This week’s theme for all of my posts will be solely focused on beer…searching for it, fermenting it, tasting it and cleaning up after making it – and there’s an incredibly good reason for it!
Our four-day holiday this past weekend was consumed by beer-related “business.”
On Saturday we drove to one of the UK’s largest homebrew shops (HomeBrew Shop) in Aldershot, England (about 40 miles Southwest of central London) to purchase supplies. Jim woke up at 6.30am like a five-year old on Christmas morning; I seriously don’t think he slept very well given our plan for the day.
Expecting to return home with some beer equipment and a full boot (trunk) of groceries, we opted for a local Zip car. We arrived “right on time” as the shop opened and spent the next 60 minutes building a pyramid of beer supplies next to the shop register. Jim had prepared a nearly two-page ingredient and equipment list (some of which required on-site assembly while we shopped).
After paying and bringing the car to the curb, the real challenge began. Small VW Zip cars are perfect for quick trips around town for a few things – not so ideal for transporting complete homebrewing operations and two passengers! Somehow we managed and thank God we did, as I think the fermentor may have taken precedence over me if the space was any tighter.
Next task – perhaps more importantly, how would we store the supplies and equipment in our flat?…the Harry Potter closet! We have a small closet under our stairs (a mirror image of the closet from the film) which previously was for suitcases, shoes, and a laundry basket. As of Sunday it now has a fermentor, lauter tun, boiler, and upwards of 25kg of malt.
The yet-to-be named brewery, “Birch Brewery” is just too boring, began operations in London on Sunday, April 1st. The sweet smell of malting barley, foggy mist of a kitchen filled with two pots of steaming water, and overwhelming hop aromas quickly overtook our entire flat – the first recipe is a hoppy American wheat beer!
I’m a big beer fan just like Jim, and I’m even becoming attuned to the various taste characteristics of the most popular styles. I’ve toured enough breweries over the past four years to understand the difference between malt and hops, but I still don’t fully understand all of the complexities in the beer-making process or the chemistry behind fermentation and “enzymatic reactions.”
As a result my role was “Assistant Brewer”, a promotion from “Assistant to the Brewer” in years past. Thanks Jim (Sense the sarcasm here?). I weighed the grains and hops, created an Excel spreadsheet to track our recipe (and more importantly convert from metrics to US units ), and the most important role – held the tubing in place to ensure the proper flow of beer from the mash tun to the boiler.
Jim did all the “other” work; he researched beer equipment, studied recipes, read beer books and more – a bit boring from my perspective!
Yesterday he set-up, sanitized the equipment, monitored the boil for hours on end, and even did the entire clean-up. It takes patience and careful planning, and as a bystander, I can tell you it’s not easy.
The pictures below should give you a better visual of this process!
Jim has always talked about quitting his day job and starting a brewery. I’m begining to think he’s really serious – and I’m excited too. Hopefully this first batch tastes good, but even if it doesn’t, I look forward to seeing how the recipes evolve and tasting all the delicious beers to come. Next up (on Saturday) a double IPA.
Until then, expect a lot more beer posts from me!
To our friends and family: get ready to try Jim’s latest experiments in home-brewed beer…
April 2, 2013
Beer and Breweries