Moonshrimp Brewing-A gluten free microbrewery

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InfiniteThought

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Joined
Sep 15, 2010
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Location
Portland
The title says it really, SW Portland will soon (hopefully) have a dedicated gluten free micro-brewery. Work is still in the very early stages and licensing is just about to be submitted but the space is secured and recipes have been developed.

The plan is to start with just a tiny 2bbl gas fired system with four fermenters and run from there. Everything is still in the works...so incredibly much to do.:ban:
 
Cool. Good to see this. What kind of beers are you going to start off with? I would be interested in more detail. Don't put out a bad product and give us gluten free guys a bad rap. ;)

Seriously, good luck and have fun with it. :mug:
 
Quick google search answered some of my question. http://www.moonshrimpbrewing.com/

Cool stuff. Vegan huh? Like adding more challenge? haha. I get it. I'm vegetarian and gluten intolerant. A lot of what I eat just happens to be vegan.

Got pics of the setup? This has definitely piqued my interest. I recommend to start distribution in PA. :D
 
Wow, another gluten-free brewery in Portland? Gonna give Harvester a run for their money, eh? Looking for any help/interns/grunts/short-term employees? If so, please PM me. I'm looking for work in September and more than willing to move to Portland. I'll be travelling through there in late June, would love to at least have a chat and swap some beers....
 
Yep, thats the website. Vegan isn't really that much more of a challenge but I am taking it to the extreme. No honey and no cane sugar (turns out its filtered through bone char), no isinglass obviously.

The beer is very beer like, a strong millet base with home made candi sugar (beet origin). The goal is to have beer that tastes just like beer made locally with good sustainability practices. Having harvester in town is good, a few more people have heard of gluten free beer and the market is a little more accepting now then it was even a few years ago but I still get the question "...so that means no hops right?" a lot more then I would like.

Pictures of setup will be posted shortly as long as you guys don't mind seeing empty rooms with paint chips on the floor.
 
"Work-in-progess" pics are fine. I like seeing this stuff come together. You guys have to talk to people on the west coast and tell them to bring better breweries to the east coast.

I work with a millet base as well. Definitely has a "beer like" quality. It seems to add a chewiness and substance you can't get from other GF grains. Your website says that you use millet from colorado. CMC? Their red millet DP sucks but, their white is much better.

Wish I could try one of these beers. Guess I need to plan a trip to portland. Haha
 
if you use organic cane sugar your good; anything else and all bets are off.

Looking forward to seeing more of the brewery!
 
Organic cane sugar is waaaay to expensive, have you seen the price on that stuff? Its expensive if you just want a little bit for baking, forget brewing quantities. I use beet sugar (amalgamated sugar co, Idaho, originally from portland) that is strictly vegan. Same product as far as beer is concerned, tastes the same, caramelizes much faster which is fine with me.

I am trying to find my camera cord to up load some pictures of this evenings work sanding down plaster on the walls and the general layout of the place. Electric sander + old plaster = whiteout! I had to shop vac myself before getting into the car, then contemplated stripping on my porch before going inside the house. Stood there for a while smacking myself instead and got a few odd looks from the neighbors picnic.
 
I think I figured the pictures out...guess I will find out in a minute. Anyway, here are the first few pictures. My future brewery! :rockin: Edit: Well, the pictures came out sideways, I thought I had fixed that.

IMG_3082.jpg


IMG_3096.jpg
 
I agree it's expensive; I use about 100lbs a week baking.

The brewery is looking good! Looking forward to trying your brew. been a long while since I've truly enjoyed a cold pint at a bar
 
Spent another day scraping loose paint of the ceiling, it is truly amazing how much harder something is to work on when it is straight over your head on a ladder. Half the brewery needs the paint removed off the ceiling, the brew house and the fermentarium have chunks of paint that, left to their own devices, would soon come down. The conditioning room I am going to screw a piece of foam insulation into the ceiling and the ceiling in the supply room, back office and bathroom is in decent shape.

Yeah...Thanks previous tenant for painting a new coat on top of flaking paint instead of fixing it.
 
I know exactly how hard it is. Used to do auto repair. ;)

Its going to be worth it in the end. Keep at it.

Are you going to have a tasting room or just the brewery?
 
No tasting room, this simplifies my licensing and makes so that I don't need to provide food or have separate areas, plus frees up a lot of time for me. Ultimate plan is to have a brewpub some day of course. GF beer, GF food all in one place where you can sit down, have a burger and a pint and not have to ask any questions. That is the dream right there.

As far as progress goes got my revised logo back from the graphic designer and it looks great so that is going to be finished real soon. Other then that just working at the day job, sanding paint and reading paperwork.
 
Portobella burgers. They are tasty. I eat vegan food a lot. Some of it is aweful and some is pretty good. Indian food is usually vegan. If you aren't vegan, don't try vegan cheese. :)
 
Sure, why not? Vegan spent GF grain burger recipe (no grain husks):
Spent grain, finely chopped onion, xantham gum, salt, taco or meat seasonings, touch of paprika and oil, mix it really well and put it in a forman grill. Tastes pretty good and keeps for more then a few days.
 
My god! Recipe stolen. I'm brewing on Sunday. Black ipa. Black ipa-black bean burgers. Mmmmmm....
 
Just make sure you cook it slowly and for a lot longer then you would guess or the middle stays sticky. I would post amounts of ingredients but I honestly just poured it into a mixer without really paying attention. A black IPA burger sounds pretty good...now I am hungry.

Approved the logo today, will probably have files for it this afternoon.
 
Haha. Yeah I really wanted a black bean burger on my lunch break.

I'm a pretty good cook. I'm not worried about the proportions. If everything goes well, I will most likely post the recipe for the ipa. Its millet based so you can throw me some pointers. ;)

Looking forward to the logo and some more pics.
 
Picking out paint colors for the brewery and open to opinions. Tell me, what color should a fermentarium be? Requirements are that the colors do not interfere in seeing and processing beer, ie if the walls are deep red cannot see differences in yeast slurries.

The conditioning room for tax paid beer will be either a green or teal, the brew house is going to be something really rich colored with a white area behind the kettle. Love to hear input, what color best matches fermenting beer that you can't see?
 
Tell me, what color should a fermentarium be? Requirements are that the colors do not interfere in seeing and processing beer, ie if the walls are deep red cannot see differences in yeast slurries.

Interesting.. never thought of it before. My first thoughts would be sanitary concerns.
Being able to clean the room consistently and almost constantly so durability is a factor.

Are you doing FRP board and looking to color above that?
-
second round of thinkin is paint it what ever and have a small light box you can look at to view your slurries.
 
Probably going to have a nice all white lab area to view slurries and important science things, mostly posted that for the wife who loves colors and is excited to and paint for me just in case anyone had some ideas. (Go wife who wants to HELP build a brewery!)

A little more about the brewery I realized I didn't include. Planning on extreme environmentally friendly eg, huge skylights and efficient lighting, bioremediation of grain/hops/spent yeast on site, local manufactured bottles/fermenters and a rainwater catchment flushed toilet. Planning on eventually also having an electric truck to deliver beer and hopefully a vertical axis wind turbine on the brewery roof.
 
The Brewery has been submitted to Kickstarter, just waiting on their approval. Prizes are set up and sourced, video filmed, ready to go and nervous beyond belief.
 
All the recent rain in Portland has shown a problem, water from the downspout runs TOWARDS the building in one spot and ends up in the crawl space under the floor. The asphalt is sunk back down about an inch behind the downspout and the whole thing needs to be rerouted as soon as possible.

Damn day job is preventing me from getting important things done.
 
Rule number one...city governments suck. Don't do any work until you have all the permits done. Don't screw yourself.

What ingredients will you be using? Rice, Sorghum, Millet?
 
Awesome, just saw your kick starter stuff at johns beer market!
 
John's is awesome, they are burning through about 50 fliers a day, possibly more. Every time I have been there they have already run out. They also told me that they were going to turn their entire store into a trap that people couldn't leave until they contributed to the Kickstarter, that one seems slightly less likely to work out.

As far as city governments are concerned I haven't done any work, one downspouts worth of water now empties jointly with another one about 15 feet away connected only with temporary pipes. It is always good advice to avoid problems with the city, especially the permitting process for ANYTHING AT ALL but in this case they really don't care.

I am using millet (un malted, hulled pearl millet) and beet sugar. For a list of the complete ingedients in each beer see www.moonshrimpbrewing.com/beers
 
haha holy crap, i just saw where your location was as well... i drive by you guys everyday from work. i'm not a vegan nor am i wheat intolerant, but just means i could stop by for a work when i head home!
If you guys need a hand sometime, let me know! i'm just up capital by PCC
 
You like the octopus on the roof? He needs a little love and some paint, as well as his compound fractures repaired. Then we can sit on the roof and have a beer with a giant purple octopus.

For all nearby peoples, Moonshrimp Brewing will be offering homebrewed tastes of our beer at P.U.B on june 4th from 5-7pm.

Edit: P.U.B is Portland U-Brew & Pub in Sellwood.
 
Haha yes! i love the cephalopod! Octomoon brewing? :mug:

and badass... that is my LHBS when i need something on the way home from work... awesome! this is going in my calendar
 
Very excited for the tasting today, hopefully some good Kickstarter action will come out of this. The brewery walls still look like mushrooms are coming out of them from the sealant I sprayed into all the old cable holes and gaps, will try to get a picture up cause its very strange looking.
 
Sorry I had to ditch out early. Wife needed something... but it was nice meeting you! And great beers! I usually dislike most gluten free beers, but I loved yours and am looking very forward to having a beer on the way home! If you need any help with construction or anything at all, let me know! And, because I know you were worried.... don't worry, the octopus is still there! :) :mug:
 

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