Yesterday was amazing

I don't want to leave you out of the loop, but I got to WORK at a small (10 barrel) brewery for about 4 hours yesterday.

I don't have time right now to tell you the whole story. I will edit this post later, but I wanted you to know.
I am in Seattle. I like Portland better so far.

LATER... the whole story.

On Saturday, I met Ike Manchester at the Widmer brewery bar. I was excited to talk to a brewer again, but I was in a rush to go on their tour. He gave me his card and said, "If you're coming back through Portland, give me a call and come by the pilot brewery." Well, I emailed him immediately and set up a time to come by and visit.
Tuesday morning, I swung by the R&D brewery to see what their process was like. Ike had emailed me to say that his regular helper was out sick and that they may have use of me. When I showed up, Ike had been given Dan to help, but he also found ways to put me to work. They work on a 10 barrel system which is the size of a small micro-brewery. They are brewing at this size because they are only the Research and Development part of Widmer - a very large brewery otherwise. I was put to work stirring the wort in the mash tun, running heavy lifting errands, pouring anti-foaming salts into the boil, cleaning out the mash tun, etc. It was hot, wet and hard work, but I loved every minute of it. Ike was a perfect director. He knew what he was doing and was able to integrate me into their process fluidly.
Near the end of my time there, one of the Widmer brothers actually showed up to see what was going on! I met Rob Widmer and we were able to talk about homebrewing and my trip.
I would have loved to stay all day to see the brew through to the finish, but I had to make sure that I was going to get to Seattle.

It was a unique experience because I learned that the processes that happen in a brewery of any size need to be taught and cannot be extrapolated from the stuff that I do as a homebrewer. There were chemicals, tools and other functional parts of the process that I had no idea about. Investing time and money into a microbrewery without functional, practical knowledge of how these things work on the larger scale would be foolish. This is good to find out because it means that I must get a job at a brewery to learn before I think about starting my own.

Now, in Seattle, I am getting homesick. Because of this I am having trouble being optimistic and open to whatever comes my way. I got to see Pike's Place Market, but it is raining outside. Boo, Seattle.