WEST PINTS

PINTS WEST
Here comes the science bit ... concentrate
The brewing process begins with water being heated in the hot
liquor tank (HLT) to bring it up to the required temperature which, for
us, was 73.5°C. The Chinese-made, stainless-steel and copper-covered
HLT at Bristol’s Brewhouse & Kitchen is capable of holding around 500
litres of water, and can be heated up to the desired temperature in around
an hour.
While the water in the HLT was reaching the desired temperature,
we measured out the malted barley, or grist, which in this case was just
under 2kg of crystal, just over 8kg of Vienna, and just over 75kg of pale
ale malt. This was added to over 200 litres of hot water from the HLT
in the mash tun to form the mash, which was left for an hour at 66°C to
extract the sugars from the malted barley.
After an hour, the sparging begins, where hot water is slowly
sprinkled over the grains to rinse out the entrapped sugars. The sugary
liquid called wort is transferred to a boiler, called the copper, where
hops are added and it is boiled for around 90 minutes. In our Animator
brew, we added 250g of Columbus and 1.6kg of Galaxy hops at various
points during the boil, as the hops that are added at the start of the boil
process will produce the bitterness of the beer, while those added at the
end will give more aroma. The main purpose of the boil, however, is to
sterilise the wort and break up any unwanted proteins.
On our Brewery Day, before passing the wort through the plate
chiller to the fermenter at the end of the boil, we transferred it back into
the clean mash tun where we added more hops, effectively using the
mash tun as a hopback.
From the hopback, we passed the wort through a chiller, ensuring
that it would reach the fermenter at around 18°C. Once in the fermenter,
we added a small amount of yeast to allow the fermentation to begin,
which normally takes around eight days for the Animator beer. After
this, it will be transferred into casks, kegs or bottles and allowed to
mature for a few more days.
Stephen Edmonds
For more information on Brewery Experience Days, ask at the bar of the
Brewhouse & Kitchen, Cotham Hill or email bristol@brewhouseandkitchen.com.
Brewery Experience Days are £75 per person, which includes tea or coffee on
arrival, breakfast, lunch, beer tastings, and a 5-litre mini-keg of the beer you
brew (up to two weeks later, depending on the length of fermentation required).
Page 25