Behind the Scenes

A few days ago I went to bottle the beer which I had brewed at Gallagher's Brewing up in Edmonds. The brewing process, which takes a few hours, I had done a few weeks before as the beer takes a few weeks to ferment. As a devotee to fine beers, I was excited to see what goes into the brewing process. Little did I know it was so intensive. There are many steps which have to preformed just right in order to create a beer that is drinkable. It starts with the wheat, which has to be just the right amount added at just the right time, and following is the malt and hops, which also need to be just right. And then of course there's the yeast, which without there would be no beer. Every ingredient was necessary at every precise time to produce what you were shooting for, or in other words, there was no "winging it".

There was something to be said though, after it was all bottled and I was sipping on something I had created for going out on a limb and trying to create something which I had no prior knowledge of. The same I think goes for the pizza bake on Thursday. Although I had to leave early, and didn't actually get to try the pizza, seeing what goes into a wood fire oven was worth the work. It started with the fire, and really for as long as I was there, it ended with the fire. Getting that fire started turned out to be a bigger ordeal than I thought it would be. You have to start with the newspaper, and then kindling, slowly working up to bigger and bigger pieces of wood until the fire is hot enough to actually cook something. Then of course you have to make sure the fire doesn't collapse on itself, which turned out to be a bigger issue than anyone saw coming. All in all though I was happy to help and I now have a new found respect for wood fire bakers.

I believe everyone at one point should go see how its done. Weather that be a pizza bake or a brewery, there's a lot more that goes into crating the things that we love to consume than most people think, and there's a lot of respect to give to those who create them.