Julian Brewing Company Brew Day

My brother Bryce was offered the assistant brewer position a few months ago and has brewed several batches on the Julian Brewing Company's 3 barrel brewing system in Julian, California.  Bryce calls me all the time to talk about what he's doing and I've stopped in several times to sample the house ales - and they never disappoint.  Bryce brews under the tutelage of Mike Gabbard of Pizza Port.

Bryce and I collaborated on the recipe over the last couple weeks of November and Bryce, Mike and I spent the day brewing a batch of Double IPA on December 1st.  Pale malt with a pinch of munich, caramalt, and white sugar made up the fermentables in this big beer that should have a light malt background with crisp dryness.  Warrior hops were used for bittering and Citra and Chinook hops were used in ample quantities for flavor and aroma addition.  I snapped a photo after our final hop addition - check out the green hop slime that coated the top of the boil kettle!

Photo: Bryce gets sacks of grain ready for the mill while I weigh out the munich and caramalt.

Photo: Bryce crushes the grain with the malt mill

 Photo: I'm mashing in (we used masks to avoid inhaling grain dust).

   

Photo: Bryce checks the temperature of the mash. We nailed it.

Photo: That's me monitoring the sparge.

Photo: Sparge arm distributes hot water on top of the grain bed.

 

Photo: I let Bryce do the hard work, like shoveling grain from the mash tun

Photo: Late in the boil, after adding four pounds of hops, the kettle looked like we were brewing green slime...

Photo: Julian Brewing Company's 3 barrel brewery