What do I do with my beer at home?
How much beer will I get?
What are the main ingredients in beer?
What is the difference between an ale and a lager?
What does it all cost?
Why do I have to wait between 3 and 12 weeks for my beer?
What is IBU?
How does bottling work?
Can I bring in a big group to brew?

What do I do with my beer at home?

Your beer should be stored in a location away from sunlight and with relatively constant temperature - a basement or closet is great. After you finish a bottle, you should rince it thoroughly and place it upside down in the case box, so you can re-use it on your next batch.

How much beer will I get?

Our recipes make between 4.5 and 5.5 cases of 12 oz bottles or between 108 and 132 bottles. The exact number depends on many factors, including if you boil over your beer and how hard you boil it.

What are the main ingredients in beer?

Water, malt, hops and yeast. Malt is grain that has been allowed to sprout and then dried and roasted. This provides the beer its color, base flavor and sugar. Darker roasts make darker beers. Hops are the flower cone from a vine. Hops provide bitterness to beer. Yeast consumes the sugar from the malt and makes alcohol during fermentation.

What is the difference between an ale and a lager?

The yeast. Ale yeast ferments at around 65 degrees and lager yeast ferments at about 50 degrees. The different strains of yeast impart different flavors to the beer. And remember that both ales and lagers can be light or dark.

What does it all cost?

In addition to the cost of the soda or beer making, you will buy bottles at bottling time. Expect to spend about $40 on bottles when you make beer, a little more for soda. Custom labels are optional at $32 to $37 for 5 cases.

Why do I have to wait between 3 and 12 weeks for my beer?

After you are done brewing, the beer goes into a fermenter which is placed in one of our temperature-controlled fermentation rooms - 65 degrees for ales and 50 degrees for lagers. The yeast will consume the sugar from the malts and as a by-product of reproduction, make alcohol. This process takes between 5 days and 14 days. The beer is then transferred to a clean fermenter and chilled to 33 degrees for aging. Finally it is carbonated before you come to bottle.

What is IBU?

IBU is the bitterness measurement of the beer. It is normally expressed by a number but we merely put low, medium or high to make it easier for you.

How does bottling work?

When you brew, you make your appointment to come and bottle. Before bottling, you can shoose between 12 oz and 22 oz bottles. You label the bottles with either your custom labels or generic labels that we provide. Then you place the bottles in the bottle washer, which sanitizes them. The bottling chief will let you try your beer and then show you how to work the bottling machine, which will fill the bottles automatically. You will then cap them on a bench capper. This will take about 2 hours and then you can take your beer home and drink it.

Can I bring in a big group to brew?

You are welcome to bring in all your friends to breew. If you would like to have a large, private event, we can arrange a brewing session during the days we are not open to the public.