This week our own Kent Moore had the opportunity to visit McMenamins’ John Barelycorns. He received a tour of the restaurant and brewing area. This post is written by Kent and is a reflection of his experience.
What I learned from Graham, the brewer, at John Barleycorns and other thoughts
First off, Graham is a super nice guy and could become a valuable resource for us as we move along. He even gave me his direct phone number. I plan on revisiting him some day soon and follow him through brewing a batch of beer.
He has the capacity of brewing 7 bbl but only brew about 6 bbl or abt 200 gallons. I didn’t see a Hot Liquor Tank (HLT) because the hot water supply was being pumped in and directed over the Mash/Lauter Tun. There it was connected to what looked like a home made copper circular sparge arm. Something we’ll be able to make when we go larger. Our plastic lid technique is work fine for now. All that dripping 180 degree water made it pretty hot and humid in there, but it smelled great. So as he was fly-sparging his mash he was pulling off the sweet wort into a open half pony keg (actually cut in half) and fro there pumping it into his BK (boil kettle).
His BK was pretty good sized. Probably 275 to 300 gallons. He heated it with a blowtorch type of fire (probably natural gas) that was shot into the bottom of the kettle. Apparently the kettle is designed for this because the bottom is a cone surrounded by cylinder. The void is then loaded with heating bricks that the fire heats. Once it’s done here he pumps it to the plate chiller where it cools 200 gallons of boiling wort down to 70 degrees in 20 minutes!
Then on into a fermenter. They have three and they are all glycol jacketed. This is an electronically cooled chemical that circulates around the fermenter keeping it at just the right temp. It was so simple and amazing and all in the same room! Probably really expensive to have that kind of cooling system for us, but man it was so sweet. At this point it got a little confusing for me. He ferments his beer to about 80% and then caps it up and turns the fermenters into bright tanks. This is a way that they naturally carbonate their batches. He’s got a pressure gauge and release valve on it. Once it’s reached natural carbonation they keg it and it’s ready to drink.
I can’t wait to tour more breweries and see what they do. I’ve got a contact at Hair of the Dog and Lucky Labrador.
Moore later
January 15, 2010
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