I had an interesting day yesterday. I took my son shopping (ugh) yesterday, and we went to the nearest mall. That's about 145 miles from here, so I never, ever go to the mall. Anyway, after doing some rapid-fire shopping (he hates shopping too), we went to Legends Brewpub. The beer was medicre, food was ok. The service was great, though. While I was there, I grabbed a phone book and looked up the "House of Homebrew", a LHBS that I've never tried before. It was near downtown, so we went to check it out. Small store, decent selection, especially for wine, and very nice knowledgable staff.
While I was talking to the guy working there, he told me to go over to Titletown Brewing, and tell "David" that Chuck sent me. I went the one block down to Titletown, and was amazed by how good it was! There was a terrific selection of brews, it was happy hour, and the Brewer's game was on the big screen. From my seat at the bar, I could see David brewing. The bartender, Kathy, was very friendly and I felt quite at home!
I pushed my face closer to the glass, so I could see better. He was weighing hops, weighing whirlfloc tablets, and so on. He climbed up to the boil kettle and added the hops. Maybe he was just uncomfortable by being watched by a woman with her face pressed up on the glass, but once he added the hops he came out through the glass doors and started talking to me. He spent about 20 minutes with me, talking about the brewing process, the hops he uses, the beers that are filtered, who empties the mashtun, etc.
He was in the middle of a boil of a Scottish ale. He said he took the first runnings, and "boiled the **** out of it" and then added the rest of the runnings and boiled some more to carmelize the wort. He talked about maillard reactions, and then told me that he's been using nugget hops for bittering for most of his beers. I was a bit surprised by that, but he said he entered that contract a couple of years ago when the hops shortage really limited his options, and that once it's done with those, he'll use other hops too. He said that the IPA is bittered with chinook- he didn't like using nuggets for that beer, and was happier with the chinook for the IPA.
He showed me the fermenting tanks, and the "push button" temperature control. By a button, the glycol cooled fermenters have the temperature changed. He has a primary at 65, a lager at 50, etc, right next to each other. He said that they cold condition every one of their beers for 3 days before moving to the serving tanks. He also mentioned that ALL beers get the temperature ramped up after fermentation ends, by several degrees. He said that all of the beers "clean up" well with that treatment. The beers are served at 2-3 weeks old.
I had a great California common- which I've never found in a brewpub before. He told me that it was fermented with a lager yeast at 68 degrees and he was very happy with it.
I forgot to ask him the size of the batch- but I watched him weigh the whirlfloc, and there were many tablets in there! I mentioned that to him, and he said that he recommends using 1/2 tablet for 5 gallons.
It was a fun day, and the entire place was really cool. It's in an old train station, so the atmosphere was great. It was happy hour, so there were quite a few people around, and I got to talk about beer with the other patrons. My son sat patiently and waited for me.
The beer selection was awesome- I really want to go back soon. Since I was limited to two beers (2.5 hour drive home!) I left wanting more.
It was definitely the highlight of my "shopping" experience, that's for sure!
While I was talking to the guy working there, he told me to go over to Titletown Brewing, and tell "David" that Chuck sent me. I went the one block down to Titletown, and was amazed by how good it was! There was a terrific selection of brews, it was happy hour, and the Brewer's game was on the big screen. From my seat at the bar, I could see David brewing. The bartender, Kathy, was very friendly and I felt quite at home!
I pushed my face closer to the glass, so I could see better. He was weighing hops, weighing whirlfloc tablets, and so on. He climbed up to the boil kettle and added the hops. Maybe he was just uncomfortable by being watched by a woman with her face pressed up on the glass, but once he added the hops he came out through the glass doors and started talking to me. He spent about 20 minutes with me, talking about the brewing process, the hops he uses, the beers that are filtered, who empties the mashtun, etc.
He was in the middle of a boil of a Scottish ale. He said he took the first runnings, and "boiled the **** out of it" and then added the rest of the runnings and boiled some more to carmelize the wort. He talked about maillard reactions, and then told me that he's been using nugget hops for bittering for most of his beers. I was a bit surprised by that, but he said he entered that contract a couple of years ago when the hops shortage really limited his options, and that once it's done with those, he'll use other hops too. He said that the IPA is bittered with chinook- he didn't like using nuggets for that beer, and was happier with the chinook for the IPA.
He showed me the fermenting tanks, and the "push button" temperature control. By a button, the glycol cooled fermenters have the temperature changed. He has a primary at 65, a lager at 50, etc, right next to each other. He said that they cold condition every one of their beers for 3 days before moving to the serving tanks. He also mentioned that ALL beers get the temperature ramped up after fermentation ends, by several degrees. He said that all of the beers "clean up" well with that treatment. The beers are served at 2-3 weeks old.
I had a great California common- which I've never found in a brewpub before. He told me that it was fermented with a lager yeast at 68 degrees and he was very happy with it.
I forgot to ask him the size of the batch- but I watched him weigh the whirlfloc, and there were many tablets in there! I mentioned that to him, and he said that he recommends using 1/2 tablet for 5 gallons.
It was a fun day, and the entire place was really cool. It's in an old train station, so the atmosphere was great. It was happy hour, so there were quite a few people around, and I got to talk about beer with the other patrons. My son sat patiently and waited for me.
The beer selection was awesome- I really want to go back soon. Since I was limited to two beers (2.5 hour drive home!) I left wanting more.
It was definitely the highlight of my "shopping" experience, that's for sure!
