I returned to Full Sail Brewery out in Hood River, Oregon to do a VIP tour with one of the brewers. Now this was an incredible opportunity to get some more details on them. It was really cool for me because I use to distribute their beer when I worked in Las Vegas, so I have been through a few presentations and tasting with their reps but have not had the opportunity to have a person who actually makes the beer walk me through their facility.
I started the cloudy yet beautiful day in the tasting room enjoying their Session Cream on Nitro. Now Nitro will give a beer finer bubbles, a denser head, and creamer mouth feel than CO2, which makes it better such beers as stouts. Usually I am not a big fan of nitro beers as they tend to come across flat but this one was not. The nitro did make it smooth and creamy as well as easy to drink, a perfect way to start off the day. The surprisingly light beer did have some subtle notes of coffee adding to the fresh start to the day.
So my brewer came to give me the grand VIP tour. First I had to ask him about his profession. As a graduate of Oregon State with a Bachelors in Fermentation Science he told me that he just had a passion for making a beverage that people would love, enjoy, and can create good times. Now you could see that he was a man of passion for beer while not being a beer snob. By this I mean he was vey humble and not this crazy guy how over thought the process, he just loved brewing beer and drinking it like you or I. So I asked him what recommendations he had if anyone wanted to become a brewer? He told me that, at least in this state, that pretty much having a degree was an easy way to get a job. With the most breweries per capita in the US, brewers are in high demand.
We did the whole tour starting outside to where the trucks would export their grain into containers that lead to the inside. Founded in 1989 by brew master Jamie Emmerson and CEO Irene Firmat, this building was once a juice processing facility that the company had bought and expound upon, just one of the many ways they remain green. From there they have a machine that grinds the grain into a powder rather than having it germinate to extract more fermentable sugars out of the grain. This is one of the processes that allows them to save water. An average brewery takes between 6-8 gallons of water just to produce 1 gallon of beer. Full Sail has been able to reduce this to under 3 gallons. The the grain is sent through the normal process to the mash tun, hop pellets are added (pellets are used to create consistency), into the fermentor, and on to the bottling and keg line. All of their brewing process is able to be computer controlled which allows them to monitor the entire process and regulate all aspects of the brewing process, such as temperature to the exact degree, insuring a quality product. A couple of other ways they conserve water and energy along the way is using a machine that presses all of the mash together to extract every possible drop of water out of them. This has 2 advantages as they get the most possible use of of every drop of their beer and dries out the grain as much as possible which is sold to local farms as food for cattle. The machinery, although expensive, adds to their sustainability and long term profit. Another way they save water is by restricting their work force to 4 10 hour shifts which reduces their energy and water consumption by 20%.
With this passion and love for beer, Full Sail has won numerous awards for their philanthropy, sustainability, and beer. Their most prestigious award is craft brewer of the year 2014. Make sure you stop by the pub and grab some of their 20+ beers on tap, including their rotating seasonal and cask beers.
