THE MILDURA BREWERY BREWING PROCESS:
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MILL ROOM - DRY GOODS AREA WHERE WE STORE OUR GRAIN
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All malt (grain) used is purchased in 25 kg bags. |
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Each beer has its own formulation with regards to the blend of different malts. |
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See below for more details on malt. |
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The roller mill is located in this room, behind the brewhouse. |
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GRIST CASE - STAINLESS TANK FOR THE MILLED GRAIN
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The malt has been crushed breaking the husks, but not ground into flour. |
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This tank is just above the mash tun allowing grain to be fed by gravity at the start of the brewing process, called mashing. |
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MASH MIXER - STAINLESS TANK WITH MIXING PADDLE
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This tank has a mixing paddle on the bottom to ensure that the mix of water and malt is constantly agitated during mashing.
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The milled malt is mixed with hot water to allow the starch to be converted into sugar by enzymes. |
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The temperature of the mixture is crucial, as the type of sugar converted is temperature dependent: some sugars
are fermentable, while others are non-fermentable, giving richness and mouth feel to the finished beer. |
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There are steam jackets to heat the mash in stages. |
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This mashing process takes about an hour. |
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Once all the starch is converted into sugar, all the mash is transferred into the lauter tun. |
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LAUTER TUN - STAINLESS TANK WITH SCREEN FLOOR
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This tank has a screen of slotted plates as a false floor, at about 3 cm from the bottom.
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Inside the lauter tun are mechanical rakes which turn,evening out the mash. |
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All the mash is pumped on top of the screen and is then allowed to sit and rest for 5 minutes. |
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The sweet liquid, now called wort, can pass through the screens, while the grain stays behind.
The wort is then pumped into the kettle. |
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This process takes about 2.5 hours |
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Afterwards, the spent grain is collected up and is collected for cattle feed. |
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KETTLE - STAINLESS STEEL TANK WITH HEATING JACKETS
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Once all the wort is in the kettle, the liquid is boiled for 60-90 minutes. This ensures that the wort is sterile.
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Boiling also evaporates some water, concentrating the wort and intensifying the colour somewhat. |
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Hops are added to the kettle at the start of boil for bitterness and at the end of boil for aroma and flavour |
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See below for more details on hops |
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During the boil, enzymes and other proteins are coagulated, and settle out of the liquid as a sludge called trub.
This ensures the bitter wort is nice and clear. |
Mash mixer, lauter tun & kettle are collectively knows as the brewhouse. During a 10.5 hour shift, we can produce 4500 L of wort. |
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COOLING - HEAT EXCHANGER
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Once boiling is complete, the wort is cooledto 20 C through a heat exchanger on its way to the fermenter. |
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This process takes about 1 hour. |
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By heat exchanging, we recover the energy used to boil the wort, i.e. cold water becomes hot water,
which is then used to brew more beer. |
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FERMENTER (5,000 LITRES) - STAINLESS STEEL PRESSURE VESSEL
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Once all the wort is in the tank, the yeast is added.
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The yeast will ferment the wort and turn it into beer. |
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Fermentation will take about 7 days to complete. |
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Fermentation temperatures will vary depending on beer styles, a lager (Desert Premium Lager and Sun Light and Honey Wheat) are fermented below 16 C, an ale (Mallee Bull and Storm) are fermented above 20 C and other beers produced
will ferment at varying temperatures depending on style. |
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At the end of fermentation, the finished beer is chilled to 4 C and kept in the tank until required. |
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Yeast is harvested from the cone section at the bottom of the fermenter, to be used to ferment another batch of beer. |
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Ales can be used sooner than the lagers, which will require at least one extra week of ageing (lagering) |
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Brew size; the house beers are done as double brews (around 4,000-4,400 litres), while the specialty beers are done
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single brews (around 2,000 litres) |
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FILTER - STAINLESS STEEL EARTH FILTER
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When the beer is required for packaging, either in kegs or bottles, beer is earth filtered into a Bright beer tank.
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Filtering removes yeast, leaving the beer crystal clear. |
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Cloudy beers are not filtered at all, and still contain yeast. |
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BRIGHT BEER TANK (5,000 LITRES) - STAINLESS STEEL PRESSURE VESSEL
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This tank is only used for finished beer, just prior to packaging.
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After filtration, the CO2 (carbon dioxide) is adjusted in the beer and it is then ready to be packaged. |
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Beer is kept freezing cold. |
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KEGS - STAINLESS STEEL
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Beer packaged in kegs requires sterile filtration to keep beer stable, Kegs can’t be pasteurised as we do with our bottles.
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Each keg holds 50 litres, about 150 pots. |
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BOTTLING LINE - STAINLESS STEEL
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After the beer is bottled in a counter pressure filler (single pre-evacuation) to reduce oxidation, it passes through a tunnel pasteuriser which ensures it is free of any nasty microbes and will remain stable in the bottle.
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The bottling line runs at just below 3000 bottles per hour. |
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The bottling runs in the following order:
Bottle rinsing
Bottles evacuated of oxygen
Bottles filled with CO2 to further exclude oxygen and provide counter-pressure to avoid foaming
Filling
Crown sealing
Pasteurising
Labelling
Packing into six-packs and cartons
Wrapped on pallets and stored/dispatched. |
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HOT LIQUOR TANK - STAINLESS STEEL TANK
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Hot liquor to hot water which is used in the brewing process.
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The water comes from the cold liquor tank as we pass the wort through the heat exchange. |
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COLD LIQUOR TANK - STAINLESS STEEL TANK
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This is carbon filtered cold water used in the brewing process. |
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Cold ‘Liquor’ is filtered using a large sediment filter, activated carbon, and finally cartridge filters and UV, which provides sterile water free of any odour or flavour taint. |
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SUMMARY OF QUANTITIES USED IN MAKING BEER
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Main ingredients in our beers - quantities shown are approximate for a 2,200 litre brew.
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400 kg malt
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1-5 kg hops |
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8000 L water |
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YEAST
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Yeast is added for fermentation - up to 250 litres of existing culture, collected from a previous brew.
Our house beers are brewed using one of 3 different yeast strains. |
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MALT
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Malt means partially germinated barley. Raw barley has been soaked in water, rested and aerated until sprouted,
then dried before bagging. The malt has a range of flavours and colours, from light through to heavy toast.
The darker grains have been roasted like coffee beans. |
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HOPS
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Hops are made from the hop flower and made into a green pellet. We source hops from different parts of the
world depending on what beer we are producing. Each beer has it own specific hops which contribute aroma,
flavour
and bitterness.
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