OSU Brew Day

Jeff Clawson, the Pilot Plant/Brewery Manager for the Department of Food Science and Technology at OSU hosted HOTV at the OSU brewery on Sunday, March 22. He led our group in brewing a Biere de Garde, a traditional French farmhouse ale typically brewed in the winter and spring, then stored over summer. The malts used included Belgian ale, Munich, CaraVienna, Aromatic, and Biscuit malts. Our mash ratio was 3 to 1 (water to grain), and we performed a decoction mash. The boil lasted 90 minutes and we added Willamette hops at 60 minutes and Hallertau hops at 10 minutes. Cane sugar was added at the end of the boil to boost the starting gravity, which ended up being 1.072, or 17.55 Plato. Thanks to Jeff for donating his time and letting us use the brewery, and to Sue Piripi for helping out with pictures!

Louis dumps some grain into the mill	Grain being milled
Jeff talks about the brewing process	Jeremiah removes part of the grain for the decoction
Everyone watch Jeremiah!	Louis stirs the mash
OSU's sparging system	Ron cleans up the mash tun
Patrick adds some hops	The wort goes through the hopback, cools, and gets oxygenated
Sanitized carboys await the wort	Steve and Jay fill up the carboys