Friday, November 6, 2009

Logistics

Scattered between the brewery, the cellar and the point of dispense (we'll call it "the bar") we have:


  • 47 firkins (had 48 but one has a scratched shive hole)

  • 2 fermenters, producing 8 firkins per batch

  • 8 auto-tilts on the stillage in the cellar

  • 6 beer engines


There is also a limited amount of resources available, especially this time of the year, for the purchase of grain, yeast and hops. The trick is to try to keep at least four cask ales on, with the requirements that there be at least one session beer, one dark (porter or stout) and one IPA. Casks need to rest at least a day for the finings to settle, and some of the stronger and/or dry-hopped ales require more time. A session beer can go to stillage in a week after casking, while some of the stronger and/or dry-hopped ales, again, require more time. Thanks to non-return valves and micro-filters on the shive I can get more than a week out of a slow cask. During the summer the problem becomes swapping them out fast enough.


One the other tricky bits is trying to be patient. Tanninbaum is still aging in the cellar until after Thanksgiving (maybe), and that first cask of Schrodinger's Other Beer is playing the siren every time I drift by. I'm determined to wait until Wednesday for that one.

4 comments:

Whorst said...

What are you doing for yeast these days?

Unknown said...

Logic, presumably the basis for logistics, is probably best left behind when dealing with annealing fluid.

Brewers Union Local 180 said...

Wu/Wh: You're off topic, but I'll answer anyway. I ran out of Nottingham, so I scrounged around in the kitchen for the stuff they use for making the bread.

Dave: So you're saying that annealing fluid is the stuff of pure inference?

Bob said...

Missus and I were very impressed with your beer and your food. It was the perfect end to a hard day's mushrooming.

I'll be telling all my friends about your place.