From small ideas
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Our beers start their lives on a 50 liter electric home brewery. Its basically a tiny version of the commercial facility that we use but with far less strings attached. First we collect enough water into our hot liquor tank and heat it to about 70 degrees. Then the grains are milled and combined with the hot water to form the mash. This is recirculated through a coil that sits inside the hot liquor tank and pumped back on top of the grains. This circulation helps to clarify the liquid as the grain husks form a natural filter bed. After forty minutes the enzymes inside the grains have converted all the starch into various forms of sugar. This sugary liquid or ‘wort’ is run off into the boil kettle, seasoned with hops and boiled for ninety minutes. It is then rapidly chilled to fifteen degrees and transferred to a fermenter with pure oxygen and yeast added for the start of fermentation.

To big plans
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After fermentation is complete the beer is chilled to near freezing temperatures, dry hopped if the recipe requires and transferred to kegs where it is carbonated with cO2. If the results are pleasing then the beer is brewed again to double check the recipe before being sent down the line to Scotts Brewing Co to be brewed en mass. I make a point of brewing the beer myself on the commercial system to triple check my recipe and apply the right water treatment. Then with the skillful help of the team at Scotts (who make sure I don’t burn my face off by opening the wrong valve and generally look after me while I get in the way) a commercial version of the recipe is formulated and the beer can be reliably re-reproduced.