Yup, another brewery visit.

Our new "module" of class began this week, and we find ourselves focusing on the nuances of packaging and process technology. We've touched on everything from inspection technology on a bottling line to the materials used in brewery piping and insulation systems, to something called a Kerr Torquometer that measures whether screw-top bottles are appropriately closed when they leave the brewery. Recognizing that these types of technologies are better discussed and understood in person rather than in a classroom, our instructors led us over to the Goose Island Beer Co. production facility to see a major packaging brewery in action. And to have some beer, of course.

I mentioned Goose Island in my post about medal winners at the GABF. Between their two brewpubs (one of which is right across from school and gives us the equivalent of a "pro deal" in the craft brew world) and the production brewery, they are the brewery most closely aligned with the city of Chicago. They make a number of really excellent beers, and their higher end "Fulton" beers get better and better with each new release.

Since my last post detailed the progress of a typical brewery tour, I'll just mention some of the highights: tastes of uncarbonated Bourbon County Stout directly from a bourbon barrel and a little bit of Red Woody, the silver-medal award winning sour ale from the GABF that is extremely rare; an introduction to the computer software that Goose Island uses to manage the brewhouse; a visit to the lab and a chance to talk with their lead microbiologist about the new toys he has; and watching the shift crew clean out the diatomaceous earth filter right at our feet. Beyond those moments, though, there was something oddly nerve-wracking at work.

Having been to Flossmoor Station only two days previous, I found this brewery to be a study in contrasts. Other than New Belgium (where the tour generally eschews brewhouse technology in favor of anecdotes and praise for the company's green initiatives), this was the largest brewery I have ever visited. Goose Island's brewery produces 8 brews daily, fills 215 bottles per minute, and operates 24/7 about 360 days a year. The forklifts cruised past us carrying pallet after pallet of beer to the refrigerator. Now, compared to the really big players in the industry, this is still relatively small scale, but it is far larger than most American craft breweries ever get--they are the third largest craft brewery in the Midwest and a member of the Craft Brewers Alliance, a company controlled in part by Annheuser-Busch. The effect was intimidating, and I found myself awed by everything from the 5000+ sq. ft. cold storage, where no beer stays for more than three days, and all of the "big brewery" technology, like centrifuges and alcoholizers, that had existed only on the pages of brewing textbooks. I didn't know what half the pipes and hoses were for.

Earlier this summer, shortly after Danny, Jason and I finally committed that, yes, we were in fact going to move forward on starting our brewery, we passed by the main Widmer Bros. brewhouse in north Portland. It, like Goose Island, is massive. We joked, not completely facetiously, that we would one day have a place that size. Danny, Jason--I now realize that for that to come true, we'll all have to learn to drive (and probably maintenance) a forklift.