Ingredients:
Beer contains four main ingredients: Water, barley, hops, and yeast.
Water-
This main ingredient makes up 90-95% of our beer.
Grains-
Our beers are made with malted barley and malted wheat. No cereal grains (rice,
corn) are used. The malted grains supply the beer with body and sugars for the
yeast to convert to alcohol. Specialty grains are used in various ways to color
the beer and give it certain flavors. The spent grains are given to a local farm
to feed his livestock.
Hops-
Hops grow in tall vines which produce flowering buds. These buds are harvested
and compressed into bales or pellets. Hops serve two main functions; the first
is to give the beer some bitterness to balance the sweetness of the malt. The
second function is for the aromas that they can give a beer. Hops have been
grown for hundreds of years and there are many different varieties with
differing characteristic.
Yeast-
The job of the yeast is to convert sugars to alcohol. There are many types of
yeast, which have different characteristics. Our ale yeast will ferment a batch
of beer in 7 days. Our Lager yeast will take 10 to 14 days. We reuse the yeast
in subsequent batches for anywhere from 6 to 8 generations.
The
brewing process can be broken down into four distinctive steps: mashing,
boiling, fermenting, and aging.
The
mashing process involves mixing hot water with barley that has been ground in a
mill. This is mixed to the consistency of oatmeal and allowed to sit for 70
minutes. At that time we run more hot water over the grain, which is on top,
screens which prevent the grain from transferring into the boiling kettle.
After
extracting all the sweet liquid from the grains into the brew kettle we boil the
liquid (called wort) for 90 minutes. Boiling sterilizes the wort, which is
important for the yeast to have a bacteria free environment.
Boiling
also breaks down proteins, which if carried over to the fermenting stage could
inhibit yeast performance and make the beer cloudy. The final thing that happens
during the boil is that this is the time when the hops are added. Hops added
early in the boil are called bittering hops, hops added later are for flavor,
and hops added just before the end of the boil are for aroma.
After
the boil is complete the wort is run through a chiller, which cools it down to a
temperature, that the yeast finds best. For our ales its 68 degrees and for our
lagers its 52 degrees. The yeast work their magic converting sugars to alcohol
and carbon dioxide.
Once
the yeast is finished we cool the beer down to 38 degrees to help the yeast to
settle to the bottom of the tank and to start the aging process. During
conditioning the flavors mellow and blend. After conditioning we filter many of
our beers to make them very clear and clean looking.
Both of our wheat ales and our stout are not filtered, so they will remain hazy. To carbonate the beer we inject carbon dioxide through a carbonating stone so it percolates through the beer and is absorbed to give the beer its bubbles.