What's the BF deal?

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!