In the historic downtown of Savannah, GA, right on Bay St. is a microbrewery/restaurant called Moon River Brewing Company. It is the only brewery in Savannah. On a recent field trip with the geography department, we had some time to spare one evening. One student on our trip was close family friends with the co-owner/brew-master of Moon River, John Pinkerton (who's actually a Blacksburg native), and arranged for him to give us a small private tour.
The tour started on the second level of the building, which was built in 1821 and originally served as the City Hotel. While the main floor and basement had been renovated, the second or third floors had not. They used the upper levels for storage. Also on the second floor was the mill, which held the malt before it made its way down to the mash tun on the first floor via a pipe going through the floor. John explained to us that the malting process is very difficult and the results can vary greatly, so they purchase their malt ingredients from separate producers and then just mill it in-house.
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| Unrenovated 2nd floor - looking out toward Bay St |
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| Staircase to the third floor; Briess malt being stored |
He then brought us down to the main level, where the restaurant was. Off to the side of the bar area, in a glass room that was fully visible to customers, was his brew-house. Inside the brew-house were the mash tun, the brew kettle, the fermentation tanks, and John's mini "lab".
Most of the pictures I took did not show any actual equipment because I felt rude snapping pictures while John was talking, so I was only able to capture things while we were walking from one room to another... but I was able to find some pictures on the internet. Here's a photo of the mash tun and brew kettle inside the brew-house:
Most of the pictures I took did not show any actual equipment because I felt rude snapping pictures while John was talking, so I was only able to capture things while we were walking from one room to another... but I was able to find some pictures on the internet. Here's a photo of the mash tun and brew kettle inside the brew-house:
John gave us a full lesson on the chemistry behind brewing, and what he does to make quality beer. I tried very hard to follow, but it was a whole lot of information really fast and most words I probably couldn't even pronounce (why I'm a geography major than a not a chemistry major).
He did let us taste some beer straight from one of the fermentation tanks. It was a new beer that he was releasing that upcoming Monday (it was Friday), and it was a Golden Ale called "Belly-washer". Inside the beaker, the beer was still a little cloudy - John said that's why he was waiting until Monday to debut the beer, because by then it would be a little less cloudy. I thought it tasted great. I'm usually not a fan of pale-ales (I think they taste too watery sometimes), and black ales are too heavy for me; so the golden ale appealed to my tastes perfectly.
After showing us around the brew-house, he then took us down to the basement, which was also renovated and used as a venue for large parties and also the scene for many ghost tours around Savannah (the building is suspected to be haunted). Behind one door, however, were ten 44 gallon casks. The beer filtered straight from the fermentation tanks upstairs into the casks, and then the taps in the bar area came directly from the casks.
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| Entrance to cask room in basement |
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| Casks |
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After the tour, we went upstairs to get some beers, and I tried the Wild Wacky Wit, a wheat ale that was spiced with orange and coriander. It also tasted great - it was similar to the golden ale in that it wasn't too pale or too strong, and I really enjoyed the orange flavoring
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