| At
Sebago Brewing Company we brew our beers from all malt.
We use American grown 2-Row, caramel, chocolate, black,
roasted barley and Munich malts from Briess
Malting Company. Our grain silo holds 50,000 lbs.
of American 2-Row Pale malt. We purchase our grain by
the truckload and the bulk grain is blown into the silo
from the grain truck. We use 75-80% of this grain in all
of our beers. Then we measure our specialty malts into
the mill. At this point we crush the malt so that the
husk's are cracked open and the "meat" of the
grain is exposed. |
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| The
grain is transferred to the brew house by our auger system.
When the brewer starts the mash in process we simply turn
the motor on and mix the hot water with the grain. We
mash in at 162 ºF so our final mash temperature is 148
ºF. The grain then steeps in the Mash Tun for 1 hour.
This is similar to soaking a tea bag into a cup of hot
water. The enzymes in the mash convert the starches to
sugars giving the liquid a very sweet malty taste. This
is called wort (wert). The wort is then transferred to
the kettle and the grain is sparged or rinsed. |
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| The
sparge takes about 2 hours to remove all of the sugars
from the mash. It's important to take our time when sparging
so that our wort is clear and free of particles. After
all the sugars are removed we give the spent grain to
a local farmer to feed his Reindeer. |
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| When
we have collected 682 gallons of wort we start the boil.
All of our brews are boiled for one hour. During
this hour we add hops at selected times. First,
at the beginning of the boil for bitterness, second, half
way through the boil for flavor. And third, five minutes
to the end of the boil for aroma. Finally, we turn the
boil off and let the hops settle out of the liquid.
By whirling the kettle we collect most of the hops and
protein in the dish at the bottom of the kettle (see photo
to the right). The next step is to cool the wort to the
proper fermentation temperature, 68° F for Ales
& 55° F for Lagers. |
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| Fermentation
is the process of tiny yeast cells metabolizing sugar.
The byproduct of fermentation is CO2 and Alcohol.
Yeast is very particular about what temperature it lives
in so it is the brewers' job to keep the yeast happy and
clean. The wort produced in the brew house is our
yeast's food.
We
ferment our ales with an American style ale yeast. In
our opinion this yeast gives our beer its wonderful
sweet and fruity balance when combined with generous
amounts of hops.
After 4-5 days of fermentation the beer is chilled and
aged for 2-5 days. We dry hop our Frye's Leap I.P.A
with Cascade and Centennial hops for at least 4 days
during this time. |
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| After
the few days of aging we filter our beer. This makes
the beer bright and clear. Then we add carbonation to
the beer in the serving room. These tanks hold the bright
carbonated beer that we serve right out of our taps to
the bar. Our cold rooms are 38 ºF so the beer is
cool and refreshing. |
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We
package our beers in 12 and 22 oz. bottles and kegs.
It's imperative that our finished product doesn't come
in contact with sunlight or oxygen and we never pasteurize
or use preservatives. Our Bulldog keg filler/ cleaner
enables us to clean and fill 40 kegs per hour.
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Please
click on the following links for a short tour of our
bottling line. |
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|
 Filler
Feed
(1990k)
|
 Filling
and Capping
(6502k)
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