Shameless Rants and Confessions of an Aspiring Pro

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Thundercougarfalconbird

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I've been really wanting a place to vent about beer to people who understand...beer.
I want to be able to talk about my frustrations, victories, whatever I feel like. This first post is a bit of a rant.
I was inspired by Mjdonnelly68 and his wonderful thread "My Year in Beer" (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f45/my-year-beer-298708/) and am finally getting around to starting my own thread. I find blogs to be somewhat pretentious and would prefer to write in this format.
I am a senior at Georgia Southern University. I am a Communication Arts major, and a writing minor. Needless to say, after a couple years I discovered 'communication' is a steaming load of rhetorical crap. If I want to be content I need to find something else to do. I love writing, but I hardly consider it to be a stable job choice.
I'll skip some of the boring details and get to the point. I found brewing almost two years ago and love everything about it. I love the science. I love the amount of building, and hands on work involved. I love the comradery. I am normally very shy, I have trouble talking to people without a specific reason to do so. Some days I worry I won't be able to meet new people effectively after college, when 'adulthood' begins. But with professional brewing, this can never be the case, someone will always be there to belly up to the bar and have a pint with me. I love beer itself. I love the community. So full of positivity, culture and festivity.

I am a full-time student with a thin wallet. I get $75 a week for food and entertainment. The majority of my battle brewing-wise is my my budget. Not having an income makes it really difficult to put out 10-30 gallons a month. I skip a couple meals a day to fuel the brewery (yet somehow I still have managed to gain weight, damn beer calories!). Repairs on boot-strapped gear have been killing me lately.

I have been scrapping together a system over the past couple years, I am lucky to be surrounded by sceney bar-owners who are willing to sell me keg-shells and generous local homebrewers. I brew on the back patio of my crappy apartment. No cover sucks, it rains down here almost every day. The outlet outside doesn't work and there is no spigot. I run a hose and an extension cord out the window.
rainy brutus.jpg

I got my stand super cheap ($200) all stainless! I dislike the lower tier, it's too low to support another pump (not that I can afford one). My stand needs wheels with brakes as well. But she makes great beer regardless. I do a direct fire recirculation mash and ferment in carboys in a temp controlled freezer.

I have a huge base of supportive friends and family. They always want samples. I just drove to Atlanta today with 80 bottles of several different kinds of beer. I really wanted to have beer to show off and rushed a few batches.
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Chocolate Hazelnut Porter- I won a Rogue kit in a brewing competition and refuse to use extract, precrushed grain, and poorly stored hops. So I decided to just use the hazelnut. Blah, Slightly undercarbonated, brewcraft hazelnut extract made the beer worse.
Galaxy Vienna Lager- Didn't get enough lagering time, but man is it tasty (Galaxy, Simcoe, Tett dryhop!)
Mild-been in the fridge a couple weeks and is over-carbonated. Should be great warm and flat. but is past it's prime.
Munich Dunkel- Got plenty of lagering time, but I used German Lager X. I'm not a huge fan.
American Light Lager- I made this for my dad. He is a Coors man and rarely drinks my beer. I wanted to make something impressive for him to take with him on a hunting trip. But figures, when it counts, I gotta screw up. I wanted maximum lagering time, so I waited until last night to carbonate. I managed to flip the wrong switch on my co2 distributor and the beer didn't carbonate as planned. I needed it today, so force-carbonation was the only option. Great, now all that lagering time is wasted. I waited as long as I could before I bottled, but the co2 hadn't fully absorbed into the beer. I'm fairly certain the beer in the bottles are flat-ish. I brought the case up regardless. My dad asked about his beer and I told him what had happened. I got the "I just hope it's got bubbles" and "that's your product, it better be 100%" comments. The beer tastes wonderful, but it has gone from well-meditated crystal clear lager to murky and flat. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, but perfection is expected and I failed.
Blues aside, I plan to post up about every beer I make. If you'd like a sample of pretty much any beer I talk about just shoot me a PM and I'll send a cold one your way (you gotta cover shipping though)

On a more positive note, I got a call a few weeks ago, an amateur homebrewer in the area (who owns several restaurants) just got his federal brewing license and wants me to head up the 15bbl brewery. I am wary, I have only talked to him over the phone and haven't seen any physical evidence. I've been told he has the money though, so fingers crossed. :ban:
 
Sorry I have taken so long to update. Finals and Pro-brewer happenings have distracted me greatly.

My Galaxy Vienna Lager and Munich Dunkel both took awards this week at Max Lagers First Annual Homebrew Competition. I judged for the first time, and look forward to judging more. I was glad to see my autonomous scores were always within 5 points of the National-rank BJCP judge at the table. I love being reaffirmed that my palate isn't terrible, because I often fear it is.


I have been progressing with my financiers. They have purchased a few 30bbl fermenters and brite tanks for me to play with! I have also moved my brew system to a garage, so no more rain or wind to slow me down!

30 bbl 1.jpg

They will be arriving in January. (Sorry the pic is sideways, it is formatted oddly)
Of course we need somewhere to put these beasts so my financiers are also working out getting a building. The one they are in the process of buying is a whopping $700k! I am beyond stoked. There are apartments above it, so I will be living above the brewery and working on a 15bbl system as Head-Brewer. I am currently developing recipes for the company. I had never dreamed someone would foster my passions quite like this.
We have our federal and local brewing licenses. Our state will be in soon. As soon as the website launches and we have official media I will reveal more about the brewery. Or I may remain anonymous so I can say what I want. Idk yet.
 
Congrats man im envy. I love everything about beer. If I could do that for a living I would love getting up every morning for work.

But how life works I see that as much as me "trying to make it as a rapper". To bad because thats my only passion I have in life.

Keep it up and brew some good beers I would love to drink them!

Best regards -James

P.S. I don't want to be a rapper.
 
:tank: Thanks. I feel you on the rapper thing. I intend to pursue my professional career as far as possible, but I don't intend to ever be a starving artist type =P Damn reality.

Suppose I'll continue my rant.

-Had Sam Adams White Water IPA yesterday, while they aren't my favorite brewery this particular beer is great. Aroma hop is quality, smells/tastes like a a cascade/chinook or cascade/mt.hood combo. The base beer is excellent as well. Wonderful billowy head, and lacing down to the last sip.

-While it is small to some homebrewers on this site, it's huge to me. Got my first pallet of grain for recipe development (albeit, not full pallet) This is also my first shipment from my commercial ingredient supplier.forklift grain.jpg (Don't worry I'm not in the photo =P)

When the brewery launches we expect to have 3 flagship beers with seasonal and special releases coming soon after. I've been hammering down a really nice pale ale, may go classic pale ale (Cali I, Simcoe, Centennial, Cascade) or may go with one a bit more off the wall (German Ale, Crystal and Citra hops).
I am unsure as to what the other two flagship beers will be yet, I really want to put my Munich Dunkel out there.
I am pushing my financiers for a sour beer barrel program, while it isn't in the works yet. I suspect it will be soon.
 
Had a Petrus Aged Pale Ale for the first time. Blew my mind.
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Lemon Rind and Oak. The selection of sour locally is very limited. I got this one from Five Points Bottle Shop in Athens. (~3 hour drive). I sampled my flanders red. Sour and tannic, but I will give it 12 more months (18months total) I intend to blend it with a 2-4month version.

I brewed the last batch on my boot-strapped brutus system, a little Northern English Brown with a really interesting malt bill. I hit 90% efficiency so I got a free keg of mild out of it. Due to mill breaking down I reset anticipated eff to 75%. I threw a few pounds of homemade apple-cranberry chutney into the mild.
I will be brewing pilots on a 26 gallon tippy dump system for the brewery. Still haven't got building, but hopefully will in the next 30 days. Going to start work on an IPA and a not-hoppy third flagship beer.
IPA Pilot Ideas: Classic West Coast Style IPA, Double English IPA, White IPA, or Wild Citra IPA.
Not-Hoppy Pilot Ideas: Munich Dunkel, Chocolate Robust Porter, Belgian wit, Lemon Wheat, English Brown Ale.
Ideally I want a tasty quick turn around English ale, real German style lager, and off the wall wild/sour for my first 3 beers released. Maximum Variety.
 
Tanks took until Monday to arrive.
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This is just one of the three shiny 30bbl fermenters. We were supposed to get a brite with the shipment, but we were told that it wouldn't fit. Lo and behold there was 16ft of empty room on the truck. We suspect they still had beer the brite and couldn't move it. :mad: We'll be sorting that fiasco out soon enough.

But hey, Tanks are here! They are beauties too. All the welds look clean, and the fittings are all GW kent stuff. Really nice heavy butterfly valves, rotating racking arm, PRVR, sample valve, blowoff assembly.
 
Brite Tank is in. Been breaking down and cleaning the used ball valves all week. We are seriously considering a GW kent brewhouse.

cold end.jpg
 
I feel like I should get this thread moved =P Not many commenting was kinda hoping to get some conversation going :drunk:

I had a 75minute IPA. Too hot and sticky sweet, usual Dogfish. I used to love em, but not so much these days.

My brewery should have some tours from 5:30 to 8pm this Friday. No samples yet, just a local downtown event called First Friday.

We're finalizing numbers on our brewhouse, current estimated lead time is 2 months. We could be open by early summer, but knowing the nature of brewing, it could take a lil longer.
 
Yesterday night I was there.:D

I picked up a carboy :drunk: Didn't have enough ferment space for the 20gal batch today. Ordered a sack of unmalted wheat and it wasn't even there =( No wits for a bit.

Gonna be a busy brew day. Kegging 15gal, brewing 20, cleaning and polishing the big boy tank
 
Man I thought that was you but I wasn't sure, me and a buddy of mine were right there behind you while you were checking out. :cross: If I'd have known I would have said hi!
 
Man I thought that was you but I wasn't sure, me and a buddy of mine were right there behind you while you were checking out. :cross: If I'd have known I would have said hi!

Didn't make the connection at the time, but did as soon as you asked me lol. As I'm only 22, my age tends to catch people off guard.

Ugh calibrating sight glasses is the most boring thing ever. I've got these two 26gal morebeer kettles I've slowly been calibrating for the pilot system. So not looking forward to calibrating the sight tube on the brite (and I am going to build a similar sight tube for the fermenters) I'm a stickler about volumes.

We've happened upon 8 or so glycol jacketed wine fermenters for a good price. If we pick them up expect MANY sour beers, lagers, and high gravity brews in our lineup!

We are now considering scaling up to a 30bbl brewhouse.

Epiphany of the week: Brite Tanks can be used as CLT's.
 
Exciting news about the craft brewers conference: Head Brewer at Russian River is giving a lecture on dry hopping and there is a lecture on advanced sour brewing. I'll post my notes up when I get them, as I assume the info should be pretty cutting edge.
 
Finally finished cleaning all the big boy tank fittings :tank:
Floor grates are in. They look pretty darn snazzy. One of our tanks blowoff assemblies is too close to a roofduct. >_<

Trying to get big C camlocks off of brewhardware for the pilot, but I keep missing the days he stocks them :mad: I can't go back to skinny camlocks!
 
Had a Stone "Drink By"
I taste Nelson's in it.

Belting out some pilots on Monday. Took all weekend cleaning, installing, and calibrating equipment.

Current Flagship Considerations: Very hoppy pale ale, lemon-lime hefe, Munich Dunkel

We have our brewhouse picked out! Only a 2 month lead time

brewhouse_1.jpg

Its decoction mash capable. Our lagers will be superior.

Edit: Damn I'm good. Nelson/Galaxy dry hop
 
That's a GW Kent brewhouse. She's pretty. Included mash hydrator and agitator =D. Though I am not a fan of the combitank. I think I'll survive :p
 
Jeez! Color me impressed. Who's your target market down there? Not college students I'm guessing. Is there much demand for craft beer in statesboro?
 
Hoping to sell a good bit of beer to students, much like Terrapin is to UGA. The demand for craft beer in the area is small, but growing steadily (Georgia seems to be the last frontier of the craft beer movement) Unfortunately, the sell-on-premise pint law failed in GA so we won't be making a billion dollars selling $3 IPA's to students :drunk:. We'll be distributed to Augusta, Waynesboro, Savannah, and a few other south eastern cities off the bat.
On that note, I am wary of our distributor. I wanted to go with the big guys who make it to Atlanta, but the primary financier decided otherwise.
 
There is an huge difference between commercial grade cleaners/sanitizers and homebrew scale cleaners. No Starsan and PBW for the big boys. I have been researching and weighing options for a few days. Trying my best to keep caustics and strong acids out of the brewery. (except for passivization, I have every intention of acid washing my tanks for that)

I know our website still isn't operational, so like us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/EagleCreekBrewingCompany?fref=ts
 
Got my cleaning chemicals selected finally.
Craft Brewers Conference on Tuesday. STOKED.
Brewed a Belgian Wit today. pH was all wonky, gonna up my acid malt next time.

My god is it hard to get things done with foreign equipment suppliers. 20 emails later, I finally have all the gaskets for our fermenters on their way here.
 
GW Kent was at the CBC, this isn't our brewhouse, ours is twice this size.
7bbl.jpg

I was ID'ed twice already at the event. I know I look young, but at $500 a ticket, idk how many under 21's are sneaking in to drink.
 
GW Kent Brewhouse uses a whirlpool coupled with a bottom drain port on a dished bottom.
If I were to build another homebrew system I'd cut the bottom of the keg and tricolver a 1.5" TC tee and dump valve
 
Thundercougarfalconbird said:
GW Kent Brewhouse uses a whirlpool coupled with a bottom drain port on a dished bottom.
If I were to build another homebrew system I'd cut the bottom of the keg and tricolver a 1.5" TC tee and dump valve

Steam? Seems like direct fire would cause problems with that set up.
 
Best of luck to you and your brewery. Back in the mid 1990s, I was close to opening a brewery in the Atlanta area. But that is when there was a bit of a shake-up in the craft industry and there were quite a few failures. That and the fact that GA was just not friendly to small brewers scared me away. Oh, I also had a wife, two kids, a mortgage and a job that paid pretty well.

As far as GA law: things are better these days and I think that in 2014 there is a good chance you'll at least be able to sell on site. The state laws for brewpubs have really evolved and it's time for that to happen for the packaging breweries. All the wineries in N GA have been able to sell on premises for years. It just doesn't make sense that the state decided to look the other way while NC embraced the craft brewing movement. The distributors in this state have their hands deep in somebody's pockets and I don't know when we'll get rid of the 3-tier system. But at 30bbls starting out self distributing is probably not even a consideration you.

Hopefully, you'll build a loyal following down in Statesboro. Terrapin really has been successful in Athens.
 
Suppose that style bottom would require electric since steam obviously isn't applicable for a homebrewer.

Sorry to hear about your venture, life seems to get in the way of many aspiring breweries, I am glad to be young enough to not have many responsibilities. I am simply the brewer in this operation, my financiers both own successful businesses and our progress has been excellent thus far. There is a very good chance we will get our final (state) licence tomorrow and will be able to manufacture and distribute officially. We were almost able to sell on premise this year, but the legislation held things up. We have been considering trying to take on the three tier system though the courts. Things are indeed changing, I really feel we're riding the craft beer wave into the state.
While I would like to start out self distributing, our distributor will probably be able to move more of our product off the bat. Though we met with a Lazy Magnolia employee, and the average south eastern distributor is moving 30ish bbl a month. I suspect we will be signing on additional distributors very soon after our opening.
 
BTW, I think it is definitely time for you to move this thread to a forum that more people look at. You can always link these 4 pages to it. There are a lot of guys here who would love to watch you put this all together.
 
Thanks for moving the thread Yuri :D
No real updates, just been working on our floor situation. We need sloped floors and grit in the floor paint.
 
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