Growing up, blowing up
Things have been a bit crazy around Mad Bomber lately.
The Hayden brewery is in the process of upgrading its makeshift one-barrel brewing operation to a shiny new seven-barrel system. The boil kettle (pictured above) was put into service late last month, but the fermenters still were under construction at nearby LaBreck Stainless Works.
So owner/brewer Tom Applegate and his crew would brew a batch, divide it among four of his small, primitive plastic fermenters – “all of which turn out to be different beers,” Applegate says, given the inherent inconsistencies – then blend those back into two brite tanks before kegging.
“We’ve been Mad Bomber-ing our way through,” he says. “It’s not as horrible as the one-barrel was. We can accomplish a week’s worth of work on the old system (in a single brew).”
The first stainless steel, temperature-controlled, seven-barrel fermenter arrived Wednesday, and Applegate is brewing a batch of St. Nicholas pale into it today. “I’m really pumped to see what it’s going to taste like,” he says.
Six more fermenters are on the way, another three seven-barrel and three fifteens (for double batches).
“It will be literally floor-to-ceiling stainless tanks,” Applegate says of his cramped brewing space. “It’s going to look a lot more like a real brewery in here.”
Even using the old fermenters, the more efficient new kettle already has made a difference, he says: “The beer has really improved, in my opinion.”
Not that there haven’t been some growing pains. When a batch of Boobytrap Blonde came out at 3.5 percent alcohol by volume – it’s usually around 6 – Applegate put in on tap anyway, as Misfire Light Ale.
“It’s clean and crisp, like a Mexican lager,” he says. “We’ve been selling a lot of it.”