Brewing at College Street

"Andrew, why have you done so many commercial posts lately?  This is a HOMEBREW blog!" <<unfollow>>

Well, my good people, with my upcoming move to professional brewing I have been taking every opportunity to talk with pros and get my hands on their equipment. It's pretty damn fun.

This weekend I went to College Street Brewery in Lake Havasu.

Many people are probably thinking "But Andrew, you just brewed at Mudshark in Lake Havasu.  What is the deal with Lake Havasu?  2 breweries in one po-dunk town?"

Actually, 3.

Yes, Lake Havasu, the sprawling metropolis of 50,000 people, has 3 breweries.  This seems to be a bit excessive

IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY!

Colby, James, and Keith

College Street is a 30 bbl brew system, which is the largest I have brewed on.  James brewed "Brother Dewey's Date Night" beer last year at Barley Brother's Brewing and it went over so well, they decided to brew it at the larger capacity College Street Brewery this time. (These are two completely separate breweries, but have the same brew master, some co-ownership, some different owners... I don't know.  It's odd to me, but- whatevz...)

The Grain bill was 1600 lbs of 2-row and 700 lbs of various specialty grains.

We added 130 lbs of liquified dates from an Arizona date farm (we have a lot of them).  Do you have any idea what a pain in the ass it is to use a blender to blend dates and water together?  A HUGE pain in the ass.  This ended up being the equivalent of 5, 5-gallon buckets of liquified dates. One blender cup at a time. *

Oh you want more?  Ok- how about 220 lb of dark Belgian candi sugar?  45 lbs of Arizona honey?  Sure, we can do that too.

A huge thank you goes out to Bluegrass-pickin', banjo making, beard growing Head Brewer Colby for allowing us to be in his way all day and listening to James snore all night (we crashed at Colby's house...)

* This is one reason we are going with a 3-bbl system.  Adding crazy ingredients is much more manageable, as you scale down and less manageable as you scale up. Thank you to Keith Koch for blending up 90% of the dates. It's a messy messy job!

Another thanks to Scott and Tina from Mudshark for inviting us and the College Street brewers over for dinner and drinks on Friday night.  What awesome hosts and friends!

Discovery #1-  I shotgunned a beer for the first time in my life. PBR.  Apparently at Colby's house, they stand on this rock circle wall, with their feet halfway off the rocks.  Shotgun the beer, then throw the empty can at someone else on the wall and try to make them fall of before they finish their beer.  I do not recommend anyone try this.

Oh, actually- yes, everyone should, it's frikkin wicked awesome!

Discovery #2- even at a very close distance I suck at darts, however I will blow the rest of the group away at Trivial Pursuit, so... there's that.

Homebrew Related:  Bonnie bottled here Queen of Brews beer while I was in Havasu, with Maria Natasha Vitulli.  SO- no boys involved, per the rules.  It ended up at about 1.045 if she read the hydrometer right.  I'm praying that she didn't.  She bottled all of it.  Those bottles are in a rubbermaid container to contain any potential bottle bombs.

Homebrew Related: The kegerator was temperamental with the first keg of beer that I put on tap.  It kicked this weekend, and keg#2 is now on- this is Bonnie's Mr Nelson I Presume, Nelson IPA.  It seems to be pouring just fine.

Homebrew Related: I discovered that my smoked Berlinerweiss actually has a lineage.  I was not the first person in history to do it.  I know there is "Gratzer" style in Poland, which is a 100% smoked wheat beer (and absolutely delicious) but there is also "The Lichtenhainer-style brew, which is essentially a smoked Berlinerweiss" (from BeerPHXation )