Great Community

During the tumult of yesterday, I am reminded at how awesome the beer community is.

Three local brewers deserve special note:

Doc, the Director of Brewery Operations for BJ's national chain, has been incredibly supportive through the entire brewhouse fabrication process.  He loaned me some yeast, has walked through several times to suggest process improvements, and is overall an awesome dude.

Jonathan Buford from Arizona Wilderness talked me through some issues last night and shares his entire brewery with me.  I stop there at least every week to look at a process which I need to fix. He and Patrick, the Head Brewer, and Brett the Operations Manager all give me hugs and encouragement whenever I see them.

Anthony and Gabe at San Tan Brewing, our neighbor 3 blocks away, are a couple of the guys who got me into brewing in the first place. I brewed at San Tan as my first brewing experience, bought the first keg they ever sold (5 years ago) and the first 6-pack they sold at the brewery.  They have generously offered to let us clean kegs at their facility, allowing us to use a fully automated keg washer without having to make the enormous investment.  This saves us a LOT of time and chemicals.

This is simply a mention to the three organizations and people who have given over and over and over.  MANY local brewers have stopped by and every one of them have offered genuine and sincere help.

Thank you all!

Batch Number 4

Seriously, I hold faith that eventually this will get easier.

This is ONLY the 4th batch.

So today's "learning moments"...

I do double batches.  The grain can clog up the false bottom.  Next time, remove and COMPLETELY CLEAN OUT the false bottom.  I had to stir the entire hour of the mash, just to keep the false bottom clear.  AND YET, it sucked dry at one point and SCORCH! went the element in the RIMS tube.  Luckily, I just turned it off and no wort went over the scorch.  So- wort saved.

Oxygen lines can grow slime mold very quickly.  Do NOT let this happen to you.  I saw it as I was setting up the O2 for today, and fixed it.

No matter how "Oversized" your heat exchanger is, IT'S NOT.  Don't believe the hype.  For some mysterious reason, the heat exchanger has been chugging along for 4 hours and I'm at 80 degrees.  This is not good.  Must find solution.

Currently that has allowed batch 2, to mash for 4 hours so I'm PRETTY sure it's converted :)

Got here at 5 AM and it's 6 PM.  I'm going to send the 80 degree wort over to the fermenter to continue chilling, and lauter out batch number 2 so HOPEFULLY I can be home by midnight.  Probably not, but I hope so.

Still have
1) Mash out and bring up to a boil - 1 hour
2) Boil- 90 minutes
3) Chill - um.... 2 hours?
4) Transfer
5) Pitch yeast
6) CLEAN ALL THE THINGS - 2 hours

Maybe 2 AM.  We shall see.

UPDATE!

Well, the HX is performing as poorly as the first run.

I did realize that the reason the mash kept getting compacted is because, duh, pumping instead of using a grant.  So- this second batch will just be first runnings. YUM!

Also- the solenoid on the fermenter glycol jacket is stuck, closed.  So- no glycol.  This is quite a thing.  I have no other fermenter ready (not passivated yet) though I just thought of something- I can send it to the bright tank.  It's at 32, but it would at least be cold enough to hold for a day until I can get the solenoid fixed. That way the beer (and the day, and the precious grain) would not be lost. I can switch the solenoid from F3 to F5 and pump BACK to it.

Huh.  That may just work for now.  The next problem would be heating the wort back up from 32, to 65.  Glycol is very good at the chilling, but not so much at the heating. At least simultaneously. Interesting.  Another challenge.

UPDATE!!!

So I opened the Johnson controller up , and another one which was working, and compared the wiring.  MUCH easier than swapping solenoids.  BINGO!  There was one wire which was incorrectly connected to the board.  ALL FIXED!

And the reason the HX is going so slowly- probably- is because the HX is clogged with a bit of grain or something.  So I have to figure that one out (with some help from my friends, most likely...)

More learning. Good times. Good times.

Glycol Shower

In moving the fermenters in our small space, it was decided that one should be rotated slightly.

Unfortunately, the rotation of the fermenter SNAPPED the pipe connecting it to the glycol.

Directly above my head.

So I got a nice glycol shower as my friend ran to turn off the glycol unit.

About 4 or 5 gallons of 27 degree gycol SHOT out at me, drenching me quite thoroughly.

Of course, this happens as we are leaving and the repair took 3 hours.

Shucks.

Instructions not included

There are no instructions on how to use this vast array of equipment that you just paid tens (hundreds?) of thousands of dollars for.

SO- you research and you talk and hopefully you have spent time in other breweries, watching all the goings-on.

Yet, your brewery is not the same as theirs.  And there are a lot of things which the other breweries are doing which you don't even notice.

So when it comes down to it, there is far more in the actual building and setting up of the brewery than you could possibly have imagined.

We struggled at first with getting our pumps working correctly
We are doing everything we can to have thermometers in places, because though the brew house included a fancy control panel, the sensor wires are too short
The trench drain creates an entire new colony of bacteria and yeast if left to its own devices.  Quickly
Sanitizer mixing out of a 5 gallon bucket is NOT like star-san
Hoses don't bend. Like, seriously
pH meters need to be calibrated
Stainless must be passivasted
CIP does NOT mean "easy"
Grain dust is very dusty
Don't forget your CLT.  It's the forgotten step-child
Glycol valves- put them at arm height if you can

There will be plenty more. Every minute, there is another discovery!

Never dull

Another brew day arrives.  At 5:30 AM I roll in, preparing after a FULL 2 day weekend (20th anniversary.  What can I say.)

The beer I brewed last Wednesday is at 115 degrees.

Yes, something happened with the glycol unit and it was running at 115 degrees.

That being said- what to do?

I tasted the beer after it came back down to 65 degrees and it wasn't horrible, but it was just meh.  I theorize that the yeast had really already finished their work when the glycol unit crapped out.  Which means that rather than pooping out nasty fusels and esters, they just burned up and died.  All the natural carbonation from 65 degrees is gone. There is no "pop" to it like it had before.

Then I brewed another beer, while waiting to see what the repair man had to say (it was expensive)

That beer day went more smoothly than the first, but my assistant brewer, Andrew, and I, are too busy DOING things, to take time to write things down.  I am going to enlist the assistance of one of the many people who have volunteered to help, to be my secretary for the day, recording every move.

Such as moving hoses around.

WOW, do we do a lot of that.

There has GOT to be a way to streamline the hose and valve situation.  Our space is so limited that navigating through the maze of hoses is quite challenging.

Lots of learning, lots to do!

Here is a link to my TV appearance on Friday Fox 10 News

Making of beer!

It is done.

Beer has been made.

The tax form has been... well, contemplated

Yesterday was the maiden voyage for The Perch Brewery!  Grains went in water, then the water came out sugary, and then hops went in, it got cooled down, and yeast went in.  It's now bubbling.

That's pretty much making beer, right?

Before brewing, 5 AM

First water filling the HLT

These are the breakers for the brewhouse

"I'm a safety girl!"

Pretty picture

Always with the hoses.  On. Off. Move. UGH!

This dosen't suck

Recirc thru the RIMS tube

HOT SCOTCHY!

That, my friends, is a boil

The brew is "Calibration Ale".  It's really just an attempt at seeing how the system work, what we are missing and how to fix it.

Imagine it like this: You are delivered a bunch of parts.  Some are partially assembled, and some are just there.  You KNOW this is supposed to be a car.  So- now put it together.  I mean, you HAVE driven a car before, right?  Well then you should have no problem.  ENJOY!

The glycol system had a slight problem which was fixed early in the day, so that was good.  The o2 system leaked like a sieve and we went through 20 cubic feet of pure oxygen in no time (need a new regulator) the heat exchanger went much slower than expected.  If the boil is going to vigorously, simply pop a breaker in the circuit panel and reduce the heat by 25%.  That's how it's SUPPOSED to work, right?

Learning moments were about every 3 minutes throughout the 16 hour day, so- it was a complete success!

So now what?

A letter to The Perch staff:

----------------------------------------------------------------------

“WHEN WILL WE HAVE PERCH BEER?!?!”

I know, folks.  You hear this many times a day.

So here we sit, waiting.  Longing.  NEEDING to quench our thirst with a delicious Perch handcrafted, delicious beer. HOW CAN YOU MAKE US WAIT MORE?!?!?!? ARE YOU THE DEVIL?!?!!?

Here it is- we are all signed off on licensing.  We are checked off by the people who say we can make alcohol (one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country).

There is no “user manual” for a new brewery. For the last few days, I have been learning the specifics of the brewery.  Each brewery is different, each with its own challenges and unique systems.  These are being discovered and created as I get ready to brew.

“HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?!?!?!”

Brewing will take about 12 hours the first time.  Because, well, I’m making it up.

After brewing, fermentation happens.  This can take from 7 to 21 days.  The first batch will be about 2 weeks, more or less. Each beer and each yeast has their own way to go, and even if everything else is the same, two beers exactly the same can take different time to complete the brewing process.  Because yeast is a living organism and though we try and understand it, it is still a bit mysterious.  Like Yoda.

After fermentation, the beer goes into the Brite Tank for a few days until it is carbonated and ready to go into kegs.  Then, it goes into kegs. Through MAAGGIICC...

“SO NOW WE HAVE BEER TO SERVE?!?!?!”

Well, almost.  If we put the first beer we make on draft, it will be gone in 2 days.  Then we will put another on, and it will be gone in 2 days. And we will be out of beer. And people will be pissed.

Rather than have that happen, we are going to finish 5 batches, THEN put Perch Beer on tap. I know that it seems like a LONG process, and yes. It is.  Once this process is going, we continue and make more beer.

Since we have so many other great beers available, it is unlikely that we will have problems keeping up with demand for Perch Beer.  I anticipate having 5 beers on at all times.  This is not a guarantee as we have a certain amount of fermenters and one brite tank, but it should roll along on schedule.

There is a lot of set-up to do and just me to do it, so trust me when I tell you I am moving as quickly as possible to get Perch Beer in the keg, glass, and your beerhole! As soon as we get to the big time, I am glad that Andrew Ortega will be stepping in as my assistant! Don’t worry though, I will be glad to (and NEED) additional help. I am still planning on doing classes for homebrewing.

So when will we have Perch Beer for guests?  Late May, early June.  We will share specifics as they become available, so keep checking the Facebook page!

“What is the first beer going to be?”  Rosemary IPA. Then Fluquat Belgian, then a Robust Porter.

“What kinds of beers are you going to make?” All of them.  We are completely flexible and able to brew ALL THE BEERS!

“Are you going to make IPA?  I love IPA. IPA. IPA. IPA.”  Ok, sure. Can I get you a beer? Rampage perhaps?

Parts parts parts

Received one of the 3 orders for part which I made last week.  These are essential for hooking up tingz.

I need additional ferrules for hoses.  That's number one.

Along with thermo-wells.

The sensors still have to be hooked up in order to automate, but I can brew manual.  Phil, the Bru Gear owner, has been spending a LOT of time at the brewery, and has a 10 day trip to China starting tomorrow, so either I figure out how to hook up the sensors, or go manual.

Tomorrow I will passivate the system.  Basically, run a cleaning run through.  Using acid to help the stainless build up a protective layer.

Approval!

Health inspection today was supposed to be a "Benchmark" where they look at what we have accomplished, add more little stuff, and then come back in 5 days to give final approval.

Instead, they gave me a list of 8 things to fix in 10 days, and APPROVAL!

I'm literally on hold right now waiting to pay my $260 permit fee, and I can (almost) start brewing!

The only thing I forgot was that we have to ACTIVATE our State Microbrew license, which we HAVE.

So- our new, rust-free heating elements are in, and the replacement caps for the crappy ones are on the way.  I must HAMMER Phil to be sure they get here SOON!

Then it's beer time, kids!