Well, it's been about five weeks since I turned pro. The first week was just overwhelming -- talk about too much information. From the second week, I was put on "hyper-training," because the boss was going to the Craft Brewers Conference in Boston and I had to be ready to brew by the 20th. Super stress every day. But in the end, I managed to brew three batches during the week he was gone, two on our 250-liter system and one on the 1000-liter system. Since then, I've been doing everything at an accelerated training pace, and the past three days I brewed up three batches, plus assisted in transferring and packaging another couple of batches -- not to mention the cleaning. I'm brewing again tomorrow (Sunday) and probably three or four more times during the week. My level right now? Stress is down to 20%, confidence is up to 80%, competence up to 90%, and the beers I've made have all been fantastic (if I don't say so myself
). I still haven't started designing our recipes, but that will be coming over the coming few months.Things that surprise/intrigue me so far:1. We pitch as much yeast as most homebrewers brew in a batch -- 20 liters for a big batch (big batch = 1000 liters, around 8 barrels).-- 1a. We throw away more yeast from one batch than any of you brew in a month. Today I threw out around 10 liters on top of the 20 or so that I threw away two days ago. Tomorrow, another 10 liters or so will go down the drain, and there was probably some more taken out on about day four. For a single batch, we throw away between 50-80 liters, generally, and for a double batch we can brew two or three beers and still have 50 liters left over.-- 1b. Even though it's the same yeast, it tastes completely different (yes, we taste the yeast every time we harvest or pull for throwing away) depending on the beer it comes from.2. Glycol is the bomb!3. Dry hopping for only 4-5 days, much less than most homebrewers do, I think.4. I actually like bottling -- and kegging.5. Hop diving at the end of the boil is hot, sweaty and sticky, and it's my favorite "dirty job." To hop dive, we have to climb into the kettle and pull out all the whole hops (no pellets for us) by hand. 6. There's a lot more -- and I do mean A LOT MORE -- to brewing than manning the brewhouse. And it's all part of being a brewer. Everyone always says to be prepared for a lot of cleaning, but cleaning (including sanitizing) is really only part of what goes on "behind the brewhouse."7. Adding hops is even more fun than when I was brewing at home. When I made our Black IPA a few days ago, I added "only" around 200 grams for three additions and only 150 grams for the knockout addition, and I felt somehow cheated that I couldn't add more.8. Being able to dump water/cleaner/sanitizer on the floor is just too convenient. The only thing we take pains not to spill on the floor is yeast, mainly because if it dries before we can clean it up, it becomes like concrete.9. Whole hops are filthy creatures! We break up the hops for our whirlpool and dry hop additions to expose the oils more, and by the time I'm done, my hands aren't only green, they're black too!I'm sure there are more, but right now those are the ones that come to mind. As I gain experience and confidence, the job becomes more and more enjoyable. The pressure is still there to perform every freakin' day, but the stress is waaaaaaaaay down. Even after 20+ years of being a lazy-ass English teacher, doing physical labor six days a week is somehow refreshing and wonderful.
