Here’s an action shot…I Can’t wait to add grain to the mix…

agitator.avi

Also, the Austin American Statesman got wind of (512) Brewing Company and the Beer Expert, Patrick Beach wrote an article in Wednesday’s paper (and online)…thanks Patrick!

http://www.austin360.com/food_drink/content/food_drink/stories/2008/05/0507beer.html

Now it’s time to brew….I won’t say when, but soon!!!

It’s been a crazy few weeks completing the remaing tasks and working through all the inspections. Next up is some test brewing, insulating, cleaning, and final preps for the first brew, which is just around the corner….

In the meantime, some cool marketing wares are in the house. The glasses are in and here’s a sneak preview of a prototype tap handle. I can’t wait to see the (512) ales in our very own pint glasses. It’s only a matter of time now and (512) will be off and running…

Thanks to the tour of Austin breweries a few weeks back organized by Blue Star Brewing Company, where (512) was added as a surprise stop, an article was recently published in the San Antonio Express News detailing our plans. Travis Polling, a business writer for the paper and beer blogger who obviously has a real appreciation for beer, wrote an exciting article about the TX beer scene. Check it out and check out his blog! 

http://www.mysanantonio.com/salife/food/stories/MYSA032608.06Q.BeerColumn.1a9e9fc.html

 http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/beer/

 Looks like this year should exciting for beer lovers in TX and I’m truly excited to be a part of it.  Thanks, Travis and Thanks to Blue Star Brewing Company for counting me in!

We moved the (512) kegs from storage to the brewery floor in preparation for the first batch of beer! Not sure date for the first brew day yet and I’ve stopped trying to predict it. I’m just keeping my nose to the grindstone….

First Brewery Tour

I had my first group of guests visit the brewery (although I hesistate to call it a brewery until grain hits water!) last Saturday. Blue Star Brewing Company hosted a tour of some Austin breweries and surprised everyone with a quick stop to see my progress. I enjoyed their questions and sharing my experiences so far. One guy said “hey don’t forget about us down in (210)!” I told him San Antonio’s local to me and that I’d be down there as soon as I can. Hey, when I lived down there it was (512)…more progress coming soon.

Check out Travis Poling BEER BLOG on MySanAntonio.com!!!

With some minor modifcations to the grist case stand and some tweaking to get the case to fit snugly, she’s upright and ready to hold as much as 2500 lbs of grain!!!! To keep the process of milling the grain separated from the time critical process of mashing-in, the grist case is filled with milled grain before brewing begins.

Thanks to some new friends that helped out this last week and my neighbor/welder who keeps stepping up to help!

All the while, we’ve cut big holes in the walls to vent the chiller and hung the evaporators and fan units in the cold room!

The biggest project still remains all the connections and safety items for the boiler. It’s finally coming along nicely!…Here are a few more boiler steam piping photos…

One of the last big items to finish before the first brew day has been started! The boiler connections are underway.  The boiler will provide steam to jackets that surround the mash tun and kettle and will be used to heat an boil. This includes very cool air actuated valves that will meter the steam inlets and steam traps at the outlets…

We also just cut in the water softener for the boiler water and the water filter that will only remove any sediment and chlorine from the brew water, leaving all those great minerals and salts in for the beer.

 A couple more weeks and we should be ready to fire everything up!

Also, stay on the lookout for the launch of our website in the next few days and be sure to get on out mailing list to know exactly when and where the beers will debut!

http://www.512brewing.com

The grist case is ready to flip and place in its newly formed stand. This stainless steel hopper will be used to store the freshly milled grain just before brew day. My neighbor is an amazing metal fabricator and he whipped out this stand today! I can’t wait to see it filled with 2000 pounds of cracked malted barley….

We’ve also been busy running the chiller piping to the fermenters and cold liquor tank. This pipe will run chilled propylene glycol to the tank jackets enabling fine tuned temperature control over the contents during fermentation.

On top of all this, the logo on the wall is finished….looking good! 

A very tuned in friend of mine forwarded this link. It speaks volumes and I’ll let it do so on its own…

 http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=7

I’m especially affected by the consumption data presented in this art and it reminds me that we intend to reduce the energy and material usage to make beer the best we can moving forward. We’ll do so by charting the overall energy and material used per keg of beer and hopefully we can all watch the numbers drop as we make headway…..

More equipment has arrived - and nearly the last pieces of this brewing puzzle: The grain mill and auger . 

Whole grains are fed into the mill to be carefully cracked by the rollers.

The cracked grains are sent above and into the mash tun using the auger.

It’s been a busy few weeks at (512) Brewing Company and we’re steadily getting closer to being ready to brew the first batch. With some luck, we’ll be brewing in only a few weeks!?!  The brewery is really coming together with so much help from so many good people…

We’ve even started the logo on the wall:

The office just needs paint and the plumbing fixtures are going in…

 All the required water, electrical and steam piping is going in and the chiller’s on site and ready to go - it just needs to be plumbed to the fermentation tanks and cold liquor tank. Luckily it was a breeze unloading it from the truck!

I figure, the earlier Zach gets his feet wet around the brewery, the better!!