All- Grain Brewing Day

Mashing the Grains

So what is All-Grain brewing? What is the mystery behind using grains to produce beer? Lets review the basics of what happens in a typical all-grain brewing day. Making the switch to All-grain brewing will require a brewer to purchase some additional equipment that can go from a simple to an elaborate system. Each system is suited to the individual needs or wants of the brewer.

But now lets skip to a typical brewing day and how a brewer will go about it. The All-grain brewing process will require a brewer to have three vessels that will each have different jobs. These vessels are the Hot Liquor tank, Mash/Lauter tun, and finally the brew kettle. The first vessel is Hot Liquor tank or HLT. LIQUOR TANK?? Hold on now? Are you saying you add liquor to beer? Now, wait a second, the brewer is not storing Whiskey or Tequila in here so do not panic! The HLT is where all the water that will be required for a brew day will be stored and heated for use. The second vessel Mash/Lauter tun is where grains are mixed with hot water that is supplied by the HLT and at the right temperatures to extract sugars from the grains that will eventually become beer.  Finally, the sugary substance (now called WORT) that has been extracted in the Mash tun is Lautered (drained/removed from grains) into the brew kettle. Almost simultaneously, as Wort is exiting the Mash tun vessel, brewers begin what is called a Sparge. A Sparge is when additional hot water is added into the Mash tun as hot wort will be exiting into the brew kettle. This is called Continuous sparging where water is moving into the Mash tun as wort is exiting.  Once the last of the sparge water has rinsed through the grain bed and picked up the last of the fermentable sugars and has exited into the brew kettle then the final step will begin.

Are you lost? Don’t worry I used to think it was confusing to be moving so much fluid everywhere. But I will show you some illustrations and videos to help you understand this process better (It is really quite easy). Anyway back to the brew day. The wort is now separated from the grains and in the brew kettle. At this point the wort is brought to boiling temperature for 60 minutes to complete the brewing process and to kill any contaminants that may have gotten in the beer. During the 60 minute boil is the time when brewers normally add hops, spices, sugars and just about anything that comes to mind. Believe me this is why it is called craft beer because you can add just about anything to the beer at this stage brewers can get quite creative. The boil is now over and the beer must be brought from boiling to a temperature that is suitable for yeast to thrive and ferment. Once the beer has been cooled to a nice cool temperature and the brew is transferred into a fermentation vessel, the brewer will add the final ingredient; yes you know it, THE YEAST! The yeast is what will convert all the fermentable sugars the brewer extracted into CO2 and Alcohol. Most beers are ready to be either kegged or bottled within 2-4 weeks.  

            This is the basic process that any brewer of any scale must do in order to produce beer. The beauty as I said before is how a brewer goes about brewing their beer, or what they add to the beer?  Craft beer is partly a science but a big part of it is just plain art.

A brewer is the artist, his equipment is his blank canvass, his ingredients are his paint, and his knowledge is his brush. Now he has an infinite amount of possibilities that he can create. It really is a wonderful and rewarding experience to brew and learn from every mistake that is made. A brewer must persevere and never give up no matter how many times things do not go his way.

-Cheers!

Dan Garcia