Cape May, NJ – Cape May Brewing Company’s new brew house — capable of producing 15,000 barrels (or 472,500 gallons) per year — is on its way. But before any beer can be made, grain needs to be milled. And thanks to this week’s delivery of a Hungarian Roppi 1100 machine – which can process 2,425 pounds of grain per hour – CMB is geared up and ready to go.
So… what’s the big deal?
“Think of it this way,” says CMBC Brew Master Brian Hink, “when you’re making coffee at home, you don’t just dump beans into a machine, because you’d get a little bit of flavor and a little bit of color to your coffee, but it would be weak. You have to use a grinder to crush them up first.”
The mill does a similar thing to grain – grinds it up into a rough flour called grist — so that that entire beer-making process can begin.
It’s all part of the brewery’s ongoing expansion, an expansion that will bring the year-round employee count up to 25. They may have started small (okay – more like itty bitty, with a handmade, 12-gallon brew house in 2011), but CMB is fast becoming one of Jersey’s largest craft beer producers.
Stay tuned for updates.
About Cape May Brewing Company
Once upon a time, twenty-something Ryan Krill earned a six-figure salary working in finance and real estate development in Manhattan, while his college roommate, Chris Henke, designed satellites. During a summer weekend at the Jersey shore, they brewed a batch of beer with Ryan’s dad that wasn’t half bad. “Should we open a brewery?” Ryan asked, only half-serious. But, by the following year, the three guys had secured a hangar at Cape May Airport where they concocted a makeshift brew system and honed their beer-making skills. In 2011, they started with one client. Today, there are nearly 200 bars in Jersey and Pennsylvania proudly serving the guys’ award-winning recipes. And CMBC’s fearless leaders have never looked back.