Hi there.  This is a quick and dirty tour of the brewery.  I've just installed links to the pictures so you can check them out when you want and don't have to download them until you're ready.  I've got a really slow connection so I'm sensitive to bandwidth hogs.

First Picture:  This is the brew house.  Its a 7.5 bbl AAA Metalfab brewhouse, two vessels, built by Ron Kroll after several nights going back and forth over design theory et al.  I had just gotten out of Siebel and had plenty of theory and little practical experience, and Ron was a welder with a huge interest in brewing.  Mash Tun's got a steam jacket, mash "mixer" (actually a grain-out paddle) and a sightglass under the plates we've since just used for vorlauf purposes (ask me when we talk).  And we crank 10 bbl out of it.  Boil kettle is full at 10 bbl.  We get good consistent hop extraction, though.

Second Picture: This is our fermentation area.  The two big tanks are our primaries (30 bbl each).  The grundies are being used less and less and are becoming more and more of a liability.  They're great for storing a few bbl of beer when we need to empty a tank and don't have enough kegs cleaned.  We now have three 60's:  two lagering tanks and a bright tank, but I couldn't find pictures.  Not like you've never seen big tanks before.

Third Picture:  This is our bottling line, seen from the case loading area.  We crammed a decaser, twist rinser, filler, vacuum pump (which we're not using), capper, rinser, accumulation table, three world tandem labelers, and a case packer into about 900 sf.  Its amazing we run it as well as we do, but it takes six people and perfect beer.  The cold room is on the other side of the filler.  We store most product off site at a bonded warehouse.

Fourth Picture: This is just a look at our keg washer and the NARROW corridor between the cold room and the front of the brewery.  I'm going to look for a picture of our front area....  Found it:

Fifth Picture: Yikes!  Its the only picture I could find of the front area.  Its the only attempt at a moustache I've made.  I can't say it worked, but it made for an interesting winter.  Anyways... this is where we have tours, hang out and generally have a good time.  There's a counter behind me and the whole public access.  We just hired a growler girl (named anastasia) so that public doesn't bother brewers unless the brewers want to be bothered.  Not pictured are the lab (around the corner), grain storage, and glass storage areas.  Oh, and the office, but who really wants to see an  office?

Now git back to the home page!