La Brasserie de Fleurac

Process of making beer

There are 4 essential ingredients to call a beverage “a beer”.

Water: Water is a basic ingredient and represents from 90% to 95% of the beer. Here, we are using water coming straight from a local spring called “Marihlou”, which has its source in Auvergne volcanoes
Malted Barley: Our malt comes from the Castle Malting (Malterie du Château) in Belgium. There are several types of malt whose colour can vary between gold and black. Malt provides sugars needed to produce alcohol, the roundness of the beer and determines its taste and its colour.
Hop: This plant is a climbing one which can reached 8 metres high and makes female and male flowers. In the production of beer, only the female flowers are used for the essential oils and the resins contained. The resins have preservative qualities and give beer bitterness. Indeed, a beer without hops is called “cervoise” and can be kept just for 1 or 2 weeks when a beer with hops can be kept for several years. The essential oils give beer a floral sensation above all. Our hops come from all over the world.
Yeast: The type of yeast used depends on the desired fermentation. Yeast transforms sugars from malt into alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO2). It can influence the flavour of the beer too.

However there is another – optional but very interesting - ingredient...

Spices: As in cooking, you can use a wide and various range of spices and add almost everything you want in a beer: flowers, seeds, roots, peels of fruit, etc. It depends on the brewer's mood.

Brewing is the first step in the fabrication of the beer and corresponds to the creation of a beer as a liquid.

1) First of all, we heat up the water to the adequate temperature and partially grind the seeds of malt with a mill.
2) When the water reaches the right temperature, we will carry out the mashing which means that we will plunge the ground cereals into water and mix them together in a mash tun. At that time, we increase the global temperature in order to reach temperature levels. These different levels lead to the transformation of starch into sugar thanks to enzymes found in the cereals.
3) We filter the liquid through a punched plate to separate it from the cereals and once again through the bed of cereals to do a self-filtration. Indeed, the bed of cereals acts as a natural filter and keeps the remaining dust, straw of the grains and small seeds. The lautering lasts until the liquid is clean.
4) We heat up the liquid again and empty the mash tun of the spent grain (residue of malt and grain) which will end as animal feed.
5) We boil up the liquid and add to it spices and hops. The liquid has to boil for an hour so that the resins are dilute into the water. Meanwhile the essential oils have evaporated, so we have to add hops again after an hour.
6) We cool down the beer with a plate heat exchanger and put it back into a tank with yeast.

1) The beer is kept at a stable temperature in a tank with the yeast and for a week. During this week, yeast converts sugar into alcohol and CO2. Carbon dioxide is evacuated with a gas-washing bottle and dust and dead yeast fall at the bottom of the tank. At the end of this period, we do therefore a racking and put the beer in another tank.
2) From now, the beer is kept in a cold room for 2 weeks: it is the lagering. The remaining yeast begins a dormancy period.
3) We do another racking, add sugar to the beer and bottle it in.
4) The bottles are stored in a warm room where the beer ferments again. This process is calling “bottle conditioning” and lasts 2 weeks. With heat and sugar, the remaining yeast transforms sugar into alcohol and CO2 again. This time, CO2 which is trapped in the bottle, forms pressure and is liquefied. It will create bubbles and head when the beer is opened.
5) When the bottle conditioning is accomplished, we can store the bottles in a cellar where the beer will cool slowly and 2 days later, the beer will be ready to be enjoyed.