HOT LIQUOR BACK:
This is the vessel dedicated to heating water for use in mashing and sparging. We use an immersion heater to bring the water to a temperature of 170 F for mashing and 180 F for sparging.

MILL:
Milling is the cracking of the grain which the brewer chooses for the particular batch of beer. Milling occurs just prior to it's addition to the Mash Tun.

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MASH TUN:
Mashing is the process of mixing milled grain (typically malted barley or wheat) with heated water to allow enzymes in the malt to break down the starch in the grain into sugars, typically maltose. Mashing
occurs in the Mash Tun. After an hour and a half we begin to run the sweet 'wort' into the kettle while running hot water over the grain bed in order to rinse remaining sugar from the grains. This is called sparging.

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KETTLE or COPPER:
The 'wort' as it is called is boiled between 60 and 90 minutes while hop additions are made to contribute bitterness, flavor and aroma. The heat of the boil causes proteins in the wort to coagulate and the pH of the wort to fall.
Our kettle is direct fired with a three stage burner underneath the vessel.
And yes, it is a pain in the
butt to clean the copper dome.

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HOP BACK / HOP PERCOLATOR:
Here we make a hop tea expressly used for aroma. Flower hops are added with water at 180 F and steeped while the rest of the brewing process takes place. After the boil is complete, the wort is strained through the hop percolator.

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FERMENTATION TANKS:
After the wort is cooled, it goes into the fermentation tank where fermentation starts as soon as yeast is added to the cooled wort. This is also the point at which the product is first called beer. It is during this stage that sugars converted from the malt are metabolized into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Fermentation tanks come in all sorts of shapes, from enormous tanks which can look like storage silos, to five gallon glass carboys in a homebrewer's closet. We use three 7 barrel open fermentors imported from England and one 14 barrel open fermentor from Maine.

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FILTER:
After the beer is fully fermented we condition the beer for a period of up to three weeks. The beer is then filtered into a serving tank. Filtering the beer stabilizes the flavor and gives beer its polished shine and brilliance however, not all beer is filtered.

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SERVING TANK:
This is where carbonation takes place. The serving tank has a CO2/Nitrogen blanket of pressure which pushes the beer upstairs through cooled beer lines and finally out of the faucet into your pint glass.

Please drink responsibly.
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