Cleaning out at the Bank Brewery in Hendricks, MN

This past week I didn't have the kiddo, so when Richard asked me if I'd be interested in going out to the Bank Brewery in Hendricks (where he is the head brewer) I said absolutely! I was going out there to get a more in-depth look at the brewery (since the first time that I was there was during the open house where I was chasing my son around) meet the founder/owner - Jason, and to help with some cleaning.

Richard and Jason working
on the maze of pipes

So we showed up and after some introductions, put some gloves on and went to work. After being overwhelmed by the piping of all the equipoment with all the different valves and control boxes, Richard gave me a slightly less technical task. I was to wash out all the soda kegs that have been used at the brewery and his house for test batches. We brought some with but had to run down the block to the old Bank/New Tap Room to get some other kegs (and of course made another trip later to get some different beers to have). Simply rinse each keg out - fill it full with cleaner (PBW) and let it soak for 30 minutes - rinse and then let them dry. I came up with my own little assembly line to keep it all organized.

Assembly Line

While doing this, it was pretty cool to see the new kegs on pallets right next to me with the Bank Brewing labels on them - really makes it feel like a brewery seeing kegs on pallets that are waiting to be filled.

 

We also had to add 10 oz of Simcoe hops to the test batch of Hop Bandit.

10 oz of Simcoe Hops

Rich adding them into the test batch.

While I was letting the cleaner sit in the kegs for 30 minutes I would go over and watch Richard and Jason work on heating up water and cleaning all of the different tanks. It was really nice talking to Jason and hearing him tell me about all the rework that creamery has been through in order to get it where it is today. How the roof was caving in, and all the tear down work that was needed before they could even start to build it back up. It really makes you appreciate what's been done to keep such an old building like this standing instead of letting it whither away.

There was an occasional hose pulling loose from a clamp and shooting hot water out - with one instance managing to hit Richard pretty good. This led to him having to take a break from cleaning to run upstairs to the loft and clean himself off with a shower to make sure he got all the chemicals off.

I had not been up to the loft during the previously mentioned open house, and all I can say is wow is that place amazing - Jason had just simply said "Welcome to our Office!". Just having space like that above the brewery for everything from a place to chill out on couches, sleep in the bed rooms, or make some food in the kitchen up there (which we ended up making a pizza at the end of the night there). It was a little too cold and windy out (mid 30's in April which is ridiculous) to take the next set of stairs and see the deck/patio up on the roof.

It ended up being a long night and a lot of work, but in the end I'm very glad that I went with. It was really cool to see it the progress being made, talk with Jason, and then seeing that loft upstairs. This definitely makes me want to take the 30-35min drive out there more often - especially when the tap room opens up later this year. Good ways to stay in touch are to follow Bank Brewing via Facebook (www.facebook.com/bankbrewing) and Twitter (@BankBrewing).

Cheers,
Matt

Indeed Brewing Company

For this week's escapade in brewing for the AnderHoff crew we are testing out one of the newest breweries in Minnesota - Indeed Brewing Co.

Let's just start with the fact that Matt and I are partial to canned beer. I mean come on, you can stack em, pack em, crush em, and chuck em. Not only do they sound cool when you open them, but you can golf, bring them to the softball fields, and hang out at the lake with them.

They also have a great track record of being delicious in the craft segment.  The benefits that the brewers advertise about the can protecting the beer better from oxygen and light seems to shine true.  Everything from Surly to Tallgrass have proven to be great beers.  Let's hope that this trend continues with Indeed!

We have in front of us three f'n cool looking cans of Minnesota Craft Beer:

1. Stir Crazy
2. Day Tripper
3. Midnight Ryder

Let the Tasting begin! We will go from light to dark so it will be Day Tripper, Stir Crazy then Midnight Ryder for the flight tonight. There will be some general comments from the both us, followed by an overall cap reading (for Untappd).

(It should be noted that we had a PreBeer - Miller Fortune 6.9% - 3 Cap rating for both of us)

Day Tripper

Canned on January 12, 2014 (6 weeks ago) **Paired with Boneless Buffalo Wings**

Comments

They describe it as a hopped up pale ale in the west coast style with 4lbs of hops per barrel.  Mitch Steele from Stone Brewing company was explaining the IPA style at the National Homebrewer's Conference in 2013 and stated that American IPAs use from .5 lb to 1.5lbs of hops per barrel in the Kettle and .25lb to 1.5lbs per barrel in the Dry hop, add that up and you only have 3lbs of hops per barrel in a typical IPA in the US in 2013.  This one is hopped to 4lbs per barrel so our taste buds are ready for the hop explosion to come at only 6 weeks old in this pale ale.

Love the smell, Jumps out of the glass from across the table.
Grassy, raw hop flavors reminding us of some extreme hopped homebrew Citra and centennial pale ales of our past.  Matt is especially reminded of his Citra Yard Sale and Rich is reminded of a Dead Ringer IPA that features the Centennial hop.
Not the bitter punch you would expect but there is some lingering bitterness on the back end.  Light body and malt flavor for the most part, which is one of the more desirable aspects of the this pale ale.
Almost feels like they overdid it with the hops.  Taking such a nice light body, adding a lingering bitterness, with too much raw (overly dry hopped?) grassy hop flavors coming through.  The comments on the can say a malt background prevents this beer from being a one hop trick pony but we disagree this one is a one hop trick pony for sure.

Pouring Day Tripper (and a little spillage)

Matt - 2.5 Cap Rating.......Rich - 3 Cap Rating

Midnight Ryder

Canned September 23, 2013 (5 months ago)

Comments

• Coffee, maybe some hints of an oatmeal stout in there?
• Smooth
• Some piney hops coming through on the back end.
• Easy drinker, would be interesting to try fresher but its tasting good now.
• Not thick like a porter or stout.
• Tasty hop flavors hidden in there that come through as the glass empties
• Overall its a nice, easy drinking hoppy, lighter version of a stout.  Very good.
• **Perfect for this season, late winter. We both agreed this isn't a summer activity beer but more of a nice hoppy refresher for the season in between stout and IPA time.

Pouring Midnight Ryder

Matt - 4 Cap Rating.......Rich - 4 Cap Rating

Stir Crazy

Canned January 9, 2014(6 weeks ago)

Comments

• Two words jump out....VANILLA and COCOA.
• So light and smooth. Not sweet, or thick, which makes this one an amazing surprise!
• Not a style we tend to grab but this one is a diamond in the rough.
• Digging the balanced, light mouthfeel.
• Aroma is prominent with vanilla and cocoa. Not getting raisin or brown sugar but is that a flavor/ aroma that would carry through usually?  Brown sugar would just ferment out, wouldn't it?
• A great beer for this time of year with below zero nights and mid teen highs.  Freezing cold outside and this drinkable, 6.5% winter ale keeps you warm with the punch of fresh vanilla following from the smell to taste.

Pouring Stir Crazy

Matt - 4 Cap Rating.........Rich - 4 Cap Rating(in the winter ale style, else 3.5 Caps for untappd)

Well, We can't automatically go and grab an Indeed beer and be sure that they are all amazing but we have found out that they do darker beers very well.  The pale ale could maybe get better as its ages and some of the hops dropped out.  The Midnight Ryder could probably better when fresher with a little bit brighter hop flavor but not much more is desired.  For the stir crazy it is good now and should continue to be good into the future, great beer there.

Cheers!

-Rich and Matt

Full Day of Brewing at Wooden Legs Brewery

Brewing with the SABCO system at Wooden Legs Brewery

It all began one fateful Saturday morning, I got up early to make sure I had my carboy cleaned, sanitized and ready. I headed out early to swing by Ramsdell's to get my propane topped off and ready for a day full of brewing at Wooden Legs Brewery. They were nice enough to let three homebrewers come in and use the SABCO system that they used before the brewery opened (and if you've been there, this is the system you see right away when you walk in the door). Richard had put together and organized all of the ingredients we needed and who was responsible for what.

SABCO System

This Saturday morning was also the time that my 3 year old son was getting his professional photos taken in Elkton, SD (about 20 minutes away from the brewery). So the plan was to meet up with Rich at the brewery and drop off the 10 gallons of distilled water and propane tank that I was responsible for bringing, and head out for his pictures. So I met Rich there, and we both looked at the brewery and the lights were off and we started to wonder if anyone was going to be there to let us in. The idea was to get most of the brewing done before they opened for the day at noon. Luckily Brant was in the back either fixing or putting up a new light fixture and was able to let us in. I was running a little late and ended up being late to my sons pictures (not by much), and about an hour or so later when they got done I drove right back to the brewery to join back in on the fun.

I got there after the grains were crushed and they had started heating up the sparge water to use for the mash (I think I explained that right). I'm still getting familiar with the all grain process so I just looked for ways to help and to keep learning. The first thing that I had helped out with was stirring with the mash paddle to help break up any clumps to get the mash loosened up. We did use a lot of grain in this batch, which lead to probably the main reason this ended up taking most of the day...getting stuck. I think Rich had said a total of about 5 times the system got clogged up with the grain. Each time turned into what looked like a high school chemistry class where people started swarming around the system and trying everything from blowing in the tubes to messing with the pumping system to figure out where the stuck had occurred.

Rich and Ethan working on the mash

The dip tube in the mash tun ended up being the main problem area we kept getting stuck in. It was getting clogged with the grain that made it under the false bottom. Rich thinks it's because we put all the grain in first and that's how it got under the false bottom right away at the beginning.

So because of all the clogging we ended up staying later than expected, but it's not like eating the Wooden Legs deli sandwiches (which are amazing) and drinking craft beer on an early Saturday afternoon is a terrible thing.

Great sandwiches

Craig's side batch

Once we got everything into the next keg to start the boil, we realized there was still quite a bit left, so Craig seized the moment and went home to get some of his home brewing equipment, to start a side batch. Everyone was in agreement that we shouldn't waste this, so we might as well try to ferment it out and make more beer from it! So we ended up having 4 total home brewers involved with each taking home their own batch to ferment/bottle/keg/drink.

All 4 homebrewers pouring in the D 180 extra dark Belgian Candi Syrup

It can't be said enough how helpful the Wooden Legs staff was to us on this day, not only did they let us use the SABCO system, and use the brewhouse to brew in, they also helped out through the entire process. Everyone from the founders (Seth and Brant) to one of their head brewers (Ethan - who wasn't even scheduled to work that day) ended up giving us advice and helping us through the entire process. I almost think there is something appealing to them about seeing homebrewers using that system and takes them back to the days where that was them, before the brewery opened. This shows how much people actually care and love brewing beer, that on a random Saturday they are willing to help out a group like us, strictly  because of the fact that they love brewing. Just another reason why I love the homebrewing/brewing community, everyone is all about helping each other.

Cheers,
Matt