The Brewery is located on the side of the Gamble Mill where the Amber Room used to reside. Assembly began in early 2010. We acquired a 3.5 barrel(105 gallon) steamfired brewhouse and four 7 barrel(210 gallon) fermenting vessels. We use a wide variety of grains including many different kinds of malted barley (Pale Malt, Pilsner Malt, Marris Otter, Crystal Malt, Chocolate Malt, Roated Barley, etc.) as well as Rye, Oats Wheat, and Corn. In addition to all of our varieties of grain, we are using a wide variety of hops (Cascade, Ahtanum, Czech Saaz, Hallertau, Columbus and more) and a variety of yeast strains from Belgium and The United States. Of course one of our most unique ingredients is the Bellefonte water that we use as a base for all of our beers.Of course we are developing all of our own recipes, which include the combination of different ingredients, specific temperatures at different parts of the process, filtration through a plate, and frame filter(or not). We also hope to progress to barrel aging and wild fermentations.
About The Brewery
Brewing 101
The Brewday starts with our mash in. This is basically the mixing of the different grains, called for in the recipe, with hot water. Our goal is for our "mash" to attain a temperature and moisture content that will be ideal for the enzymes (naturally occuring in the husk of the barley kernel) to start breaking down the starches in the kernel into simple sugars (that will later be consumed by the yeast).
After the mash rests at this temperature for a prescribed amount of time, we begin our vorlauf or recirculation of the liquid (wort). This helps us to create a nice clear flow of wort without the presence of solids. Once the flow is clear, we start our runoff. This is the separation of the liquid (wort) from the solids (grains). We continue to add hot water to the mash in an effort to" rinse" as much of the simple sugars from the grain and collect it in the kettle.
After about 2 hours, the kettle will be full and we will be ready for our boil. We boil our wort for about an hour and a half, adding hops early in the boil to attain bitterness and later in the boil to pick up the flavor and aroma of the hops. After the boil has ended, the wort is whirlpooled (spun in the kettle) and allowed to slowly stop spinning. This helps with seperation of solids in the wort (primarily hop material and proteins). The wort is then transferred from the kettle, through a heat exchanger (where the wort is cooled from near boiling temperatures to about 70 degrees F) and into a fermenter.
Yeast is added to the wort in the fermenter and after several hours fermentation will begin and our wort will start making it's transformation into beer. Over the course of the next five days or so, the yeast will consume the simple sugars in the wort and give off carbon dioxide and alcohol. After fermentation is complete the beer is chilled down to near freezing temperatures which will help with the clarification of the beer. Most of our beers are then run through a plate and frame filter, carbonated, and packaged into kegs.
After the mash rests at this temperature for a prescribed amount of time, we begin our vorlauf or recirculation of the liquid (wort). This helps us to create a nice clear flow of wort without the presence of solids. Once the flow is clear, we start our runoff. This is the separation of the liquid (wort) from the solids (grains). We continue to add hot water to the mash in an effort to" rinse" as much of the simple sugars from the grain and collect it in the kettle.
After about 2 hours, the kettle will be full and we will be ready for our boil. We boil our wort for about an hour and a half, adding hops early in the boil to attain bitterness and later in the boil to pick up the flavor and aroma of the hops. After the boil has ended, the wort is whirlpooled (spun in the kettle) and allowed to slowly stop spinning. This helps with seperation of solids in the wort (primarily hop material and proteins). The wort is then transferred from the kettle, through a heat exchanger (where the wort is cooled from near boiling temperatures to about 70 degrees F) and into a fermenter.
Yeast is added to the wort in the fermenter and after several hours fermentation will begin and our wort will start making it's transformation into beer. Over the course of the next five days or so, the yeast will consume the simple sugars in the wort and give off carbon dioxide and alcohol. After fermentation is complete the beer is chilled down to near freezing temperatures which will help with the clarification of the beer. Most of our beers are then run through a plate and frame filter, carbonated, and packaged into kegs.