The big delivery arrived!  We’ve got just under a hundred pounds of hops and about 8,000 lbs of grain.  Look at all that soon-to-be beer!  That’s a pretty sweet brew beard, too.  Countdown to first brew continues…

The grain handling process started months ago, with the construction of the mill room.  In order to brew, we need to crack the malt(that’s where the mill comes in), store/hold the milled grain in a grist case, and finally move the grain from the mill to the grist case and eventually the Mash Tun, where the process really begins.

So, first things’ first.  We needed a grist case.  We had built the larger mill room months ago(remember?), and with some planning and a hell of a lot of geometry we proceeded to build our grist case inside it.  Essentially a silo, the grist case needs an angled bottom, so that the grain will flow toward the center and be taken away by the auger.  At the center, we have the auger boot mount, which guides the grain into the auger line, which carries it to the Mash Tun.  Measure twice, cut once was the rule of the day.  Check out those sexy angles.  We also put in a sight window, to see the level, and plenty of support for all that grain.

After that was complete, running the two lines(mill to grist case, grist case to mash tun) was next.  Measuring and cutting the auger lines and the holes through the ceiling of the mill room came first.  Once we had those lines laid out, we slide the auger(basically a long corkscrew that twists and pushes the grain along the interior of the line) into the line.  We set up and hung the Auger motors and attached the auger bearing assembly to the opposite sides of the auger line, which holds the auger in place as it turns.

And now it’s all done.  We can move the grain all over that brewery now.  Grain comes in tomorrow and we have a ton of updates to follow.  The brewery is almost ready for the first brew!  Soon, very soon.

Another major project completed.  Special thanks go to my father and brother, Bob and Nate Sabel, for their help over the holiday.  They aided in the completion of the steam piping and setup of the auger lines(almost done too!) that will move the grain throughout the brewery.

The boiler setup and piping was a major undertaking.  Our outdoor boiler, if you’ve been following, was a used system.  First, we converted to the unit to propane(unfortunately our building didn’t have natural gas).  Jud performed a substantial overhaul, preparing the system for pressure testing, repairing or replacing the electrical components, and repairing or replacing valves and gaskets as needed.  From there, we began piping the system.

The main steam header, which takes steam to the Kettle and Mash Tun allowing us to heat and boil our brews, was a large 3″ pipe.  It is much heavier than it looks.  We had a few long runs, and each had to be properly sized, threaded, and angled ever so slightly so that any condensation in the lines would run downhill towards our steam traps and to the condensate return tank.

From the header, we drop down into the main mainfold, which controls the direction of the steam from the main valves as well as displaying the temp/pressure in the line.  The header/manifold and each exit from the tank needed a steam trap, both heavy and expensive, which allows pressure to build up in the tanks, but lets condensation pass through to be gathered by the condensate return tank.  The condensate is recycled through the system from the condensate return tank and back to the boiler.

Each pipe was measured, cut, threaded, and fit by hand.  As you can see from that one picture, some of the larger diameter threading was a little difficult.  This was very time consuming and each threading job was handled with care so as to go slowly and not chew up the threads, which had the potential to waste an entire length of steel.

Various hookups and copper lines were soldered, as you can see in the pictures, to either fill the condensate return tank or the boiler as needed.  Electrical components measure levels and control solenoids which auto-fill and pump condensate as required by the boiler.

All-in-all, a large task.  Thankful that it is over, we can move on to finishing out the rest of the brewery and prepare for our first brew!  More to come and soon.

It’s true.  With everything going on at once in the ramp up to our first brew, we’ve been juggling a number of jobs.  As we prepare for that momentous day, we’ve paid special attention to getting the last few process requirements under our belt, primarily Insulating the Glycol lines, Piping the Steam, and Running the Grain Augers.

We’ve made significant headway in accomplishing all of these jobs over the last few weeks.  I dislike incomplete blog progress entries, so we’ve been holding off until we finished at least one of them.  It looked like they were going to be finished around the same time, but we knocked out the insulation first.

In a nutshell, the glycol system and our glycol lines are a vital part of brewing.  Each fermentation and bright tank have jacket through which glycol(a refrigerant) flows.  We control the flow rate of the gylcol to alter the temperature in the tanks.  This allows us to control precisely what temperature we ferment our beer, as well as adjusting temperatures for clarification and aging, amongst other things.  Proper insulation of these lines is essential not only to maintain efficiencies, saving electricity, but also to prevent constant condensation, which would lead to mold growth and poor sanitary conditions around the lines and throughout the brewery.

I’ve included some pictures of the progress and completion of the insulation.  Believe me when I say that it was very tedious work and quite time consuming.  The insulation came in three foot sections, but most had to be cut by hand and fit to each section, then lathered with sealant to form a vapor barrier to prevent condensation.  Each fitting and joint had to be properly hollowed out and sized appropriately.  Not the most fun job in the world, but look at that final product.  Isn’t it beautiful?

More to come, and very soon.  We’ll post things as the progress and we get ready to brew.  The big day is almost here…I can practically smell the mash-in.

The glycol piping is complete…just need to insulate.  Here’s a couple of pics to round out this post of the progress in putting it up.  That’s a lot of copper.  And if brewing doesn’t work out, I think there’s always a life of soldering.  We’re putting in the steam piping, so more pics to follow.

The cold room is also hooked up and cold, cold cold.  Turns out, showing temperature changes visually is pretty hard.  Take our word for it.  This is a busy week, but I hope to get the progress up as it happens.

The last month has been hectic to say the least.  We have been hooking up the glycol piping(the mechanism for keeping our beer at the appropriate temperatures during fermentation and conditioning) for our two 60 BBL Fermenters and our 60 BBL Bright Tank.  We’ve become quite good at soldering in the process, I might add.  While they aren’t the most interesting of pictures, we snapped a few of the piping work and soldering.  Special thanks to Justin Lillehei, who was in town for a week lending his time and skill.

After that was complete, we tested each of them for leaks and are now proceeding in putting up the headers, which connect the tanks to the main glycol unit.  You can see a cool pic of us posing in front of that bad boy.   Quite an impressive piece of equipment, our 10 HP unit from our friends at PRO Refrigeration has enough capacity to keep us super cool for the foreseeable future.

We’ve been overhauling our steam boiler, converting it to propane, and preparing it for hookup and testing.  All that is left is the actual steel piping, then can we test out that 1,000,000 BTU beast.  We also fenced in the boiler and propane to ensure no one got any ideas.

We have a ton left to do, but hopefully we’ll hit our target and be brewing by the end of the month.  Wish us luck and keep checking back for updates.

The cold box is up.  It took some serious heavy lifting, some cam-locking, and a little ingenuity, but we got her up.  Special thanks go to my father, Bob Sabel, who was in town to help out.  We don’t think we could have done it without him.  As you can see from the pictures, those panels are pretty big and they definitely aren’t light.  We started with the walls, locking them together, then moved onto the ceiling.  Once the shape was in place, we started in on the sliding door.  There were six sets of differing instructions, so after a few too many discussions, we just started piecing it together and the result is quite exceptional, if I say so myself.  With the door hung, we secured the structure, caulked the edges, and mounted the lights and evaporator units.  All that is left is the Condensing units piping and we have a nice cold box.  She’s a big one too, 36′ x 20′.  Soon, we’ll be installing a tasting area adjacent to it, with a nice big bar and some taps coming straight from the cold box.    Plenty more to come, so keep checking back…

The Circle Store is up and running!  Add that news with the arrival of our t-shirts and pint glasses and we’ve got a solid combo.   We’ve only got two types of merchandise for sale at the moment, the pint glasses and t-shirts, but more will come.  We’re open to input, so let us know what you want with our logo all over it.  Tshirts come in Red, Green, Blue, Black, and White, all with unique color schemes for each color shirt.  Pint Glasses have that clean etched look and make any beverage look that much better.  We’ll of course have all this for sale on our tour days when we open for business(still looking like late October).   I don’t know about you, but those cool looking pint glasses are making me thirsty…

Now that the floors were in and dry, we were ready to move the tanks into place.  As you can see from the pics below, it was a long, hot, and nerve-racking day for us, carefully lifting and moving those tanks and brew vessels into their proper place.  We were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief after the last tank was lowered into place, but I certainly caught myself holding my breath a number of times during the process.  Those stainless tanks weigh a few pounds.

The pictures speak for themselves, so enjoy looking through them.  All said and done, the final product is a glorious sight.  What was once a warehouse now looks unmistakably like a brewery.  We’ll have more pics of the assembly of the brewhouse piping and platform to follow.  Keep checking back, updates will continue as rapidly as the progress.

I know it has been awhile since the last post, but hey, we’ve been a little busy.  After unloading day, we went to work finishing up the plumbing.  Everything was in play, ready for us to pour back the concrete.  Our primary goal was to complete that phase as soon as possible, to allow the proper amount of time for the concrete to cure before we sealed the floors.  The rebar was set and the pourback commenced, which was a little interesting since we were still in the middle of our electricity upgrade and had no electricity.  Normally, this wouldn’t have been an issue with the bay doors open, but fate had chosen to darken the skies and send buckets of rain our way that fine day.  No problem some portable lights couldn’t fix, however.

The pour went well and we set back to finishing up the plumbing and electrical, preparing the space for when the concrete had cured properly.  During this time, we were able to frame, juice, plumb, and wall the second bathroom, which we’ll need especially for those tour days.    After the alloted time, we began to work on the existing concrete, scuffing up the old sealant to prepare to put down our own.  As you can see, not only does it protect those floors from the rigors of brewing, but it really looks great.

The next step is to move the brewery vessels and tanks into place and start piping.  We’ll have pictures soon to follow with those shiny tanks upright and ready to rock.  Keep checking back for updates!