This is where it all happens!

We brew in a 300l kit

The water is treated, so that it starts with the best PH balance for the brew. This process is called Burtonisation, reflective of the water used in Burton on Trent, to brew arguably some of the best beers in Britain.

We heat the water in the Hot Liquor Tank over night so brewing can start early in the morning. The water is called Hot Liquor at this stage in the process.

The Mash

The grains are added to the Liquor at a set temperature, and stirred in vigorously with a paddle, allowing them to do their thing and release the sugars. This is called the mash and we do this for about an hour. We do a PH test to check that this is in the correct range for the brew.

The liquor, now called Wort is pumped into the Kettle vessel and goes through a process called “sparging”, where hot water is showered on top of the grain to make sure all the avaible sugar comes out. While in the kettle the bittering hops are added, and the wort will boil on a rolling boil for another hour. Further hops are added towards the end of the boil for aroma. Towards the end of the sparging a test is done to check if the amount of sugar in the wort is at the correct level for the ABV of the beer being brewed.

The fermentation vessel

Following the rolling boil, and a further test for sugar levels, the wort is pumped through a Wort Chiller (heat exchanger) into the FV. Depending on which yeast we are using and the temperature we need the liquid to be, this process can be slowed right down, in line with this. We can then pitch the yeast to ferment the beer.

The FV is temperature controlled so the yeast does not become overactive! The beer sits in the FV for around 4-7 days depending on various factors.

Finally we bottle the beer, introducing a small amount of sugar to the bottle to allow the secondary fermentation and carbonation to take place. This process takes a further 3 weeks.

Lastly we can do our final taste test of the beer before selling.