First, we fill the HLT with about 105 gallons of water and get that heating to about 160 degrees.  That takes a while so we do some prep work like milling grain.  Each recipe is different, but each batch averages about 150 pounds of grain.

Once we have the HLT at the temperature we want, we move about half the water over to the mash tun and stir in all the milled grain.  Once all the grain is in, we use a recirculating system that draws water from under the grain, runs it through a coil in the HLT that remains heated at the proper temperature, and then back on top of the grain bed.  Doing this at specific temperatures, soaks sugar off of the grain and turn our water into wort.

After the mash, we fly sparge, which is the process of moving the wort from the mash tun to the boil kettle.

This is the mash tun after it has been emptied of wort.  The spent grain now has to be shoveled out and disposed of.  We are looking for any farmers who want this spent grain as feed.  Its free and we hate throwing it away!

While we are waiting for the wort to boil, we prepare the hops and other additions.  Depending on the recipe, different hops are added at different points in the boil.  The Whirlfloc you see on the right is added with 15 minutes left in the boil to help with beer clarity.

A rare sighting of our brewers, Chris and Chris.  As the wort nears boil temperature, a film forms on top of the wort called the hot break.  We skim it off as it helps with beer clarity and stability down the road.

Boiling wort. It might not look very appealing in this state, but in about a month you guys are going to be loving it!

While the wort is boiling, we have to sanitize our fermenter in preparation for the wort.  We use a non-foaming, iodine based sanitizer in this situation and run a loop of it through a clean-in-place (CIP) spray ball at the top of the fermenter.  By running the loop through a pump, we generate enough force to make sure all of the tank gets sanitized.

If you noticed the buckets of grain in the foreground, those are waiting for our second batch of the day.  Every day we brew, we brew twice in order to fill the fermenters.  It makes for a long, but fun, day.

Once the boil is done, it is time to move the wort into the fermenter.  If you can follow the picture, the hose goes from the boil kettle to a pump.  From the pump it goes through a heat exchanger (the square thing with blue hoses coming out of it) that takes the wort from 212 degrees down to about 60 degrees almost instantaneously, and then into the fermenter.  

On this particular day, we were brewing Prairie View Premium Lager and needed to get the wort down to about 50 degrees before pitching the yeast.  Once the yeast are pitched, they begin eating the sugar in the wort, turning it into CO2 and alcohol.

After about 12 hours of brewing, you'd think the day would be done, but there is a lot of cleaning to be done when the brew day ends.  After an hour or two, the brewery is clean and ready for the next brew day.

The Brewhouse.  The black barrel on the far right is a holding tank for our reverse osmosis system.  The water we use to make our beer is as pure as we can possibly make it, ensuring consistant results for you guys.  The kettle on the right is called the Hot Liquor Tank (HLT).  That is where we heat the water for the brewing process.  The middle tank is the mash tun.  That is where we put the milled grain and then soak it in the hot water to create wort (fancy brewer's term for sugar water).  The final tank on the left is the boil kettle.  That is where we boil the wort and add hops for flavor.  From the boil kettle, the wort goes in the fermenters where yeast is added and the wort becomes beer!

Uncrating the beauties!

Ceilings, large glass windows, walls--thankfully these guys knew what they were doing.  Not sure how I thought I was going to place these on my own. 

Last step is adding the glycol piping to the tanks.  This allows us to control fermentation temperatures which is quite important for making great tasting beer.

Fermenter Row.  We have four 5 Barrel Fermenters just waiting to be filled with Black & Gray Brewing Co. beer!

Drew from Leader's Beverage installed 12 taps for us.  It took a little work, but the taps run right through the cooler wall to the bar so no chance for the beer to get warm.  Leader's Beverage will also being cleaning our lines on a regular basis to make sure our beers do not pick up any off-flavors

Hanging Teresa's mirror over the tappers.  The picture doesn't do it justice, it looks awesome!

Okay, so December isn't the best time for rolling up the garage door, but we had to try it out.  Looking forward to spring when we can have her open all the time and everyone can enjoy the weather.

Anyone who knows Chris, knows he can't draw a stick figure or tell you what color we should paint a wall , but when he saw a tatted up Audrey Hepburn and Johnny Cash, he knew right where they belonged.

Black & Gray Brewing Co. at night.

We wanted to take a moment and truly thank all of you who have followed us on this journey.  We can't wait to meet you all and serve you up some top-notch craft beer right in downtown East Dundee.  Remember to pencil in February 3rd as our opening day and watch for the official announcement.

January is going to be a very busy month for us.  Chris will be brewing a lot of beer and Teresa has hired a great staff who will be training to provide you guys outstanding service.  Thanks again for all of your support!

​The Taproom has a Bar!

Since our last update, a lot has been accomplished!  The work being done might not be as dramatic as a new wall going up, or ceilings being completed (and hence, a little harder to document with my poor camera skills), but the guys have been rocking out the work and we are getting very close to wrapping this phase up, and moving onto the next phase: making beer!

Here are some recent pictures:

Lights in the front of the house are in.

Very Important Stuff Here! CO2 installed with Lines Run to the Cooler so We Can Pour You Some Beer!

Barring any further hiccups, construction should wrap up around the first week of December.  Then we have some inspections to get through, both for the local building department as well as the State Liquor Control Commission.  As long as those go well, we should be making beer by middle of December with an anticipated opening date of mid to late January.

​On Friday, the Chicago Tribune published a story stating a second brewery had just signed a lease at 311 Barrington Ave.  Apparently, that did not go over so well with a lot of you who have been following us since our homebrew days because our phones immediately started blowing up.  Friends, co-workers, fellow business owners, and even a couple of you who we have yet had the pleasure of meeting, reached out to us to ask us W.T.F.?

Some of our more fervent fans asked about legal options, others wanted to break out tar and feathers, and a few people cut from a certain type of wood, mentioned handling things "Prairie View" style. So, after having some discussions with the developer of 311 Barrington and the Village itself, we wanted to clarify some things and let you know as long as we keep attracting patrons like you guys, we will be just fine!

First, a new restaurant did sign a lease at 311 Barrington Ave.  The parent company of this restaurant franchise started out as a microbrewery, which is what we think caused the confusion in the article.  This company makes it's own beer, wine, and whiskey (according to the developer of 311 Barrington Ave), but it is all done offsite.  The restaurant at 311 Barrington Ave will not be brewing anything in East Dundee.  So, really, not the same thing as us at all. We wish them--along with all our other fellow businesses in East Dundee--the best of luck and welcome them to the tribe!

We also talked to the Village of East Dundee and they did confirm that we have the only brewing license in the village and there are no plans on increasing the number beyond one at any point in the near future.  We will continue to be East Dundee's only onsite brewery, and the singular taproom where you can drink fresh-ass beer 50 feet from where it was made.

As we have mentioned previously, our over-riding goal for the taproom is to create a community that has that blue-collar, fence-beer drinking ethos; a neighborhood where everyone looks out for one another and is willing to help out at a moments notice.  Friday showed us we are well on our way to making that community a reality. 

We really appreciate hearing from all of you who reached out to us.  For a small "mom and pop" nanobrewery to already have this much support before even pouring our first commercial beer, is really an amazing thing.

​And remember: Think local. Drink local.

The brewery from the back doors.  We dream of the day this space will be full of shiny stainless steel, grain, hops, and yeast!

On other news fronts, all the equipment (fermenters, hardware, brewry hoses, Crowler machine, heat exchanger) has been ordered and most of it has arrived.  We have submitted our application to the Feds for our brewer's permit, are going through a "pre-review" for our State permit, and are working with East Dundee for our local licenses.  The time it takes to go through those various license/permit processes will really determine when we can open the doors, but we are still hopeful it will be before the new year.  We can't wait to meet all of you who have reached out through this website, Facebook, Kickstarter, or the Mug Club application process.  Looking forward to sharing a pint!

If you are interested in an application, reach out to us through our "Contact Us" link on our website, or directly to c.kennedy@blackandgraybrewing.com