Tom was already there, and had set the boiler going..

This is the large Brew Kettle .. basically a very big water (or beer) boiler. At the moment it's full of water that is being heated to 190 degrees (F), but later on the beer will "cook" in there. 

This is the tank which will eventually hold this new batch of Black Corridor, and it's where the beer will ferment and become awesome.

A lot of setup is required before we begin. Here is a pile of plumbing that will be necessary to pump liquids between the various tanks.

Tom is already attaching some of the said plumbing. Most of the hot water will be transferred into the mash tun - which is where most of the ingredients are mixed into the hot water. The remainder of the water is pumped into some tanks up in the rafters, and will be used later.

But first, some of the hot water is circulated through this heat-exchanger to sterilize it. Later on, once the beer has finished cooking and is being transferred to the fermentation tank, it is run through this heat exchanger in order to be cooled down.

As Tom continues the setup downstairs, Lynne and I venture up-stairs to start fetching the grains. The super-secret recipe calls for specific amounts of several different types of grains and malts, and Lynne and I have to load everything into the grain hopper.

This is the grain hopper, into which all of the grain will be poured. The blue device at the base is an auger which pushes the grain down chute into the mash tun. Yes the hopper is home-made .. Tom and Lynne built most of the equipment by hand - they did a stunning job.

Here I am pouring a bag of grains into the hopper. The mask is necessary because of the dust.

Lynne is measuring the last few pounds of grain-X into a bucket in order to ensure we have the exact amount.

This is a CHOCOLATE stout after-all! The chocolate malt looked awesome. (I have been promised one of these grain bags for my basement :) ) 

As Lynne and I fill the grain hopper, Tom is filling the mash tun with the water from the boiler. You can see the silver grain chute obscuring Tom's right hand. No, it's not a dryer duct :)

Here is the grain hopper full of all the pretty (and lovely smelling) grains. The dark-brown stuff is the chocolate malt.

Proud of my work so far, I pause to check out the awesomeness of a hopper full of grains.

Lynne does the same .. of course she has a lot more to actually be proud of. She and Tom continue to work amazingly hard on this project, and it is really turning out to be something special.

As soon as Tom is ready downstairs, we fire up the auger and the grain starts flowing!

I'm having just too much fun taking care of the grains in the hopper - making sure everything goes smoothly.

As the auger turns, and the mash is mixed, the hopper slowly drains. This was quite spectacular to watch - the grains slowly disappear in a sort of slow-motion whirlpool. (I've been beyond the whirlpool!)

Meanwhile Tom continues to mix downstairs - never stopped stirring. The wonderful smells have already started to fill the air.

Even once the grain hopper is empty, Tom keeps mixing. It already has the rich, dark colour of an excellent stout - and did I mention it smelled great?!

Meanwhile Lynne and I start melting chocolate. Yes - actual melted chocolate goes into the mix! (Although it won't actually be mixed in until the boiler).

Tom is still mixing, but Lynne and I prepare the hops. The hops have a very strong smell - pretty much exactly like an IPA beer! We load up the required amount of hops into big bags (like tea-bags), which will be dropped into the boil. The hops actually disintegrate quite a bit in the hot water, which is why Tom and Lynne prefer to keep it all contained in these bags. 

With the mash sufficiently mixed, it's time to filter it out and pump it into the boiler. The mash tun is drained through a strainer, and you can see the suds which form ... It's tradition to dip ones finger into the suds, they taste delicious!

As the mash is nearly completely trained, additional hot water is flowed through the grains to help get every last bit of flavor out of them. This hot water flows down from the tanks in the rafters which we filled right at the start of the process. I had mentioned that Tom and Lynne put most of this brewery together by hand - well the mash tun was once a dairy tank, for storing milk! It required significant modifications in order to be suitable to this new task.

This is looking down into the brew-kettle (the boiler) as it slowly fills with liquid being pumped out of the mash tun.

As we wait for the kettle to fill, Lynne and I start to prepare the retail area. It's still about 5 hours until they officially open, but they never turn anyone away who shows up looking for carry-out. Tom and Lynne are amazingly friendly and welcoming, which is a part of their success.

Once the mash has drained, Lynne and I start the process of cleaning out the used grains.

Meanwhile Tom drops the bags of hops into the boil. The rising steam smelled SO SO SO good!

You can see the line which marked the top of the grains - that was full solid! It took a good 30 minutes to shovel everything out of there.

Once Lynne and I had finished, Tom took over for the final cleaning and sterilizing.

And Lynne and I took all the used grains over to the city compost heap. Sometimes Lynne takes these over to local farms to be used as feed. Those buckets were *heavy*, and the grains are still very hot (and steaming). Yes there is a tail-gate that is attached to the back of the trailer, we wouldn't want to drive off without that - oh no!

At the city compost center, we were able to dump the grains directly into the bull-dozer! You can see the steam rising ..

Once we returned we actually had a bit of a breather, a nice little rest while the beer "cooked". We took this opportunity to wash some of the plumbing fittings, and just sit for a minute ... because it was soon time to remove the hop bags. As amusing as this looks it is actually pretty tough .. Tom has to fish the bags out of liquid that is literally boiling, hence the gloves and heavy shirt.

But he never fails to find them!

With the hops removed, and the beer boiling, Tom starts to prepare to transfer it to the fermentation tank. He is routing an oxygen line, and in the foreground (the bottle with the white liquid in the bottom) is the yeast.

Pumping the beer from the boiler into the fermentation tank. The thick grey pipes are carrying the beer, and the thinner clear/white hoses carry cold water. The cold water cools the beer as it flows through the heat-exchanger. Tom is checking the temperature gauge, and making sure that just the right amount of oxygen is being added (it's tough to see, but there's a glass window which shows the bubbles). If the beer is too warm, then the yeast gets mad and doesn't do its job!

Pitching the yeast into the beer as it fills the fermentation tank!

Every time one of the hoses is disconnected, some beer spills. Checkout the awesome dark/stout colour!

With everything safely in the fermentation tank, it's time to clean the boiler. This takes over an hour, and includes Tom actually getting inside with a scrubbing brush.

As the beer ferments, and the yeast works its magic, the gases will come out of this tube and bubble up through the bucket of water. When I went back to F8 two days later, it was bubbling like mad. Very exciting!!

Cleaning continues .. hosing down the pump. We also pump clean hot water through everything to flush it all out.

With the beer in the fermentation tank, and at least half the cleaning done, it was time for a lunch break. Joel joined us for some food, and later some pinball too. It was about 3pm by this point, and we'd been on the go since 8:30.

Back to work again, and I'm cleaning out the hop bags.

This is what used, boiled hops looks like!

One of two piles of fittings for all the plumbing. It's important to stay on top of keeping this clean because it's 4pm now and the tasting room opens in an hour! We have to get this all cleaned and out of the way so that we have room to clean glasses and growlers.

Shortly before the tasting room officially opened, one of the regular customers arrived and let us try some of his own home-brew. It was delicious!

But we can't sit around drinking all day! People started to show up early, so we scrambled to turn the taps on and get ready to sell beer.

But not before I was able to taste the beer we just brewed! Of course it's not even close to done yet (no alcohol, no carbonation, etc), but damn it was good!

Then the people came .. we were **slammed**! It was one of the busiest days at F8 since opening, and I spent the next 4 hours in back washing glasses and growlers. This is just a very small percentage of Growler Madness I had to contend with..

By the end of the night (9pm) I had been on my feet for 13 hours, and had only eaten one little (but very tasty) sandwich at 3pm. Fortunately one customer had brought in this platter of cheese, sausage and crackers! Figure 8 has a very cozy and welcoming feel, and the growing number of regular customers only add to this; Tom and Lynne get little gifts like this regularly.