July 16: I was carrying my water bottle, a bag with two beers from Massachusetts to drink with the brewers at the end of the day and all the excitement of a kid the night before Christmas. The 10-minute walk from my apartment to the brewery felt like a year.
I arrived five minutes early to find Head Brewer Eric already deep into the day’s tasks. Apprentice Brewer Matt started showing me the ropes immediately, and within 10 minutes, even in the cool morning breeze at 7 a.m., I could feel my brand new brewery hat becoming wet with sweat.
So what do you do on your first day as a volunteer at a brewpub in the tropics? Just about everything.
- First, open up the bar and brewery sliding doors, put out all the chairs and unlock everything for the day.
- Learn how to use a tri-clamp…and how hard it is…and what it sounds like when you drop it.
- Start the caustic cleaning cycle in the fermenter that previously contained the jalapeno beer.
- Repeat said caustic cycle, because the fermenter stills smells like jalapenos. (Note to self: chili pepper oils tend to stick around, so use a designated fermenter).
- Hot-water rinse the fermenter.
- Sanitize the fermenter, three times.
- Build the keg-filling rigs and the yeast rigs.
- Move kegs, fill kegs, deliver keg (that’s right – I delivered a keg to a bar around the corner – after all, I did say I wanted to learn everything).
- Get grain (50 or 55 lb bags), mill grain, learn how to open and how not to open up a grain bag.
- Clean out mashtun, putting the spent grains in giant rolling trashcans for the local farmers to pick up. Nothing gets wasted, the spent grains are either fed to livestock or made into slider buns by a local bakery.
- Eat…and realize that I am beginning to get really sore (already, or just, five hours in to the workday).
- Measure out hops additions…twice, because someone spilled some (someone other than me, thankfully).
- Squeegee everything, always keeping the water moving toward the drain.
- “Pack the heat exchanger with caustic” fresh water rinse, sanitize the heat exchanger before transferring beer to the fermenter.
- Polish three 7-barrel fermenters. Yep, that sucked, but – like a good field day in the Navy – it has to be done.
- Split a ½ barrel (15 gallons) into three 1/6 barrels (obviously 5 gallons each)
- Move hoses and pumps (all day).
- Clean the grain mill – twice, because I didn’t do it right the first time.
- Learn that a 7-barrel pitch of Cal Ale costs almost $300, which is why they go five generations with yeast harvested from the fermenters.
- Clean up after the boil process while transferring the hot wort through the sanitized heat exchanger (boil temp to 70F) and then into the fermenter. (This step is called “knock out”)
- Get sent home 90 minutes early, because the professionals are pretty sure they almost killed the “volunteer” on his first day.
- Shower and go back for beers.
- Revel in surviving the first day
At the end of that first day I had some pretty big takeaways.
- Standing on concrete all day is hard on your body, and ridiculously hard on mine. Take Aleve before starting the work day and wear good work boots.
- Working in a brewery is hot, damp work. If you are not completely soaked with sweat, you will be with brewery water. Make sure you have good, waterproof work boots.
- Even after having my ass kicked all day, you couldn’t tell by the smile on my face. The adrenaline thrill can pretty much get you through anything.
Over our next beer, we will discuss all things grain.