Class is in session at Brooklyn Brewery at the CIA, our brewhouse and teaching facility at the Culinary Institute of America. Each month, we’ll take you inside the classroom to learn alongside the students participating in the most robust beer education of any culinary institute. You don’t have to do the homework, but you might want to do some extra reading.
As you may have guessed, that’s the brew kettle at the Brooklyn Brewery at the CIA. Image: Al Nowak, On Location Studios.
A new semester is underway at the Culinary Institute of America, bringing a fresh crop of Art and Science of Beer students to the brewhouse of the Brooklyn Brewery at the CIA. In these early weeks, there will be a heavy focus on safety. Breweries are full of safety hazards that must be addressed and accounted for, from hot surfaces and boiling liquids to properly handling cleaning chemicals. Fortunately, the chemical handling portion leads into one of the most unsung portions of brewing: cleaning.
One of the most prevalent jokes in modern brewing is that being a brewer is just like being a janitor with a microbiology degree. A few wayward yeast cells or speck of bacteria can totally disrupt the balance of a beer, leaving you with an undrinkable tank of broken dreams.
To combat this risk, everything used in brewing must be spic-and-span in order to avoid harmful infections. The most notorious is clean-in-place, or CIP.
A troop of Shackmeister bottles await sanitation on our Brooklyn bottling line. Photo: Dan D’Ippolito.
Clean-in-place utilizes several steps to ensure the complete sanitation of the large vessels and transfer pipes used in brewing. Bottles and cans are relatively easy to clean, sanitize, fill and call it a day. The tanks used in brewing and fermenting present an entirely different set of challenges. Instead of sending some poor soul in with a scrub brush, the tanks are cleaned in a simple, slightly redundant routine:
- Pre-Rinse– Removes larger objects like dried grain, hop leaves, mineral deposits, and the like.
- Chemical Wash– Caustics and acids can be used separately or in concert to remove yeast, proteins, fats and other minuscule remnants.
- Rinse– Removes the chemical wash and any dislodged matter.
- Sanitize– Destroys and removes any remaining organics, down to those pesky bacteria.
- Final Rinse– Removes the sanitizer and any final waste to prepare the tank for its next job.
The caustics and acids used in CIP often come in big drums, like the chemicals that we think of when a superhero’s backstory involves a lab accident. However, these solutions are more in the vein of Daredevil and The Joker in that a mishandling or spill can result in serious chemical burns, lung injury from breathing in fumes, and even dissolve the soles of shoes not meant for chemical exposure. When properly handled, however, these chemicals are indispensable for dissolving all manner of stubborn particles, streaks and stains on brewery equipment that could otherwise harbor off flavors and harmful pathogens.
Head Cellarman JR Jordan demonstrates a safety shower and personal protective equipment used in the cellar. Photo: Molly Cichy.
Once the caustics and acids have done their brutal work, sanitizers come in to finish the job. A range of sanitizers are available to brewers, from iodine and chlorine to every homebrewer’s go-to, phosphoric acid (found in Five Star Chemicals Star San.) These agents specifically target organic matter and tear it to shreds. This step is key for ensuring that a particularly hardy bacterium or stealthy yeast cell didn’t make it past your initial onslaught. Once the sanitizer is rinsed free, the tanks are not just clean enough to eat off of– they are clean enough to host a (somewhat cramped) heart surgery.
When the chemicals are finished with their duties, they are carefully handled to be sure they are processed safely. Most can be recycled several times, until their concentration dips too low or we see a build up of calcium salts that makes them lose effectiveness. Once the chemicals have lived out their useful days, an extremely diluted solution is sent to local wastewater plants to be safely processed. Breweries lucky enough to be located near reclamation plants (like our Newtown Creek plant in north Brooklyn) may mix this solution with organic waste, which is then converted into methane gas and used to produce electricity.
When the tanks are finally sanitary, we get to make beer. It almost seems like a shame after all that hard work, but we have clean, delicious beer as our just reward.
The new Art and Science of Brewing students have their hands full learning about these chemicals, their uses, and safe handling, but they’re on a rapid track to begin brewing alongside Head Brewer Hutch Kugeman. When they do begin brewing, you can bet that every tank and every surface will be sparkling clean, with nary a bacterium in site. Unless, of course, we’re aiming for a sour…but that’s a topic for another class.
Any questions? See us after class on Facebook or Twitter and we’ll answer any questions we can to further your beer knowledge.