Saint Arnold Brewhouse Blog

It's bad enough I can't stretch my elbow out straight... but who needs a piece of sandpaper on their index finger? I can't say I wasn't warned though... Vince showed me his (um, brewer's finger) within days of my starting work at the brewery.
Its origin is the clamps we use to hook hoses onto the kettle, filter, fermenter and cleaning equipment. Some of them are smoother than others, but all require a judicious amount of torque to get everything sealed up properly.. and there's the "rub."
The smooth clamps only give you carpal tunnel... the rough ones... THEY give you "Brewer's Finger!" Feel to ask about rubbing any of our fingers next time you're here on tour... I hear it's good luck!

Posted by Bev at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The past two times we've made Root Beer, I've been the "lucky" man on the platform. It's a dirt-simple job, you fill the kettle with water, you "spin" it with the pump and start throwing in the sugar! It's ONLY 1900 pounds in a batch! I took advantage of the webcam the other day to make a movie of the process... (requires Apple's Quicktime)
When I did it earlier in the year, it was truly a "hot, sticky & sweet" situation, as I was coated in sugar, which melted with my sweat... Yuck! and I recorded the pile of sugar bags for posterity, which our webcam sadly missed.
Once we finish making the sugar water, then we blend it with our own special root beer flavorings (made especially for Saint Arnold) in a fermenter and then chill it back down before carbonating it. Then comes bottling day.. the ONE day when we can drink as much as we want, straight off the bottling line!

Posted by Bev at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's a benefit... when the bottling run is done, you get to see what didn't get filled (or labeled) properly. Some runs are better than others! This past week, the Elissa bottling run was very good... the low fills truly WERE low-fills. But there was a lot of Christmas Ale left over! I sorted through both to get the "best of the best" that were still there.
So, I took the initiative to fill a quick box with a combination: EIissa and Christmas Ale! Mix them 1/2 and 1/2 in a glass... It's called a "Sailing Santa" and it's pretty darn tasty! I am happy to have my own supply, ready to consume, in house... but rest assured, this recipe isn't a strategy on our part to sell twice as much beer during Christmas... OR IS IT? ;-)

Posted by Bev at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)