After we enjoyed our cheese and beer pairs the owners and brewmaster came in and gave us a run down of the beginnings of how Old Bull Head came together. The owners are a very nice couple, mid-late 50s, and the brewmaster is about the same age and used to brew for Abita. We asked a ton of questions about the differences between the commercial and home brewing processes. His #1 reiteration was SANITATION. Once he puts the mash in the mashtun the beer does not experience oxygen again until the pint hits your glass. It is quite the impressive set up for transferring. He also had some input on cold crashing, which he does on everything. Once the beer is ready, approx 7-10 days he drops the temp on the fermenter to 32 degrees and crashes it over night and than removes the trub the following morning and harvests the yeast. Said if done property you can harvest yeast indefinitely, it is just a matter of fine tuning the area from which you are harvesting. If you notice the beer is getting a little sweet than harvest the yeast a little higher. If you notice the beer is getting a little drier than you harvest the yeast a little lower. The man was brilliant.
After all the questions we got to tour the facility. Here are a few photos, which didn't come out very well due to the lighting.
- All the storage tanks
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- Test Batch setup, using a blichman setup.
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- Where all the magic happens
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