Commercial Brewing

1.  It is just glorified home brewing.

Southern Star's year round lineup

I had the honor to brew with Southern Star Brewing Company back in mid-December.  Back in early October, there was beer festival in downtown Houston called The Monsters of Beer.  It was a pretty cool little festival where roughly 12 breweries (all from Texas!) showed up so the people can sample their beer.  It also gives many of these breweries some face time in the Houston area.  Not all of the beers are available in your local stores.  Back to my experience.  At this festival, a silent auction was held for some really cool beer items.  All proceeds went to charity.  And guess what?  I won one of the prizes.  It was for the winner and a friend to go to Southern Star and  brew with them for a day.

Fast forward to December 22nd.  All of our schedules finally synced up.  My friend, Justin, and I headed toward  Conroe around 6am...and pulled up a few minutes after 7am.  I may have gotten us lost.  Once there, we met Dave.  Dave is one of the owners and I believe the "head brewer."  He had been there since 4am.  That was the start of the first batch of beer.  Basically, their plan is to brew 3 batches back-to-back-to-back.  Why?  Because that is how much beer they have to make to fill just ONE of their large up-right fermenter.  We were brewing their Bombshell Blonde Ale.  Want to guess what color it is? (blonde)

Now, me being a person that has dabbled in beer making for all of 6 months, I had many questions.  I won't bore you with all of the questions...but I will give you my summary.  Dave and his team are glorified home brewers.  The only difference....his equipment is bigger than mine.  I am using a 7 gallon stainless steel pot for brewing.  He is using a 15 BARREL boil kettle.  If you want a breakdown in ounces, here you go.  7 gallons = 896 ounces.  15 barrels =  59,520 ounces.  I'm using a five gallon glass carboy as a fermenter.  Southern Star uses several 75 barrel upright fermenters.

the fermenters

As the boil is going, Dave has a sheet of paper and does a few small calculations to get the gravity of the liquid correct.  Maybe adds some water.  Or tweaks the temperature.  But that is about it.  Most other things....he eyeballs it.   Really wild stuff.

The day of work ended with us at their bar area that is used during the weekend tours.  Perhaps the coolest thing we did all day... we tried 3 of their beers that haven't been released yet.  Currently, they are still tweaking the recipes...and we got to taste them.  All three were awesome in my book.  The first one we tried will be released in the summer.  The name is called "Walloon."  Named after a county or province (whatever they call them over there) in Belgium.  Can't wait it.  Tasting it...it just felt perfect for one of those 100 degree days.

I apologize if this entry bored you to death.  Currently, I am fascinated with the craft beer scene.  Especially, in Texas.  It is in a boom right now.  Beer making is a lot of fun.  Plus, can't I daydream about opening my own brewery one day?!?!?!?!

Justin (friend), Dave (the man) and me