The brewing process can be broken down into four distinctive steps: mashing, boiling, fermenting, and aging.

1The mashing process involves mixing hot water with barley that has been ground in a mill. This is mixed to the consistency of oatmeal and allowed to sit for 70 minutes. At that time we run more hot water over the grain which is on top screens which prevent the grain from transferring into the boiling kettle. After extracting all the sweet liquid from the grains into the brew kettle we boil the liquid (called wort) for 90 minutes. Boiling sterilizes the wort which is important for the yeast to have a bacteria free environment.

Ingredients: Beer contains four main ingredients: Water (90 to 95% of beer), barley, hops, and yeast.

Water- Our water comes from the local Rocky Mountains. We run it through a carbon filter to remove the chlorine. For many of our beers we make the water a little harder by adding calcium sulfate (gypsum).

Grains- Our beers are made with malted barley and malted wheat. No cereal grains (rice, corn) are used. The malted grains supply the beer with body and sugars for the yeast to convert to alcohol. Specialty grains are used in various ways to color the beer and give it certain flavors.

Recent evidence suggests that Sumerians were making beer for home and ritual consumption almost 4000 years ago. More recently, beer is known to have played a part in ceremonies of Central American and Anglo-Saxon cultures. In short, people have been home brewing for thousands of years. With the rise of cities and poor waste treatment facilities, beer became one of the few safe drinks available.