Robin Shepard
Jessica Jones hopes to make laborious hand bottling a thing of the past with this shiny new system.
Giant Jones, the little east-side brewery that has been specializing in “big” beers and relatively unfamiliar styles like barleywines and historic ales from Belgium, England and France, is taking a leap forward this fall. The brewery is expected to complete installation of an automated bottling system this month, followed by the purchase of three new fermentation tanks over the next year.
Bottling has been a major bottleneck for the brewery preventing its growth. “We haven’t even tried to find new places to sell our beer since before the pandemic because we can’t keep up with bottling demands,” says co-owner and brewmaster Jessica Jones. The brewery is known for its single 500 mL bottles with labels that often depict giants, gods and goddesses, and legendary characters from myths and legends.
The bottling machine is capable of filling 16 bottles a minute, which is a big step up from Giant Jones’ current approach — a manual process in which each bottle is washed, labeled and capped by hand. The machine will condense what is now 45 hours of labor to 45 minutes, says Jones.
The bottling equipment was formerly used by Drake’s Brewing of San Leandro, California, a brewery Jones volunteered at from 2006-08. The bottler arrived in fall of 2020 but has since been waiting to be installed while Jones determined where it should be placed; uncertainty in business during COVID and then difficulty in scheduling a technician from the manufacturer also added to the delay in hooking things up. Jones is optimistic that it will be in operation later this month.
The brewery’s capacity could triple in the next 12-18 months, making it possible for Giant Jones beers to expand its reach into Milwaukee and the Fox Valley.
Despite the niche nature of this big-beer-specializing, certified organic brewery, its beers are extremely popular among those who enjoy full-flavored, well-balanced brews of 8 percent or stronger. And the brewery is being recognized nationally as well as locally. Giant Jones recently won bronze at the 2022 Great American Beer Festival with its Doppelsticke Altbier, a dark bronze ale with a rich malt bill. Jones is planning on brewing another batch of the Doppelsticke Altbier for a December release, just the right time for its touch of warmth at 9.2 percent ABV.
Among the newest beers to watch for in November is Jones’ Antwerps Gerstebier. It’s based on recipes from the 1800s and 1900s. Jones’ Gerstebier is made with a combination of barley, pilsner malt, oats, spelt and wheat. That malt bill, with raw spelt and wheat, offers light graininess while the Belgian yeast complements those flavors by adding a touch of citrus. It is a deep golden-orange color and finishes at 8 percent ABV ($7/bottle).
Later in the winter, Jones has plans to make a kuyt, another historic recipe re-creation influenced by a Dutch-Belgian brewing tradition that dates back more than 500 years. Though the style is known for its high percentage of oat and wheat malt, this one will be made with a majority of oats in the grist to lend a grainy and bready character. Jones anticipates an early 2023 release.
