PDA

View Full Version : St Austell Brewery-Cornwall-Report 20/6/08 ARCHIVED



ERNIE99_UK
22-06-2008, 12:59 PM
I visited this brewery with rebel on an official tour. The brewery was opened as a steam brewery in the 1890s and still uses some great old equipment. The brewery dates back even further in history though as it was previously in smaller premises.


This is the brewing process, it starts off with the malt being dispensed from silos at the hopper at the top, the malt is germinated then kiln dried off site but would have been originally been done on site. (1)

It then goes into the copper and water is added, it is boiled to extract as much sugar as possible from the grain (2) [the original copper is in the diagram, it was removed and replaced with a stainless steel one in the 1990's due to health and safety.

It is then put into the mash tun and the hops are added to impart aroma and bitterness onto the beer, a hop back keeps the grain back when its drained. the brew is topped up to 150 barrels by "sparging" or showering hot water over it.(3)

It then goes into fermentation vessels after cooling and is pitched with yeast.(4)

After fermentation it is racked into barrels and cleared with finings.(5)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ernie99_uk/st%20austell%20brewery/staustellbrewprocess-1.jpg

---

The malt is stored in a room near the top as well as in silos, the brewery has stocks totaling 32 tons!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ernie99_uk/st%20austell%20brewery/staustellmaltstore.jpg

The malt is fed into a hopper and a bucket system takes it up to the top, the system is the original 1890's equipment(although second hand at the time!) and takes 1 1/2 hours to start each morning.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ernie99_uk/st%20austell%20brewery/staustellmalt.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ernie99_uk/st%20austell%20brewery/staustellmalting.jpg

The malt is then gravity fed into the coppers, the larger 1914 one has been replaced by a stainless steel vessel, the smaller seldom used copper was installed in the 1890's and is occasionally used when they do a brew and a half.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ernie99_uk/st%20austell%20brewery/staustellcopper.jpg

After boiling in the copper the maximum sugar has been extracted, it is then trickled down into the mash tun and hops are added for bitterness and aroma, there are two mash tuns here, the larger 150 barrel one is used more and was bought second hand from plymouth, it is pre 1940's as its makers were bombed out in ww2! The grain is showered "sparged" with hot water and a hop back grid keeps back the solids, the grid is very heavy and has to be cleaned after every brew and disassembles like a large jigsaw.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ernie99_uk/st%20austell%20brewery/staustellmashtun.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ernie99_uk/st%20austell%20brewery/staustellmashtuninterior.jpg

The hot liquor is tested for starch using some fantastic old equipment a bit like a weigh scale:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ernie99_uk/st%20austell%20brewery/staustellstarchtest.jpg

The brew is then cooled, added to fermenting vessels and the yeast pitched. the fermenting vessels are a combination of one old welsh slate vessel from 1910, wooden vessels from bristol 1940s and some nice shiny stainless ones added more recently at a cost of £600k.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ernie99_uk/st%20austell%20brewery/staustellfermentation.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ernie99_uk/st%20austell%20brewery/staustellslatefermenter.jpg

The beer is then racked into barrels on the ground floor, aluminium casks are used generally as well as bottles, wooden ones are sometimes used for festivals, the beer is aged longer than your standard tasteless fizz keg rubbish:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ernie99_uk/st%20austell%20brewery/staustelbarrels.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ernie99_uk/st%20austell%20brewery/staustellbarrelline.jpg

This piece of 1940's racking equipment is no longer used due to it being heavy and cumbersome and is now on display:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ernie99_uk/st%20austell%20brewery/staustelloldracking.jpg