Kettlehouse Kolledge Class of 2015

Our mission is to strive for better, cooler times in the quality of our and our lives. By handcrafting the highest quality premium that convey our passion for an active Montana outdoor lifestyle, and producing and packaging them in environmentally sensitive ways, we expect to grow a community of beer drinkers and thinkers that can help cool our warming world

KettleHouse Kolledge

Welcome to KettleHouse Kolledge, the funnest, cheapest, and most rewarding educational experience you will ever have. The goal here at KettleHouse Kolledge is to enhance your beer drinking experience by providing you with the tools and knowledge to get the most out of those 16 wonderful ounces of sweet elixir.

Beer a brief history.

Since the dawn of civilization people have been beer. There are even some archaeologists who theorize that beer was the motivation for humanity giving up the hunter- gatherer lifestyle to start raising crops and living in villages. The earliest evidence we have of brewing is an ancient Summerian brewhouse (they use the same layout as we do today) dating from 4000 B.C.E . The brews of the ancients bore little resemblance to what you get served here at KettleHouse, other than in was fizzy, alcoholic, and made primarily from grain.

The next major step toward modern beers occurred in Northern Europe in the 8th Century A.D. with the introduction of hops. It was there that the locals started domesticating and cultivating a climbing vine which had aromatic cone-like flowers. They discovered that when the flowers were boiled with the beer they not only produced great flavors and aromas, they also helped keep the beer fresher for longer. Even though the domestication must have occurred earlier, the first evidence we have is hop fields from the 700’s in Germany.

A.D. 843 the kingdom of Scotland is formed, setting the stage for the beer style Scotch Ale and its greatest incarnation, Cold Smoke.

Jumping forward to 1516 in Ingolstadt, Bavaria the famous ‘German beer purity law’ was enacted, requiring that beer be made only from hops, water, and barley (later amended to include yeast after Pasteur discovered them in the 1800’s). Although it sounds like such a benevolent act, it was actually created to ensure that the lords collected the proper taxes on grains and hops.

In 1620 a small boatload of religious refugees ran out of beer during their transatlantic voyage. Fearing the worst, they immediately stopped their search for an ideal settlement location and landed as soon as they could, so they could brew some more beer. This ship was called the Mayflower. The history of beer and our country has been intertwined ever since. Many of the founding fathers were homebrewers and the details of the constitution were probably hammered out over a hearty brew. With many different cultures and brewing traditions to call upon, the American brew scene was as diverse as the countries form where the brewers originated. With a thirsty and innovative populace the number of in America reached its heyday in 1873 with 4131 breweries.

Following the dark-ages of prohibition the American beer business underwent a series of mergers and acquisitions. New advances in refrigeration and packaging allowed breweries to ship beer hundreds to thousands of miles from where they were brewed. Because of all these factors by the 1950’s there were less than 100 breweries in the U.S. Then an insignificant little bill, H.R. 1337, was passed which legalized in the United States. Given an alternative to industrial lagers some entrepreneurial home brewers decided to start up small breweries which focused on high quality, traditional ingredients and complex flavor profiles. Thus was started the modern craft movement in America. This movement didn’t achieve it full potential until a humble home brewer named Tim O’Leary opened up a brew-on- premises in Missoula, Montana which would eventually become KettleHouse Brewing Company. The Brewing Process

What is beer, and why do we have to brew it?

Simply put, beer is a fermented alcoholic beverage where the primary source of for the yeast to ferment comes from a starchy grain. We brew it because we need to turn the from the grains into sugar for the brewers yeast to eat.

Malting

The brewing process actually begins in the house where the unsung heroes of the brewing world work to make the malt for brewers to use. Malt is any grain, but usually barley, which has been wetted and allowed to germinate. The grain does not know that its ultimate destiny is to become a pint of beer, so when it gets wet it tries to make a new plant using all the resources stored in the kernel. The kernel has lots of sugar stored as starch, which is basically a long string of sugar molecules, but in order to use the sugar it must first break down the starch. It does this by means of specialized proteins called which help chemical reactions go faster. When the barley kernel gets wet it starts to make lots of enzymes so it can turn its starch into sugar. Once the barley kernel has made its enzymes we then dry it out, killing the baby barley plant (don’t be sad, remember it’s going to make some delicious beer). Now we have a barley kernel with all the starch and enzymes needed to make a batch of beer.

Milling & The first step that takes place in the brewery is to mill the grain. When brewers mill grain, they lightly crush the grains producing a course meal rather than flour. We then mix the crushed grains with some hot water to produce what is called the mash. The temperature at which the mash occurs is very critical and closely monitored. This is the point where we are using the barleys own enzymes to convert the starch from the barley into sugar. There are many different types of enzymes in malt and we can use the temperature of the mash to activate and deactivates certain enzymes. By carefully controlling the temperature, and thereby which enzymes are active, the brewer can control many aspects of the finished beer.

After the mash has rested long enough to let the enzymes turn all the starch into sugar, about half-an-hour, we then heat up the mash to deactivate enzymes and make it more fluid. It is now ready to separate the solids (grist) from the liquid () in a process called lautering.

Lautering

This step is very similar to a morning ritual which occurs in kitchens all around the world. In this ritual we do the same thing that occurs in the first half of brewing. We take a coarsely ground roasted seed, mix it with hot water to extract goodness and flavor, then separate the solid from the liquid, and drink the liquid. It is not surprising that the verb we use to describe making beer and coffee are the same: brew.

We can basically think of the vessel in which this process occurs as a giant coffee filter. At the bottom of this vessel, called a lauter tun, is a false slotted bottom. This retains the grist in the lauter tun while allowing the sweet liquid wort to be slowly drawn of from the bottom to be pumped into the brew kettle. In order to extract as much of the from the grain as possible we sprinkle hot water over the top of the grain bed.

This process is aided by another aspect of the barley kernel that makes it the perfect brewing grain. Barley kernels are covered by a papery husk, unlike wheat or rye which have naked seeds. The barley husk aids the lautering by adding fluffiness to the grain bed and providing more avenues for the liquid to drain out. Even when brewing a wheat beer, brewers still add a significant portion of barley because the husks aid the lautering.

Brewing & Hops

After lautering is finished we have a kettle full of wort (about 1000 Gal. here at the North Side). We then bring this to a boil, and boil it for two hours. It is during this step that hops come into the picture. There are many flavorful and aromatic compounds found in hops. These can impart bitterness or aroma to the beer depending on how long the hops are boiled. To get bitterness out of hops, we need to boil the hops for a long time in order to get the bitter Alpha Acids to dissolve. We also want to get some of the wonderful aromas from the hops in the beer, but they evaporate quickly and easily. So when we want to extract aromas from hops we add them right before the end of the boil or after the heat has been turned off. In some cases we add hops after the beer is done fermenting in a process called dry-hopping.

Whirlpool

After the wort has been boiled for two hours we then pump it into the last vessel called a whirlpool. When the wort is transferred to this last vessel, we pump it in such a way as to make the wort spin like a giant whirlpool. This causes all the hops added during the boil to collect in a pile in the center. We can then draw off clear wort from the side of the whirlpool.

Fermentation

This is where all the magic happens. After the wort is done in the whirlpool it is ready to be moved into a fermenting vessel and mixed with some fresh yeast. The yeast likes to be at 70°F so before we mix the wort with the yeast we must cool it down. We do this very rapidly by pumping the hot wort through a heat exchanger. This cools our wort and also produces hot water which we can then use to start the next brew.

Once the yeast and wort are mixed, the yeast quickly starts eating all the nice sugar we made in the brewhouse. The yeast turns simple sugars into carbon dioxide gas, alcohol, flavor and energy. The fermentation is very active for the first few days and then mellows out. By the end of the first week all the sugars have been consumed by the yeast and we let the beer mature for a week to get all the flavors to smooth out. After maturation we then cool the beer down and use a filter to remove any excess yeast. The beer is now ready to be put into cans or kegs.

Brewing Glossary Brite Beer- Beer that has been filtered or allowed to settle, so the beer is clear and has no ABV (Alcohol by volume) - ABV is the standard suspended yeast or haze, is referred to as brite measurement used to describe the alcoholic beer. strength of a beer. In Montana the strongest beer we are allowed to brew is 14%. B.B.T. (Brite Beer Tank)-A dish-bottomed vessel which is used to hold brite beer. The level of Adjunct- Any non-malt sugar source added to carbonation can be adjusted in this vessel. increase gravity and add flavor. Some examples used by the KH include honey in the Hellgate Barley- Hordeum vulgaris, or barley is the most Hefe, and brown sugar in Cold Smoke. common grain used in modern brewing. The Depending on how fermentable the adjunct is it barley kernel has three main parts; the husk, can either increase or decrease the mouth-feel the embryo, and the starchy endosperm. of a beer. Base Malt- Base malt, sometimes called kilned Ale (Top Fermenting) - Saccharomyces cerivisiae malt, is malt that has been dried in a kiln at is a species of brewers yeast which prefers relatively low temperatures so as not to warmer temperatures (70’s) during inactivate the enzymes. All beer must contain fermentation. Due to higher temperatures ales some base malt so the enzymes can convert the ferment quicker than lagers and tend to have a to sugars. more fruity and complex flavor profiles than Beer- A fermented alcoholic beverage which the lagers. primary source of sugar comes from a starchy Alpha Acids- Alpha acids are the group of grain. Unlike vintners, brewers must take an compounds found in hops which impart extra step to convert the starch to sugars using bitterness to the beer. Alpha acids need to be enzymes. boiled to dissolve in wort. The longer hops are boiled the more A.A. gets dissolved in the beer. Caramel Malt (Crystal malt)-Caramel or crystal It is for this reason that bittering hops are malt is produced by heating wet malt to higher temperatures than base . The heat and added at the start of the boil. moisture cause the starches to caramelize. Amylase- Amylases are enzymes that break These malts add color, flavor and body to a starches down into small, simple sugars. Alpha beer. They also add sweetness to a beer, since and Beta amylase are the two main enzymes yeast cannot ferment the complex sugars in the found in barley malt. They operate differently malt. and the brewer can control which is most active by varying the temperature of the Endosperm- Making up the majority of a barley kernel the endosperm is mostly starch but it mash. contains all the raw material needed to make a depending on how long they are boiled. new barley plant. Another beneficial property of hops is that they act as a preservative, inhibiting the growth of Enzyme- Enzymes are biological catalysts. They bacteria and wild yeast. Brewers yeast has help chemical reactions go faster or make them evolved to tolerate high hop levels. happen when they normally would not. Brewers use the enzymes present in malt to turn starch Husk- Barley, unlike wheat, has a papery husk into sugars that the yeast can eat. The word that surrounds the kernel. The presence of a ‘Enzyme’ literally means ‘inside yeast’ and they husk acts as a natural filter which greatly aids were first discovered by studying beer the lautering process allowing the brewers to fermentation. separate the solids (grist) from the liquid (wort) in the brewing process. Fermentation- In brewing fermentation is the process by which, in the absence of oxygen, yeast convert glucose (sugar) into ethanol I.B.U. (International Bitterness Unit) - The (alcohol), carbon dioxide, and flavor standard measurement of bitterness in a beer. compounds. One IBU is one milligram of alpha acids Fermenting Vessel- Fermenting vessels or FV’s dissolved in one liter of beer. The standard have a cone shaped bottom and, as the name human palate cannot perceive more than 80- implies, is where wort is turned into beer by the 100 IBU’s. fermentation action of yeast. The cone shaped bottom helps brewers collect yeast to be used Lager (Bottom Fermenting)-Saccromyces pastorianus is the other main species of yeast in later batches. used by brewers. Lager yeasts can tolerate Gravity- In brewing terminology gravity refers lower temperatures than ale yeasts and are to the density of the wort. The more sugars usually fermented at temperatures in the 50’s. dissolved in the wort the higher the gravity. As The colder temps make for a slower ferment beer ferments the gravity will drop as dense and the beers are usually conditioned (lagered) sugars are turned into carbon dioxide and for a few months after fermentation is ethanol. Brewers can estimate the ABV of a complete. This produces a beer flavor that is beer by comparing the difference in the crisp and not as complex as ale’s. measured gravities taken at the beginning and Lauter- Lautering is the separation of the solids, the end of fermentation. called grist, from the liquid wort. It is the Grist- The grist is all the grains that are added to second step in the brewing process. the mash to make beer. Just about any grain Lauter Tun- The lauter tun is a vessel with a malted or not can and has been used at some false slotted bottom used to separate the grist time to make beer. from the wort, just like filtering coffee. Hops- Mmmm hops. Hops (Humulus lupulus) are members of the canibaceae family and one Malt- Malt is made by taking grain and wetting it. This starts the germination process and the of the prime ingredients of modern beer styles. Hops can add bitterness or aroma to a beer embryo starts making enzymes to break down the starchy endosperm. The process is halted Sugar- There are many different types of sugars, by heating and drying out the grains. The end but yeast can only use a few simple sugars as an product, malt, now has all the enzymes it needs energy source. Luckily the main sugar to make wort. components of wort, glucose, maltose, and maltotriose, are easily fermented by yeast. Mash- Mash is a mixture of grist and water and There are many more complex sugars present is the first step of the brewing process. The but since the yeast cannot ferment them they main goal of the mash step is to convert starch remain, contributing body and sweetness to the into sugars. By carefully controlling the finished beer. temperature of the mash brewers can activate and deactivate specific enzymes thereby Whirlpool-This is the final step in the brewing influencing many properties of the finished process. After boiling, the beer is transferred to beer. the whirlpool in such a way that the beer is spinning around in the vessel. This causes all the Mash Tun- The mash tun is the vessel where the solids (hops and coagulated proteins) to form a grist and the water are mixed. pile in the center of the vessel. We can then Roasted Malt- Roasted malts are base malts draw off nice clear wort from the side of the that have been roasted after the malting vessel. process. The roasting process destroys all the Wort – Wort is the sweet liquid produced by enzymes and sugars in the malt, so they are the brewing process. Brewers do not make added to contribute flavor and color to the beer, they make wort. The yeast then turns the beer. Depending on the level of roasting they wort into beer. can contribute chocolaty, coffee-like, or burnt flavors. Yeast- Yeast is a group of single celled fungi which are found just about everywhere, but Starch- Starch is molecule that many plants use brewers, vintners and bakers use only a few to store energy. It is made up of many species of yeast to produce their products. molecules of the sugar glucose linked together Yeast is capable of surviving without oxygen by like beads on a string. In the mash tun brewers fermenting simple sugars into alcohol and use barley malt’s natural enzymes to convert carbon dioxide. Although yeasts occur naturally starch into sugar. on all grains, brewers yeast in most closely related to yeast which live on the human skin.

Tasting Hints

 Observe your beer, note its color, clarity, and head.

 Using short sharp sniffs, explore the aroma of your beer.  Take a sip and let the flavors and beer wash around in your mouth.  Swallow your beer and note any after flavors.  Repeat.