Collaboration Brew Day- January 26, 2013

Today is an exciting day.  Not only is it my 2nd day at the brewery but Adirondack is doing a collaboration brew with Olde Saratoga Brewery in Saratoga Springs, NY.  This collaboration beer was featured at the Saratoga Beer Week in Saratoga Springs, NY in February.  Collaborations brews have become increasingly popular in the last decade or so.  It seems that every year, you see more and more of them on the shelves.

In case you are unfamiliar with a collaboration brew, what it usually means is that each brewery brews part of the brew and then the beer is blended to create a unique beer.  It can also mean that two or more brewers get together at one of their breweries to brew a beer.  Each brewer contributing to the unique collaboration.

For this collaboration between our two breweries, Olde Saratoga Brewery brewed and aged an imperial porter.  This beer had been aging for over a year in whiskey barrels.  Adirondack contributed a sour cherry porter to the beer.  This was the brew that was taking place today.

Master brewer Paul McErlan from Olde Saratoga was on hand for the brew.  Additionally, there were several staff members on hand from the Post Star who were writing an article about this collaboration beer.  You can read the article here: http://tiny.cc/klbhuw.  This was the main focus of the day and I was happy to be briefly interviewed by the folks at the Post Star (though I'm not featured in the article).

My big responsibility for the day was helping to force carbonate kegs for the next days Festival of Barrels.  Normally, by the time that beer goes into kegs it has already been carbonated.  However, when you have beer that has been aging it tends to lose carbonation.  Therefore we did what is known as force carbonation.  Basically this means that we "forced" CO₂ into the beer.  In order to make sure that the CO₂ gets into the beer, you have to shake the kegs.  Each keg when it is full of beer weighs about 150 pounds.  Needless to say this is not the easiest task.  At least once an hour I would go into the cooler where the beer was being stored, take the kegs, and roll them up and down a small incline.  Additionally I would shake them and flip them upside down and shake them again.  By the end of the day my arms and back were tired.

These are the kegs that I helped force carbonate

Another view of the kegs I helped force carbonate

We had also recently received a shipment of used kegs that had belonged to another brewery which had unfortunately gone out of business.  A sad but realistic reminder that nothing is certain in this business.  It is very common for breweries to buy equipment from other breweries that are going out of business or upgrading and replacing equipment.

These new-to-use kegs needed to be washed, checked to ensure that there were no issues, and any old stickers or markings removed or covered up with our own logo.  Since we had purchased hundreds of these kegs, this was a big job which took up a great deal of my time.  When I wasn't cleaning kegs or shaking them to force carbonate the beer, I did get the opportunity to help fill kegs for an order that was going out.

Our keg washer

Kegs being washed

Kegs that have been scrubbed down, waiting to be loaded onto the keg washer

Clean, sanitized kegs ready to be filled with beer

I was filling kegs on a two-line filler, which meant that two kegs could be filled at one time.  Filling kegs is a pretty easy.  You attach the coupler to the keg valve located on top of the keg.  This has a ball valve that is pushed down when the coupler is engaged.  This allows beer and CO₂ to flow into the keg.  The  CO₂ valve is open for a second to push out any remaining oxygen that might be in the keg.  This is then closed so that just a small amount of CO₂ is coming out of the keg.  The valve to allow beer to flow is slowly opened until it is opened completely.  That is it.  Once the keg is full, which you can tell when beer begins to flow out of the CO₂ valve.  Shut off the beer flow valve and the CO₂ valve and disengage the coupler.  You've got a full keg!

First Day at the Brewery- January 24, 2013

The first day at any job is always full of nerves.  Nerves of excitement and nerves wondering what you've gotten yourself into.  There are always a million questions and thoughts flooding through your head.  Lots of unanswered questions that will soon be answered.  Is this what I really want to do?  What types of things am I going to be doing?  What have I gotten myself in to?

I definitely didn't know what it was going to be like working at a brewery.  As I stated in my previous post, I think every beer drinker at some point has entertained the idea of working at a brewery.  I was about to find out what it's like to work at a brewery.

My internship for this semester will take place at Adirondack Brewery in Lake George, NY.  Adirondack is an award-winning brewery that produces all natural, fresh non-pasteurized beers.  Currently their beers can be found at the Pub which is located on-site at the brewery, and throughout New York.

One of the things that makes Adirondack's beer unique is the fact that it is not pasteurized.  The bulk of the beer you find in a supermarket or on the shelves at the grocery store is going to be pasteurized.  This ensures that there is nothing in the beer that will allow it to spoil while it is sitting on the shelves, as well as extending it's shelf life considerably.  Unfortunately, this also produces a product that in my opinion is not a tasty as a non-pasteurized beer.  Basically, you are taking a living product and killing it.

Many people know the name Louis Pasteur and have heard about pasteurization.  Most people think that Louis Pasteur was working on helping to figure out a way to extend the shelf life of milk.  Actually Louis Pasteur was working on a way to extend the shelf life of beer and other fermented beverages.

I arrived at the brewery around 8am and things were already in full swing.  Beer was being brewed.  For a winter morning the place was steamy and warm, sort of like a sauna.  I would soon realize that especially on brew days, this is the sort of atmosphere I would be working in.  One where coming in from the outside, you can quickly work up a sweat and soon be working in a t-shirt, even when the temperature is below freezing outside.

I was introduced to the other employees at the brewery.  Since Adirondack is a small brewery, there are only 6 employees that work in the brewery.  I had toured the brewery previously, but was given a quick refresher so that I could begin to get accustom to the layout and where various equipment is located.

Today I would be working with Nate.  Nate is a recent transplant from New Mexico.  Before becoming a full-time brewer, he actually taught high school biology and chemistry.  Having someone with that particular skill set is very useful in the brewery world.  Most people don't think  much about it, but making beer is all about chemistry.  Various chemical reactions happen that allow you to take the simple ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast; and soon they become beer.

Nate with several yeast brinks full of yeast

One of the first things that I learned is that we try and reuse yeast as much as possible.  Since healthy yeast which are provided with a good, clean environment and plenty of food (sugars that are converted in alcohol in the brewing process) can multiple and continue to thrive for several generations, we can reuse them again and again.

The first step in this process is to obtain one of the tanks that we use for  collecting yeast (visible in the picture above).  They look like kegs but have been converted so that they can be used for collecting and storing yeast.  We then rinsed out the tank to ensure that there is not old yeast or any other material that could contaminate the yeast that will be going into the tank.  Once we ensured that the tank is visibly clean, we then filled it completely with Perasan.

Perasan is one of several chemicals we use to ensure that we create a sanitary environment in order to ensure that the beer will not be exposed to unwanted bacteria, and potential spoilage.  Perasan sanitizes on contact so it doesn't need to sit for very long in order to be effective.  This product utilizes peroxyacetic acid and hydrogen peroxide to sanitize.  It is often used in the dairy industry, just another reminder that there are parallels between agriculture and brewing.

Once we are confident that the tank had been sanitize, we made sure to sanitize the line that we would be using to collect yeast from the fermentation tank (seen in the above picture in orange).  Once we sanitized the line, we were ready to collect yeast.  There is a bit of an art to collecting yeast.  Because of the conical shape of the bottom of the fermentation tank, if you open the valve that will release whatever is at the bottom of the cone too hard, you will pull beer from the middle of the cone, rather than collecting yeast.

Also you want to ensure that you are collecting healthy yeast.  Inevitably there are going to be yeast cells that are unhealthy and that have died.  These will settle at the very bottom of the cone.  So the first thing that we do is make sure that we get rid of these dead yeast cells and any other bits of grain and other particles that have settled out during the fermentation process.

Trub, German for sediment that settles at the bottom of a fermentation tank

Sight Glass

You can see in the above picture that there is a viewing chamber, which is called a sight glass.  This allows us to see whatever we are transferring to ensure that we are transferring only what we want, whether it is beer, moving sanitizer, etc.  Once we have healthy yeast coming through the sight glass, we can open the valve and allow healthy yeast to flow into the yeast brink.

Me sampling healthy yeast. It packs quiet a bite. Not the difference in color between healthy yeast and the trub below it.

Nate measuring out yeast for analysis

Once we had collected 30 gallons of yeast, we then headed in offatory (office/laboratory) to make sure that the yeast that we had collected was healthy enough to ferment another batch of beer, and that there are enough yeast cells.  Ideally we are looking for at least 1 Billion yeast cells per mL.  It is not a terribly complicated process.  Basically we make a dilution of yeast and water, and add a coloring agent in order to be able to view the cells under a microscope.

Hemocytometer which is used to count cells

This is the grid on the hemocytometer that is used to count cells

When we could out yeast cells under the microscope we count the bigger boxes (4x4 white boxes) in the corners of the grid and then we count the middle 4x4 box in the center.  This number is then divided by 200 which gives us the total amount of yeast cells.  This particular batch had 1.62 Billion yeast cells per mL.  That is plenty of healthy yeast to ferment another batch of beer.

 Once we had confirmed that this yeast was healthy and there were enough cells for our purposes, we could add it to the wort (unfermented beer).  This process is very similar to collecting the yeast.  We sanitized a line that was hooked up to the fermentation tank.  Once this line was sanitized we pushed the sanitizer out and the yeast in with carbon dioxide that was hooked up to our yeast brink.

 

The carbon dioxide line is visible at the top of the yeast brink which helps push the yeast into the fermentation tank

 

 

We were also preparing for an event at the brewpub, called the Festival of Barrels.  This event featured a number of our beers that were aged in various whiskey barrels to impart depth and complexity to the beer.  In the picture below, Nate is filling a firkin with beer. A firkin holds 1/4 of a barrel of beer.

Nate filling a firkin for the festival

Several firkins lined up for the festival

 Additionally, throughout the day I began to familiarize myself with hooking up hoses and using the gaskets and clamps that hold them in place.  I learned an invaluable lesson to make sure that the gasket and clamp are seated properly.  I made this mistake which meant that we had to take apart our line and resanitize everything.  Not the biggest mistake but took an additional 10 minutes out of our day.

Overall it was a great first day.  Lots to do.  Lots to learn and I look forward to many more days spent in the brewery.

Why Intern at a Brewery?

I think everybody who enjoys beer has at one point or another entertained the fantasy of working at a brewery.  There's just something magical about beer.  The transformation of water, hops, barley, and yeast into beer is somewhat mysterious.  Getting to spend the whole day are beer, what could be better?

My love affair with beer first started during a year abroad during high school.  I spent most of 2001-2002 in Germany as a high school exchange student.  I was 16 years old when I went over there (and celebrated my 17th birthday in Prague, drinking really amazing beer).  It was there that I was first exposed to amazing beer and the culture that surrounds it.  As everyone knows, the Germans take there beer seriously.

My favorite German beer

Germans take their beer so seriously, they have a law called the Reinheitsgebot, or the German Beer Purity Law.  This law states that in order to be considered beer, the beverage must only contain water, malted barley, hops, and yeast.  That's it.  Most brewers will tell you this is extremely  restrictive, and it is.  However, it also means a certain standard when you pick up a German beer.

Fast forward to 2011.  I'm back in school, attending Green Mountain College in Poultney, VT.  I'm majoring in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Production.  Several of my friends and I decided that we wanted to start homebrewing beer.  Initially, we decided to make some hard cider.  The first batch turned out ok.  The second batch exploded due to the extremely high levels of sugar that we used.  However, what we ended up salvaging and aging for several months was delicious and potent.

Over the last 2 years we have brewed about 6 batches of beer.  Initially we were brewing 5 gallon batches.  However, the last few batches we've brewed have been 10 gallons.  Ideally a 5 gallon batch should yield about 2 cases of beer or 48-12 oz. beers.

The latest batch of beer we brewed: Dry-hopped Peppercorn Rye Pale Ale. For my birthday.

Homebrewing is a great way to spend an afternoon.  Typically a brew will take a total of 4-5 hours from start to finish.  That means getting everything setup, cleaned and sanitized, brewing the beer, and cleaning up afterwards.  Much of that time is just spent sitting around waiting for things to boil or to add ingredients.  It's great to have a few friends around, have a few beers and just shoot the breeze.

So, why intern at a brewery?

As the time got closer to choose an internship, which required in order to graduate, I started thinking about the things I really love.  Being an older student than the majority of students at my school (I'm 27 and will be 28 next month) I've had plenty of work experience.  I've worked retail, grocery, for non-profits,a t bike shops, and spent a summer on a farm.  So, I was looking for something different.

After weighing my options, I decided I wanted to intern at a brewery.  Why not get a first hand look at the inner workings of a brewery?  Get a chance to see what the job is really like and be able to make a better educated choice as to whether I would like to pursue a career in the brewing industry or whether I just want to continue with it as a hobby.

I contacted about 6 or 8 different breweries within Vermont and over the border in New York.  Out of these I only heard back from two: Long Trail Brewery (www.longtrail.com) in Bridgewater Corners, VT and Adirondack Brewery in Lake George, NY.  Both breweries seemed open to the idea of having an intern, so I met with both of them.

John Carr, the owner of Adirondack Pub and Brewery (www.adkpub.com) in Lake George, NY was open to having me work in the brewery.  Additionally, he wanted me to help with sourcing and processing some local ingredients that we could use in the beer.  Honey, berries, and corn are ingredients that I am working on sourcing locally for the brewery.  I was excited about helping them source locally ingredients.  What a great idea to use New York grown ingredients in New York made beer!

Dave Hartmann is the Head Brewer over at Long Trail Brewery.  I am very grateful that he took the time out of his busy day to give me a tour and spend some time talking with me about my goals and what I wanted to accomplish.  Unfortunately, Dave wasn't really interested in having me help in the brewery.  Rather, he was interested in me helping them on various sustainability initiatives such as composting.  While I'm totally supportive of these efforts, and Long Trail Brewery is one of several craft breweries who are leading examples of implementing sustainability into the brewing process, I ultimately didn't feel that it would be the right fit.  I was looking to get some hands on brewing experience, therefore I chose to intern at Adirondack Brewery.