Well, May has been a productive month for us! We’ve actually found some time to brew between all these beer competitions… Right now we’ve got full tanks of Head Hunter IPA, Bumble Berry Honey Blueberry Ale, Sorcerer Belgian Dark Strong, Gudenhoppy Pils, Goggle Fogger Hefeweizen, and a new session IPA called Sunshine Daydream.
Tomorrow, we’re receiving 600 kegs as well as our first shipment of bulk grain. That’s 50,000 pounds of barley!
A few more things need to be taken care of and we’ll have kegs available by the end of May. Kegging our beer will be the initial priority, but bottles will follow. Start keeping an eye out for Fat Head’s beers at your favorite beer bars in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania!
May brought along the World Beer Cup in San Diego, CA, as well as the International Beer Fest in Cleveland, OH. We were excited to do well in both competitions, bringing home seven medals in total.
The World Beer Cup is the world’s premier beer competition. Almost 4,000 beers were entered from 799 breweries located in 54 countries! Our Head Hunter IPA received the silver medal in the American-Style India Pale Ale category which is by far the most competitive category with 150 entries. Battle Axe Baltic Porter also won a silver medal. These beers are on a role as they both won medals in last year’s Great American Beer Festival!
This past weekend, the International Beer Fest brought us five more medals with golds going to Head Hunter IPA, Hop Juju Imperial IPA, and Kohlminator Smoked Bock. Zeus Juice, a Belgian Pale Strong Ale, won a silver, and Battle Axe Baltic Porter won bronze.
Thanks to everyone who came out and enjoyed our brews at these festivals!
We’re just a few weeks or so from being able to fire up the brewhouse! Last week we received two 80bbl fermenters and two 100bbl brite tanks. (The brite tanks hold the beer before we bottle or keg it) A few more tanks should be showing up soon. Our once large space is starting to look smaller and smaller… We also installed the grist case above the mash tun which will hold all the milled grains right before they enter the mash tun.
Brite tanks
new cooler door
These white PVC tubes will transport crushed grain using an auger.
Bad ass forklift!
Fresh coat of paint for the grain room.
The hopper on the right will funnel specialty grains into the mill and the silo on the left will hold and weigh bulk malt.
Welding the brewhouse deck back together.
Putting insulation on our 90bbl fermentor’s glycol piping.
Our IPA has won the Brewing News National IPA Challenge for the second time in three years! We’re honored to be considered the best of this years 128 entries. Thanks to all our loyal fans who keep our brewery afloat! You can see the final bracket here.
Pre-mashing system from BrauKon
Steam and water plumbing.
Refrigerant systems being installed in the cooler.
A big roll up door being installed in the grain room.
The heat exchanger is in the foreground to the left.
Matt installing a fermenter door.
Chris working on our 90bbl fermenter.
This will house a touch screen computer that will automate a lot of the brewing processes.
