The brewery

History

YEAST PROPAGATION LAB

An important feature of our brewery is that each beer is produced with its own yeast culture that has been specifically selected for that particular type of beer. Some beers are even produced using multiple yeast strains.

This yeast is grown from our own yeast bank in the brewery so that we can always brew our beers with extremely fresh yeast. We do not use dried yeast and are convinced that the extra work required to produce the yeast makes a world of difference in our beers, you can clearly taste that.

That is why the production of a new beer in our brewery starts with the production of yeast. Over a period of a few days, we grow millions of cells in laboratory conditions from just a few yeast cells. Once we have grown a large enough volume of yeast, we can finally start brewing beer whose end product will carry the DNA of the yeast.

For this approach we get a lot of appreciation and we are very proud of that.

THE BREWHOUSE

The brewhouse consists of 3 steam heated vessels and a complex piping network with numerous butterfly valves and a plate heat exchanger. Here the wort production takes place, wort is the sweet liquid extracted from the malt (and sometimes adjunct grains) during the mashing process and contains the fermentable and unfermentable sugars.

• The mashing vessel: this is where the process of saccharification of the starch from the malt takes place. This saccharification process is called 'mashing', its function is to break down the starch from the malt into fermentable sugars. First the malt is ground to release the starch from the grain, we always use several types of malt and for some recipes adjunct grains too. The brewing of beer starts with pumping water into the brewing kettle after which it is heated. After that the crushed malt is mixed with hot water and steeped, a slow heating process that enables enzymes to convert the starch in the malt into sugars. At set intervals, most notably when the mixture has reached temperatures of 45, 62 and 73 °C the heating is briefly halted. Over a period of two hours, the brew is gradually warmed up to approximately 78°C.
• The lauter tun: after the saccharification phase the wort is pumped to the lauter tun. There, solids such as grain husks are carefully separated from the wort and pumped to the boil kettle. The lauter tun has a double bottom, with the upper bottom consisting of perforated plates. The husks of the malt sink down and remain on these plates, where they form a natural filter layer. The cloudy wort flows through this layer and becomes clear, after which it is pumped to the boiling kettle. This whole process takes about 2 hours, once all the wort has been transferred to the kettle, the filter tank can be opened to remove the spent grains. This is a waste product for the further brewing process but goes to a farm where it is used as cattle feed for cows.
• The boiling kettle: the clear wort from the filter tank is collected here until the kettle is full. The wort is then boiled for 90 minutes with the addition of hops for bittering and aroma. During the boiling process, unwanted microorganisms are killed and the proteins coagulate so that at the end of the brewing process we will obtain clear wort.
• Whirlpool: After the cooking process, the wort is pumped around in the kettle, which also has a whirlpool function. Using the centrifugal force, the solids are removed from the wort in the whirlpool. In this way, the heavier particles are pushed towards the centre of the kettle and the lighter wort can be removed from the side of the whirlpool. The boiled wort is quickly cooled down to about 24°C by means of a plate cooler. The cold water that we use for this then heats up and is recovered in the hot water tank that is then used for the next brew.

THE FERMENTATION ROOM

The cooled wort from the brewhouse is pumped to one of the 7 cilindroconical fermenters where the propagated yeast is added. The yeast converts the sugars in the wort into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This process is called the main fermentation and takes depending on the type of beer about 7 to 10 days (sometimes even longer). After the main fermentation, the yeast sinks to the bottom of the fermenter and is then separated from the young beer. The beer will now ferment the last remaining sugars and will mature in the same tank. This maturation of the beer is very important because during this process the taste is further refined. Depending on the type of beer, the lagering process takes 4 to 8 weeks until it is ready to be filled in bottles.

THE BOTTLING PLANT

When the beer is ready to be bottled, it is transferred to the bottling plant. This part of the brewery includes:

• A bright beer pressure tank of 1000 litres
• A semi-automatic counter pressure beer filling machine
• An automatic crown capping machine
• 800 bottles 75cl per hour filling capacity

The matured beer is pushed from a fermentation tank to the bright beer tank where it is mixed with a sugar solution and fresh yeast. Then the beer from this tank is emptied in the direction of the filling machine and ends up in the bottles under CO2 backpressure.

When the bottles are full, they are placed manually on the conveyor belt of the crown capping machine, after which they are automatically fitted with a crowncork and manually placed in trays.

WARM ROOM

The filled bottles of beer now move from the bottling plant to the warm room where they will stay for two to three weeks in a dark and warm environment of 24°C. This is where the process of refermentation in the bottle or bottle conditioning takes place, so that the beer is saturated with CO2 and it will get its natural sparkle.

After that the bottles are labeled and the beer is packed in boxes after which it can be delivered to our customers.