Admin on November 8, 2011 0 Comments Steeping: An update from our company brewing competition As many of you already know, we at Schlitz & Giggles are on the verge of announcing our new beer. It is due to be introduced in late November, and production has already begun at our plant. To ensure a quality product, part of our brewing process is taping various quality assurance videos, which remain safe within our company. However, our QA videos were unfortunately leaked to the news media outlets, showing bits and pieces of the process we used to make our mystery beer. While we wish that this source had chosen not to leak these videos, we figured it would just be better to roll with the punches. Luckily, not enough of our secret was divulged to discontinue our late November launch, and so we decided to post those videos here, for everyone to see and learn from. How to Steep Grains For Extract Brewing Please keep in mind that, while many of the various steps were meant to be top secret, most of them can also be used to help assist in brewing your own style of beer at home. Here is how you can utilize the steeping method to improve the flavor and overall quality of your extract beer recipe. 1. Steep Grains This process is known as steeping, similar to the process you would follow with tea. We use a muslin bag to pour our secret blend of barley and malts, and steep it in the bag of boiling hot water for about 20-30 minutes. 2. Boiling Our master brewers then let the mixture of the water and spices boil over an open flame for about 30 minutes. 3. Add the Extract The top-secret syrup is then added to the hot water, and the brewers make sure it is slowly poured in while stirring slowly to ensure it dissolves. Then the mixture boils for another 60 minutes. By the way, I recognize that dog… I may have just figured out who leaked this video! 4. Add Your Hops Then, 15 minutes before the hour of boiling is up, the master brewers add our bittering hops blend. After about 10 minutes, they then add flavoring hops to give it that extra Schlitz kick. 5. Cool Down Following the boiling and adding of flavors, our brewers rapidly cool the mixture down to 80 degrees Fahrenheit in just 15 minutes to ensure all of the flavors are not boiled out. 6. Add to Fermenter Our mixture is then added to the fermenter along with water to make the complete brew. In this case, they added it to make 5 gallons of beer. 7. Let it Sit This is the final result of the first half of brewing. The mixture stays in this fermenter for up to 2 weeks. The thing at the top is called an airlock, and it tells is if the brew is starting to ferment correctly. These are the videos that were leaked, but luckily nothing incriminating came out of it. Now we just have to hope that no other video gets leaked… I think it’s about time we find the owner of that dog!
