Samuel Adams

After the recipe, there are four primary steps to any brewing process, each with several phases: Brewing, Fermentation, Finishing, and Packaging. At Samuel Adams we use a traditional four vessel brewing process. It takes extra time but each step adds another layer of flavor to the beer.

The Mill

Each morning the first step for the brewer as they get ready to "mash in" is the grist bill. This is the blend of malt that will go into the mash tun to begin brewing a specific recipe.

Creating that grist bill involves a process of crushing the barley malt between two large rollers in the mill. This separates the husk and fractures the body of the malt to get it ready for the next stage of mashing.

Mashing

Bob usually whistles the theme song to this classic sit-com while pouring the grains into the mash tun.

Okay, maybe not... but the brew house sure beats the still in the swamp of the 4077th.

The mash tun is the first vessel in the brewing process. Its here that water is added to the malt and heated to allow enzymes in the malt to break starches into sugars (maltose) leaving a liquid substance called wort. Not all the starch is converted, however, as these unfermented sugars give the beer its body (mouthfeel). The mashing process is all about making food for yeast. The blended malt and water is heated to a specific temperature. Brewers must choose their temperatures, as well as the amount of time spent at the temperatures, to obtain the ideal results for their specific brew.

At Samuel Adams, we use a traditional decoction mash process that takes us to the second vessel. We remove 20% of the grain and move it to the cooker where its boiled and then returned to the primary mash in the mash tun. The process unlocks many of the malty flavors (toffee/caramel) you'll recognize in a Samuel Adams Boston Lager®.

Lautering

No it's not soup yet! Patience, my friends, patience.

The third vessel in the process is the lauter tun. Here, the completed mash is filtered by gravity to separate the solids (mash) from the liquid malt extract comprised of fermentable and unfermentable sugars. The husks from the barley provide a natural filtration bed. The end filtered liquid, called "wort", is sweet, amber-colored and clear. The wort moves off to the cooker to be boiled while the spent grains are rinsed with water to extract any remaining sugars.

The spent grains are then hauled off and used for cattle feed. Lucky cow!

The Brew Kettle

The wort moves to the fourth vessel, the brew kettle, to be boiled slowly and evenly to ensure sterility. It's in this stage that the hops are added. Hops, as you already know, are the spice of the beer that give it its bitterness and aroma.

The boil can last anywhere from 50-120 minutes depending on the recipe and at what stages it calls for hop additions. The boil also achieves a number of other results. During this process bitter and aromatic qualities are extracted from the hops, the wort is sterilized and stops enzyme activity in the mash, and it produces the color and flavor from the wort sugars, which "brown" when exposed to high temperatures.

Whirlpool

The boiled wort is then transferred to a whirlpool, where the trub (comprised of proteins from the malt and tannins from the hops) is removed. The wort is then cooled to the desired temperature for starting fermentation, and is also saturated with air. That oxygen is required by the yeast for growth during the next several hours of activity before actual fermentation begins.

Fermentation

Consider this the fitness center for beer. This is where the beer gets a workout. Yeast is added and gets to work converting the fermentable sugars to CO2 and alcohol.

The fermentation produces heat and, therefore, a rise in the temperature of the fermented wort. The temperatures so chosen are a large factor in determining the flavor compounds produced by yeast. Primary fermentation can take up to seven days. At the end lager yeasts settle to the bottom of the tank having fermented at lower temperatures (~50°F), while ale yeasts, by contrast, rise to the top, and ferment at higher temperatures (59°-68°F) for shorter periods of time.

After fermentation the beer moves on to storage.

Krausening and Lagering

Lagering, also known as ruh storage, are periods of aging from one to several weeks during which the temperature of the beer is slowly reduced. This can help reduce the harsher secondary products of fermentation, while clarifying and mellowing the beer.

Krausening is a process that adds time to the normal brewing cycle, but we believe it is an important step in producing quality beers. Krausening is the process of taking a small portion of wort and adding it to the fermentation tank to cause a secondary fermentation. Krausening helps produce an elegant and balanced flavor in beer, also adding smoothness and body.

After such a workout, one must of course, rest!

Dry hopping

It may sound risqué in a school dance sort of way... but get your head out of the gutter!

Dry Hopping is when you add hops to the beer in the aging tanks. Doing so adds wonderful flavors and aromas to the beer. Those delicate compounds are not lost in the aging process in the way they are in the boil.

Not all of our styles call for that extra kick of hops. Want to know if a beer's been dry hopped? Trust you sense... your nose will be the first to know.

Storage

With this addition of hops, the beer is aged between 3-5 weeks to allow the beer to mellow and all the flavors to meld to deliver the complex layers of flavor in our beer. Samuel Adams Boston Lager is aged 21 days (or 35 days for the total cycle time). It's both the quality and the quantity of the ingredients, as well as the amount of time it takes to make the beer, that make it the unique beer it is.

Barrel Aging

For some beers an additional stage of aging can also be done outside of the tank in large wooden tuns or barrels. These barrels add a unique character to the beer both from the type of wood itself and the remaining flavors of the barrel's past use from sherry and port to Madeira and beyond. Aging in wood is another avenue for brewers to experiment and develop layers of flavor in the beer.

Filtration

After storage the beer, still slightly cloudy, requires filtering to remove any remaining yeast and other insoluble matter, like protein. Diatomaceous earth is frequently used as a filtration medium. Some beers are filtered twice to achieve brilliant clarity while others, such as wheat beers, are left unfiltered for their cloudy appearance.

Bottle Conditioning

For some beer styles, the brewers create a secondary fermentation and maturation in the bottle of the beer. This is the rare case when beer is meant to age and change in the bottle creating complex aromas and flavors. Check the label to see when the beer is best enjoyed until.