BREWING PROCESS

Step One - Mash-in Conversion
This is the initial stage of the brewing process where the milled malted barley is mixed with hot water to form the mash. The mash is held to cook in the mash/lauter tub at temperatures of approximately 150 degrees fahrenheit. At this temperature, enzymes in the malt convert the starches into sugars, which the yeast will ferment later in the brewing process. The mixing portion of this stage takes about 30-40 minutes, and conversion requires one hour.

Step Two - Recirculation
The cooked mash is sitting on a false bottom in the mash/lauter tub. The false bottom is a screen with hundreds of small slots in it. The slots are small enough to hold the mash, but large enough to allow liquid to seep through. We use the mash (milled malted barley mixed with hot water,) as its own filtration system. As we take liquid from the bottom, and pump it to the top, this sweet liquid, called wort, seeps through the bed of mash and traps unnecessary solids and husk particles. This process takes approximately 15-20 minutes. During this time, the wort clears up from opaque to translucent.

Step Three - Sparging and Wort Collection
This process involves the sugars we've created from the malt in the mash bed. We pump hot water (175 degrees fahrenheit) over the top of the mash. As it percolates through, it picks up the sugars formed during the initial mash-in and conversion stage. The sweet liquid is called wort, and it is collected in a small vessel in front of the mash/lauter tub called a grant. From here it is pumped over to the brew kettle, where the boil will soon start. We typically collect around 600 gallons of wort for one of our brews, and this takes about 70 minutes.

Step Four - Boil
Here's where we apply the heat to our wort. While we collect the wort, we begin heating it in the brew kettle, using our gas burner underneath. After we reach boiling temperature, we add our hops at three to four different times. The hops add the spicy, slightly bitter flavor to the beer, and also give it its pleasant aroma. We take great care to add just enough hops, enough for flavor and to offset the sweetness of the malt, but not too much to make it bitter. The boil also serves to sterilize the wort, so that the yeast can do its job without any risk of other, unwanted microorganisms.

Step Five - Run-off and Yeast Pitching
No, the yeast doesn't play baseball. Pitching refers to adding the yeast to the boiled, but cooled wort. After boiling, we cool the wort through a plate heat exchanger, and pump it into one of four cone-bottomed fermenters. We cool about 525 gallons from over 200 degrees down to about 65 degrees in an hour. During the beginning of this process, we pour the yeast into the fermenter so that the yeast and wort mix well. It is here where the wort actually becomes beer. We call it green beer, because it is so young, not because we add food coloring and serve it on St. Patrick's Day.

Step Six - Fermentation and Aging
It may look like things are quiet in the brewery, but there's a lot happening in the fermenters. During fermentation, the yeast will eat the sugars we provided for them in the brewing process and transform it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. After 5-7 days, the yeast has eaten all the available sugars. We then cool the tanks from 65 degrees to 35 degrees. This causes the yeast to precipitate to the bottom of the cone, where we can draw it off into a sanitized container, and reuse this yeast on our next batch. After the yeast is removed, the beer is left to age at this cooler temperature, This week-long process allows for a smoothing and maturing of the beer.

Step Seven - Filtration and Carbonation
After the beer is fermented and aged, it is almost ready to serve. We do, however, want to remove any lingering yeast cells, and give the beer its clear, appetizing Silo

appearance. As we pump the beer to our downstairs serving tanks, we pass it through a plate and frame filter to bring out its brilliant color. We also pump in clean carbon dioxide to give our beers just the right amount of foam in the glass. The only thing left is for the bartender to pour this super fresh fermented malt beverage into a glass for you! This final step can be observed by asking our friendly bartender to tap you one of your favorites. Or ask them for our "Plank 'O Brews Sampler," a sampling of all our fine brews!

Join Jon Jarosh and his "Explore the Door" podcast video featuring a tour of our brew house.

http://www.doorcounty.com/podcast/next16/video_17.aspx