Fabulous Homebrewligans: Tom Brotherton of Bluebonnet "Home" Brewery

Tom Brotherton at his outdoor brewing station.

  I met Tom several years ago when I managed the Green Garden at Zilker's Botanical Gardens.  He was a volunteer, getting his hours in for his Master Gardener Certification.  He invited my husband and I over for lunch to have me give him some pointers on his huge property in Manchaca, just south of Austin.  At the time, his brewing equipment was in his garage, and I stayed behind to visit with his lovely wife, Annie while he and my husband went out to talk about all things beer.

  Flash forward 5 years and here he is in his hand built and designed outdoor brewing station.  Solo brewing is relatively new to me, and I am absolutely amazed by the attention and devotion of homebrewers and am elated to spend a brew day with anyone willing to share the sacred time it takes to create my favorite elixir.  Tom, is a rare brewer, even among professionals and it was my first experience seeing (other than youtube videos) a whole grain process.  I'll explain more about what makes him unique, soon.  He's been brewing now for 44 years and is on the eve of his 70th year on earth so this particular arrangement of equipment is exciting because I top the charts at 5'2" and lifting 5+ gallons can be challenging.  Tom isn't a fan of injuring his back either so his system is rigged with  3/8th inch quick disconnect tubing which can transfer, pipe hot water to cool or vice-versa without a lot of lifting and pouring.  

  Now, being a gardener, Tom is hypersensitive to the current drought situation  (has let his lawn die, which I'm so proud of him for doing) and he also has a swimming pool (salt water) so he feels a bit of guilt about his carbon footprint.  Being the intelligent and sensitive fellow that he is, he's aware that his brewing is also quite taxing on the water situation so he is as conscious as he can possibly be, pouring water onto plants and spent grains on the compost but also, his cooling tubes drain into the pool...so, we joke that at least he's swimming in post production beer water!  All of this is only part of what makes Tom a unique brewer, the bigger and for me, more impressive part is related to his education and passion.  Tom has his masters in Microbiology from Columbia, Missouri and spent his adult life as a hospital administrator, post Vietnam.  He does some things in the process that insure perfect beer that I've just not seen other people do and that's what I'm most excited to share!

  What we're brewing:  Annie's Guinness Stout

  Tom's wife Annie, a retired Episcopalian Priest and certified Hospital Chaplain loves Guinness.  Tom took a clone of the original recipe and after 3 batches, adjusted the recipe to fit Annie's taste perfectly.  He brews this just for her and it's always on tap at Bluebonnet Brewery.  He uses iBrew to log in all of his adjustments, times etc. and stays within 1-2 degrees, points of gravity etc. to insure consistency...always.  He's no fly by the seat of your pants brewer...like me, forgetting to get the specific gravity, adding things on a sensorial whim without measuring...hoping for the best!  

Mini-mill and grains.

Tom starts his brew day around 9am but really he starts several days earlier, letting the water sit for up to 72hrs and he begins the yeast 24hrs in advance, always.  He collects and cultivates his own yeast and has quite a collection in the fridge.  But, for my part I arrive and we begin grinding the grains in his tiny mill!

Tom's yeast collection.

Here is a sample of some of the yeasts he's got in the fridge...and his eyes light up when talking about it!  On the counter he's got two erlenmeyer flasks with the yeast bubbling away.  He divides the pre-batch in two so if the yeast decide to party, they don't go over the edge.  Everytime he walks by he gives them a little giggle and rejoices in their thriving.


All this is overwhelming to me, a mini-mash girl with less than a hundred gallons to my name so I'm wondering how long this all took him to figure out and what did that learning curve look like...I am an old teacher and we never lose interest in "process."  He tells me that he learned to brew back in 1970 or so from Annie's dad.  They were living in San Diego at the time and homebrewing was illegal, or rather you had to have a licence to brew up to 100 gallons per household, until blessed Jimmy Carter in 1978 passed the homebrew bill, making it okay.  It was the thrill of driving into east L.A. and slinking up to an old warehouse back door in secrecy that made the whole thing irresistible!  The fellow inside had a 55 gallon drum filled with malt extract, that he filled with their mason jars and then took a  brown paper bag and slipped a few handfuls of whole hop flowers in before the cash exchange and getaway.  The yeast they got at the grocery store, the water from the tap.  In the 90's while living in Houston he started toying with mini-mash and when they moved to Hawaii, he went back to whole grain brewing and the current set-up he built in 2002 with stuff  he got mostly from Home Depot.  He's  been brewing, kegging and also making wine all this time.  Right now he's got several fruit trees and 1 year merlot vines on Texas resistant root stalk to Peirce disease in his yard and they got watered via the brewing process!

So, Tom's figured stuff out...and the "stuff" I needed to learn happened without my asking.  In this shot you see Tom carefully removing Elm leaves from the boiling pot.  He calls it "essence of Elm" and doesn't sweat the small stuff.  After all, not much can get past the boil ;)


I've jumped ahead...what you're really looking at is the mash tun, with false bottom that's sparging from the copper system that Tom built himself.


I cannot begin to explain the fabulous smell!  He said he took the tubing and simply scored the base.  This is only one rung of the square apparatus that fills the bucket.

Sparging: rinsing your grain bed.

Here's the part that was so interesting to me...Tom doesn't move beyond this point until the science of converted sugars is complete and how he figures this out is something I, in my humble ignorance, having not taken a chemistry class...ever... was completely amazed by. As soon as the water hit strike temperature of 164 degrees F, it was added to the grain to produce a mash temperature of 154 degrees. Tom then takes his spoon and  puts a drop of the grain water on top of a small amount of iodine that's been placed on a white tile.   Immediately the solution turns deep black in color.  He then explains that when the sugars are converted, the iodine will be syrupy brown and translucent.  Before we drain the bucket and proceed to the boil, he tests the wort again and sure enough the color is as he predicted and it's time to get the boil on to add the hops!  In my brewing, I'm lucky to have remembered the timer!  I am going to do this from now on though!  Sciency-mathy stuff no longer scares me, in fact...I bet if we taught brewing in high schools we'd have a much higher retention rate.  I'm probably preaching to the choir.

Tom's Brew Kit, getting ready to check the wort!

After this stage, the brewing is pretty much the same as my mini-mash except that the finished beer, once cools drains from pretty high up, oxygenating it perfectly, and to save his back he drains 1-2 gallons at a time and leisurely walks it into the refrigerator where it will ferment.  By the time he gets back outside about another gallon or so has drained and he walks it in and, with all the small batch high pouring, the beer is thoroughly blended.  In the fridge he adds the yeast, checks the temperature...around 55degrees and then we get onto the serious business of sampling some of his 5 year old double chocolate whisky stout that's been conditioning in bottles and is dolled out conservatively...what's the rush?  He's got 3 beers on tap: Annie's Stout, a Mexican Lager that he adjusted and then dry hopped...which was excellent and a mock Shiner Black that he's mixed with an American Pale Ale and ginger infused tea.  He's an artist, a chemist and a fabulous Homebrewligan!  Thank you for sharing your time, space, love of brewing and glorious beer!

Tom Brotherton at his Home Brewery in Manchaca, Texas.

This article is going to be the first in a series of meeting Homebrewligans.  If you know someone who is passionate about their brewing and think they should be featured, please leave a comment with contact information.  I'm always up for meeting one of my peoples!

Happy Brewing & Cheers!
~Cheryl