This page will be dedicated to educating the public on the brew process.

Brewing

Malted Barley, a cereal grain that provides body and color to the beer, crushed in the mill and conveyed to the MASH TUN, where it is mixed with hot water, creating a mash. The sweet, fermentable liquid from the mash, called wort, is run off through the screened plates to the KETTLE. While the wort is running off, we spray the grain with more hot water, a process called sparging. This is a process similar to making coffee. Once all the wort is run off, the spent grains are given to a farmer for cattle feed.

When the kettle is at 210 gallons, we start the boil, and add hops, a small, resinous flower providing bitterness and aroma to the beer. We use a number of different aromatic hop varieties for the lagers and ales. After 1 hour of boiling, we cool the wort to a FERMENTER.

Fermenting

While cooling into the fermenter, yeast is added and the tank is closed up. Our ales are made with a top fermenting strain that actually floats to the top of the fermenter, and our lagers are made with a bottom fermenting strain that settles during fermentation. At the end of the 3 - 4 days, the yeast has utilized sugars from the wort giving off CO2 and alcohol.

At the end of the fermentation, the cooling is turned on, yeast settles out. Beer flavors mature at this stage, called secondary fermentation, during the 7 - 14 days of storage. We also "dry hop" some ales at this stage, adding hops to the cellar tank to give beer more aroma.

Filtration and Serving

After aging, the beer is cooled to 36° F in the cellar tank for 24 hours. Under pressure, the beer is transferred through cellulose sheets in our FILTER PRESS to remove protein haze and yeast to a SERVING TANK. Serving tanks are counter pressured for service directly to the taps at the bar. Our beers are all natural and are poured without preservatives, fresh and unpasteurized.