Stone Brewalong Day

[wakkow]

Last month, Stone Brewing let local homebrewers come to watch a batch of their Levitation Ale get brewed and take home up to 10 gals of the wort (at any time during the process from preboil to finished). Mitch, the headbrewer from Stone was there the whole time answering questions. It was a lot of fun!


http://picasaweb.google.com/sizer99/StoneAndBarleyLiteratesBrewJul82007

I took the pictures but didn't write the captions, so some aren't exactly correct.

 

[Dude]

Cool!!!!!!!

You suck!!!!

 

[libs]

Thats awesome to find a brewery that'll part with the wort like that!!

 

[cubbies]

That is really cool...great picks. And yes, I agree, you totally suck.

 

[Jester]

thats awesome..!!!

 

[Blender]

Yeah ......that is very cool. i would love to do something like that.

 

[magno]

WOW!!

That is an amazing opportunity. Someone needs to clue the central TX breweries about this idea.

 

[DeathBrewer]

That is really cool...great picks. And yes, I agree, you totally suck.

10 char

 

[wakkow]

It took less than a day from them announcing it to the local homebrewing clubs for the 40 spots to fill. It sounds like it went better than expected, so hopefully they'll do it again. There's going to be a AHA thing next month at Stone, so all of us that took wort will bring some of our brew so we and Stone can try each others. Fun times!

 

[BierMuncher]

I think I got a little wood.

 

[magno]

Still thinking about this...

How much did you take home, and from what step of the process?

I think I would get 10 gal in two carboys, one with the yeast that Stone is using, and one with some other yeast (not sure which as I havent ever had Levitation). It would make a nice yeast experiment.

 

[wakkow]

Still thinking about this...

How much did you take home, and from what step of the process?

I think I would get 10 gal in two carboys, one with the yeast that Stone is using, and one with some other yeast (not sure which as I havent ever had Levitation). It would make a nice yeast experiment.

I'm still relatively new to brewing and bottling 10 gals of brew didn't sound like fun, so I only took 5 gals, finished, chilled and oxygenated (however kegging equipment has now been ordered!). I pitched whitelabs california ale (001) and dry hopped some fuggles and cascade. Strange, but I tried one of mine side-by-side with a real levitation and theirs still tastes hoppier. I think they double dry hop, so would that add much flavor aside from aroma?

Anyways, they wouldn't give us their yeast since they say it's a proprietary strain. They also wouldn't give us any of the brewing info on their other beers. However, they gave us the printout from their computer control system of exactly what's going on and when for the Levitation. They really held nothing back for the levitation aside from the yeast.

Looking back, I should have taken the other 5 pre-hop and experimented on it. Some of the others in the homebrew club are trying different things with the wort (a saison, possibly a barley wine, if I remember correctly??).

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Wow, that's some serious brew porn right there. Thank you for posting these.

 

[magno]

Do you have the grain bill and hop schedule that they use?

What kind of beer is Levitation?

 

[Klainmeister]

I think I got a little wood.

View attachment 2435

I'm sorry it's little....

 

[wakkow]

Do you have the grain bill and hop schedule that they use?

What kind of beer is Levitation?

Hop schedule, yes. Grain bill, I think so, if I can understand the printout. I'll try and find the printout and let you know. Levitation is a lighter beer compared to other stone brews, I guess a maltier and somewhat hoppy session beer.