Compared to many craft breweries and all macro breweries, this amounts to small batch brewing.
But, because of the size, I have the opportunity to use ingredients that would be impractical on a much larger scale. For example, I can use all imported malts for authenticity in certain seasonals .
I'd like to say that I can always step into the brewery on brew day, change into my rubber boots Mr. Rogers' style, and start the process. That's not always the case.
Some beers require a great deal of preparation, and today's is an extreme example of this.
A few years back, I brewed up a "Breakfast Stout"--an homage to the amazing Stout from Founders Brewing Co. It turned out very well, and it's about time I brewed it again. Now I'm reminded why it's been years since I brewed it!
The ingredient list includes Sumatran Coffee, Kona Coffee, bittersweet chocolate, cacao nibs, and malt.
A day before brewing, I fresh-ground and cold-brewed the Sumatran Coffee. Sumatran is a dark, rich blend. The cold-brewing process extracts the flavor of the coffee while leaving a lot of the acids behind. The result is a less bitter coffee. My little Cuisinart coffee grinder did not enjoy grinding up 3# of coffee, 8 ounces at a time. It overheated, just as I finished up the batch.
Next, you cover all the grounds with cold water and let it sit overnight.
Then, the real fun starts--the filtering:
I used a fine grind for the beans. I would then strain the course particles out and run the coffee through paper basket filters. Due to the grind, the filters quickly plug and the process takes forever. Three pounds of grounds took about two hours.
This round of coffee with go into the boil, so sanitation was not important at this stage.
The next round of coffee (Kona) will go directly into the serving vessel, so I will have to repeat all the previous steps and then pasteurize the coffee.
So, why do I go through all this work?
Because I love you and you're worth it.
