Manteca—Ever take a sip of an IPA and wonder, “How in the world was this glass of hoppy goodness created?”
We went to Brethren Brewing Company, a new craft brewery in Manteca, to learn what constitutes a craft beer, and how they are made. Owner Daniel Machado opened the spot in January, along with five founding board members who share a love of beer and God.
“It was a bunch of guys who said, ‘Hey, let’s try making this beer stuff,’” Machado said in a video on the company’s website. “’What if you could have a genuine conversation about church over a couple pints?’”
They took us behind the scenes to show us how it’s done. Here’s what we found out:
What Makes a Craft Beer ‘Craft’
If you ask Brethren’s head brewer, Kevin Whitehouse, he would say a craft beer is made with love.
“How I would define it would be a couple things: Your love of what you’re creating and then how involved you are with the process,” he said.
Whitehouse does his entire brew process manually.
“There’s no automated anything to stir it or grind it, it’s all me,” he said. “For me, craft would be a connection with your product as opposed to a bigger beer manufacturer who has just profit and market space.”
Officially, though, the definition is set by the Brewers Association. The association defines a craft brewer as small and independent, making 6 million barrels (31 gallons each) or less of beer per year.
Craft brewers and beers also may have some of these qualities, according to the association’s website:
- Innovation building off old styles and developing new twists
- Interesting and sometimes nontraditional ingredients
- Heavy community involvement with donating, volunteering and sponsoring events
- Distinct ways of connecting with customers
The ABCs of C-R-A-F-T
You can see the tanks on display at certain breweries, but what are they for? Are they all the same? Is the beer in your glass the same as what’s in that big device?
Each tank has a specific purpose, and they’re all part of the process that turns grain into the beverage in your frosted glass.
To put it simply, when grain and water are heated, hops are added, the mixture is cooled, yeast is added and the mixture is barreled, you get beer. Here are the steps:
Step 1
First things first. Whitehouse said he sets his water to 155 degrees Fahrenheit. He grinds the grain in a mill, where it will then travel up an auger and, depending on the brew, mixes with 120 to 175 gallons of hot water in a mash tun.
The hot water steeps the grains and activates enzymes, Whitehouse said. The process takes about an hour.
Step 2
When it’s done steeping, Whitehouse transfers the mixture to a brew kettle, where he boils it with another 120 gallons of water for 60 to 90 minutes. It becomes what’s known as “wort.”
“When it gets here, I have about 250 gallons of really sweet, like, cereal water,” Whitehouse said. “If you’re drinking a soda that tasted like Bran Flakes, but carbonated—it’s like that.”
During this part of the process, hops are thrown into the wort at different intervals, depending on the brew, Whitehouse said. The hops add bitterness to the wort, sanitize it and extract any natural bacteria in the grain.
Step 3
The wort is then “whirlpooled,” which circulates it and cools it down.
“Cold water goes in one side; hot water goes in on the other side,” Whitehouse said. “As it whirlpools, it’ll bring all the sediment to the middle.”
Step 4
The wort is transferred to a big hose, where it goes from the brew kettle to a fermentation vessel. There, Whitehouse said, he will wait until the wort cools to about 60 degrees, usually taking a couple of hours.
“Technically, I make the wort — the food for the yeast,” Whitehouse said. “The yeast is what makes the beer.”
As the yeast metabolizes the wort, it produces alcohol and releases carbon dioxide.
Step 5
As the wort is fermenting, Whitehouse takes “gravity readings,” which show how much sugar is in the mixture, and ultimately how much alcohol is being produced.
“As the number on (the measuring stick) sinks lower and lower, (the brew) becomes less and less dense,” Whitehouse said. “More sugars are being eaten up, more alcohol is coming out.”
The fermenting process is never stopped by the brewer, Machado said. The process stops naturally when the yeast eats all of the sugar that it can . If the alcohol content is higher than planned, the brew is marketed, and poured, differently.
The temperature is also altered during the fermentation process, depending on the type of beer.
Step 6
After fermentation, the beer is pushed through lines into separate keglike tanks. Machado said the company does not use a pump to push the beer through the lines, like it does the wort.
“Once it becomes beer, we actually push it with just carbon dioxide,” Machado said. “Oxygen kills beer.”
Whitehouse said once the tanks are filled, he will add a clarifying agent and let it sit for about 48 hours.
He then drains a bit out to release any sediment (yeast, grain or hop matter) that may have gotten through. Then, the beer is carbonated and voila, it’s ready to drink.
The length of the entire process depends on the style of beer, Machado said. Some complete the brewing process in days, and some take weeks. One of the company’s lagers, for example, took about six weeks from grain grinding to keg tapping.
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