Possibilities

Well, might have an interesting development here.  Seems that old adage, "it doesn't hurt to ask," might just pay dividends.  A few days ago I started chatting with the twitter operator of one of our local breweries (Smoky Mountain Brewery).  As I am job hunting anyways, I figured I would give it a shot and ask if they might be hiring.  One thing leads to another, and last night the fellow tells me that the COO wants me to get in touch via email.

I'm really hoping that is a good sign.  I sent off an email and a quick intro last night, but haven't heard back yet.

Learning from a professional who has been brewing for years would be a great experience!  And Marty Velas makes some damn nice beers.

Fingers are crossed!

Federal Licensing Info...

Last week, Societe Brewing (@SocieteBrewing) was kind enough to point me in the right direction for getting forms and info from the federal government concerning brewing beer.

Before I say anything else, I want to thank them for that.  It was truly a nice gesture, and one I find to be the norm in the brewing industry (as limited as my personal experience has been).

I also had a nice twitter conversation last night with Ben (@benheartsbeer) from Fat Bottom Brewery in Nashville, TN.  He's farther along in the process than I am, and has some awesome looking beers on his site.  Hopefully I will have time to make it out there at some point to take advantage of his kind offer to walk me through the process.  Please take a moment to go look at his site!

That said, if you're interested in what it takes to get licensed by the government to brew beer, here is some info (copied wholesale from the email I received) to take a look at.

In order to produce beer, you first need to obtain a federal brewer's notice.  You don't need to obtain a federal wholesaler basic permit if you only sell the beer your produce.  If you sell beer you did not produce, then you would need to get a federal wholesaler basic permit.  Let me give you our general reply on obtaining a federal brewer's notice:

Before you can begin brewery operations, you will have to first complete the necessary forms including a brewer's notice and bond.  There will be a link at the end of this email to access the forms/information in order to apply for a Federal brewer's notice.  There is no cost for the brewer's notice, and we try to process applications within 95 days of the date we receive them.

Here is what part 25 - Beer of Title 27, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 25.21 states about the location of a brewery:
Title 27: Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
§ 25.21   Restrictions on location.

A brewery may not be established or operated in any dwelling house (home) or on board any vessel or boat, or in any building or on any premises where the revenue will be jeopardized or the effective administration of this part will be hindered.

All alcoholic beverages must also conform to the labeling regulations of the United States.  If you have labeling questions, please contact our Advertising, Labeling & Formulation Division at 1-866-927-2533 or by e-mail at:  alfd@ttb.gov.  Their web site is:  http://www.ttb.gov/labeling/index.shtml.  For information on filing your labels online, click on "Labeling" on the left side of our homepage.

The regulations governing the labeling and distribution of alcoholic beverages can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations, Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms, Title 27 on our web site at: http://www.ttb.gov/.  When you pull up our homepage, click on " Regulations" under "Regulatory and Formal Guidance."  Part 25 discusses beer and Part 7 discusses labeling and advertising of malt beverages.  Anyone who manufactures malt beverages must file TTB Form 5630.5(d), Alcohol Dealer Registration, before commencing operations.  The payment associated with Special Occupational Tax has been repealed for manufacturers, importers/wholesalers and retailers of beverage alcoholic products, but recordkeeping and registration requirements remain.


Completed brewer's notice and all required documents should be sent to:

National Revenue Center
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau
550 Main St., Ste. 8002
Cincinnati, OH  45202-5215

You should also contact each State for information relative to its licensing requirements. To find out more about individual state laws, on our web site at: www.ttb.gov  click on "Distilled Spirits" at the top of our homepage, then " Alcohol Beverage Control Boards" under "Quick Links."  This will give you the Alcoholic Beverage Commission locations for each state.  You must be in compliance with them, your local zoning authority and the federal government before commencing operations.

For information on federal excise tax rates, on our home page www.ttb.gov scroll down to "Information by Topic," then on the "Taxes" line, click on "Tax and Fee Rate."
 
Also, please submit a legible photocopy of the Driver's License or official State ID card of the primary contact person who will be interviewed by phone by TTB regarding the application.  This ID must be of one of the officers listed on your application.
 
You also need to register with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Bioterrorism Act. For information on this, go to their website at www.fda.gov and click on "Food", then "Facility Registration" which is under "Industry Resources."  You should also click on "Bioterrorism" located at the very bottom of our homepage at www.ttb.gov.

Here is a link to the forms/information in order to apply for a Federal brewer's notice:  http://www.ttb.gov/applications/brewery_brewpub_packet.shtml.  

This link will give you the information you need to qualify as a brewery by submitting your application electronically through our Permits Online System.
http://www.ttb.gov/ponl/permits-online.shtml.

If you have questions, please reply back to this email.  Thank you.

(dah3179)

I requested paper copies via snail mail, those should show up soon enough....

Bitter Brewing Day

Well, we had a pretty damn nice brew day yesterday. Got to help a friend brew his first beer (and all-grain at that). Then we brewed 11 gallons of English Bitter. That's straight up bitter, not an ESB or any other nicety. It's one of the lightest in color we have done, as well as the lowest abv wise. I can't wait to see how it turns out!

As usual, we had a few complications... We had only one pack of the correct yeast, which under normal circumstances wouldn't be and issue with the stir plate and such... Except we put the sir bars away somewhere safe and (you've probably guessed it) now no one can remember where that safe place was... We also snapped the board that forms the base of our grain mill... And broke a 6gl carboy while sanitizing it.. And split a hose... And the beer is coming out a bit stronger than it was designed for (oh well).

This is what happens when we make a light colored, lower abv beer... Fate smacks us on the ass... On the upside, we were a helluva lot more efficient about brewing this one. Two back to back all-grain beers, 60 min mashs, 90min boils, etc.. and cleanup done in 11hrs. Which is still a bit long, but considering we screwed around a bit, ran out of propane, and weathered (pun intended) a rain storm, I think we did pretty good. Especially since cleanup time is included in that number. We also managed to keep some pretty decent notes and actually keep track of our gravities and whatnot. Quite proud of ourselves if I do say so! In any event, we made a helluva pretty beer. It has a nice golden color and smells awesome. Hopefully the yeast does its thing and we end up with 10+ gallons of tasty bitter.

On a side note, we got to attend a cask event at Bearden Beer Market brought to us by the lovely folks from Yazoo Brewing.  Hop Project #63 triple dry hopped with Galaxy was out of this world good.  Aroma was amazing!  The Sly Rye Porter dry hopped with cocoa was also pretty tasty, but the Hop Project was just amazingly good.  Both beers gave us some neat ideas to think about from projects of our own.

Anyways, here is the current brewing sheet for the Bitter.  Take a look and feel free to comment!

{Matt} Bitter (3-22-2012)

Standard/Ordinary Bitter

Type: All Grain	Date: 3/22/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 11.00 gal	Brewer: R&D Brewing
Boil Size: 14.90 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: Pot (18.5 Gal/70 L) and Cooler (9.5 Gal/40 L) - All Grain
End of Boil Volume 12.22 gal	Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 11.08 gal	Est Mash Efficiency 80.1 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 2.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 1 - 13 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 81.8 % 2 lbs Caramunich II (Weyermann) (63.0 SRM) Grain 3 12.1 % 1 lbs Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.1 % 1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.60 %] - First Wort 90.0 min Hop 5 19.1 IBUs 1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.80 %] - Boil 55.0 min Hop 6 10.7 IBUs 2.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 - 2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 8.0 IBUs 2.00 Items Servomyces (Boil 10.0 mins) Other 9 - 1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 10 - 1.0 pkg Thames Valley Ale (Wyeast Labs #1275) [124.21 ml] Yeast 11 - 2.00 Items Oxygen (Primary 0.0 mins) Other 12 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.041 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.044 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.1 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.6 %
Bitterness: 37.8 IBUs	Calories: 144.4 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 8.8 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge	Total Grain Weight: 16 lbs 8.0 oz
Sparge Water: 8.64 gal	Grain Temperature: 80.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	Tun Temperature: 80.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Mash In Add 36.18 qt of water at 159.1 F 153.0 F 90 min
Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.79gal, 7.85gal) of 168.0 F water
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Keg	Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 12.54 PSI	Carbonation Used: Keg with 12.54 PSI
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 45.0 F	Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Storage Temperature: 65.0 F
Notes
1. Ran out of gas, so the mash went about 30mins longer.
Created with BeerSmith

National Homebrewing Conference Planning

In keeping with my penchant for planning things out absurdly far in advance, I have set up a couple events pages for the 2012 National Homebrewing Conference in Seattle, WA (June 21-23 2012). Gonna use these as a way of getting ahold of people from online and maybe meeting up for a beer while in Seattle!  If you're interested in meeting up, drop me a line (and sign up on the pages).

National Homebrewing Conference 2012


Brewing Network 7th Anniversary Party

Kettle Upgrades...

Well, Dave and I got the pot back from the welder today.  Welds look good overall, and we got most everything attached without difficulty.

The catch?  The welder did the welds from the inside (thinking to do us a favor) and didn't poke the couplers all the way through.  So... now the bead keeps the kettle uptake and whirlpool connections from screwing into the coupler from the inside.  Bah...

Looks like a dremel session is needed...

Otherwise, kettle looks great.  Also got our burner stand trimmed down so the pot fits correctly.  Previously it had these prongs that stuck up to hold the pot on.  With the bigger kettle, these made for a nowhere near ideal fit.

Now, if the hopback would just get here....

Kettle with couplers welded on

Ball valves, Brewmometer, and Quick Disconnects attached

Inside look at weld and coupler

Inside look at the kettle with Brewmometer poking through

2011 Xmas Barleywine Brew

Today Dave and I brewed the barleywine for his Xmas party.  Dave wanted to do this one since I made a fairly tasty one about 5 years ago.  This one is a different recipe, but should end up being a pretty tasty brew regardless.

Also, it's the first beer I've made in several years.  Nice way to jump into things, eh?

The recipe is fairly straightforward, though the crush was off I think and our gravity came out considerably lower than I would have liked.  It's still gonna be a strong beer, but nowhere near the 13% I had scripted in the recipe.

 Off to the left here, you can see pictures from where I was setting things up ahead of time.  You'll notice I like to organize things by hop time and then put it all together.  I've found over time that I like to drink towards the end of a brew day.  Coincidentally, this tends to be when I have to do things like hop additions, servo, yeast nutrients, etc...  So basically, if I label everything from time then I have less chance of throwing the wrong thing in at the wrong time.

Grinding the grain!

 Stirring the mash around.  Nice color, but I think my malt grinder got bumped as the malt pieces are a bit too large.

 First wort hopping!

 I need a bigger boil kettle.  Also, screwed up my water additions on the mash, so I ended up with may too much wort.  I had to boil like an insane man....

 In the cooler at home.  Already some nice kreusen forming!

 The next night, woohoo!

 Even more kreusen!

 Racking off the trub into secondary.  Color looks good!

Dave looking like a proud papa....

General Ideas and Practices (wherein Robert explains the method behind his madness)

Every brewer has their thoughts and theories on brewing.  Some like one thing, others another.  This page is for my own brewing proclivities (and a bit of the reasoning behind them).  

First Wort Hopping - Most of my beers tend to have a first wort hops addition.  I like the nice smooth hop flavor I get out of this method.  While I enjoy a good hop flavor, I'm not a big fan of that hope bite you get in some beers.  FWH seems to avoid this while providing a great aroma in the process.

High Gravity - Most of the beers I do are high gravity.  I like big strong beers.  Not to say I don't enjoy a good session beer, but as I get older I generally don't have more than one or two beers in a given evening.  This has led me to a decision to enjoy bigger beers in lower quantity. If you look around, you'll see there are a couple session beers listed - I *can* make a decent one.  Unfortunately, when I do, I tend to go through them like a fish through water.

Amarillo Hops - I admit it, I love this hop.  I try and work it into every damn recipe (though I know I shouldn't).  But I love it.  Sue me. :D

Wheat Malt - I like to add a bit of wheat to my beers for head retention.  It's probably something in my setup or water, but head retention in my beers tends to be a bit lousy unless I add it.  

Hop Balance - I read an article a while back (linked in the spreadsheet to the left) about Bitterness Value as a method of providing hop/wort balance.  There are a number of ways to go about this, and again, every brewer has his own leanings.  Personally, the beers I have made using this method have all turned out quite well.  So, like a baseball player with his pre-batting idiosyncracies I keep using it.  Take a look, and let me know what you think!