Great article about a new brewery in Baldwin County. It also talks about some upstart Yellowhammer brewery helping the guy out
You would think the guy would have some coveralls and a classier hat.
Nice little article, good luck to them.
I don’t think it gets as cold down there, doesn’t need the ear flaps 8)
I’m coming down to visit sometime in spring, maybe as early as March. Maybe I’ll bring him a hat.
Clearly the success lies beneath the hat. 
Nice story and great PR Keith.
Very good Keith, congrats.
sounds like good karma keith, way to go man! 
More proof that craft brewers are the best people on the planet.
We’ll be there in April so I’m looking forward to getting across the bay and maybe meeting him.
Totally cool when hard work and skill in brewing pays off. Sounds like too much work and responsibility for me! ;D
Wait … when does it pay off again???
Maybe never. :
Nice article and interesting dilemma he faces. How many of us would take the plunge rather than a secure livelihood. Noticeably all ales and no lagers yet - refrigeration costs must make it cost prohibitive at this point for them?
Lagers take 2-3 times as long to turn around for consumption and tie up tanks that could be producing quicker turning ales.
Yeah, I think 90% of small craft breweries across teh country make ales over lagers. Nothing to do with cost of refrigeration, my glycol unit can easily handle the temps, it’s the time factor and the larger expense on yeast.
We plan on doing lagers eventually but right now I use a German ale yeast for my “lagerish” beers.
But if you are making “lagerish” ales, don’t you still have to bulk age them? Maybe you are quicker with the ales, but I turn my 10 gallon batches of lagers about 6 - 8 weeks grain to glass and rotate between 2 strains of German lager yeast. Admittedly I only do 10 gallons per fermenter and have 3 fermenters going at a time, but it pretty much works with one lager chest held at 47-51F. Especially in the winter - I pull the beer after 3-4 weeks and leave it at ambient temps in my garage (near freezing). Gelatin can fine it if a particular batch isn’t clearing as quickly as hoped.
Not that I have anything against a good ale…I squeezed in a five gallon batch of oatmeal stout 2 weeks ago for St. Paddy’s day and make English Milds all the time, too, using swamp coolers in my basement to keep the temps down.
No. Cold crash to 38 for 3-5 days, bright in BBT for about 3 days. That’s standard for all my ales. But I have been telling people that some of the extra aging we do on ales and lagers is a waste of time for years before I started my brewery. It’s just not often needed.
I’m sure storage space is also a consideration for a start-up. Who has room to store 40 or 50 kegs for a month.
Plus, in my case the distributor keeps beer in their cold room for up to 6 months before it gets delivered to accounts. No need for long bulk aging.
There’s your lagering phase!