Happy Thursday friends! This week flew by on me, and somehow it’s Thursday again and I owe you guys a blog post.

I recently had extended family in town and as I was giving a tour, they asked, “Well how does John know what to make?” and I thought maybe other people would be curious about John’s brewing process.

The first step is deciding what to make. Many people ask if John specializes in a particular style, and the answer he gives is that he “brews what he likes to drink, which is everything.”

I think because of John’s engineering background, he likes to study the ins and outs of how things work. While he was homebrewing he was also studying the classic styles, and working to differentiate his brewing to reflect the sometimes minute details that make the difference. John’s certified beer judge training also helped him detect flavors in his brews and refine his palate. This is all a very long-winded way of saying that John really loves to brew across all styles, so the whole spectrum is open for consideration.

Once he chooses a style, John then creates a recipe. We were asked recently if these recipes come from scratch, and the answer is yes. Much like a chef, John has an idea of what he wants to create and he knows the ingredients that belong in the finished product. He has several recipe books that sometimes he’ll consult to make sure he’s going to be on the right track. He also uses a computer program that helps him to scale up ingredients from a pilot batch to our big brew system.

If it’s a new recipe he’ll usually test it out on our pilot system. He brews a 1bbl batch, which produces 2 kegs of beer at a time. He pulls several samples throughout the fermentation process to check on the beer, and when it’s finally done fermenting then we both taste it. The beers then get to the final step which is carbonating it, kegging it, and putting it on tap to share with you.

This week we tapped two new brews. Wishing Star is a robust porter. It was a winter favorite last year, and it has us wishing we were sitting next to a fire watching the snow fall. It’s roasty and chocolatey and delicious.  Rolling Fog is a hazy IPA. Like the fog rolls in new every morning, this brew will rotate in ingredients each time we make it. This particular blend is brewed with Citra, Mosiac and Amarillo hops. It is full of citrus and juicy fruit flavors and we love it!

We’ve got a few more new brews coming out this month so stay tuned for more updates!

Cheers friends, we’ll see you here!