Two new fermenters arrived June 27. Roof Hound owner Les Barr and a few others were on hand to fit them into the building’s new section built specifically to house them.
“Myself and two other micro breweries, Bad Apple Brewhouse and Lunn’s Mill Beer Company, bought a 40-foot shipping container full of new equipment together to share shipping costs,” said Barr.
Both fermenters are now inside after the tricky operation getting them inside was completed.
The process of brewing more beer is now ready to begin.
“The tanks are 2000 litres, or roughly 4000 pint glasses of beer, each. Since we’re still using a 500-litre kettle we have to do quad batches to fill them up,” he said.
Each batch involves crushing grain, mashing it, sparging it, transferring it, boiling it, cooling it and then transferring it again. Doing this four times which takes about 20 hours of brewing time, or two full days of work, all to fill the new fermenter tanks.
Barr hopes to upgrade the kettle next to help save time.
Next on the list is also expanding the pub’s current seating area, to which 30 seats will soon be added on the deck area.
As far as new beers, the pub is currently featuring its new Thyme to Grow a Pear Blueberry sour, which Barr said is a big hit.
He said he’s glad the expansion is finally underway.
“It's such a huge relief. Things never go as smoothly as you plan but we are getting it done and are ready for summer,” he said.