The Beer Making Process

The Abita Brewing Co. has been brewing beers since 1986. It has year- round flagship brews, seasonal brews, harvest brews and its special select series.
Four base ingredients are at the heart of every batch of beer Abita makes: water, barley, yeast and hops.
The town of Abita Springs has long been known for its fresh water, which comes from a deep artesian well. The water is so pure it has no need to be treated. The Abita Brewing Co. takes full advantage of this natural resource.
Barley is a cereal grain. It’s full of fiber. It must be malted before it can be used in the beer-making process. This involves watering the barley seed and then heating it in a large oven, or kiln, to halt the natural growing process. Malting is done to develop the enzymes in the barley. This allows barley starch to be turned into barley sugar.
“Many people believe the sheaves you see on the Abita labels are sheaves of wheat,” said Carl McDaniels. “But in fact they are sheaves of barley.”
Yeast is a single- celled microorganism that converts sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol, which is why it is an important ingredient in the beer making process.
“Yeast can be either top-fermenting or bottom-fermenting,” said Ryan Ackerman.
Top-fermenting yeast ferments from the top of the tank at warmer temperatures and makes a more aromatic beer with higher alcohol concentrations. Bottom-fermenting yeast ferments from the bottom of the tank at colder temperatures and creates more sugars for crisp tasting beers.
Hops are the female flowers of the hop plant. They are used for flavor and help to stabilize the beer. They give beer its bitter taste, which helps balance out the sweetness of the barley sugar.
These four ingredients are very important in the beer making process.
The first part in the process is called the “Mash.” This involves grounding the malted barley to reveal the starches. The end product is called grist.
“We mix the grist with warm water in the mash tun, which is just a huge stainless steel tank,” said Ackerman, “and we call that mixture the mash.”
The mash is then heated, which allows the starch to convert into sugar.
The next step in the process in called the Wort. In this step the mash is put into the Lauter Tun, a large tank with a false bottom that resembles a colander. The liquid from the mash, called the “first wort,” is drained and collected. Next is the Sparge, a process accomplished by spraying the remaining grains at the bottom of the tank with hot water to release the rest of the sugars and flavor from the Mash. This mixture is the “second wort.”

The next step is the boil. The first and second worts are combined and boiled. Hops are added early to balance the sweetness of the mash. In the middle of the boil, more hops are added for flavor and aroma. At the end of the boiling process even more hops are added to further enhance the aroma of the beer.
“After boiling the wort,” said Ackerman, “we put it into a machine that separates the solids from the liquids, until the wort is clear. It’s then cooled so we can add the yeast.”
The next step is fermentation. Yeast is added to the wort and the mixture is put into to a fermenting tank. The yeast eats the sugars, creating alcohol and carbon dioxide. The beer ferments from four to 14 days, with carbon dioxide being released from the tank throughout that time, leaving only the alcohol to remain. The tank is closed when 85 percent of the sugars have been eaten, allowing some carbon dioxide to remain for carbonation purposes.
“The type of beer we are making determines whether we use a top or bottom fermenting yeast,” said Ackerman.
The last step in the beer making process is allowing the beer to age. Depending on the brew, beer can be aged anywhere from 14 days to three months. It is then filtered one last time, bottled, and sent off for consumption.


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