As expected, it is different and a bit gloomy this week because no luck for Marie Claude, she is forced to go to work! but fortunately there are lots of nice people who come to visit me. Phew! Stars also
Sylvie and Eric come for me to take my brewing. Fortunately, because to go, the road (or track rather) is deserted, the thumb is rapping, and it should be 30 minutes to go to the brewery. I tell myself that I escaped to 6 hours walking in the rain! Short stop minute Ham-Nord (the rain).
Brewer's Hamlet Ham South
The brewery is actually a micro-brewery and met several enthusiasts. The mico-brewery (like many others) also has a bar upstairs where they serve beer directly that are produced locally. All of these breweries are multiplying like loaves p'tits but there are not many who manage to survive against big industry. Here, the manufacture of beer usually happens on Thursday morning to Friday morning. On our arrival, two people are in the office! chic, we will be entitled to a guided tour.
Beer Ham can be prepared like most beers with malted barley.
Some info for all the ignorant (like me): The crop can not be used as such in the manufacture of beer and must be malted. Most of the time, the Brewers buy malted barley already. It's irritating me!
Yes but how did the malt, I tell you! Well simply by soaking the barley in water and under the effect of moisture, it begins to germinate. It still takes a few days. The enzymes that develop inside the grain gradually transformed starch into sugar. After that, the barley is dried between 80 and 105 °. It's the drying that will determine the nature of the grain and therefore the future beer (blond, red, amber, brown, black, ...). More one dried at high temperature and long and dark malt will have a taste of caramel.
Back to the serious stuff. To make beer, there are three steps (again!)
- Brewing
The goal is to have brewing in the end a sweet wort. Having crushed malted barley, mixed with water in a large bowl (or anything else that can be heated. If you do in your kitchen, you can take a pot!). This mixture is called wort. This brew is heated, taking care to respect the bearings. This method is called multi-level, which is not misused by the Belgians and French. Heated to a temperature between 50 ° and 55 ° for 30min, then increased to 65/69 ° for 30 to 45min, and finally at 75 ° for 15min. You'll understand that it is essential to have a thermometer.
[the big tank at the bottom]
Then comes the second phase:
- Cooking and hopping
Once the brew is ready, we filter waste of barley and is tilted the liquid into another bowl (here there are two, and to fill the two we add a little water is filtered through the residue of barley to not lose a crumb of sugar)
[tank top]
At this point, we add the hops.
We use only the flower hops. That is what will be used to flavor beer and give her little bitter side depending on the amount of time you put it and the time we leave. Another virtue of hops is a good conservative.
FYI (again), there is currently a great shortage hops. The blame back on biofuel! Indeed, as in France where rapeseed flower and company, the fields of our Canadian friends see a whole armada flourished as a substitute for oil. Result: no one can buy hops because the reduced production already exists is automatically purchased by a multinational company (which provides producers of Budweiser) that also buys produce future (so far as to do!). In short, all that to say this is the shit. But our local producers have more than one trick up their sleeves and embark already testing chemist to find a workaround has the stuff (like dandelion, for example. Haaa dandelion).
It takes about 160g of fine hops per 200 liter of wort. Boiled (slightly over 100 °) between 45min and 1 hour to kill any harmful bacteria and remove the bitterness and aroma hops. Then added a second hop, the same amount as the first (if you like bitter beer) and agar (a seaweed) which will agglomerate yeast. And let stand 5 minutes.
After another filtering to remove the hops, the liquid passes into a final tank (again there are two) [ same photo as above, that the tanks bottom ] to two walls (one compartment for cold water and one for beer) so that they fall rapidly to 20 °. Is decanted into another container and add the yeast (Note too high a temperature kills the yeast).
comes the third phase:
- fermentation and maturation
Fermentation begins when we add yeast. The wort turns into beer. The first fermentation lasts from three to four days. This step can transform almost three quarter of the sugar into alcohol, and she did a lot of foam. Once the yeast has abated (there are a lot less gas) transferring the beer into Demi-Johns (large glass jugs 4 gallon or 20 liters).
Once the yeast has finished working, it settles to the bottom of the pitcher and is served in progressively by a small pipe below the lady. It is important not to seal the jars as the fermentation continues and it is therefore more gas. This deposit is called the lees, beer lees is called when it has not been filtered as opposed to industrial (and that's good because it keeps all hehe its vitamins). All this takes on average 2 to 4 weeks.
After you put in the bottle and saw that there is more gas, we add a Chouillet sugar before closing. That way the yeast will convert the remaining sugar in gas and stuff naturally.
is allowed to age on average 2 months.
And that's it. At your potholes!
After this short visit very informative direction the maple! But I'll stop there for now because it's provided for you indigestion.
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