I can't say that I
wasn't looking forward to my second day with Paul and the other guys
at Anspach & Hobday.
Inspired by my brew
day, I brewed a small batch of Porter. With limited resources I could
only make a 5 litre batch but think it went well. It tasted right,
had that strong malty, toasty smell associated with porters and
stouts and an appropriate original gravity however I would have liked
it a little higher so I could get a beer of around 6.5%. Fingers
crossed it turns out well, I even hopped it using Fuggles that I'd
been given by Paul on one of my brew days. A traditional hop variety
used in lots of British ales including Porters.
When I walked through
the doors minutes after 9.30 am, they already had a brew on. Paul and
another helper, a good fellow named Jamie were in the process of
adding the malts to the hot liquor.
My first task of the
day was to stack a palette load of beer boxes on top of another
palette of beer. Looking at the existing stack, I wondered how it
would be possible to basically increase the entire stacks height by
more than double. It was simple and easy to picture but would it
hold, would it be stable. Could the whole load of more than 1000
bottles stack on top of another 1000 bottles suddenly come crashing
down, possibly on some poor unsuspecting sod.
There are various games
that resembled this, a 'tumbling tower' kind of game. Instead of
small, rectangular shaped blocks of wood there were 24 bottle boxes
full of delicious Pale Ale that I'd had the pleasure of helping to
fill and cap the other day. Only with this game the goal was to stack
the beer as high as possible without removing any of the lower ones,
hoping that the whole stack doesn't come down on you as you do so.
I wasn't going to
mention specifics but I think for the benefit of humanity it would be
wise. A diagram would best help describe it but I'll try my hardest
to illustrate it with words. Who knows, maybe one day a drawing might
follow.
So...
The bottom layer,
directly on the palette or using a sheet of card of plastic if you
have it, arrange the boxes in this manner:
- 2 rows of 3 boxes length ways across the palette, that is the longest edge of the box.
- 1 row of 4 boxes width ways across the palette, leaving roughly a 2 inch gap between the middle two boxes.
- Repeat the process on the next level but swapping the sets over to the opposite side of the stack.
- Do this alternately until you have a stack 5 boxes high. You could possibly go higher but I would start to question the structural integrity of the boxes.
This way of stacking
boxes on a palette best distributes the weight making for a most
stable stack as possible.
Graham laid the
foundations for this the other day when he tried to explain to me how
to stack the pile in the first place, I only took this further and
lifted it to the stars.
Like Gaudi, I stepped
back to admire my masterpiece, an engineering marvel. Only I didn't
get run mowed down by a tram or whatever.
After taking some time
to appreciate what I'd done, we got on with brewing the beer. A
Porter. Anspach & Hobday do an inspiring Porter, so much so that
I already mention that I brewed my first the the other day. After my
experience here. I was doing my bit in making a beer I drink and
admire so much. I even bought my brother a bottle to take out to him
in Australia.
I was amazed at the
amount of hops used during the whole Porter brewing process. Albeit
the varieties used are low in Alpha Acid (the chemical that creates
the bittering in beer) and not too aromatic, especially when used
early on in the boil. This gave me an idea to add more hops to mine,
dry hop it as it were, maybe with something like Cascade, not too
strong but enough to give a distinct hop aroma to such a malty beer.
Not bottling today,
brewing and then moving lots of stuff. Completely rearranging the
brewery for the Friday Bar Evening. I think it's open from 5-9pm and
is a relatively new thing but something I think is great. Lucky
bastards who live or work nearby.
We all pitched in to
move stuff and set up benches. All the time with my double stack
standing there, graceful and proud, firm and as solid as the
foundation stones to St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
A couple of guys from
the 'Bottle Shop' around the corner helped us out meaning the task
was completely as efficiently and quickly as possible, when we were
all done we sat down with some beer.
Everybody in the beer
trades recent obsession with Brett (Brettanomyces) has got me
interested, sampling some American beer packed full of the stuff but
still young enough to retain some of its sweetness. Thanks Mr Bottle
Shop man for that introduction and explanation about all things
Brett.
The conversation at the
table continued much like that until a few people left. They were
replaced and I was briefly entertained by a bunch of drunk Scot's.
One loved craft beer or all sorts, another loved pales and the other
liked to drink piss weak and flavourless lager so I was very
surprised and impressed when he ordered a Peated Gose. But he didn't
finish it.
I said farewell and
took my leave. I will return again one day, when I'm back from
Australia.
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