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.