Big Woods Addition and other Big Woodsy News

The boys have done a lot of construction down in Nashville Indiana's labyrinth area known as Molly Lane and here's the completed result; a new home for Tim O'Bryan and a new brewing system for Big Woods. The extension sympathetically merges with the rest of the building and the neighbors are happy.

The second-floor doors are for receiving grain. Bags are stored upstairs, relieving some of the cramped conditions in the front part – the brewery. The back half of the extension is a walk-in for beer storage and serving manifold systems for 4 taps.

The brewing system has been upgraded for double-batching into the new 2-barrel fermenter. The frame is custom-made with a roll-out mini-stand for access and tilt-forward vessels for easy cleaning. Neat idea. It was fabricated by a local (Nashville) company.

   

Like any good brewery, they are starting some hops on the front porch. Trained on fishing line suspended from old fishing rods and stringer. When filled in they will provide shade and batches of special wet-hopped beer starting in autumn, 2011.

 

On tap now:

• 6 Foot Blonde - Clean starter beer.
• Possum Trot Pale – Nice American Pale  Recommended with food. Tim is still tweaking the recipe but we thought he hit on the formula back in December. (Maybe he'll a touch of honey and some malted wheat for body).
• Big Woods Stout – The Big Woods original. Smooth creamy milk-ish Oatmeal Stout with a very thick tan small-bubble head. Roast but no toast. Just black max.
• Busted Knuckle Red – Tim's secret recipe. Dark, dark red. He'll reveal Crystal and Munich malts with Fuggles hops and some Belgian candi sugar which ramps up the up-front sweetness that is immediately balanced by plenty of bitterness. Has a medium-long finish with a touch of sourness which may or may not come from some strain of Belgian yeast. A sipping double red.

Next up is a Common Ale that is now fermenting.

   

A big Weber grill outside provides much of the food from the recipe book of Spring Smith and Emily Stone. We highly recommend the home-pulled pork, the peppery big-hunk red cabbage slaw, and especially the portabella mushroom sandwich with avocado spread.

Next Monday they will be serving Steak Monday from a happy Angus cow that has been eating the spent grains to prepare for the occasion.

The Woods Abide.