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Brewing Process
Our Brewing Philosophy at Court Avenue Brewing Company:
 At Court Avenue Restaurant & Brewing Company we are dedicated to providing excellent hand-crafted ales for your enjoyment.
To achieve this goal we use custom built brewing equipment and modern brewing techniques. We carefully select a variety of malts, hops, and other natural brewing ingredients needed for quality beer production. Our ingredients are mainly from the United States, with some specialty ingredients coming from Belgium, Germany and England. Our brewer is committed to quality and consistency in all stages of the brewing process. Follow our process – from grain to glass!
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Step One - The Roller Mill:
Brewing starts with grain. The first step in brewing is milling. We run all of our grain through a roller mill, which breaks the husk open. We do this to expose the starches inside, used later in the brewing process. Once crushed, it’s referred to as grist. The grist is then transferred to the brew house where it awaits mashing. |
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Step Two - The Grist Hopper:The grist is transferred to the grist hopper in the brew house using our bucket elevator system. The grist hopper is suspended from the ceiling in our brew house, which holds the grist until the brewer is ready to add it to the mash tun. |
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Step Three - The Mash Tun:In the mash tun, the brewer mixes hot water and grist from the grist hopper to produce the mash, a thick blend that resembles oatmeal or porridge. The mash is steeped in the hot water to begin the conversion of starch to sugar. Once the proper color and clarity have been chieved, we begin transferring the sweet liquid, called wort, to the brew kettle. A false bottom, that works much like a coffee filter, holds back the mash to allow drainage of the wort. The final step is to rinse or sparge the remaining grain that is in the mash tun. |
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Step Four - The Brew Kettle:
Once the appropriate volume of wort is in the kettle, it is brought to a boil and hops are added. Additional hops may go into the kettle throughout the boil, depending on the beer style. Boiling allows for removal of excess proteins which can affect the final clarity and stability of the finished beer. Our brewer adds ops at various times during the boil to provide bitterness, hop flavor and hop aroma. |
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Step Five - The Heat Exchanger:
Once the boil is complete and the wort is concentrated, it travels through the heat exchanger, which chills the wort to a yeast friendly room temperature. The heat exchanger can cool 250 gallons of boiling wort to room temperature in as little as 12 minutes. The cooled wort is sent from the heat exchanger to the fermenter. |
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Step Six - Fermentation Tanks:
Yeast is added to the sterile wort, and the fermenter is sealed up. The yeast eats the sugars in the wort, and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. The alcohol becomes part of the final beer, while the carbon dioxide is vented out of the fermenter to prevent pressure buildup. Typically, after five days, fermentation is complete and the tank is chilled. |
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Step Seven - Conditioning Tanks:The final stop is the cold room. Beer is transferred from the fermenter to a conditioning tank. Yeast continues to fall out of the beer as it ages, while the flavors mature until the beer “drops brite.” This process ranges from two to three weeks depending on the desired flavor of the beer. At this point, the beer is transferred to a serving tank. |
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Step Eight - The Serving Tanks:
After conditioning, the beer is sent to the serving tank. (Our serving tanks were manufactured by Porter Lancastrian Works in England during the mid-1960’s). The beer enters the serving tank where it is carbonated, then sent upstairs to the bar and into your glass for the freshest beer in town. |
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