On National Homebrew Day I had the pleasure of joining Colin at Beacon Hill Brewing to assist on two all-grain batches that would ultimately be sent to the National Homebrewers Conference (HBC) in San Francisco. Colin is a kick ass homebrewer and all around great guy who was eager to let me join in and show me the ropes.
I've been on brewery tours, but this was really my chance to see first hand the all-grain brewing process. Colin has quite the set up, which today was up on his porch to shield from some springtime rain. Not a bad spot with occasional views of the Cascades to the east. He has a tiered set up to allow gravity to feed the hot water to sparge the mash and then the wort drain into the kettle. The system may look a little rough around the edges, but every feature has been customized by Colin and it is a constant work in progress for improvements.
It was a great day and Colin always welcomed my questions as I tried to soak it all in. In between the technical chats, there was plenty of time to enjoy multiples of his homebrews that were pouring from his tap system (me so jealous!! haha). The goodies imbibed: Russian Imperial Stout, Robust Porter, Belgain Pale, Dopplebock, Cedar IPA, Still Nacht clone (11%!!) and a Belgian Golden. Also enjoyed my own Russian Lullaby with praises from both Colin and Rodney.
The brews of the day: Belgian Wit and Cedar IPA (IPA with whirlpool hop addition and aged on cedar chips)
Thanks Colin for a great day!! It gave me a lot to think about in terms of what homebrewing can be and what I want to accomplish as a homebrewer.
Ymmmmm.....dopplebock
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