Brewpastor
Beer, not rocket chemistry
While out in the San Diego area I went for a tour of Stone Brewing. If you are in the area, make the time to see this new facility, it is great and it is free.
I went on a Thursday for the 2 pm tour and was the only one there, so I had a private tour. When you get there you have the chance to sample some brews on draft and check out item for sale in a gift shop. I did my best to sample them all, but after 6 or so they stopped offering, so I had to pay for some more.
The new brewery is huge and has a new 4 vessel, 120 bbl brewhouse from Germany. The Lauter tun (which can just be made out in the picture below as the third vessel) is 19 feet across! Very cool set-up, lots of computer inner-facing and sensors... Because of their set up they can brew 24/7 if they need to and produce something like 200,000 bbls annually.
The tank farm is huge and includes a number of 140 bbl fermenters, as well as some 360 bbl tanks for triple batches. In the picture below you might make out a guy standing under a tank cleaning - that is how large these things are.
The DE filter alone (in the foreground below) is about six and a half feet tall!
They have a huge cooler in which pallets can stack 3 high and I can't even guess the number of cases and case it would hold. It is huge. In it there are a number of oak barrels with specialty brews aging. The also distribute a large number of other products and the cooler is like a candy store.
I was told the way the make their oaked Arrogant Bastard is by making an oak tea and adding that to the finished brew.
I could go on and on but it might be better for me to just stop and see what question you might have. The brews all hit the spot, but I particularly enjoyed the 6-6-06 Epic Verticle and the Russian Imperail Stout.
I went on a Thursday for the 2 pm tour and was the only one there, so I had a private tour. When you get there you have the chance to sample some brews on draft and check out item for sale in a gift shop. I did my best to sample them all, but after 6 or so they stopped offering, so I had to pay for some more.
The new brewery is huge and has a new 4 vessel, 120 bbl brewhouse from Germany. The Lauter tun (which can just be made out in the picture below as the third vessel) is 19 feet across! Very cool set-up, lots of computer inner-facing and sensors... Because of their set up they can brew 24/7 if they need to and produce something like 200,000 bbls annually.
The tank farm is huge and includes a number of 140 bbl fermenters, as well as some 360 bbl tanks for triple batches. In the picture below you might make out a guy standing under a tank cleaning - that is how large these things are.
The DE filter alone (in the foreground below) is about six and a half feet tall!
They have a huge cooler in which pallets can stack 3 high and I can't even guess the number of cases and case it would hold. It is huge. In it there are a number of oak barrels with specialty brews aging. The also distribute a large number of other products and the cooler is like a candy store.
I was told the way the make their oaked Arrogant Bastard is by making an oak tea and adding that to the finished brew.
I could go on and on but it might be better for me to just stop and see what question you might have. The brews all hit the spot, but I particularly enjoyed the 6-6-06 Epic Verticle and the Russian Imperail Stout.