Well it was not your typical "Ash Wednesday," but it was a lot of fun. A few members of the
AugustineIdeas team and I headed out to
Brew It Up for a meeting with the owner, who will (hopefully) be a future client. During the course of the four hour meeting we discussed outreach tactics, strategy, some really cool upcoming events and brewed two kettles of beer. Despite the owner knowing my dad, who has brewed numerous kettles of beer, this was my first time going through the process. I always
enjoy a good meal and beverage when at Brew It Up and today I got to experience the first few steps of how the beer is made.
Step 1: Beer Selection - we choose the following:
Northern Mild “Nutty Brown” Ale - An English style ale with a gentle sweetness, low on hops and
bitterness with a unique toasted malt & nutty flavor
Wit Dream - a refreshing and fun unfiltered Belgian White style... brewed with varietal Orange
Blossom honey, coriander and dried orange peel
Step 2: Measure the ingredients
Surprisingly this was very educational. We got to taste the barley and weigh it.
Step 3: Grinding the barley
Although some of the barely was pre-ground we still have to grind a few of them.
Step 4: Put all the barley in giant tea bags and stir with giant wooden spoon in the kettle
We all got a pretty good workout during this step
Step 5: Eat and drink (well continue eating and drinking)
We had the famous kettle chips, a cheese/brie plate and a soon to be on the menu roasted Watsonville globe artichoke.
Step 6: Take out the giant tea bags and push all the liquid (future beer) out of the bag and back into the kettle.
Another great workout.
Step 7: Measure the hops, yeast and spices
Had to use a much smaller scale for this one and be more precise. Good thing we have a detail oriented team.
Step 8: Add "Brewers Gold"
Tastes like carmel.
Step 9: Add hops, yeast and spices
You have to release everything into the kettle pretty quickly ... the water is hot and you could get burned.
Step 10: Fancy machine takes the beer out of the kettle, cools it from 160+ degrees to colder in a few seconds and puts it into a plastic drum. Then we checked the density of the beer.
Step 11: Beer goes to the cold room for a few weeks to ferment, we continue to eat.
The pretzels are also very good.
Step 12: We will be having our amazing graphic design team make some labels and bottle our beer in about a month.
Here's a few more pictures:
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