Hoportunity Knocks at Brewdog Aberdeen

We had been voting for beer styles and added ingredients in Brewdog Aberdeen for a couple of weeks now in anticipation of yesterdays visit of the Brewdog Pilot brew plant and Lead Brewer Franz.

 The voting system (high tech chalk board) would not have stood up to scrutiny by international UN observers, but unlike the people of Zimbabwae after their last election the patrons of Brewdog Aberdeen were generally happy with the result. It was decided to brew a brown ale with added hazelnuts and honey.

Brewdogs "Brew Magic" Pilot Plant

 So on Sunday morning Franz, fresh from his holidays and extended layover in Paris, loaded the Brewdog van with the pilot plant and loads of hops and malt. He also went to the bother of taking filtered treated water from the brewery, not wanting the complications of the chlorine in the Aberdeen municipal supply.

The event started about 1.30, but as I had had a bit of a heavy night on Saturday I didn't it make for the start and by the time I arrived Franz had already mashed in.

Malt Bill

Me giving the mash a stir.



Brewing on gas with added magic. Note the Meantime keg being used as a "brewery ladder" It was still full of beer.



The hop varieties which were considered for this brew.



The silver bags are hops. Franz brought an awful lot of hops. Ruination Brown Ale anyone?



The hops that actually went into the boil.

 When I arrived Franz was circulating the wort through the mash and waiting for the water for sparging to reach the required temperature.



 After sparging twice we had 47 litres of wort, to which 35g of Green Bullet was added as the bittering hops.

Bittering Hops



Franz testing the quality of the honey.

The Brewdog Aberdeen team adding the Pacifica hops.

After the boil which went on for about an hour, 50g of Pacifica hops were added along with the honey, and nuts. I'm not sure the rasins were in the original recipe, but those which hadn't been munched at this point went into the kettle too.

 The brew will be heading back to the brewery for fermentation and should be about 7% abv when it is finished. I'm looking forward to tasting it, when it comes back to the Aberdeen bar.

All in all it was a very enjoyable afternoon, and I learned a great deal more about the brewing process.

Franz is a friendly easy going guy and is more than happy to share his brewing knowledge.

Brewdog are planning similar events for their Edinburgh and Glasgow bars and I would recomend anyone with an interest in brewing to try and make it along.

You can read the official Brewdog Blog post about this here