Brew Tour

Raw Material Purchase

Our brewing process begins by selecting high-quality ingredients from around the world. Great beer requires quality raw materials! All of our beers are brewed using malted barley, hops, yeast and water. Some of beers contain other cereal grains like malted wheat, unmalted wheat, flaked barley and rye.

Milling
A brew day begins by milling the selection of grains needed for the day’s brew. Our four-roll mill crushes and exposes the inside of the grain while preserving the husk. The husk acts as a natural filter in the lauter process. After milling, the grains are called "grist" and are temporarily stored in our grist case before mashing.

Mashing
The grist is gently dropped from the grist case through our grist hydrator and into our mash mixer. The grist hydrator wets the grist with hot water to form a thick, oatmeal-like mash.

The mash is gently stirred and slowly heated from about 140°F to 168°F to activate various enzymes naturally present in malted barley. These enzymes convert starch to a mixture of fermentable and unfermentable sugars called "sweet wort" (pronounced wurt).

After the mash is complete, the entire mixture of sweet wort and grain husks is pumped to the lauter tun for wort collection.

Wort Collection

Wort collection occurs in the lauter tun. The lauter tun has a milled screen bottom that allows for separation of sweet wort from grain husks.

Hot sparge water is sprayed on the grain bed during wort collection to help rinse the sweet wort from the grain bed. This is very similar to a big coffee filter. The sweet wort flowing from the lauter tun is pumped to the brew kettle.

Wort Boiling

The sweet wort is brought to a vigorous, rolling boil for 90 minutes. The boil serves many purposes, including wort sterilization, flavor improvement, wort concentration, protein removal and extraction of hop flavors and aromas.

Hops are added at various stages of the boil. Hops added early in the boil are used for their spice-like bittering properties. Hops added later in the boil are used for their delicate blend of floral, citrus, fruity and piney aromas. The wort, now called hopped wort, is pumped to the whirlpool for hop separation.

Hop and Trub Separation

Hopped wort flows tangentially into the whirlpool vessel at a high velocity to create a whirlpool effect. This causes the hop solids and protein trub (pronounced troob) precipitated during the boil to settle in a pile at the center of the whirlpool.

The clarified wort is pumped through the wort cooler where it is cooled from 210°F to 68°F for ales and from 210°F to 50°F for lagers. As the wort exits the wort cooler it is aerated to provide oxygen for yeast growth. Finally, the cool, aerated, hopped wort is collected in a fermenting vessel.

Fermentation

Wort and yeast are combined and fermentation begins. The yeast converts wort sugars into alcohol, carbon dioxide and flavor compounds during fermentation. Ale fermentations last about 5 days and lager fermentations last about 7 days. As the fermentation nears completion, the tank is bunged for natural carbonation.

The beer is chilled to near-freezing temperatures where it is aged for 2 to 8 weeks, depending on the beer style. Aging allows for flavor maturation and natural clarification.

Some breweries market their beers using terms like "cold-aged" or "frost-brewed". Some go as far to use Penguins to sell their beer. All of this hype implies that some special process must be used. However, almost every brewery in the world ages beer cold!

Filtration

All of our standard beers, except for Unfiltered Wheat, are filtered after aging. Filtration removes yeast and produces a brilliantly clear beer that shows the colors of the various malts used in the brew.

Storage

Our fresh beers are stored in individually cooled serving tanks where they await consumption!

Serving

Our taps are connected to our serving tanks using chilled beer lines to ensure cold, fresh beer all the way to the tap.

At Springfield Brewing Company we feel that excellent beer deserves an elegant presentation. Celli Cobra beer taps from Italy and Sahm beer glasses from Germany are symbolic of our commitment to excellence.