New Brewing Job!

Sweet I have to go to Columbus for work from time to time and will be sure to stop in for some brews and a tour.

I'll ask to see Beerbaron and they will look at my like I am a moron.

Congrats

NOHOME wrote: You guys doing all ales or some lagers? With a three week schedule, I would think you are pushing it for lager unless you are doing what I call a "steam bear" that being a lager style with ale yeast.

All ales at least for now. We may do lagers sometime in the future, but not for quite a while. Right now we've got an Altbier, Hefeweizen, Kolsh, and Belgian IPA going.

As for cleaning, surprisingly similar to the dairy industry. Diversy and EcoLab both have you covered for cleaning systems.

Systems and chemicals aren't the issue. It's figuring out the nuances of the brewhouse and what order to clean everything in. For example, we did a first CIP yesterday. Did lauter first then transfered the caustic to the brew kettle, cleaned that, and transferred to the whirlpool. We were going to do a CIP loop through the heat exchanger and whirlpool, but there was a lot of pretty big chunks from the lauter and kettle that I did not want to pass through the heat exchanger and risk clogging it up.

There is a ton of chemistry that applies to brewing, however, the science (black art?) seems to come in the filtration and carbonation department.

I think of both those things as fairly simple. Carbonation isn't tough at all. The biggest challenge is just remembering that you've got it bubbling in and checking frequently enough to not over-carbonate. We don't have plans to filter anytime soon, so I'm not worried about that.

I think of the black art mostly in mash profile (we're doing German/Belgian style step infusion), lauter control, and fermentation temperature profiles.

Had two wild/contaminated yeast episodes during my tenure. Big hic-up in the business as it leaves you without product for a while.Actually started brewing pilot batches before using a new yeast pack.

Ugh. Fortunately never really had to deal with that. Although I was at one place that had anomalous stuff growing on the dishes that wasn't producing any off flavor... yet. They just bottled and pasteurized those batches rather than keg and risk something producing flavor in the next couple weeks. (They didn't identify the microbes, and they might not have been spoilage organisms, but they didn't want to risk it.)

The biggest potential issue here is that the brewmaster really likes to use different strains for different styles. Each of the batches going now is using a different yeast. Even the Kolsch and Alt are different. So, I'm going to be extra careful when cleaning tanks to ensure that we don't cross-contaminate yeast strains. Especially since we're dealing with Belgian Abbey and Bavarian Weizen yeasts. I've been to another local brewery that I am about 75% certain has had their weizen yeast contaminate their house American ale yeast strain because they didn't check for spray shadows in their tanks.

Are you a doing solely bar distribution or individual customers? Bottle$ are a bitch. Best customers were keg clients and we went way out to supply keg systems at a big discount (under our cost) for those that were interested.

Only kegs for now. We may do bottles sometime in the future, but not anytime soon. Got a nice 4-head keg rack too.

That's great news man! I remember you went through some tough times trying to get to where you are now. Glad you stuck with it!

congratulations! I am very happy for you!

I'm glad to see this, and I hope this is the opportunity you worked so hard to get.

Awesome, I'm jealous...and really far away from Ohio

THAT'S BETTER

Congratulations. I'll come in for a pint if im ever in the area.

I am very glad everything seems to be working out, and that the new place is on my way home from work.

Egeszsegedre!

hope this works out for you … seems to punch all the buttons you're talked about in the past …

good luck

wbjones wrote: hope this works out for you … seems to punch all the buttons you're talked about in the past …

Yeah, I'm excited. I'll be starting out doing pretty much all the dirty, heavy lifting, but the plan is for me to transition into more of a supervisory role as we're able to bring on more shift brewers.

Already, I'm getting asked to do cool things that I wasn't able to at other places, like develop the recipe for our holiday ale.

like I said … good luck … hope it's everything you looking for

Glad to hear you were able to find a good match without having to move. I'm looking forward to checking out the brewery next time I find myself in Columbus!

Beer Baron wrote:

wbjones wrote: hope this works out for you … seems to punch all the buttons you're talked about in the past …

Already, I'm getting asked to do cool things that I wasn't able to at other places, like develop the recipe for our holiday ale.

Too bad you are not in Washington or Colorado...there is a certain "Herb" that makes for an interesting hop substitute!

We had to bottle most of our beer, and if the temperature and pressure gradients from head to dispenser were not maintained just right, it was a bad day. I actually monitored atmospheric on a daily basis to see what the day was going to bring.

NOHOME wrote: Too bad you are not in Washington or Colorado...there is a certain "Herb" that makes for an interesting hop substitute! We had to bottle most of our beer, and if the temperature and pressure gradients from head to dispenser were not maintained just right, it was a bad day. I actually monitored atmospheric on a daily basis to see what the day was going to bring.

I'm hoping to do this properly Belgian style, and make a robust and spicy tasting ale without actually adding spices, just playing with yeast strains and temperature control. We'll see what the actual brewmaster thinks of my recipe. He'd mentioned the idea of ginger, figs, or spices, but certainly wasn't set on them.

Having to check ambient? That's crazy. Sounds like something that depends a lot on your bottle filler. The ones I've worked with in the past haven't been particularly black magic. Fillers are always the most trouble, but generally due to having the most moving parts.

Congrats! I have a buddy in Columbus who's a badass pastry chef and a bigtime beer enthusiast. I'll send him your way.

alex wrote: Congrats! I have a buddy in Columbus who's a badass pastry chef and a bigtime beer enthusiast. I'll send him your way.

OMG, meat pies and good beer, I would be in freaking heaven

Congrats!

Congrats, man!

Is the name is an American take on the German word for clean?

Richard Nixon wrote: Congrats, man! Is the name is an American take on the German word for clean?

Zauber is German for magical, mystical, or enchanted. When we finally brew our big Belgian Black, I fully plan to put a scoop of ice cream in a glass to make a Zauber Float.

How long does it take to develop a recipe and then turn it into many thousands of bottles of beer? From conception to production?

fritzsch wrote: How long does it take to develop a recipe and then turn it into many thousands of bottles of beer? From conception to production?

It depends how intensive your procedure is going to be. I could whip up a simple recipe and brew it full-scale in one day, if I so desired. In which case, it would be about 3 weeks to complete. For this holiday ale, I plan to come up with a draft recipe and run that by my boss for approval (which I'll probably get). It will require special ingredients (yeast strains) that we'll need to wait to get in. Then, we'll do at least one pilot batch, and spend a bit of time tweaking the recipe. This will be a bigger beer taking longer to ferment and condition... so we're looking at like 2-3 months before the final product goes out the doors.

In reply to Beer Baron:

Whoops, I forgot all about Zauber for magic. So then, how do you guys pronounce it?