the brewing process
Brewers and winemakers are, in essence, trying to achieve the same thing. They each aim to feed a sugar solution to yeast cells for them to metabolize into ethyl alcohol, or ethanol. Wine makers have a relatively easy time of it. Nature gives them a readymade sachet of sugar solution - called a ‘grape’ – which it has generously pre-coated with a bloom of yeast. Stamp on the grape and you start the process. Brewers don’t enjoy la dolce vita to nearly the same extent. Our raw materials are cereals, which are not direct sources of sugar.
Below we describe the steps necessary to produce a pint of Meantime, and we have to get up early in the morning to get them done too.
Milling In
The brewing process commences with ‘milling in’, which is the crushing or milling of malt to expose the insides of the grains. Ground malt is called ‘grist’. Hence the expression ‘it’s all grist to the mill’. Grist can be made up of different types of malts. The choice of malts will affect the strength, taste and colour of the beer.
Mashing In
Hot water is added to the grist in the mash tun and that stimulates natural enzymes in the malt to convert the starch that is the body of the barleycorn into sugar. We then have a runny soup (mash) of barley husks and sugary water which is called ‘wort’ - pronounced ‘wurt’.
Lautering
The next job is to separate the wort from the grains. The mash is transferred into the lauter tun (left). This is essentially a giant sieve with moving rakes. The wort is filtered through the grain into the copper, whilst the grain - which is a co-product of brewing - remains behind and is loaded out and taken away for animal feed.
Boiling
During boiling countless chemical reactions take place and a number of functions are undertaken the most important of which is to sterilize the wort. This is what makes beer such an important food.
Adding The Hops
The most aromatic part of the brewing process is the hop addition. Those hops which add bitterness are added early on during the boil so that their essential oils will become soluble, whilst hops that have been selected for the aromas they will impart to the beer are added at the end so that the volatile aroma compounds stay in the beer rather than vanishing up the chimney.
Whirlpool
After boiling the hopped wort passes into the whirlpool. A vortex is created as hot wort is pumped around the side of the vessel and, like a Dyson hoover, all the spent hops and material that has precipitated out during the boil (known as ‘trub’) is forced to the center of the vessel floor, allowing clear wort to be drawn off from the perimeter.
Cooling
From the whirlpool clear, hot wort, passes through a para flow, where the energy used in the boil is transferred to cold liquor across a plate heat exchanger. The newly hot liquor is used in the next mash and the wort - which is now cold enough to receive yeast - goes into fermenters.
Fermentation
Yeast is added to the wort in vast quantities (literally trillions and trillions of cells) in order to make sure that fermentation starts quickly whilst the wort is still sterile. The yeast eats the sugar in the wort and makes more yeast, until the ‘Pasteur Point’ is reached and no more free oxygen exists in the wort, after which the yeast starts to make alcohol.
Maturation
At the end of fermentation the wort has been transformed into beer. It’s still pretty rough and is called ‘green beer’ and needs maturation to finish it. Some yeast remains to allow secondary fermentation to take place. Traditionally lager beers are matured, or lagered, for long periods (6-8 weeks). Ales are not, although in the days before refrigeration some strong ale like London Porter could be matured for up to two years.
Packaging
At the end of maturation we have to package the beer in a way that ensures that it does not deteriorate before the consumer gets a chance to drink it. This is the hardest part of the process. We can either package into bottle or keg, and we can either filter the beer or allow some residual yeast to remain in the beer. Fundamental to all our packaging operations is our determination to exclude air from the process. Both the oxygen and the microbes that inhabit air are potentially disastrous to beer quality. Because we don’t pasteurize, sterility is also crucial to our operation. We may not have a very pretty brewery, but we have a very clean brewery. Packaging is a very different skill to brewing and, sadly, in Britain much good beer is spoiled by bad packaging
Distribution
The beer is now ready to be distributed to trade. At Meantime our famous pink vans deliver it to our customers and our fate is then in their hands.
Below we describe the steps necessary to produce a pint of Meantime, and we have to get up early in the morning to get them done too.
Milling In
The brewing process commences with ‘milling in’, which is the crushing or milling of malt to expose the insides of the grains. Ground malt is called ‘grist’. Hence the expression ‘it’s all grist to the mill’. Grist can be made up of different types of malts. The choice of malts will affect the strength, taste and colour of the beer.
Mashing In
Hot water is added to the grist in the mash tun and that stimulates natural enzymes in the malt to convert the starch that is the body of the barleycorn into sugar. We then have a runny soup (mash) of barley husks and sugary water which is called ‘wort’ - pronounced ‘wurt’.
Lautering
The next job is to separate the wort from the grains. The mash is transferred into the lauter tun (left). This is essentially a giant sieve with moving rakes. The wort is filtered through the grain into the copper, whilst the grain - which is a co-product of brewing - remains behind and is loaded out and taken away for animal feed.
Boiling
During boiling countless chemical reactions take place and a number of functions are undertaken the most important of which is to sterilize the wort. This is what makes beer such an important food.
Adding The Hops
The most aromatic part of the brewing process is the hop addition. Those hops which add bitterness are added early on during the boil so that their essential oils will become soluble, whilst hops that have been selected for the aromas they will impart to the beer are added at the end so that the volatile aroma compounds stay in the beer rather than vanishing up the chimney.
Whirlpool
After boiling the hopped wort passes into the whirlpool. A vortex is created as hot wort is pumped around the side of the vessel and, like a Dyson hoover, all the spent hops and material that has precipitated out during the boil (known as ‘trub’) is forced to the center of the vessel floor, allowing clear wort to be drawn off from the perimeter.
Cooling
From the whirlpool clear, hot wort, passes through a para flow, where the energy used in the boil is transferred to cold liquor across a plate heat exchanger. The newly hot liquor is used in the next mash and the wort - which is now cold enough to receive yeast - goes into fermenters.
Fermentation
Yeast is added to the wort in vast quantities (literally trillions and trillions of cells) in order to make sure that fermentation starts quickly whilst the wort is still sterile. The yeast eats the sugar in the wort and makes more yeast, until the ‘Pasteur Point’ is reached and no more free oxygen exists in the wort, after which the yeast starts to make alcohol.
Maturation
At the end of fermentation the wort has been transformed into beer. It’s still pretty rough and is called ‘green beer’ and needs maturation to finish it. Some yeast remains to allow secondary fermentation to take place. Traditionally lager beers are matured, or lagered, for long periods (6-8 weeks). Ales are not, although in the days before refrigeration some strong ale like London Porter could be matured for up to two years.
Packaging
At the end of maturation we have to package the beer in a way that ensures that it does not deteriorate before the consumer gets a chance to drink it. This is the hardest part of the process. We can either package into bottle or keg, and we can either filter the beer or allow some residual yeast to remain in the beer. Fundamental to all our packaging operations is our determination to exclude air from the process. Both the oxygen and the microbes that inhabit air are potentially disastrous to beer quality. Because we don’t pasteurize, sterility is also crucial to our operation. We may not have a very pretty brewery, but we have a very clean brewery. Packaging is a very different skill to brewing and, sadly, in Britain much good beer is spoiled by bad packaging
Distribution
The beer is now ready to be distributed to trade. At Meantime our famous pink vans deliver it to our customers and our fate is then in their hands.
