BrewDay Page 1

Brewing Day at Boss Brewing
Or.. How we got to use our new brew equipment.

This is the story of our brew day. Below and on the following pages contain a blow by blow account and pictures taken to prove how hard we actually work hard to make this wonderful brew. But first, lets introduce the players. There is, of course, our wives, Jodie and Kathy who allow us to spend whole days with beer (doesn't get any better that that!). The two kids are Andrew and Andrea. Then there is Scott Tengen and myself, Alan.

To get a true feeling for the day, it was one of the coldest here in Cincinnati Ohio. We started in the late morning of the 31st of December. We had to go to our local Home Brew Supply Company and pick up the needed supplies. Dan Listermann is our local person so off we go with the kids in Scott's truck. Naturally, this is all done the day before we brew so everything can be its freshest.

The problem is that Dan has such an extensive supply of grains, we feel like kids in a candy shop. Oh, what to make today. The smell of the place is wonderful and poking your head into any of these buckets can be a rewarding experience.

Oh the wonderful smells that come out of the buckets !!! Ya wonder if there could be something in the air today. Naw, it is just that time to relax and have a homebrew. Here is one of the many grains we will be picking up today, a nice 2 row malt with a wonderful color.

Next, Scott takes the time to setup and adjust the Phil Mill so the proper crush can be achieved. While there is a lot of controversy about just how important this really is, both Scott and myself are tweekers by our very nature (anal-retentative), so this exercise is crutical to reaching the proper Zen of the brew day.

Here I am teaching our kids, Andrea and Andrew, the finer points of power tools (YES!). Actually, in this critical phase, it is important to show the young apprentices how to grin and select the proper grains for use. (That, and we promised ice cream if they were good [grin]).

And here is the final result. A perfectly crushed grain ready to be used. At this point we finish up at Dan's place and head home to smack the yeast packs and get ready for tomorrow's brew day.