The Virtual Tour!
Brew House
This is where the next important step in brewing beer happens: the creation of wort. Wort (rhymes with pert) is basically a sugary tea which is created from the mashing and boiling of the malted grain - in short, unfermented beer. Since this is the product that the brewing yeast will be eating and you will eventually be drinking creating a good wort is of paramount importance.
At Upland, our Brew House is comprised of a 30 barrel mash tun and boil kettle. The mash tun, not surprisingly, is used in a process called mashing - the first step in making wort. First, the mash tun is partially filled with hot water which is maintained at approximately 65 ºC (150 ºF). Then, the ground malt from the Grain Room is fed up through an auger to an outlet above the mash tun where it drops down into the tank. At this point various enzymes are activated, and the malt begins to give up its sugars and proteins into the water. Through a process called lautering, the liquid extract - now properly called wort - is separated from the more than one thousand pounds of spent grain. But don't worry about all that grain going to waste! After every mash, the grain is shoveled out and given to a local farm, where - we are assured - their buffalo really enjoy this high quality treat.
During lautering, the wort is sent over to the boil kettle via a connecting pipe. As its name might indicate, that kettle is then used to boil the wort. Among other things, this ensures that the wort is sterile prior to fermentation. The boil is also the phase where hops, a resinous, cone-shaped flower and the bittering agent found in nearly all beers, are added. In the case of Upland Wheat and some of our Seasonals, this is the stage where we add our unique blend of herbs and spices to the boil as well. After 60 minutes, the wort is whirlpooled to remove most remaining solids. It is then cooled by being passed over a series of metal plates in our wort chiller. At this point the sweet wort is ready for yeast addition and transfer into a fermentation tank where it will be turned into beer.
So let's move our tour over to the Fermenters!
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