Every Good Brewery Needs A...

I dont know what most people think about when they drink a good micro but I think what did the brewery use to keep the beer at the right fermenting temp. I know you're thinking what is he talking about. Well I am lucky in the fact that I work on pretty much all the microbrewery chillers here in Atlanta. It really is behind the beer. Without that chiller pumping out 17 degree water the beer we drink and love wouldnt taste the same. I love going to Atlanta Brewing and doing work on their chiller. Dave the head brewer will be in about the last stages of his boil wanting that 17 degree water to help cool down that wort going though his large heat exchanger on its way to fermenter 1 thru 7. People really have no idea of the amount of labor required to make a barrel of beer. By labor I mean 1. Loading (on average) ten 55LB sacks of grain to the malt mill. 2. Stirring that 550LBs of grain in the mash tun with lots of hot water from the hot liquior tanks, (have you ever stirred up sack-crete with a shovel for an hr straight?). 3. Now you think well its got to be winding down but you have to sparge that grain with more hot water. 4. Dave will then transfer his sweet wort over to the new sparkling brew kettle and boil that wort for an hour or so.(when that big kettle is running you would swear the devil is right behind you breathing on your neck, its hot as hell) 5. This is were my baby (the chiller) starts showing her stuff, by pumping out cold water chilling the hellish hot wort. 6. The beer is cooled off and transfered to a fermenter were little micro organism are ready to go to work. (YEAST). 7. Wow your still not finished because you have to shovel out wet heavy grain from the mash tun. 8. By now Dave starts to yell for me to come up to the front of the brewery so we can drink some beer. Wow ten hours just flew by, were does the time go.