Gyle 24-10

Unhinged (Benny's Bier) (Kolsch).

27 December 2024.  The initial effort to produce Benny's Bier (AKA Unhinged, AKA Benny's Mistress) on the 7 BBL system failed.  The resulting beer is not the same as what we'd produced on the 1 BBL system, in fact, it's not very close.  We're brewing more of Benny's beer on the small system immediately to get that back on tap as soon as possible.  The beer that was made on the 7 BBL system is a drinkable, fair product, just not what folks know as Benny's Bier.  The result of that 7 BBL effort is sold as High Maintenance at Tenacity.

09 December 2024.

In a move forward for SRM Beverage, and a bit of a drag for brewmaster Joe Pruss of Tenacity Brewing Company, we made a 7 BBL batch of Benny's Bier on the bigger system.  This is the first time an SRM Beverage recipe is going bigger than 1 BBL per fermentation.  The drag for Joe was having to lead Drew around the process.  Joe was a heck of a good sport about it.

We'll see if everything worked in scaling up and making the other adjustments required to run on the 7 BBL system work out.  If you don't already know, it isn't just simple multiplication when you scale recipes and switch brew systems.

Gyle 24-09

Crackers (Vienna Lager).

23 November 2024.

In a shift from our last two brews, we made a batch of Vienna lager.  Things went nicely and we're not dealing with equipment changes for a change.  This batch of Crackers is a bit overdue and we'll probably kick the last keg before this is ready, but that's at home and we've got some other varieties on tap.

Gyle 24-08

Unhinged (Kolsch).

10 November 2024.

Well, alrighty, then!  We made Benny's Bier, we delivered Benny's Bier, and the customers drank Benny's Bier in basically 1 day.  So much for 1/2 BBL (15.5 gallons) of Kolsch lasting 5 weeks.  

So, we are brewing right away and will stay right on the fermentation and conditioning process to deliver this batch as soon as it is ready, but not before.  Hopefully, this batch will catch us up with demand.  Then we'll brew it again and try to get a little ahead and see what a little more conditioning time brings us with this beer.

Okay, okay, there are people claiming to have seen SRM Beverage and Tenacity brewers quaffing a few of the original batch.  We won't deny that we helped speed the process of emptying Benny's Bier.  It is just that good (ha, ha).

Gyle 24-07

Unhinged (Kolsch).

08 October 2024.

Hot diggity dog!  This brew is a collaboration with Tenacity Brewing to produce a signature bier for Benny's Bierhalle and the day went really well.  It did go a little longer than our last brew, but not much - done brewing at 16:30 and got more than just initial rinse and wipe down done before we called it beer thirty at about 18:30.

This brew ran really well throughout the process.  The mash bed set up and the wort clarified quickly, the vorlauf flow was smooth, and the boil was moderate and consistant.  The hot break was really impressive, more so than any we've had previously.  We'll keep an eye open to see if this is typical in future batches of Unhinged.

Unhinged went in the fermenter at 59° F with the yeast in at about 16:30.  We really look forward to having a few of these at Benny's Bierhalle in early November.

Gyle 24-06

Madcap (Bohemian Pilsener).  

30 September 2024.

This was a pretty good brew day.  We changed from O-ring to compression fittings on the HERMS coil the day before (since the O-rings have leaked on and off since we started with the system); we didn't have any leaks.  The brewery was a comfortable 65° F at start time and didn't go much above 72° F all day.  We finished up even the initial clean up by 16:30.  

This is our second go at Bohemian Pilsener.  The first one was a good, drinkable beer, but this is shaping up to be a better example of the style.  Madcap went in the fermenter at 58-59° F with the yeast in at about 16:00.  We look forward to trying it in early November.

Gyle 24-05

Kooky (Kentucky Common Ale).  

09 September 2024.

Those of you following SRM Beverage for any length of time have probably already noted that we've picked up our pace this year.  That is in no small part due to the fact that we are now collaborating with Tenacity Brewing in an ongoing manner.  For us, this means that we get to generate more recipes and either brew them as pilot batches at our place (and drink 'em ourselves) or brew them with our good friend Joe Pruss at Tenacity and have some of the new recipes make it on tap there.  Or talk big plans with Joe, drink beer, and move on to bigger and better ideas, yeah, that's it.  Whatever the case, we're taking credit for them here on our web site with entries in The Book of Beer, with designation in On Tap, with status updates in the Current and What Was sections.  Yes, even if they are made at and put on tap at Tenacity, we're going to put them on our website.  We're proud of our work and we're going to... well, it ain't bragging when it's true, so we're going to take credit for them here.

Since we get to work on more styles, we brewed a Kentucky Common Ale.  Nope, hadn't heard of it or tried it before.  We found this style in the BJCP style guidelines and figured to give it a whirl.  Had a good brew day and everything is looking good for an enjoyable, perhaps quirky ale soon.

I Dream of Cleaning (24 August 2024)

Before you head down the "that's a lame title for the update" road, just know that it could be worse.  Much, much worse.  Yes, it is a patently lame knock-off of the last equipment update's "I Dream of Jeannie" theme.  We make great beer, we don't claim to be great writers.

Pro brewers and home brewers alike, feast your eyes on SRM Beverage's newest equipment item, our two-at-a-time keg washer.  Note that we are heating the caustic.  Note that we aren't lifting the keg six feet off the floor any more.  (A reference to our last in-house, one-keg-at-a-time build.)  Note that we didn't pay $5,000, $8,000, $10,000 or more for our keg washer.  Yeah, us!

Yes, we are excited.  Yes, we are easily amused.  Get over it.  Have a beer and a smile!

Gyle 24-04

Wahnsinnig (Festbier).  

13 August 2024.  Following upon Irre, the 2023 collaboration between Loggers Brewing, Tenacity Brewing, and SRM Beverage, Wahnsinnig is a festbier meant to be slightly less malty than traditionally styled Oktoberfest beers, yet just as enjoyable.

Wahnsinnig went in the fermenter at 60° F, yeast in at about 16:15, and is in fermentation now. While many North American breweries seem to have forgotten or choose to disregard what Oktoberfest is, we at SRM Beverage hold to Oktoberfest being a festival in Munich, Germany that runs for 2 weeks, ending on the the first Sunday of October.  Based on that, and our intent that Wahnsinnig is our beer for Oktoberfest this year, we'll first put it on tap the last full week of September.

Gyle 24-03

Scatty (Pale Ale).  

14 July 2024.  This brew went quite well and the process timing worked out so that it was done about an hour earlier than our previous best timeline.  The mash temperature was reached and conversion was pretty near right on time and the brewer didn't ice up the knockdown water pre-chiller this time.  So far, all indications are good for this Pale Ale to be a great example of the style, very drinkable, and a clearly different brew than what we've done to date.

Scatty went in the fermenter at 60° F, yeast in at about 17:00, and is in fermentation now. This ale should ferment a little more quickly that our preceding Crackers lager, so we'll probably have this on tap in early to mid August.

Gyle 24-02

Crackers (Vienna Lager).  

23 June 2024.  What a day for a brew!  The first day in a week that wasn't terribly hot and humid.  We're thankful and chalk that up as a win!

Our brew day went quite well.  The spent grain capture bin system we first used last brew day (Gyle 24-01) worked like a champ and the new chiller, also used for the first time last brew day, was great.  Okay, there was the part where I didn't turn off the glycol running through the old chiller (kockdown water pre-cool) and iced everything up so I had to defrost before I could run the second batch off to the fermenter, but in the scheme of things that really isn't bad.

Crackers went in the fermenter at 58-59° F, yeast in at about 18:30, and is in fermentation now.  We should be putting this on tap in early August.

Dr. Bellows is here to help (13 June 2024)

Dr. Alfred Bellows of I Dream of Jeannie fame arrived to help us out at Stark Raving Mad Beverage.  Some of you may recall and others may have to stream a few episodes of the classic comedy to learn that Dr. Bellows formerly served as a psychologist to the astronauts of NASA.  In this strange twist of fate, Dr. Bellows has, in his retirement, moved from Cocoa Beach, Florida north to Michigan.  That probably has some of you thinking that the good doctor could use some psychiatric help himself, and we can all see from that odd hat on his head that he's a bit addled from his trip.  Don't fear for the newest member of our team, we'll provide him comfort and solace with plenty of outstanding brew.  Dr. Bellows will be serving as a 2 bar (30 psi) brite beer tank enabling SRM Beverage to carbonate our beer to new heights of bubbly goodness.

Gyle 24-01

Gonzo (Irish Stout).  

31 March 2024.  While March (and the last day of it, at that) is often a time for brewing Oktoberfest, particularly Märzen, today we brewed our second batch of Gonzo Irish Stout.

Our brew day was a mixed bag of good and... not so much (good).

Yesterday we installed a new Duda Diesel B3-36A 30 plate wort chiller, ran a water feed line for knockdown mounted to the wall so there is less to navigate on the floor, and moved the old, smaller Duda Diesel B3-12A 40 plate chiller to chilling the knockdown water before it gets to the wort chiller.  To cool the knockdown water, we've got the small chiller hooked up to our BrewBuilt Ice Master chiller and the water line before it gets to the wort chiller.  This worked like a champ!  Using about 45 gallons of water (a little more than 1/3 of what it took before) we're now taking 19 - 20 gallons from the boil kettle at 190° F to the fermenter at 60° F in 12 - 14 minutes.

Yesterday we also set up to capture spent grain in a trash barrel before it hits the wet / dry vacuum.  The goal here is to stop loading up the vacuum itself with mash and wort so cleaning the vacuum is easier.  While this was pulling the spent mash, it collapsed the trash can.  On the fly, we switched to a far more robust Fortiflex Large Capacity Plastic Bucket.  That meant making a new lid to hold the hoses (in and out).  With the Fortiflex bucket and OSB lid, this also works like a champ!

The down side to the brew day was that we didn't get the brew system, fermenter, and chiller completely set up, cleaned and sanitized the day before.  In finishing that off during the brew process we were a bit rushed for a while and let the second run mash get far too much strike water.  That, of course meant adjusting the mash time to compensate for temperature variation and running further behind on being able to mash out because we had to add more water to the hot liquor tank (HLT) and get the entire increased mash volume up to mash out temperature.

All said and done, we're looking forward to drinking this Gonzo Stout when we finish the last batch.

Gyle 23-03

Doolally (Munich Helles).  

22 August 2023.  We're starting to get back in the swing of brewing, although we'd intended to brew this, our second batch of Doolally, 2 weeks after Buggy.  Clearly, we're not keeping to much of a schedule.  We haven't run out of beer yet, though (HA!).

We've changed the style we consider Doolally to be in as well.  After a few questions from friends and considerable reflection, we decided that Munich Helles is a more appropriate categorization than pre-Prohibition lager.

Someday we'll probably do a lager that better fits in the pre-Prohibition style.

Gyle 23-02

Buggy (Bitter).  

30 July 2023.  It's been quite a while since we made Screwy, our strong bitter which got us thinking...  This time, we're going for a standard bitter and showcasing the signature nutty flavor or Marris Otter malt.  This should be a very easy drinking beer.

Gyle 23-01

Irre (Fest).  

21 May 2023.  SRM Beverage is proud to be collaborating with Loggers Brewing and Tenacity Brewing on a Fest beer.  We're looking forward to quaffing quite a few from each production site.

To the putz who tried tearing the SRM Beverage license plate off of our pickup truck:

Get a life, you loser. Seriously, what kind of saphead steals a novelty plate off someone else's vehicle?  And fails?  All you did was bend up the plate, partially tear off the front license plate mounting bracket, and royally offend us in the process, you schlub.  To add insult to injury, you could have removed the thing without damage in less time than it took to do the damage that you did.

If anyone would like SRM Beverage tchotchke, please just contact us.  We have a few things and might get more if there is interest.  We don't charge very much, if anything, over our cost.

Gyle 22-04

Gonzo (Irish Stout).  

28 May 2022.  This brew day went quite well and we've got a great start on a classic Irish Stout.  Here we're early in the transfer of the first batch to the boil kettle.

Gyle 22-03

Deranged (Bohemian Pilsner).  

14 May 2022.  We at SRM Beverage are delighted to be doing this beer in collaboration with Brewmaster Joe Pruss of Tenacity Brewing.  We're going for a highly drinkable lager with medium body made from an American Pilsner malt.  All of that protein in the hot break might make you wonder how the final product is going to turn out.  Don't worry, it didn't transfer to the fermenter.

Gyle 22-02

Verrückt (Maibock).  

13 March 2022.  Another back-to-back batch day.  Things were going so, so well... until they went totally sideways.  As the first batch was coming up to temperature the boil kettle stopped heating at about 183°F and the second mash stuck like it was speed-curing cement.  So, we got to work through those little challenges.  It made for a longer day, but all turned out well in the end.  Since we were running late anyway, we waited for the wort in the fermenter to cool down to 53°F before pitching yeast.  This one may not be ready for the first day of May, but it will be out by mid-month.

Gyle 22-01

Doolally (pre-Prohibition-style lager).  

08 January 2022.  Brewed back-to-back batches today.  This lager takes a little longer to brew since we're using the hochkurz mash method; this should yield a helles with enough body to set it apart from many light lagers.  Pitched yeast at quarter past 9 PM.  We should be able to ferment this one without a chiller or a warmer with the brew room holding 52 - 54° F; we'll keep a close eye on it and see.

Gyle 21-05

Barmy (Vienna lager).  

12 October 2021.  Brewed back-to-back batches today with final runoff complete at just under 12 hours.  We're very happy with the changes to the brewing cycle that an additional hose and a few connectors enabled us to work out.  Pitched yeast at just about 9 PM after brew house clean up and dropping the wort temperature further in the fermenter than the plate chiller could handle.  The new chiller is great to have.

Gyle 21-04

Screwy (Strong Bitter).

Brewed back-to-back batches of this 22 September 2021.  While the brew day did not go without trouble, including totally clogging the water flow through the chiller, brewing back-to-back is down to 14 1/2 hours.  Clean up is for the second shift folks, right?  (ha-ha)

This is an SRM Beverage original and our first shot at the style of strong bitter.  We'll see how it goes and decide if this stays as a standard, we change the recipe, or keep this and add another in the category.

Bob Newhart on set (28 July 2021)

Inspired by Loggers Brewing Company naming their fermenters for characters rather than just numbering them, and in keeping with being Stark Raving Mad, our fermenters are called after psychiatrists and psychologists.  Today we welcome (Dr.) Bob Hartley (played by Newhart) to the set of SRM Beverage.  Here we see that Bob still needs to unpack.

Gyle 21-03

Mad Hatter (Sweet Stout).

Brewed back-to-back batches 24 June 2021.  Actually wrapped up before going into the next day.  It was great doing a stout this time.  This smelled delicious as a mash and was wonderful at boil with the addition of the hops.  The proof will be coming in a few weeks.

Wine on Our Minds

Finally got the first two wines far enough along to try.  While not really what we are after long term, both the red and the white are drinkable as entry-level house wines, so we'll be filtering and kegging shortly.  No cool names since they won't be kept around for the long haul.  On to different selections for the next batch.

Gyle 21-02

Barmy (Vienna lager).  

15 June 2021.  Into lagering at 4.46% ABV this run.  We're looking to tweak the boil and fermentation next time to see if we get a slight increase in efficiency for a small bump in ABV yet keep the flavor and mouthfeel.

Brewed back-to-back batches the 18th and into the 19th of May, 2021.  Pitched yeast at just about 3 AM, 19th May.

New System

Brewing on the new Spike Trio with the Spike CF30 fermenter (aka Sidney Freedman) ready to be filled in the foreground.  The top ports on the fermenter aren't clamped yet on purpose.

New Brewhaus Delivered

The new system (pictured arriving below) from Spike Brewing gets us to the 1/2 BBL per brew cycle that we really want and provides more automated control.

We really enjoyed working on the SABCO V350 over the years, but decided that we wanted to be able to net 1/2 BBL (15.5 gallons) per brew cycle at the end of fermentation and couldn't make that work on the V350.

New Digs

Having made it work for the first brew, we're moving in to the long-term space for our brewing and wine making.  This is a much nicer workspace and we're not done with it yet.

This SABCO V350 that we started SRM Beverage with is dear due to its history.  It began its service at Tenacity Brewing in Flint, MI with Joe Pruss, then moved to BrewPastor Jeff Coon before coming to SRM Beverage.  Even taking credit for "helping" BrewPastor Jeff, we didn't make or even help make much of the beer produced on it.  We did enjoy the beer we drank that was made on it.  (Yes, "helping" does sometimes mean standing around drinking while Jeff made the beer.)

Gyle 21-01

This is the first batch of our Vienna lager (now known as Barmy).  Brewed the 16th and into the 17th of February, 2021, into in the fermenter in the wee hours of the morning on the 17th.  As mentioned in the 2021 Production Plan, this is on the light side of the Brewers Association Style Guide.  Gyle 21 fermented well, and quickly although that was to be expected given that we let the temperature rise a little quickly.  With this batch going into lagering we'll call the ABV at 4.59%.  This is a little lower than targeted, but solidly within what we want - a totally drinkable, even crushable year-round lager.

It's Not so Unusual

The first brew day for SRM Beverage was, like the first for so many other breweries and home brewers, an exercise in making it work with what you've got... for space, for equipment, and for time.