Photo Tour of Brooklyn Brewery
One of my beer highlights this year was tour of Brooklyn Brewery Garrett Oliver gave Simply Beer in early Dec. We met Garrett around 11 am on a cold New York morning in Williamsburg Brooklyn. After a quick warmup in the offices, he took us on a complete tour of the brewery that lasted over an hour and half. As we entered the main brewery the clanking of bottles echoed throughout the building as we watched 750ml bottles of Black Ops taking their trips trough the bottling line.
Unfortunately we do not have any pictures of the bottling line, but for a very cool reason. Most of those bottle of Brooklyn Black ops you’ll be enjoining over the next couple of months have been bottle by a group of mentally challenged adults who come in and work on the bottling line though a local out reach program that Brooklyn Brewery is part of. Out of respect to the people working the bottling line we opted not to photograph the line.
However, we did have an amazing tour of the brewery, including the brewery, fermenters, warm and cold rooms, barrel room, and an amazing tasting at the end. Check out these photographs taken by Richard Alva:
![brooklynbrewery_tour9 Showcase Fermentors](http://www.simplybeer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/brooklynbrewery_tour9.jpg)
Fermentors
![brooklynbrewery_tour11 Mash Tun](http://www.simplybeer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/brooklynbrewery_tour11.jpg)
Primary Boil
![brooklynbrewery_tour15 Hops waiting for the boil](http://www.simplybeer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/brooklynbrewery_tour15.jpg)
Hops Pellets waiting for the boil
![brooklynbrewery_tour12 Cleaning](http://www.simplybeer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/brooklynbrewery_tour12.jpg)
Cleaning
![brooklynbrewery_tour14 Steam](http://www.simplybeer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/brooklynbrewery_tour14.jpg)
Steam, 50bbl Fermenters in the Background
![brooklynbrewery_tour10 Rice Hulls, used to aid sparge](http://www.simplybeer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/brooklynbrewery_tour10.jpg)
Rice Hulls, used to aid sparge
![brooklynbrewery_tour6 Bottle Refermentation. Pressure guages to determin carbonation levels](http://www.simplybeer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/brooklynbrewery_tour6.jpg)
Bottle Refermentation. Pressure gauges to determine carbonation levels.
![brooklynbrewery_tour5 Garrett Oliver and I checking out the Dark Matter aging in Bourbon Barrels](http://www.simplybeer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/brooklynbrewery_tour5.jpg)
Garrett Oliver and I checking out Dark Matter aging in Bourbon Barrels
![brooklynbrewery_tour4 Oak!](http://www.simplybeer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/brooklynbrewery_tour4.jpg)
Oak!
![brooklynbrewery_tour7 My Favorite Bourbon Barrel Stout!](http://www.simplybeer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/brooklynbrewery_tour7.jpg)
My Favorite Bourbon Barrel Stout! I wanted to grab a case and run... that would be bad Karma.
![brooklynbrewery_tour2 Interview with Garrett, Sampling Brooklyner Weisse, Wild 1, and Black Ops](http://www.simplybeer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/brooklynbrewery_tour2.jpg)
Interview with Garrett Oliver - Sampling Brooklyner Weisse, Wild 1, and Black Ops
![brooklynbrewery_tour1 Garrett Oliver tasting Wild 1](http://www.simplybeer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/brooklynbrewery_tour1.jpg)
Garrett Oliver tasting Black Ops
Thanks again to Rich Alva for the photography and Corey Greenberg for the video work.
Those are amazing photos, Peter. Good job! Seriously, I am quite impressed and Jealous. Garrett Oliver is in my top 5 of craft beer figures I’d like to meet. I would love to get some of those carbonation pressure gauges.
thanks Nate! Garrett Oliver was extremely personable and has a huge wealth of knowledge. It was a wonderful tour!
That looks awesome Peter. I’d love to get some Black Ops out here! I’ll ask my beer guy for some!
-Don
It must have been quite an experience tasting beers with Garrett Oliver. I’d sit there asking questions for as long as he’d let me.
Nice peek inside the brewery, Peter. I gotta get behind the scenes at Victory!
Don, do you get Brooklyn in Idaho? Time to hit up your Bro! 🙂
Jim, Hook your bortehr up with some black ops! Victory is on my list as well. 🙂
You heard the man Jim…Hook me up!
and BK is off the grid using wind power! GREEN!
Thats right Mike. It was one of the things I wanted to talk to Garrett Oliver about, but I didn’t remember until we were walking to lunch. ( a little to late). Many breweries are on the cutting edge of environmental conservation, including recycling, solar/wind power, and composting.
Peter, nice job! Keeping my eye out for some Black Ops myself. (you shoudda’ grabbed a case!) I think the brewery has been using wind power for several years now – they might even be the first company in NY to be all wind or something. That’s pretty cool.
Shudda grabbed a case, cause now it looks like nj is not getting much in the way of black ops.