June 2011

I'll admit, it felt a little insane at Piney River Brewing Company last Saturday. After moving in the fermentation vessels and bright tank, parts of the brewery looked like an explosion had happened.  We had to relocate tables, kegs and other miscellaneous items.  We needed to sweep the floor and do some rearranging (this will happen several times over the upcoming weeks, I'm sure).  Brian and I ate a hearty breakfast and hit the brewery by 10 a.m., cleaning and moving like mad folks.  We readied our slightly primitive bathroom--electricity, flushing toilet and hand sanitizer.  There was beer to taste…

It's late, and the day job will come around real soon, but here's the photo that Brian e-mailed to me this afternoon-- That's a 15-barrel fermentation vessel and a 15-barrel bright tank headed to the BARn. Brian's buddy, Jamie Smith, helped out in the whole process of unloading the equipment and putting it into the brewery.  Thank goodness.  Unlike many of the things we've done in the process of building a brewery, this was not just a two-person job. Moving the bright tank into the brewery. The fermentation vessel unloading and setting up were a little more heartstopping because they…

"So what does it take to build a brewery?" you might ask. We've built a nanobrewery.  Now we are officially on the road to building our microbrewery by purchasing the equipment to brew 210 gallons at a time instead of 10 gallons at a time.  In the past couple of weeks, we've taken shopping to a whole new level. Meet the newest members of our family.... There are two fermentation vessels and one bright tank, delivered to Brian's manufacturing company last week.  We're hoping to bring these babies home to the BARn later this week. Brian ordered a chiller today,…

I heard a story today about a Dallas Maverick player that tattooed the NBA Championship Trophy on his body before the season this year because he believed that much that he was going to be a recipient of that trophy at the end of the season.  We haven’t tattooed our logo on our bodies, but we have the same passion for creating craft beer in the Ozarks. Here it is late on Monday night, and I’m downloading photos and blogging while Brian brews up batches of McKinney Eddy Amber Ale and Missouri Mule IPA.  Both things HAVE to be done.…