Saint Somewhere Brewing Company
This past weekend I had the opportunity to volunteer bottling at Saint Somewhere Brewing Company. Saint Somewhere is a small batch craft brewer specializing Belgian Style Ales located in Tarpon Spring, FL. This was the first time volunteering so wasn’t really sure what to expect when I arrived. When I arrived I was greeted by some of the other volunteers and owner Bob Sylvester. My first impression was wow I can’t believe how small the brewery is. However, it then made me think of my visit to Avery Brewing in CO as both were in a industrial park. Avery Brewing now occupies multiple bays at there site, however, had obviously started in one bay and slowly took over other bays(not all consecutive either). I then took the opportunity to snap a few photos with my camera phone before we started. Once we started everyone else seemed to know what was going on except me. Most of the other volunteers are veterans of the process and grabbed the respective task they wanted. The bottling process at Saint Somewhere is a very labor intensive process. At one point there were at least 12 people working in the entire process. These are the bottling steps.
1. Take bottle cases off palette
2. Unpack bottles from case
3. Sanitize bottles
4. Fill bottle using 4 line bottler
5. Cork bottles
6. Place cages on bottles
7. Tighten cages on bottles
8. Place front and back labels on bottles
9. Place bottles back in case
10. Stack cases back on palette
By dumb luck I ended up just placing the cages on the 750ml bottles and handing them off to the tightener. To tighten down the cages on the bottles they used a curved bit in a cordless drill. Pretty ingenues I thought. To cork the bottle they use a corker similar to this one. By far the most time intensive piece is placing the labels on the bottles. Roughly three quarters of the way though the bottling I swapped jobs with the corker. Man was I in for a shock. Previously I was doing the easiest job hands down. I now moved to one of the harder jobs. It didn’t take long for me to start sweating. Oh, I hate to admit it, however, I was sore the next day. In total we bottle ~780 bottles that were headed up to PA.
After we wrapped up bottling we got to sample both the Lectio Divina and Saison Athene. Then Bob was generous to break out some beers he had made while waiting during brew day. The first beer I tried was like a bomb of hops went off in my mouth. I don’t recall the exact amount of hops that was used during brewing, however, it tasted like I threw some hops in my mouth and just started chewing. The second beer was a coffe flavored beer used with a coffee flavor extract. It tasted more like coffee going down then it did a beer.
Oh, volunteering at Saint Somewhere doesn’t mean you leave empty handed. They are nice enough to provide lunch and 6 bottles of there hand crafted beer. Also, I could have brought a cornelius keg and had it filled as well(Always Next Time).
I had a great time at Saint Somewhere Brewing and recommend any one interested in brewing to volunteer at a local brewery.
