Axholme Brewing Company


	The Brewing Process Above you see our brewplant. On the left is the Hot Liquor Tank, a hot water vessel. To the right of that is the Mash Tun and on the right of that is the Copper. The two tanks on the right of the picture are fermenting tanks. The brewing process starts when we mix milled malted barley with hot water to create a mash (in the Mash Tun). This is essentially a giant porridge held at a temperature of 65 C for an hour or so. This causes the enzymes naturally present in the malt to convert the malt starches into simple sugars that can be fermented. After this the liquid - now called wort - is strained from the solids and the mash is rinsed through to remove residual sugars. This is called sparging. The wort is collected in the Copper. In the copper the wort is heated to boiling point and the first load of hops - the bittering hops - are added. These hops do not contribute to the flavour of the beer as the aromatic oils are evaporated during the boiling, but the boil isomerises the alpha-acids within the hops creating bitterness. The wort is boiled for an hour, which coagulates the malt proteins, deactivates the malt enzymes and sterilises the wort. At the end of the boil the heat is turned off and the second load of hops is added - the aroma hops. These are not boiled and so they do not contribute much to bitterness but the essential oils in the hops are released into the wort adding flavour. They stand in the copper for half an hour before the next stage. Then the wort is passed through a heat exchanger, cooling the wort down to 17 C and heating up water for the following days brew. The wort flows into one of our fermenting vessels. When collection is completed the levels of sugar are measured using a saccharometer and if they are too high for the beer being created water is added to the copper (also rinsing wort out of the aroma hops) - this is a hop sparge. When the sugar levels - or gravity - are right the yeast can be added. Over the next four or five days the yeast will metabolise the sugars in the wort into carbon dioxide and alcohol. We can measure the progress of the fermentation by measuring the decreasing gravity on the saccharometers . When the beer - as it now is - is fermented cooling coils in the fermenting vessel jacket activate, cooling the beer down to about 10 C. This halts further yeast activity and causes much of the yeast to sediment out. Now the beer can be transferred into casks, along with a finings agent to clear the beer in the cask, where it undergoes conditioning as it heads to a pub cellar and ultimately, your glass.

The Brewing Process

Above you see our brewplant. On the left is the Hot Liquor Tank, a hot water vessel. To the right of that is the Mash Tun and on the right of that is the Copper. The two tanks on the right of the picture are fermenting tanks.

The brewing process starts when we mix milled malted barley with hot water to create a mash (in the Mash Tun). This is essentially a giant porridge held at a temperature of 65 C for an hour or so. This causes the enzymes naturally present in the malt to convert the malt starches into simple sugars that can be fermented.

After this the liquid - now called wort - is strained from the solids and the mash is rinsed through to remove residual sugars. This is called sparging. The wort is collected in the Copper.

In the copper the wort is heated to boiling point and the first load of hops - the bittering hops - are added. These hops do not contribute to the flavour of the beer as the aromatic oils are evaporated during the boiling, but the boil isomerises the alpha-acids within the hops creating bitterness. The wort is boiled for an hour, which coagulates the malt proteins, deactivates the malt enzymes and sterilises the wort.

At the end of the boil the heat is turned off and the second load of hops is added - the aroma hops. These are not boiled and so they do not contribute much to bitterness but the essential oils in the hops are released into the wort adding flavour. They stand in the copper for half an hour before the next stage.

Then the wort is passed through a heat exchanger, cooling the wort down to 17 C and heating up water for the following days brew. The wort flows into one of our fermenting vessels. When collection is completed the levels of sugar are measured using a saccharometer and if they are too high for the beer being created water is added to the copper (also rinsing wort out of the aroma hops) - this is a hop sparge.

When the sugar levels - or gravity - are right the yeast can be added. Over the next four or five days the yeast will metabolise the sugars in the wort into carbon dioxide and alcohol. We can measure the progress of the fermentation by measuring the decreasing gravity on the saccharometers .

When the beer - as it now is - is fermented cooling coils in the fermenting vessel jacket activate, cooling the beer down to about 10 C. This halts further yeast activity and causes much of the yeast to sediment out. Now the beer can be transferred into casks, along with a finings agent to clear the beer in the cask, where it undergoes conditioning as it heads to a pub cellar and ultimately, your glass.