I started brewing quite by accident. In 1989 I bought a Cooper’s Stout “kit” from Ernie’s Liquors in Los Gatos. The kit consists of a can of malt extract, and a packet of yeast (you have to buy the equipment). Ernie’s was a great liquor store, with two doors in the fridge dedicated to imports. In those days micro breweries were in their infancy. I think Pete’s Wicked Ale (in the purple bottle) was the only one available. Sierra Nevada and Red Tale soon followed.
My first brewing book was the classic “The Complete Joy of Homebrewing” by Charlie Papazian. In the beginning home brewers start with malt extract, and the biggest stock pot they can find (usually undersized). Unfortunately beer brewed from malt extract provides little control over the final product. It’s not bad beer, but it’s difficult to brew to style, particularly lighter beers as the malt extract becomes caramelized as it’s condensed from the “mash”.
By 1993 I had acquired a pair of converted 15 gallon beer kegs, and a Camp Chef dual burner stove. At this point I was able to start brewing beer from the raw ingredients, known as “all grain” brewing. In this process, malted grain is converted from starch to sugar by enzymes created during the malting process. This is accomplished by first milling the grain, and heating it in a bath of water to 158 degrees. In about an hour, this white cloudy mixture becomes translucent and light brown in color, and sweet. At this point the sugary mash is drained, and the sticky grains rinsed with hot water in a process known as “sparging”.
The mash and sparge are collected and brought to a boil, known as “wort”. In addition to killing any bacteria, a boil of at least 30 minutes (usually 60-90 minutes) is required to allow the bittering compounds in the hops flower to become soluable in water. Hops added at the beginning of the boil contribute to the bitter flavor in the beer (known as “bittering hops”), and hops added toward the end of the boil (“flavoring hops”) contribute to the aromatics. The flavoring hops are required because the aromatics of the bittering hops are boiled off. When finished, the mixture should be rapidly cooled using a heat exchanger known as a “wort chiller”
Once the wort cools down to about 70 degrees, yeast is “pitched” into the mixture and fermentation begins within a few hours. In 5-10 days, fermentation is complete and the beer can be carbonated and packaged into bottles or kegs. Most styles of beer are ready to drink within a month of brewing, with some of the hoppier beers, and/or those with high alcohol are aged for some months before they are mature.
By 2000, I had become so obsessed with this hobby, that I built a 45 gallon brewery, and had amassed several 5 gallon beer kegs, and other equipment, able to brew and store up to the legal limit of 200 gallons per year. I have had several beer brewing partners over the years, joined a few local home brew clubs including as a founding member of the Silicon Valley Sudzers. I have made many friends, local and abroad as the result of regional and state home brew festivals and competitions. I have also provided consulting services to The Boulder Creek Brewery, doubling their capacity, keeping equipment operational, and even filling in for the brewers on a couple of occasions.
This is just a brief description of the brewing process, and the key is that this is simply a process. Any variance in the process, even a delay of a few minutes or the proportion of ingredients, results in a different product. Because of this need for process control, brewing lends itself to be automated. This can be challenging due to the many different processes required from beginning to end, as well as the temperatures and sticky liquids.
While brewing is clearly a passion for me, I have been on hiatus due to the lack of time required to be an active brewer. The brewing process takes about 8 hours, and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been unwilling to dedicate my weekends to this hobby. Additional time is required to manage the beer through fermentation and packaging. For a single batch of beer, be it 5 gallons or 50, 12 or more hours may be required. At the end of the day, most of the process is work, and it can be hard work with a lot of lifting and bending required.
For all of these reasons, my technical expertise, and just being a geek, it’s been a dream of mine to build a fully automated brewery. To me, the magic in brewing is creating and perfecting the recipe. To sample a beer and tweak one or more aspects with ultimate precision, to perfect the perfect recipe. A think lots of people who may have never brewed before, would enjoy the ability to brew great beer without the time commitment, or the learning curve required to get to an intermediate or expert level. Again a “fully” automated brewery can provide this ability to the novice.