What's Brewing At Empathy Lab?

Cutting edge innovations and world-class design aren't the only things brewing at Empathy Lab these days.  American Pale Ales, Wheat beers, and India Pale Ales have entered the production cycle.

The Empathy Lab Brewery was born during a conversation about shared passions.  Fashion, cars, movies, mountain biking and good food all earned respectable positions on the THINGS WE LOVE AT EL list but beer was the undisputed leader. So we decided to put our creative talents to the test and brew the perfect batch using the skills we've honed as thought leaders, artists, and experts in our field. Turns out, several folks had brewed before and already owned most of the equipment needed for all-grain brewing (in true Empathy Lab fashion there would be no extracts or other shortcuts). We made it official by scheduling our first meeting to select what types of beers to brew. We decided our first beer would be an IPA which would include a technique called dry hopping.  Why start small?

On a fateful Friday the team gathered together with grains, hops, yeast, and spring water.  We began by mashing grains, fly sparging, boiling wort and pitching hops.  This all happened down in our parking lot and earned some double-takes from passer-bys.  Four hours later with some yeast added, our concoction was moved to a fermentation tank.  We were in the beer business (Dear IRS - this is a creative turn-of-phrase only)!  Fast forward a few weeks and after dry hopping, bottling, and bottle conditioning the brewery team gathered around a single, chilled bottle of our newly named "Cool Story Brew" with opener in hand. (BTW, the naming and label design was a whole other work stream - involving a series of open submissions and online surveys)  Popping the cap confirmed the great news: we had achieved carbonation!  The twelve ounces were equally distributed among the group in small cups.  We each took a sip and a silence befell the group -- broken several moments later by the words: "Hey, this doesn't suck!"  Indeed, we had produced a non-sucking IPA on the first attempt.  Success was ours!!

The Empathy Lab Brewery went on to produce a second beer, a wheat dubbed "Honey Badger” and an American Pale Ale we called “Apathy Lab.”  All three were enjoyed in a company-wide bash along with fresh cheesesteaks from Steve’s made on their mobile kitchen.