Big Sky Brewing Company in Missoula, MT.

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Our brews & the brewing process.

Before we show you how we make our fine brews, take a look at the days of yore. It's interesting, we promise. And a little weird.

In 1839 the Annals of Chemistry, Volume 29, by Friedrich Woehler and Justus von Liebig, stated:

"Beer yeast, when dispersed in water, breaks down into an infinite number of small spheres. If these spheres are transferred into an aqueous solution of sugar, they develop into small animals. They are endowed with a sort of suction trunk with which they gulp the sugar from the solution. Digestion is immediate and clearly recognizable because of the discharge of excrements. These animals evacuate ethyl alcohol from their bowels and carbon dioxide from their urinary organs. Thus one can observe how a specifically lighter fluid is extruded from the anus and rises vertically, whereas a stream of carbon dioxide is ejected at very short intervals from their enormously large genitals."
Sounds delicious! But here's how we understand it now:

1. The Mill. The malted barley is cracked in the roller mill to expose the inner starch. By carefully cracking, but not grinding the grain, the hull is left intact and acts as an efficient natural filter.

2. Grist Hopper. The hopper holds the full grain bill and slowly transfers the grain into the mash tun.

3. The Mash Tun. Water and grain are mixed at a controlled temperature for a certain amount of time. This mashing process converts the starches into sugars. Hot water is "sparged" on top of the mash to extract the sweet liquid called “wort.”

4. The Brew Kettle. The wort accumulates in the brew kettle as it is pumped from the mash tun. Hops are added during the boil to impart bitterness, flavor, and aroma.

5. The Heat Exchanger. The hot wort is passed through a heat exchanger to drop the temperature down to fermentation temperature.

6. The Fermenters. These large vessels are where the yeast mixes with the wort to create beer. Yeast consumes the sugar and makes alcohol and CO2.

7. Bright Beer Tank. In the Bright Beer tank, filtered beer is left to mature and checked for proper CO2 levels.

8. The Keg or Bottle. Then the beer is kegged or bottled and then shipped out to bars, grocery stores, restaurants, and other places that should have beer.

9. Your glass. The final and most important of the vessels in the brewing process. In your glass is the culmination of ten years of homebrewing, eight years of commercial brewing, and two weeks of fermentation. Enjoy it!