs work. What I plan on doing is shooting for a higher final gravity, which will increase the malty sweetness and decrease the alcohol content (looking for 6-6.2%). With the hops I will cut the bittering hops a some, bump up the flavor/aroma hops and add a dose of dry-hopping. That is quite a bit of recipe analyzing, I am just thinking out loud and making sure it is on paper somewhere. I can't tell you how many times that I have looked for notes on previous batches of beer just to find a blank page and have almost no idea how the end product turned out.

As for other things, well I am brewing a batch tomorrow at Schooner Exact and making a pilot batch of my Pale Ale on Monday down there (1/2 bbl batch). Planning keeps moving, but I have a real beef with a lot of the planning. Everyone tells me I need to have all of this different shit, some of which could be important, some maybe not. I feel like I have done so much typing and so little doing. So much stuff just needs to be done and experienced because you can't make a plan for all the unknowns out there. As important as planning is, there aren't answers out there for everything. I am obviously frustrated and very tired of sitting behind a computer, that's why I quit my last job.

Lots of Beers

It is time to revisit the beers that I have made over the last month or so.

Starting with the beers that I entered into the Puget Sound Pro-Am, I mentioned the results slightly on this post here. I have been waiting for the written results before I write about it. Like I mentioned I entered four beers a Pale, Stout, Blonde and Amber, that is the order from best to worst. I am pretty happy with how the Pale and Stout turned out and disappointed in myself on the other two. Overall the biggest problem that I have with my beers is something that I don't really have control over on my current system, fermenting temperature. All of the beers exhibited some esters and phenolic flaws that are a result of fermenting at too high of a temperature. All the beers would have scored higher with out that and the amber and blonde would probably jump a lot because those beers were pretty much ruined due to that. As far as the stout, the biggest problem was a lack of body, which looking back at all my notes makes perfect sense. A few tweaks in the mash will improve that. The pale could also use some more body, but as much. The improvement I need on the pale is giving it some more flavor and aroma hops. While I am disappointed in some results, I am very glad to get feedback from impartial judges and can only get better from here.

I made another Blonde since then that was much better than the one I entered into the competition. I missed my starting gravity and ended up with a very light beer. Not really a bad thing, but the rye was a bit overwhelming for how light it was. I also have come to the conclusion that I do not like Brewer's Gold hops, if I didn't have a few ounces left from the free hops I got, I would be hesitant to use them again. I have had limited success with blondes so far and don't know when I will make another, but have developed a recipe that I think will be much better.

The two beers that I served during the presentations last week were the American Wheat and Pale Ale. Seemed like a good combination of beer to serve, but I didn't really realize that the beers were extremely similar. The only real difference was the amount of wheat used in the American wheat and more hops in the pale. My fermenting issue played well for the wheat because it brought out the banana and clove that are associated with wheat beers, but I will call that what it really is, dumb luck. I need to cut out any crystal malts in my wheat recipe and go back to the yeast that I used before on this. The beer was drinkable, but not stellar. The pale was great though. The taste was more along the lines of a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale than a Manny's to give market examples. Many of the people at the events have tried my pale ales before and found them to be too bitter, but this one seemed to hit the mark pretty well. Still could probably use an increase in the hop aroma though.

I have two beers carbonating right now and only the Mountain Man in a fermenter right now. I guess I need to get back to making some beers this week. I am hoping to use a pilot system at a brewery so I can get a bit more control over the process instead of the good old closet fermenters.

Lost and Found in a Mountain Town

I failed miserably at keeping up with my postings over the past few weeks, but I'll make up for it this week. If it is any consolation, I had a hell of a time in Idaho. I was originally going to go back to Seattle on the 2nd, but I couldn't resist the temptation of boats, beer and sun in Donnelly/McCall for the 4th of July. Now that I am home, I have had some time to think over the progress that I made over the last few week. Here are some of the details...

I had two presentations that were a combo of "Craft Beer 101" and an "intro to the Payette Brewing Company concept." I had a 10 slide PowerPoint that I figured would take maybe 30 minutes to go through, but when it was all said and done, both of them went well over an hour and a half. **Quick side note: why is "hour" preceded with "an" instead of "a," its probably the only word I can think of that starts with a consonant that does that. I am not trying to be an English teacher, so moving on... The discussions that came up during the presentations were both distinctly different and will go a long way in my planning in the next few months. Right now I am trying to wade through the ideas and information that I gathered and can't help but feeling more lost than I was a month ago. I figured that I was 70% done with the business plan and after that I feel only 30% done. Frustrating. In the end I know I will have a very solid presentation for potential investors and a better grasp on what needs to get done to run a successful business. At least I have two presentations to very knowledgeable and experienced people under my belt.

One idea that came up worth sharing include the possibility of starting by contract brewing. In a perfect world I would not want to do this, but after talking it through, it seems like a very good option. The two biggest benefits about this route would be getting a product into the market sooner and establishing a demand before raising the large amount of capital to build the brewery I am planning. Once I put together these numbers I will have a better idea of how everything will work, so stay tuned.

Also got great feedback on the logo work and even have a second round of revisions done. Not quite to the point that I want to post them, but soon enough.

I have a lot of other things that I am going to get up this week, but I am sort of over writing this blog...good win today America (2-0 over Honduras in the Gold Cup)