In Pictures: Revolution Brewing/Firestone Walker Beer Collaboration

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Apr 28, 2011 7:00PM

Jim Cibak and Dustin Kral drink coffee and wait.

A lok at the mash from a view window in the tank. Look at those grains.

Jim Cibak\'s brew sheet.

A look at the mash, teeming with Cascade hop leaves

The wort beginning its transfer from mash tun to whirpool.

We dropped by Revolution Brewing Saturday morning to check out the brewing of the collaborative beer between brewer Jim Cibak and Firestone Walker senior brewer Dustin Kral. When we made it into the brewhouse, Cibak and Kral were about an hour into their mash and were just beginning the process of transferring the wort to the whirpool tank to remove solids.

Cibak and Kral hit upon brewing a West Coast style pale ale because those beers tend to be more of a beer for springtime. West Coast style pale ales tend to have a more aromatic hop profile than maltier Midwestern pales. They loaded the mash with a medium-sized box of Cascade hop leaves whose scent hit us in the face when we opened the top to the tank. From there, the two added Warrior, Cascade, Centennial, Vanguard, and Ahtanum hops to give the beer a fair amount of spicing. The malts they're using in the brewing include Munich, Cara Pils, C-10 and Crystal pale malts.

The end result should be an ale that comes in at around 7-8 percent ABV. Again, perfect for spring. Cibak and Kral said this beer should be ready in about three weeks.