I went to the Circa Brewery at 152 Lawrence Street in Brooklyn about 11:30am. When I arrived I began taking pictures of the place, and this must have made the people slightly nervous.

                                                        Then a nice young lady named Mia approached me with a smile on her face, then I  explained, I was from Citytech and I needed some information, then asked if she’d help me. She acquiesced as I asked her to let me take a few more pictures then we could get started. That was fine with her so we began. I asked her ” is this a Brewery, a roasting house for coffee”?   She said “no, this is a brewery for beer.” My ship had sunk. Again I thought myself as being so dense, obtuse.

I looked on in bewilderment and followed through. “Okay, well. This is a Beer Brewery, I’m here and I need a paper to write.” I said “okay then we’ll make it about the beer making procedure.” I asked a few more questions and Mia relented and thought her co-worker might be a better choice to explain the processes. Danny was elevated on some stairs when I first saw Mia talk to him. She came back to me and said her co-worker would be over to help me in a moment. Danny, a medium build dark haired man came over and introduced himself. I explained to him that I was from NYCCT on Jay Street and I had to write a paper, would he give me some information. He agreed, then I explained to him I would be as brief as possible, as not to take him away from his work for too long. I think he liked that, but was also willing to help me.

Danny has been working as a brew master expert for 8 years. The first question was what were the ingredients that were used in the beer making process. He told me that barley is the primary ingredient. The best barley comes from Germany. He mentioned that used a hybrid English, step mash with grain (barley), some Oat, Wheat, Malt etc.… The other ingredients are added for color and flavor. He explained that he took the Wort (Wheat liquid) which contained the starch and sugar, boiled it for 60-90 minutes, then cooled it rapidly. This is called the pitch. Then they add the yeast, then it goes to the yeast fermenter. The yeast eats the sugar and produces alcohol and CO₂. Next it is then cooled for clarity.

Once it is deemed fit to serve or done, it is transferred to the bright beer tank. Then the Malt (color), barley, hops and water fixes the flavor. Danny explained that the best barley come from the farmer, who sells it to the

Maltster, who sells it to the brewer. The ingredients are sometimes roasted or mixed with other grains or oats to give it a distinct flavor. There is Pilsner, Lager and Stouts. All of which requires a different method of fermentation. Danny says that the Pilsner beer he makes is exceptional. They only make about 750 gallons        2-3 times a week. It is not a lot in comparison to the larger breweries, but they hold their own in this part of Brooklyn.       Located at 152 Lawrence Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201

Being at the Brewery brought back a spate of memories to when my Dad tried to make his own home brew. He had bought some grains and placed them in a contraption he’d made by welding some brass fittings together and applied heat to it. Though he tried his best to imitate the Beers of his time, it was a flop. Making beer should be left up to the pros, its a craft with many well kept secrets.

Throughout this semester I have acquired a lot of knowledge about wine that I did not have before, so for the beverage production assignment I wanted to take advantage of the alternative assignments and go to a brewery. On November 11^th, I visited Brooklyn Brewery and attended a tour of the facility. During the tour, I learned a lot about the history of the business and how they make their product.

The first topic covered during the tour was the four ingredients in beer. Beer is about 90-95% water and the rest is made of grains, yeast, and hops.  It is believed that the vitamins and minerals in New York’s water are big factors in what makes their beer distinct. As for the grain, they mostly use malted barley for the beer. During the tour, we saw, touched and smelt two different kinds of malted barley, a pale ale malt and a chocolate malt. Each one smelt distinctly different which provides different qualities to the beer. There hops are grown from all over the U.S and depending on the type of flavor beer they are making, hops are acquired from different places. Currently, most of their hops come from Washington because of their seasonal beers currently on the menu.

Beer Tanks

When learning about the process and brewing practices used to make their beer, I learned there is a lot of science that goes into the process. The process starts by putting the grains in water for 48 hours. This is done to start extracting the sugars from the grain, which will eventually be eaten by the yeast to create carbon dioxide. After 48 hours, they remove the grain, dry it, and roast it to a specific color that will determine the type of beer they are making. Next, the dry grains are reintroduced to hot water in one of their automated machines to create the “mash”, which according to the tour guide, is a sticky paste. After the mash is formed, it is sent to another machine that separates the sugar liquid from the grain becoming unfermented beer, or wort. The final step before fermentation is adding their hops to the unfermented beer in a brew kettle. The hops are what gives the beer its spicy flavor and helps preserve the final product. For Brooklyn Brewery, hops only stay in the mix for a maximum of 90 minutes. After 90 minutes, the hops are separated from the beer. It is at this stage that there brew master, Jared Oliver, decides if it will be an ale or a lager. Lagers ferment longer and in colder temperatures while ales are the opposite. After fermentation, the product is finished and ready to be bottled.

One of the bottling lines in the facility

As for bottling, there were a few practices and techniques I thought were interesting. When the beer is ready to be put in a keg, they force carbonate the liquid to speed the process along. Another interesting technique used is adding a small amount of hot water to their 12 oz. bottles to push out the oxygen in the bottle. According to the tour guide, this prevents it from oxidizing and going stale, which increases the quality and shelf life of their product. This is a technique only used for their 12 oz. bottles because oxidation isn’t a concern in the bigger bottles. There bigger bottles will continue to ferment. More sugar and yeast is added, then it is corked like a bottle of wine and left to ferment. This process gives the beer a completely different flavor from the same beer put into 12 oz. bottles.

For Brooklyn Brewery, it is not just how the beer is made that makes it special, but how the company got started. Owners Steve Hindy and Tom Potter started Brooklyn Brewery in 1988. Hindy learned to make craft beer from his journalism travels in the Middle East. After leaving the Middle East and bringing his family back to Brooklyn, he continued to make craft beer in his apartment where he met his business partner Tom Potter, a bank investor who lived downstairs. From that friendship and general appreciation of beer, Brooklyn Brewery was born. Together Hindy and Potter brought craft beer back to Brooklyn and, not even 30 years later it is has become the world’s number one craft beer exporter in the United States. It is also the 11^th largest craft brewery in the U.S and has the world’s most recognizable craft beer logo, created by Milton Glasser.

After the tour, I walked around the tasting room which was a lot like the tour, loud yet relaxed. After waiting on line, I spoke to one of the attendants behind the counter. They were very knowledgeable and explained the items on the menu more. Considering my knowledge on beer is limited, I did not know what IPA was or what the beers on the menu tasted like. I was told IPA is a beer style that has a “hoppy flavor”. I only

Tasting Room Menu

understood what he meant because I smelt hops on the tour. Even though I did not buy anything the attendant still answered my questions and took the time to describe the different beers to me. I was surprised they were so willing to help considering the line was getting very long behind me.

Overall, this experience opened my mind up to different types of fermented beverages aside from wine and taught be a lot about the product. I am glad I got to learn more about beer and can now appreciate the beverage a little more.

ABSTRACT

The task at hand was a Beverage Production experiential learning experience.  In that experience as a person who study’s wine I was supposed to gain the knowledge of the viticulture and the vivification of wine. Unfortunately, I could not present that experience because of peculiar circumstances. I choose the alternative assignments and visited a brewery in Brooklyn, New York called Strong Rope Brewery.

Strong Rope Located at 574 President ST, Brooklyn ,New York
Sorry for the mean mug

The Strong Rope Brewery located at 574 President ST, Brooklyn, New York.  The brewery is a delightful location for beer tasting with Strong Rope’s own selection of crafted brewed beers.  Strong Rope does have their own ale’s, pale’s, cask and lager beers. At the 574 President ST location I was blessed to see of how they craft their beers for their petite and yet casual bar.  At Strong Rope I was greeted by the owner Jason Sahler whom has been brewing for over 15 years, 2 of which he used open the Strong Rope Brewery.  As a person who studies wine this was an opportunity to understand another action of the power of alcohol and fermentation can do.   As I was greeted by Jason I asked if can participate in the Saturdays tour of beer crafting. The brewing sessions are held every Saturday at 2 pm for $5.

As the tour is going on I looked around and spotted the instruments used to make and brew the beers. Being curious of the container tanks I wanted to reserve my questions for them, but I wanted to listen for the information from the tour. I learned about the ingredients of the beer which consist of malted barley, hops, yeast and the main ingredient of all water.  The process of making beer for Strong Rope. Starts with the ingredients, the Hops are usually dropped down cracked through a mill called a hopper.  There the hops are cracked open and exposes the starchy endosperm from the inside of the grain. .  Caramel malts usually have an aroma of fruit and caramel flavors.

Strong Ropes Brewery Barrel Tanks. These collection of tanks are part of a brewery system that contains Non- dry hops beer and beer with a steady infused temperature controlled fermentation

Carapils have more of a toasted sweetness to them. Those specialty malts are added and then mashed combined with hot water around the temperature of 152- 154 degrees Fahrenheit for the enzymes make carbohydrates to pull out the sugars.

The concentration however goes back to the Hops, which is the personality of beers.  The Hops are the bittering agents it is the equalizer it’s the usage of hops through mashing process helps with fermentation.  Hops has its own bacteria that acts like a sterilizing agent that preserves the beer. Hops comes in two forms leaf and pellets.  The leaves are usually whole and dried and release a necessary acid and the pellet for us crushed and that reduces surface, this cause the beer not to oxidize or spoil pressing the beer.  At Strong Rope brewery Jason get his hops, grains and malts from farms Upstate and from Long island New York.   Like wine instead of grapes there are varieties of hops that are grown. They work with farms to import some of their most quality hops to make their different craft beers.  From the hops and malts the use for example from upstate New York they connect and conduct business with the local farms there to craft their seasonal beers such as “Cluster, Perle, Liberty, Columbus” the reserved hops are then recycled.  They are thrown in with the compost and given back to the farmers where they can use the compost to grow and later craft their beers

” The Storage” , unit containing Strong Ropes Hops, malts and kegs, it also serves as their refrigerator.

When it comes to personnel there aren’t a lot of employees that work in Strong Rope the reason of that Jason explained that he wanted a staff that was just as gifted and as passionate about brewing as he is.  Jason wanted someone who had the knowledge to brew and craft as well as bartend.  Someone who can provide knowledge and great customer service skills. Their kettle practices continue after the milling process the ingredients are pressed over and over until the liquid becomes somewhat clear than they are sent to kennel containers for conversion where they take about 30 -45 minutes to become bright in color. There they have the draining process where the malts usage to help make simple sugars are steeped and then taken and thrown to compost. The sugars the yeast consumes are recycled and run through pipes from the kettle. There the liquids are used with hops provides the Ale acid which is the bitter agent of the beers. The hops provide the personality of the beer. The beer is then boiled and piped through a whirlpool through a heat exchange machine which converts the hot water to cold once cold its blended with little oxygen and yeast. From fermentation the yeast settles down to the bottom of the kettle fermenter.

Strong Ropes Final product of keg beer

Strong Ropes Purchased farm Specialty Malts. Some of the malts stored in these storage bags for seasonal beers to be later crafted. the remains of malts are sent back to the farmers as compost

To further to cool and preserve the beer Ethylene glycol is used all these ingredients are filtered and then carbonated. When the beer is carbonated Strong Hopes uses two methods the bottling method or the bright tank method.  The bottling method is all carbon dioxide. every brewer is a fan of foam. Carbon dioxide is pushed in to force oxygen out.  If they are not bottling they are tanking and aging.  There Strong Rope takes their beers and uses methods to age and even enhance the flavor of their beers. They collected old whisky barrels to enhance the flavor of a selected harvest craft. If they choose to use the old barrels they use the tanks for aging where can later bottles for months at a time or later to but in kegs.

” Fall Fire” A seasonal Ale from Strong Rope Brewery. the beer I could not smell the palate until i drunk the beer at least 1/4 of the way Due to the nature of the carobonization of the foam. The taste of from the palate was bitter but reminded me of Peaches, red apples, and pears.

For a small brewery they have a total of seven tanks.  The 1^st barrel tanks of 5 are used for the hops these beers are non-dry. The other two-barrel tanks are used to allow temperature to be steady for a further fermentation. Through the artistry and craft of these beers I really enjoyed the tore I was very intrigued, and Jason was nothing but hospitable the whole time.  Strong Rope brewery I would recommend for anyone who wants to try a local beer they have won numerous awards for their craft including 2016 Crooked Hop off and 2017’s New York State’s Craft Beer award with numerous other awards.  This experience was fun and welcoming I must do tours more often.