First Brew Day

Well, Friday was my first day helping out with a real batch of beer. some of the brewery systems make many things quite a bit easier for sure, there is a good amount of automation which is good for the size of what we are doing. We still don't have very much automation compared to other breweries, of course. I got quit of good workout stirring the mash!

Cleaning -- now thats crazy. You basically jump right into the vessel, be it fermenter or mash tun, and start cleaning. Mash tuns suck to clean. For those of you that don't know, a mash tun is a vessel used fo steep grains in to extract the sugars. A "false bottom" is used to separate the grains from the liquid, and is made up of tiny holes that the grain can't fit through. But of course, for cleaning, some of the grains get stuck in the holes, and they suck to clean out.

But its all part of the fun. I can't wait until I can do it on my own (which will take quite a bit of time, of course). At the end of the week, though, all my limbs and back are so tired I'm lazing around the house all day Saturday... and maybe all night too... :)

Speaking of brewing, I've got some scottish ale yeast, I really should put together something with that. Hm.

Cheers!