Glass Bottom Blogging: Mixing Metaphors for Business and Pleasure

Greetings all. Long time no post. I thought I'd give a quick update of some of the latest goings on at GBB.

At Glass Bottom Brewery we're carving an exquisite tapestry one block at a time. We're getting our ducks in a row that we may taxi down the runway to flight, freedom, and a brewing license. We're ready to jump into the lion's den, but first we have to learn how to swim with the fishes. Just like our educational backgrounds (I have a BA in International Affairs, Evan's got one in Spanish), we're cobbling together a business from pieces that don't immediately or easily fit together. We're a farm, we're a brewery, we're a three ring circus. A triple threat: we sing, we dance, we brew beer. Okay, we don't sing and dance.

Progress is slow but forward-moving, is I guess what I'm trying to say. We could write a book about the head aches and adventures we've gone through to get this process going, and the ones that are still in store for us in the future, and perhaps someday we will, but that's not what interests me. Expect big updates at some time in the unspecified but near future about our new location and hops farm. For now though, since I'm in it for the brewing, without any further pomp, and only a little bit of circumstance, here are some pictures of our latest brew, a reeaaally large batch of home brewed beer (25 gallons). We transferred a soon-to-be alcoholic beverage through equipment made of stainless steel, brass, silicone, and ceramic, and into a brand new 60 gallon capacity HDPE fermenter, which came to rest finally inside a rather sturdy air conditioned plywood box.

The new and the old fermenter in a side-by-side comparison.

Water heating and storage tank on the far right (Hot Liquor Tank in brewing parlance). Liquid pumps through a heat exchanger coil and into the mash tun for greater temperature control.