So, how can you build a brewery without a brewery?
This was obviously the first problem we were going to face. We brain stormed a few ideas off each other of a few beers. The first and most obvious idea was we we could just rent out someone’s brewery and fermentation tank?
Maybe we should take it back a few steps. Let’s break down what we would need to make beer.
Brew House
Fermentation Vessel (FV)
Heat Exchanger (HE)
A brew house
What is a brew house?? Well, it's basically the vessels we are going to make our wort (unfermented beer). So, to start this process we will need a vessel to heat up water and lots of it. For that we need the first vessel in the brew house the ‘Hot Liquor Tank or HLT). We need to heat up lots for water to a certain temperature (depending on the beer) where can transfer it to the next vessel, the ‘Mash Tun’. We now can connect our pump and hoses from the HLT to the mash tun. The mash tun is a round vessel where will essentially steep the malted barely. This process is called ‘Mashing In’. Mashing in is exactly as it sounds, mashing in the grain to the hot water. Once all the grain is in we let it rest. Taking place will be an enzymatic reaction, the hot water is going to break down the starch in the malted grain and turn it into sugar (this plays a very important part for making beer). Next up, the ‘Kettle’ and as you can guess in the name this where will boil that hot wort. This is to get rid of any impurities and also so add some bettering hops as we essentially have a grainy sugary water. As the wort is transfers to the kettle we can soon start ‘Sparging’. this process is when we rinse the left over grain in the mash tun with more hot water from the HLT. We want to rinse as much sugar from the grain. Once the kettle is full we now wait for the boil. Once the wort reaches 100 degrees Celsius we can now our hops and boil for 1 hour. Once 1 hour is up we can move onto the next step and finish with brew house.
Transfer to Fermentation Vessels
Once the wort has boiled for 1 hour we are now ready to transfer to the fermentation Vessels (FV). For this process, we are going to need a pump, heat exchanger and brew hose. As the wort is piping hot we need to cool it down to around 20oC. For this we need to connect the hose from the kettle to the pump to the HE and then to the FV. The heat exchanger is a device were hot liquid can trader its heat to cold liquid through the plates in the HE. So, in one end of the HE we have the hot wort and from the other cold water. As the hot wort goes in the heat is exchanged with the water so cold wort comes out as does hot water. This hot water will go right back into out HLT where is will be reused for the next brew and as its already hot we only need to heat it up a little bit so are also saving energy!Once the FV is full the brewing process is almost finished. We now only have a few things left to do, firstly we have to clean everything down. From digging out all that now spent grain from the mash tun (which we give to local farmers for feed) to cleaning the floor, all the hoses, pumps and those heating elements in the kettle!
Cleanliness
When you first start working in a brewery, before you even start to learn the process of making beer you are taught the most important thing. Cleanliness and sanitation is key. This is because we are working with Yeast. Yeast is extremely fragile, and when making a beer especially a lager, if the conditions are not right it can give off some very funky flavours and basically ruin the beer.
Pitching The Yeast
Now we have filled the FV we can now add the yeast. We can dump our lager yeast into the top of the FV. Over the next few days that yeast will eat up all that sugar from the wort and create the byproduct ethanol and carbon dioxide. Now we wait. Over the next few weeks that yeast is going to start giving off some great flavours. Once all the sugar has been eaten up by the yeast we now have beer.
Cellaring
Cellaring is part of the process where we will monitor the beers for 4-6 weeks. We can constantly taste the beer and adjust temperatures. Once we are happy with the lager we are going to drop that temperate way down. This will help clear the beer and give it that crisp finish. We are now ready to carb it up and get it ready to be packaged where it will be put into a can which will be placed into your hand.
