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enjoying

This is the part we all enjoy. Taking that pint glass or beer bottle, taking a deep breathe of the aroma and enjoying the taste, smell, and touch of the beer as it dances around our tongue.

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conditioning

Nobody likes a flat beer. We like getting our pint with a little bit of foamy head on the top and enjoy watching the bubbles rise in the glass. This step is where that happens. The natural process of fermenting creates Carbon Dioxide (CO2) as an off-product, but not enough to create what we would call a non-flat beer. So the beer is transferred to a pressure tight vessel and force carbonated using CO2 gas. Slowly the CO2 absorbs into the beer and carbonates it to its appropriate level. Different beers taste better at different carbonation levels and so conditioning is beer specific.

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filtering

Although most of the yeast settles out to the bottom of the conical fermenter some proteins and yeast still remain in what is now called green beer. To remove those proteins and yeast for a nice clear beer it must go through a filtration process.
Not all breweries do this step because some people believe that this filters out all the good stuff and prefer to have their beer be more earthy looking. Two Beers Brewing Co shares in this belief and we do not filter any of our beers.

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fermenting

The second magical part of the beer making process. For years people did not know how yeast worked and so the original makers of beer, the Egyptians, quite literally called yeast “gift from God.”
After the wort has been cooled it is contained in a conical fermenter made typically made from stainless steel. The conical aspect is important because as yeast dies off it floats to the bottom of the wort and needs to be drained off. In addition, trub is collected and drained off through the bottom of the fermenter. Doing both of these insures that no off-flavors develop in the beer and taint the taste.
This is also where alcohol is created by the yeast. As the yeast eat the sugars a by-product of this is alcohol.
Typically this takes 2-3 weeks for the entire fermenting processs.

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cooling

Since yeast is a living organism it doesn’t like to be pitched at boiling temperatures so the wort must be cooled down to approximately room temperature for an Ale and 40 degrees F. for a Lager. This is most commonly done through heat sanitary heat transfer. Cold water or coolant is brought near the wort through a counter-flow chiller, heat is therefore transferred to the coolant, thus cooling the wort rapidly. The faster wort can be cooled the better it is for the overall flavor.

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boiling

The collected sugary wort is brought to a boil and held there for an hour or two to stabilize it, sanitize it, and add the other flavoring ingredients to the beer. This is the most common place to add hops as well as any other additives, such as other sugars like honey or molasses. This is also where spices can be added to the wort. In addition to ingredients being added here sometimes ingredients are added to the fermenter to give various aromas and flavors.

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mashing

This is the first magical step in beer making. Grist is added to water at a certain temperature and held there for an hour or so to extract the sugars from the grist. This aqueous solution, called wort, is then extracted from the “spent grains” and collected in the brew kettle.

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milling

The good stuff, rather, the necessary stuff, for the brewing process is hidden inside the grain. So the grain must go through a milling process to bust open the endosperm and expose the place where the sugars can be extracted. This is done through some sort of mill, the most common is a roller mill.

These sugars are what the yeast absolutely love. Once the yeast are pitched (added) after the cooling process they immediately begin eating the sugars and creating an off product called alcohol. The milled malted grain is called grist and this will be added to the Mash Tun.

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start

Ingredients are collected that will be used for the brewing process. Malt is shipped in from Wisconsin. Hops are shipped in from Eastern Washington. Yeast is delivered from Oregon. And the water is filtered. In a few short hours these ingredients will be blended together beautifully by a brewmaster and equipment to make a fine tasting beverage.