I don’t know about you, but I would never pass up the chance to be a fly on the wall during a brew day. Watching grain turn into mash? Seeing yeast come to life?
Yes…okay…maybe I’m too much of a beer dork.
Lucky for me, Michael Peticolas brought the brew day to all of us yesterday by live tweeting the first run of a double brew day as they made the next wonderful batch of Velvet Hammer. Peticolas posted pictures every step of the way.
For your enjoyment, I’ve compiled them below. Feast your eyes on a day in the life of brewing Velvet Hammer.
As a quick aside, Peticolas also tweeted that he starts early for a double brew day, like 5:15 a.m. early. So this, I’m sure, was quite a full day.
Join me on a brew day.
Milling grain pic.twitter.com/xtvJirAZSJ— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Mashing in.
Adding water as grain is added to the mash tun. pic.twitter.com/dZ1fBLPT6b— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Putting tank parts together for sanitary cycle and kettle transfer after the boil pic.twitter.com/7pkFMXlLI0
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Running sanitation cycle on fermenter
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Forgot the pic of the sanitation cycle on the fermenter pic.twitter.com/m9YTLbVTMV
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Vorlauf
moving wort from the bottom of the mash tun back to top of the grain bed create a natural filter for clarity pic.twitter.com/CYH0y8Iziu— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Time to remove yeast from the cooler.
It will reach room temperature for pitching later pic.twitter.com/Jl4N3aWztm— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Begin transfer to the brew kettle pic.twitter.com/F3qzIuSyJz
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Begin spare to keep a nice buoyant grain bed in the mash pic.twitter.com/rLfvoIU8PD
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Pushing sanitized water through the heat exchanger and process piping for knockout after the boil pic.twitter.com/zjF7emoRpX
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Lets start measuring our hops.
Starting with Bravo for bittering pic.twitter.com/LaLFIRQjZg— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Sanitation, sanitation, sanitation.
Hot wash, cold rinse, and cold sanitizer buckets ready for parts cleaning/sani pic.twitter.com/MODAmduOpz— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Bittering, flavor, and aroma hops are all ready to go pic.twitter.com/HSv65CASST
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Measuring our barrelllage in the kettle during transfer pic.twitter.com/5nuZMoQOxO
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Koppakleer is also measured and used towards the end of the boil for end product clarity pic.twitter.com/aE2VEVucmq
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Calibrate the refractometer and ph meter pic.twitter.com/MBGE2WyZk8
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Prepare high tech delivery list for the day pic.twitter.com/nqPmwboNtW
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Gather samples of wort throughout the process to measure ph and degrees Plato of the wort. pic.twitter.com/DTG1CexjJX
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Drain the mash tun pic.twitter.com/CIqpcwUC2z
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Sweep and vacuum grain room. pic.twitter.com/YDHewgVQHP
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Gelatin is for after fermentation.
Further clarity after beer has fermented and been cold crashed @GeepMaley pic.twitter.com/Atduk1pQzN— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Muscle time.
Shoveling out the mash tun pic.twitter.com/TOKbwpAwII— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
It just keeps smelling better and better in here.
Boil started and hop addition 1 pic.twitter.com/BRscnRVatd— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Good question @GeepMaley
Just texted my farmer to pick up the spent grain. He uses it to feed his cattle pic.twitter.com/eGAmJDwcqi— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
I by a lab quality yeast and use it for 10-12 generations . @NoJoke162
New one just arrived pic.twitter.com/ArvWfXkzDU— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Hop charge 2.
C hops except cascade pic.twitter.com/8hUCudk7cF— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Better blow down the boiler.
Get some nice clean soft water in there.
Gotta do it every day pic.twitter.com/PtZgzgGtlg— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
5 minutes left in the boil.
Kettle findings pic.twitter.com/AU02UQAyNn— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Hop charge 3
Aroma hops pic.twitter.com/HzZ4Zg5y5W— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Whirlpool old school.
Yes, that's an oar.
This will cause particulate in the kettle to drop to the bottom pic.twitter.com/1zDJnBPcN9— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Hooking up oxygen line in preparation for knockout from kettle to fermenter. pic.twitter.com/CVcPw4oT9V
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Knockout pic.twitter.com/0D2ZZXfzbz
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Dialing in the proper knockout temperature pic.twitter.com/eHWqUUkGe4
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Pitching yeast. pic.twitter.com/tWd5pDmtBa
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Attach the blow off tube and BOOM, beer for you in 2 weeks.
Hope you enjoyed the show. pic.twitter.com/5Z4vXHZLkS— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
Thought about including the clean up @caskaustin, but truth is we are into brew 2 of the day
— Peticolas (@Peticolas) October 15, 2013
I don’t know about you, but that’s some beautiful brewage. The only way this could have been better is if it was video instead of still images. Or if I was actually there, of course.
By the way, the worst part of cleaning up, in my opinion, is that you can’t enjoy any of the brew you just finished for another two weeks. Having homebrew around to enjoy during the cleaning process usually eases the pain.
Want to be in the know next time something awesome like this happens on Twitter? Well, then you should be following Beer in Dallas.