Until two weeks ago we referred to our space at Indeed Brewing Company in NE Minneapolis as “site” or “the building.” But ever since we received the 30 BBL brewhouse, manufactured by Specific Mechanical, we call it a brewery!
Just like Mario and Luigi in Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. we made the pipe connections for the mash tun, kettle, and hot & cold liquor tanks ourselves. A grist hopper, which looks something like a water tower, is placed on stilts and rests just above the mash tun. Then on brew day, the malt is released and cascades (no pun intended, this is the mash tun for criminy sake) into the mash tun from just above it. As soon as we have supplies and the steam piping is inspected, we will run a test mash to determine boil off and efficiency of the sparkling new stainless steel system.
Josh Bischoff, Indeed’s award winning head brewer, has been studying his new “office.” It’s all knobs, switches, and valves. A bit of luxury from what he has been used to over the last ten years as a professional brewer. He’s also been planning out his “brew day” routine to make sure we get this puppy humming before it’s time to get serious and brew batch no. 1. Josh has also been fine-tuning the two flagships: Day Tripper Pale Ale and Midnight Ryder American Black Ale. (Don’t worry; we still plan to release a seasonal at launch as well. We’ll fill-in the details very soon.)
Everyday new pieces of equipment like coolers, a bottle filler (for 750 mL bottles) arrive for delivery, but we still have two outstanding pieces of key equipment: the fermenting vessels / brite tanks, and the canning line. Both of which are en route to the brewery. Meanwhile, our friend and skilled carpenter Bob, has begun work on the 30-foot bar in the taproom. The red oak he cut down by hand on his family property in Wisconsin was quarter-cut by him and then driven to Iowa to be kiln dried. We are very excited to this see this piece of furniture in our taproom, which we think of as your new living room.
We hope to see you really soon as we are still on track to open at the end of July or very early August. Until then…
