This is a simplified explanation of the craft brewing process as it is performed in the Taps Brewery. If you visit us for a tour, we will take you through this process, giving you a better understanding of how we make our great beers. If you are lucky, (or maybe unlucky), you will catch us on a Brew Day. Lots of activity and lots of water (bring your rubber boots), as we tend to clean as we go, and that means wading through a few puddles. After this experience, we will treat you to samples of Taps beer in our tasting room.
Step 1: Water
After the Mashing part of the process, we will need hot “Sparge” water, which is an essential part of Lautering, (which will be explained later), so our first task is to heat water in our Mash Tun and transfer it to a holding tank known as a “Sparge Tank” or a “Hot Liquor Tank.”
Step 2: Mashing
Malted Barley is ground in our mill to the perfect consistency, and then augered into our stainless steel vessel called a Mash Tun, or Mash Lauter Tun. The malted barley that we purchase has been allowed to germinate to a certain point, and then put in a kiln and heated to stop the process. Malt provides the beer colour, head, and flavour. A sign of a good beer is the even amount of head present, and the “brewer’s lace” that is left on the side of your glass. The amount of kilning will impart colour and flavour characteristics to the malt. The germination process converts starches present into more desirable simpler starches by using enzymes present in the barley. In one of our beers we use 100% 2-row malted barley, but in our other beers we add a small amount of other grains to get the flavours and characteristics that we want. The water in the Mash Tun is maintained at a temperature that will convert the starch into sugar. Later, once the beer has been transferred into the Fermenter, the yeast will act on the sugar to turn it into alcohol.
Step 3: Lautering
Once the starch to sugar conversion is complete in the Mash Tun, the liquid, which is known as wort (pronounced wert), is drained (strained from the grain bed), and transferred to the Brew Kettle. At this point, the wort is very strong and there is not enough liquid for a typical batch. This is where we must “Sparge.” We now pump hot water from the “Hot Liquor Tank” into the Mash Tun to wash all residual sugar from the grain bed. We sparge and continue transferring the wort into the Kettle until the Specific Gravity of the wort is at the perfect point for beer. When all the wort has been transferred, the spent grain is shovelled out of the Mash Tun. Hey, this is not fun, but it must be done.
Step 4: The Brew Kettle
Once the beer is in the Brew Kettle, the temperature is gradually increased until a rolling boil is achieved. Select Hops are added at various times throughout the boil. The timing of the hop addition depends on the particular recipe and the flavours that we wish to achieve. Hops provide flavour and bitterness and also help to preserve the beer.
Step 5: Cooling the Wort
When the boil is complete, the liquid must be transferred to a Fermenter, but first the liquid must be cooled down quickly to a temperature that is suitable for the addition of the yeast. We pump the liquid from the Kettle out through a Heat Exchanger until the temperature is right for transfer to the Fermenter.
Step 6: Fermentation & Conditioning
The beer now sits in the Fermenter for a period of 2 weeks. During this time, the temperature is maintained at the required temperature (for that style of beer) while the yeast changes the sugar into alcohol. At the end of the 2 week primary fermentation stage, the beer is removed from the yeast bed in the Fermenter and transferred to a Conditioning Tank in our Cold Room. The beer will spend 4 more weeks in the Conditioning Tank at a much colder temperature.
Step 7: Filtration, Carbonation & Packaging
After a total of 6 weeks, the beer is filtered and transferred from the Conditioning Tank to our Brite beer Tank where it is carbonated. When it is suitably carbonated, the beer is bottled and/or Kegged and is ready for distribution to our customers.