Brewing beer

Though new to commercial brewing, our brewmaster Paul Dickerson has distinguished himself as a master of the art. Paul has been involved since the beginning and personally assembled and outfitted the brew system. Paul has received praise for his American Pale Ale, India Pale Ale, Wheat, Porter and Stout. We invite you to join us in a round of your favorite brew.

All beers are brewed using a process based on a simple formula. Key to the process is malted grain—depending on the region, traditionally barley, wheat, or rye. Malt is made by allowing a grain to germinate, after which it is then dried in a kiln and sometimes roasted. The germination process creates a number of enzymes which convert the starch in the grain into fermentable sugar. Depending on the amount of roasting, the malt will take on a dark color and strongly influence the color and flavor of the beer.

The malt is then crushed to break apart the grain kernels, increase the surface area, and separate the smaller pieces from the husks. The resulting grist is mixed with heated water in a vat called a "mash tun" for a process known as "mashing". During this process, natural enzymes within the malt break the starch into fermentable sugars. The mashing process usually takes 1 to 2 hours. The enzymes convert the starches of the grains to dextrin and then to fermentable sugars such as maltose. In small breweries, the mash tun usually contains a slotted "false bottom" or other form of manifold which acts as a strainer for the separation of the liquid from the grain.

"Infusion mash" is the process we use at the Broadway Brewery, which is a single step temperature rest of 149-160°F. During this rest the enzymes found in the malt convert the starches into sugar, which is then usable by the yeast later in the brewing process. A temperature rest at the lower end of the range produces more low-order sugars like maltotriose, maltose, and glucose which are more fermentable by the yeast. This in turn creates a beer lower in body and higher in alcohol. A temperature rest closer to the higher end of the range produces more higher-order sugars and dextrins which are less fermentable by the yeast, so a fuller-bodied beer with less alcohol is the result. Duration and pH variances also affect the sugar composition of the resulting wort.

After the mashing, the resulting liquid is strained from the grains in a process known as lautering. Prior to lautering, the mash temperature may be raised to 165-170 °F to deactivate enzymes. Additional water is added to the grains to extract additional sugars in a process known as sparging.

At this point the liquid is known as wort, which then flows into a kettle where it is boiled with hops and sometimes other ingredients such as herbs or sugars. The boiling process terminates enzymatic processes, precipitate proteins, isomerizes hop resins, concentrates and sterilizes the wort. Hops add flavor, aroma and bitterness to the beer. At the end of the boil, the hopped wort is "whirl-pooled" to aid in settling of suspended solids.

The clarified wort is then cooled and pumped into a "fermentation vessel" where yeast is added or "pitched". The yeast converts the sugars from the malt into alcohol, carbon dioxide and other components through a process called fermentation. After one to three weeks, the fresh (or "green") beer is run off into conditioning tanks. After conditioning for a week to several months the beer is then ready for serving.

Ingredients

The basic ingredients of beer are water; a starch source, such as malted barley, which are able to be fermented (converted into alcohol); a brewer's yeast to produce the fermentation; and a flavoring such as hops. A mixture of starch sources may be used, with a secondary starch source, such as maize (corn), rice or sugar, often being termed an adjunct, especially when used as a lower-cost substitute for malted barley. Less widely used starch sources include millet, sorghum and cassava root in Africa, potato in Brazil, and agave in Mexico, among others. The amount of each starch source in a beer recipe is collectively called the grain bill.

Water

Beer is composed mostly of water. Regions have water with different mineral components; as a result, different regions were originally better suited to making certain types of beer, thus giving them a regional character. For example, Dublin has hard water well suited to making stouts; while Pilzen has soft water well suited to making pale lagers. The waters of Burton in England contain gypsum, which benefits making pale ale to such a degree that brewers of pale ales will add gypsum to the local water in a process known as Burtonisation.

Starch source

The starch source in a beer provides the fermentable material and is a key determinant of the strength and flavor of the beer. The most common starch source used in beer is malted grain. Grain is malted by soaking it in water, allowing it to begin germination, and then drying the partially germinated grain in a kiln. Malting grain produces enzymes that convert starches in the grain into fermentable sugars. Different roasting times and temperatures are used to produce different colors of malt from the same grain. Darker malts will produce darker beers.

Nearly all beer includes barley malt as the majority of the starch. This is because of its fibrous husk, which is not only important in the sparging stage of brewing but also as a rich source of amylase, a digestive enzyme which facilitates conversion of starch into sugars. Other malted and unmalted grains include wheat, rice, oats, and rye, and less frequently, corn and sorghum.

Hops

Flavoring beer is the sole major commercial use of hops. The flower of the hop vine is used as a flavoring and preservative agent in nearly all beer made today. The flowers themselves are often called "hops".

Hops contribute a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt; the bitterness of beers is measured on the International Bitterness Units scale. Hops contribute floral, citrus, and herbal aromas and flavors to beer. Hops have an antibiotic effect that favors the activity of brewer's yeast over less desirable microorganisms, and hops aids in "head retention", the length of time that a foamy head created by carbonation will last.

Yeast

Yeast is the microorganism that is responsible for fermentation in beer. Yeast metabolises the sugars extracted from grains, which produces alcohol and carbon dioxide, and thereby turns wort into beer. In addition to fermenting the beer, yeast influences the character and flavor. The dominant types of yeast used to make beer are ale yeast and lager yeast. Before the role of yeast in fermentation was understood, fermentation involved wild or airborne yeasts. A few styles such as lambics rely on this method today, but most modern breweries use pure yeast cultures.