I've been hearing a lot of really good things about Tradesman Brewing Company on James Island at 1639 Tatum St, Charleston, SC for at least a year but I have never been. We did try on a Sunday but they are closed Sundays and Mondays.
First I want to say that Sara Gayle, the female owner/partner of the brewery is such a effervescent lady, no pun intended. A nurse educator by trade, she is one of the two women responsible for our women's brewing club, a.k.a The Brewsters. Macy from Frothy Beard is the other co-founder.
A few weeks ago I heard through the home brewer's grapevine that Tradesman was having a Brewster Series brew day on 11/22. I hate to just show up at a club event at a new location without at least asking if I am welcome so I emailed my request. Her reply was so warm and friendly that I actually felt excited about going to a new place. Sara Gayle's husband Scott is the head brewer and he kindly gave up his Sunday to help us brew a Chocolate Grand Marnier Stout for charity.
With a few stragglers walking in, we had about ten women brewing. The fun thing about our Brewster Club is you don't need to know anything about brewing. Just the curiosity to learn about it and participate in the event. We milled the grain and malt, mashing in by 10:00. Tradesman was flooded out by the great flood of 2015 so they lost a lot of stock and they had to move what was salvageable to a different area. We found ourselves short of some ingredients, probably there but lost in the shuffle in the make shift store room of grains and malts. Like great cooks who can figure out how to create substitutes for a recipe, our two hosts locked their minds together and found viable ingredients to make the recipe work.
As a home brewer, I am fascinated with bigger brewing systems. Mind you, Tradesman is a small brewery but they have big ambitions. They are growing! They have four stainless vessels now that can ferment and carbonate in the same container. I have 2 five gallon buckets and a glass carboy to ferment my beer in. Big difference. We mashed 75 or so gallons of wort, boiled and ended up with a little over 70 gallons of a Chocolate Stout. They will add the orange to the fermenting beer later.
Our club came up with the name, Orange is the New Chocolate. Look for it in about a month.
There is a lot of down time between each step of brewing and a great opportunity to get to know women who love beer. We had a writer from our local City Paper, researchers, grant writers and such a wonderful diverse group of women that make it such an interesting experience.
We took a break for lunch and had pizza and of course, a delicious craft beer. I had the Bricklayer Red Ale. Great with Pizza!!!!!!! I also tasted a Green Tea Trippel which has honey and green tea as a part of the brewing ingredients. Absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to go back again! Thank You so much Tradesman for your hospitality and tasty craft brews.
No comments:
Post a Comment