CORAZON CERVEZA ARTESENAL

Dear Miller Lite,

I am writing this letter to inform you that I have moved on from our long and hazy relationship.  I appreciate all the happy times that we shared over the passed 13 years or so, but I have to be honest with my “Corazon”.

A little over a year ago I met someone very special that showed me the true meaning of hoppiness.  Her name is IPA.  Now don’t hold it against her!  Her enticing body and aroma were too much for me to deny.  So I did it!  I let her touch my lips for the first time, and it was over.

From then on I started to appreciate others.  There was a Russian named Imperial Stout, an Irish named Red, an American name Pale Ale, etc, etc, etc.  They all showed me a world of flavor and craftiness that your “triple-hopped” attitude could never allow you to show me.  Even with all the fame and fortune that you offered, I never felt that you were giving me your all.  You were too busy getting your logo everywhere-from knitting forums to jousting tournaments-that it left no time for me and my palette.  I needed quality, not quantity!

I know you’re successful and millions of people love you so I know you will get through this quickly and painlessly, but know this you’ll never find another beer belly like this!  Adios! (until the next hot ass day when I need a glass of water)

Salud!

LOS

A few weeks ago, Los and I decided to stop by Moonshine to check out what the beers are tasting like nowadays. It had been a while since we stopped in and, honestly, up until that point we were not huge fans of their beer.

We pulled into the “compact car only” parking space with the Envoy right in front of the brew house doors. I walked over to check out what kind of equipment they were working with, and sitting on the stairs leading to the mash and brew kettle, was what appeared to be a Moonshine employee. He noticed our interest and waived us in. 

JD, the new brew master at Moonshine was easy to talk to from the get go. He told us about how he is running the show now and making an effort to establish Moonshine’s rep as a destination for craft beer seekers in the Chi.  JD completed the Master Brewer program at Siebel, worked as an assistant brewer at Moonshine for two years, then got the keys to the castle. 

JD was most generous and gave Los and I samples of everything they had to offer at the time. All of the beers were pretty solid.  Los downed a good amount of their “Able Danger” IPA, and I was really impressed with their “Brass Monkey”, a strong Belgian ale brewed with a moderate amount of Agave nectar.

After shootin’ the shit and talking to JD about Corazon, we exchanged info and let him know we would be down to assist on a brew session if he ever needs a couple o’ lackeys to clean stuff.  After some persistent nagging on my part we got the invite to get in on a brew session.

On brew day we set out to make a 10 barrel batch of Moonshine’s White Belgian Ale called “White Lightning”.  JD had me set up the grains and dump them in the mill when it was time to begin the mash. 

The grain mill is outside of the actual building in a cargo box. The grains get fed directly into the mash tun using some cool mechanics that I can’t fully explain right now. 

My job was to keep a constant flow of grains going into the mash. Yeah…pretty easy…but hey, after dumping nine 50 pound bags I got a decent work out in. 

Once the grains had all been fed and there was a satisfactory amount of water in the mash, we let it sit for about 40 minutes and started running grants into the boil kettle. Never heard of a grant?  Me neither until I saw it in action.  Its basically a 10 gallon pot that is connected to the mash tun.  It fills up in time intervals that the brewer controls by using a butterfly valve. When the grant is full it either re-circulates back into the mash or makes its way over to the brew kettle. This nifty little video below pretty much shows the sparging process. 

When the sparge was done its time to start boiling. 

Look at that nice frothy head! After an addition of Saaz hops the air filled with a great spicy hop aroma.

While the boil is doing its thing it was time for me to clean out the mash tun. 

Los and Johnny got here right in time to help haul the grains out.  We had a impressive assembly line of grain disposal going.  JD must have really loved the fact that we were there at that point. 

Yes! Time to hop in the tun and scrub her down. Well…that was fun.  Now back to the brew.

We boiled for an hour and then it was time to transfer into a fermenter. 

Fermenter number 3 was the lucky vessel we selected to fill that day. The Moonshine brewhouse consists of four 15 barrel fermenters. 

Wort in a real brewery travels through thick ass hardcore hoses, I got some practice in on putting some together. 

These guys are actually a lot tougher to assemble than it looks. It took me a while to get the hang of closing the C clamp on it, but I got it eventually. Thanks for the patience JD.

Every system has some level of ghetto rigging going on I imagine, this brick here helped out in making sure cold water was flowing properly into the wort chiller. 

Once all the wort and yeast is in there its time to close it up and let the yeast do its thing. One major difference when transferring wort into the fermenter is that you have to make sure it is at the right temp when it goes in.  In homebrewing, we can adjust the flow through our therminator until we get the right temp then pitch the yeast on top. In the big boy system, the yeast is already at the bottom of the fermenter, so the wort has to be at the right temp before it can make contact with the yeast. 

JD in his domain.

After every thing was said and done we chilled with JD and drank some more beer. On top of learning a ton from brewing at Moonshine we also had a blast.  We have actually gone back and brewed again with JD and hope to keep going to gain as much experience as we can from brewing on their system. When it comes down to it…its pretty much the same homebrew process, except on a way larger scale with fancier toys.

If you get a chance to stop in to Moonshine we recommend that you do.  You wont be let down by what their pouring. 

Salud!

A-Dro