Porter Named!

Well the porter has been named, it will be called BackDraft Porter!

A little about labels and such, and why sometimes it takes so long from the idea until the brew is out in the stores.

To begin with, we decide that we want to brew a new beer. Then we come up with a recipe, James, Phil, and I have plenty of home brewing experience, so sometimes a recipe is easy, other times we play a bit more with a prototype. Once we come up with recipe we have to see if there are any "non-traditional" ingredients or processes done. Traditional ingredients include the big 4, non traditional include spices, honey, berries, and other flavorings. Non-traditional processes include aging in barrels among other things that we have yet to find out about. If something non-traditional is done we have to file a Statement Of Process with the Federal Government, which they will either approve or reject. Once the SOP is approved (with labeling requirements) we can then brew the beer and make the label.

Once we create the label (Phil is the creative one) we send it off to be approved by the Federal Government once again. They look at lettering height, what the label says, if any trademarks might be infringed on, and if the name is acceptable. Once the label is approved and produced by the label maker, we can bottle the beer and get it out to our distributors.

Each state has their own labeling laws, so what might be acceptable in one state, may not be acceptable in another state. Also, with the way the government works, what would be acceptable to one reviewer might not to another. It can be a confusing process.

That is about it today

Cheers,

Damase

Engine 5

Well, we just finished bottling some Engine 5 (102 cases worth) we'll end up bottling about 200 more cases next week. One the schedule for the rest of this week...
Filter Balsam's Lager
Brew Balsam's Lager
Bottle Balsam's Lager

A busy week coming up.

At the end of next week we have the GIBF in Providence, it is a good festival, especially Saturday Afternoon. That is when the brewers find out if they won any awards for their beers!

Damase

A new Beer

Well today we just finished brewing a new beer. The as of yet unnamed Chocolate Porter (so far we have discussed "Dalmatian, Backdraft, and Paramedic.) The goal is a beer with a subtle hint of Chocolate, coming from the imported Chocolate Malt (no chocolate used in the malt, but the taste is similar to chocolate.) We will find out in a few weeks how well we did in hitting out goal.

Now in the fermenters we have:
FV1: Pozharnik
FV2: Porter
FV3: Empty
FV4: Wassail
20BBL: Balsam's Lager
Barrels: Pompier (aging nicely if I do say so myself)
Bright Tank: Engine 5 (we should be bottling it out next week!)

Today we have two tastings we are attending, Phil and James are off to Fancestown, NH (The Village Store), and I am off to Sutton, MA (Heritage Starlight in the Manchaug Mills.) So if you are in the area, stop by and say hi!

Well off to make more boxes and assemble 6 pack holders for the Engine 5 bottling run next week.

Have a great weekend, and Cheers,

Damase

View The Brewery

Forgive my shaking camera. I thought I would give this a shot. I will try to update the video at a later time with better camera angles.

The video shows the Mash Tun (Right) and the Brew Kettle (Left). The camera then swings to show the fermenters. We have a 15 barrel (465 Gallon) Brewhouse. The fermenters are 30 barrel fermenters with the exception of the 15 barrel fermenter and the 40 barrel conditioning tank.



James

Filtering Engine 5

Today we are filtering 30 barrels of Engine 5 scheduled to be bottled on Monday and Tuesday.

Engine 5 is filtered using a plate and frame filter along with a cartridge filter. A plate and frame sandwiches sheets of filter membrane (paper) between two plastic plates. As the beer is pushed through the sheets, yeast, trub, and other particulates are stripped from the beer for a clean final product. Our filter sheets will strip any particle that is greater than 6 microns (0.0006 inches). Once the beer passes through the plate and frame filter, it goes into a cartridge filter. A cartridge filter is basically a large version of your home water filters. It has a filtering membrane inside the housing that will strip out any that is greater that 0.65 microns. At 0.65 microns, the beer is nearly sterile; meaning that any bacteria that may have survived the plate and frame filter, will most likely be stripped out by the cartridge before it enters the Bright Tank. Once it is in the Bright Tank, the beer is carbonated and ready for packaging.

A filter run can take anywhere from 3-8 hours. It has taken as long as 12 hours before. Therefore, it is always nice to have a brewery dog to play with in the meantime.



Here is a picture of the setup of the two filters. On the left-hand side is the Plate and Frame filter which leads into the cartridge filter on the right. After the cartridge filter, the beer goes into the Bright Tank.




Here is a better view of the cartridge filter and the connections to the filters.

James

Mowgli, The Brewery Dog.

It is time to put some pictures up on the blog and what better than to start with the brewery dog, Mowgli.

Mowgli is a full German Shepard and will be two years old this December. He keeps us occupied throughout the day by following us everywhere, demanding that we play with him. I'm pretty sure we lose an hour or two a day having to entertain him. We ask that anyone who visits the brewery not to play with him since we have to suffer the consequences. Just kidding. All in all he is a great dog to have around the brewery. It sure makes filtering days a little easier.




James

Kegs of Pozharnik

Well we finished the kegging of the Pozharnik today. All in all a successful day. The rest of the day is spent cleaning and sanitizing for tomorrow's filtering day. Tomorrow we filter Engine 5 into the Bright tank.

Now for a few definitions that you might read here on the website...
Ingredients in our beer:
Malt: Grain (Barley, Wheat, Rye, and others) that has begun to germinate and then the germination is stopped. The Malt is then kilned, or roasted, or some cobination of the two to create different colors (shades of brown.)
Water: Self explanitory, water is water. We do add various chemicals to the water to get it where we want. We add gypsum to make the water harder, which emulates much of the water in England.
Hops: The flower of the hop plant. We get two major properties from the hops, the first is the bitterness (the Alpha Acid) which is disolved after much boiling (at least 60 minutes), the second is Aroma, which if you boil too long you lose. What we do is put bittering hops in early in the boil, and then aroma hops in later (best of both worlds.) I have always joked about making a beer that smelled hoppy, so folks would think it is bitter, but with very little bittering hops, and another beer with very little Aroma hops. I would do this just for fun to see what I get.
Yeast: A living creature that makes beer. All we make is yeast food, the yeast makes the beer. Yeast, through their biochemical reactions, create all sorts of flavors for the beer.

That is all for definitions now. More will follow

Cheers,

Damase