We had a meeting of minds last night. The four of us tackled some huge mysteries of life and brewing while lubricating our minds so that the ideas would slip out easily. We had a rather lengthy discussion regarding the cumbersome name that we christened the brewery with. All are in favor of shortening it to something quick and understandable but we didn’t really come to a complete consensus. We got stuck on whether we should call it The Bier Werkes or the BF Bier Werkes. But we all definitely agreed that BEER WORKS!
We had a lot of other ideas that fit with the BF theme. Brownsboro Farm, of course which is part and parcel of the original name. There is also Big Four, which gives a nod to an old railroad bridge that the city is converting to a pedestrian and bicycle pathway across the Ohio River. We are also four now as Robert has successfully brewed his first batch. There were many BF’s that were too foul to record here but were hilarious. So I think we finally decided that we should keep the BF in the title. The others may remember this differently, if they have any memory of it at all.
So just to make things legal I’ve checked and none of these names are taken by other breweries or any known company, public or private. So I’m copyrighting the names and slogans relating to the Bier Werkes. The following are now the sole property of the consortium of brewers who operate the bierwerkes. An application for trademarks has also been filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
BraunBoro Baurnhoff Bier Werke
Brownsboro Farm Beer Works
Brownsboro Farm Bier Werkes
BF Bier Werkes
The Bier Werkes
Bier Werkes
Bierwerkes
Beer works
Beer Works!
We were back at the Werkes early this morning. For the second Saturday in a row we hit the bottling line. Last week we suffered through Dave’s Sloppy Seconds without the proper tools. Sloppy was the key term. We had a little problem keeping the siphon flowing. Mike came to our rescue by buying a siphon tube, a tube in tube contraption that you pump once and beer flows. He showed up last week just as we were finishing the last bottles so we didn’t get a chance to use it then.
We gave the new draw tube device its first workout today and this sure smoothed the operation. Robert also came through with some high quality .5 liter flip top bottles that his sister smuggled in from Germany. She brought them in legally but smuggled sounds more intriguing.
This week were done with a five gallon batch in well under two hours door to door. Spillage was minimal. The suction cylinder worked so well we were able to draw the beer from the bucket until it was close to dry.
Our methods are getting much better. Our brew kit is coming together to the point where we have almost everything at hand without having to jerry rig unmatchable objects together as we did at the beginning. I am still in search of a larger brew pot. I’d like at least a 10 gallon, preferably fifteen. No hurry, in time something usable will turn up. We’ve got a good system for five gallon batches now and I’m more concerned with brewing good beer every time than expanding. We’ve come a long way from the borrowed turkey fryer days of past but we’re always on the lookout for cheap, or even better free, upgrades.
Next week we’ll be bottling two more batches and we’re going to take another shot at that raspberry wheat. Hopefully we can pull it off without it hitting the floor.
Until then remember BEER WORKS!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Don't Spank The Carboy
Seeing those fermentation bubbles from a new batch of beer is like hearing a newborn baby cry. With your own hands you have brought new life to the world. And yes, the world is better for it.
The Bierwerkers have been busy this week. Two new batches were birthed on Monday, a strong ale and a summer wheat. Dave’s basement is starting to look like a warehouse. There are now six buckets of beer in varying stages of fermentation. He has set up a new desk for more counter space and better bottle storage. Mike ordered a siphon tube for better wort and beer transfer. I drafted a quick step guide that we can check off as we go through the process. It will help us remember little things like taking proper measurements at certain stages. We are still novices so these things are not yet ingrained into our brew psyche.
Robert did great on his first brew day. Things went longer than anticipated but when you do two batches its going to happen. We learned a lot about how and when to perform certain steps to avoid overlap.
We got Mike’s Imperial Stout transferred to the secondary fermenter but lost a draw tube. Oh snap! (hence, the new siphon tube) But, that was the only major mishap of the day. My beer was safely transferred to a glass carboy, so we also learned that as long as we’re careful we do not need to fear the glass.
I haven’t named my ale yet. We brewed on President’s Day so I’ll probably do some research on beer brewing presidents and work from there. We’re planning some bottling for Saturday so it’s not long before we taste our efforts from the second go round. Here’s some pics from Monday’s session:
Robert Chillin' with his wort
Bob taking the test tube challenge
The bierhouse
The Bierwerkers have been busy this week. Two new batches were birthed on Monday, a strong ale and a summer wheat. Dave’s basement is starting to look like a warehouse. There are now six buckets of beer in varying stages of fermentation. He has set up a new desk for more counter space and better bottle storage. Mike ordered a siphon tube for better wort and beer transfer. I drafted a quick step guide that we can check off as we go through the process. It will help us remember little things like taking proper measurements at certain stages. We are still novices so these things are not yet ingrained into our brew psyche.
Robert did great on his first brew day. Things went longer than anticipated but when you do two batches its going to happen. We learned a lot about how and when to perform certain steps to avoid overlap.
We got Mike’s Imperial Stout transferred to the secondary fermenter but lost a draw tube. Oh snap! (hence, the new siphon tube) But, that was the only major mishap of the day. My beer was safely transferred to a glass carboy, so we also learned that as long as we’re careful we do not need to fear the glass.
I haven’t named my ale yet. We brewed on President’s Day so I’ll probably do some research on beer brewing presidents and work from there. We’re planning some bottling for Saturday so it’s not long before we taste our efforts from the second go round. Here’s some pics from Monday’s session:
Robert Chillin' with his wort
Bob taking the test tube challenge
The bierhouse
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Renewed Spirit(s)
I guess the raspberry wheat incident hit me pretty hard as I have not been able to post a bierwerke report since. This weekend though the fire returned as a new brewer is joining the fold. Oh, we weren’t neglecting the werkes, two batches are fermenting and one is ready for bottling. Mike’s Russian Imperial Stout with bourbon infusion is still going to take a while but Dave’s sloppy seconds brew is ready for transfer.
We welcome Robert to the fold. Yesterday the two of us hit the brew supply store and got the ingredients for a summer wheat similar to Dave’s original recipe. My ingredients for a Strong Ale are still sitting in Dave’s basement awaiting time where we can brew it, hopefully that’s tomorrow.
Our last brew date was January 19, two days after our first loss (bow heads please). Brewing Mike’s stout was a hoot. He had so much grain, about 22 pounds, we couldn’t believe it. After we got his wort boiling we checked and there was still a good amount of sugar left in the sparge water. We continued to sparge enough out of it to get another five gallon batch of beer. We had some remaining hops from previous batches and Dave had cultured some yeast. So, there you have it, a no-recipe, complete from scratch brew unexpectedly culled from leftovers, thus the Sloppy Seconds moniker.
But alas, the time allotted to concocting the rescue brew prevented me from brewing my batch. The darn weather and power outages have also added to the delay. It’s a good thing I picked up a couple kegs from BBC to hold me over. And even an ice storm and loss of electricity doesn’t stop CO2 from pushing beer through lines. The beer remained at a cool temperature throughout the five days even unrefrigerated. At least Old Man Winter and Mother Nature didn’t knock my sanity closet out of commission.
Tomorrow we’ll see how adding new personality to the group improves the beer.
We welcome Robert to the fold. Yesterday the two of us hit the brew supply store and got the ingredients for a summer wheat similar to Dave’s original recipe. My ingredients for a Strong Ale are still sitting in Dave’s basement awaiting time where we can brew it, hopefully that’s tomorrow.
Our last brew date was January 19, two days after our first loss (bow heads please). Brewing Mike’s stout was a hoot. He had so much grain, about 22 pounds, we couldn’t believe it. After we got his wort boiling we checked and there was still a good amount of sugar left in the sparge water. We continued to sparge enough out of it to get another five gallon batch of beer. We had some remaining hops from previous batches and Dave had cultured some yeast. So, there you have it, a no-recipe, complete from scratch brew unexpectedly culled from leftovers, thus the Sloppy Seconds moniker.
But alas, the time allotted to concocting the rescue brew prevented me from brewing my batch. The darn weather and power outages have also added to the delay. It’s a good thing I picked up a couple kegs from BBC to hold me over. And even an ice storm and loss of electricity doesn’t stop CO2 from pushing beer through lines. The beer remained at a cool temperature throughout the five days even unrefrigerated. At least Old Man Winter and Mother Nature didn’t knock my sanity closet out of commission.
Tomorrow we’ll see how adding new personality to the group improves the beer.
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