The wort is drained into the Copper Kettle/Whirlpool (C/WP). That’s the brick-lined kettle with the trap door in it. As we begin heating the wort, we engage a whirlpool pump to ensure even heating, as we want the wort to boil only when the kettle reaches full capacity. Pelletized hops are added to the kettle at certain intervals to achieve bitterness, flavor and aroma in the finished beer. After a one-hour boil, the burners and whirlpool are shut down to allow the spent hops and coagulated proteins to settle to the bottom. We then pump the clear wort out of the kettle, leaving the spent material in the bottom.
Our Hop Percolator (HP) is a piece of equipment unique to English brewing systems and rarely seen in America. Whole-leaf hops are combined with hot water from the HLB and allowed to sit for several hours, extracting the flavors to make a hop tea. As the clear wort is pumped from the kettle in to the fermenter, is passes through the hop percolator, forcing the hop tea into the fermenter and straining the wort.
Once in the fermenter (FV), active yeast is pitched into the wort. The yeast metabolizes the sugars, giving off alcohol and carbon dioxide as byproducts. This fermentation process takes anywhere from two days to three weeks, depending on the style and strength of the beer being produced.
After fermentation, the beer (it’s beer now, not wort) is transferred into a conditioning tank (CT). Conditioning allows any remaining yeast to settle to the bottom as the flavors of the beer smooth out and mature. The process can take as little as three days for some ales or more than two months for some lagers!
Finally, the beer is transferred to a serving vessel (SV). Some of our beers are filtered on the way, but many remain unfiltered to preserve the maximum flavor profile. Once is the serving vessel, carbon dioxide is injected into the beer to achieve the proper carbonation. The serving vessel is then connected directly to the taps at the bar!