Tim Brown got his start early in life watching his Grandfather Dwyer Brown brew beer. Wanting to keep up the family tradition, Tim worked with a brew master for two years before taking some courses to learn more about the brewing process
Tim has a great love for the beer he makes and enjoys sampling to make sure they are up to standard. Tim has been involved in the service industry for well over 10 years and has enjoyed every minute of it and it shows in his work and attitude
He can be found talking to the customers and friends that he has made over the years in the pub or restaurant. Finally his dream of following in his Grandfather's footsteps has come true
Brewery Information
Capacity and Construction
Mission Springs Brewing Company opened its doors in October of 1996. The brewery is a 10 bbl brew house constructed by Newlands Inc., located across the Fraser river, in Mission. The brew house setup is comprised of a combination mash/lauter tun, three open jacketed fermentors and the brew kettle. In addition, there are ten conditioning/serving tanks for the 6 beers on tap. A single head filling machine is used for bottled beer sales in the attached beer and wine store. There is a 5 sq m. D.E. filter available for use, however, only the lighter styles are filtered. The beers produced at Mission Springs are made using a single temperature infusion mashing program, with the rare specialty beer made with a step-mash program. The course of a single brew goes as follows:
MASHING (90
min)
The malted barley is crushed then mixed with hot water to initiate
the breakdown of starch to simpler sugars. This process is known
as mashing. The brewer has to mix these grains in to the water with
a paddle to achieve the proper temperature and mash consistency.
RUN-OFF (120
min)
The sweet liquid produced in the mash (now referred to as wort)
is run off the spent grains and rinsed (sparged) with hot water
en route to the brew kettle. Care is taken not to over-rinse the
grain or to rinse too hot, as this would leach unfavorable flavors
into the finished beer.
BOILING (90
min)
The boil serves many functions in the brewing process. The 90 minute
boil ensures that the liquid is free from any potentially beer spoiling
microorganisms, it also helps to clarify the finished beer and extracts
flavor and bitterness from the hops. At the completion of the boil,
the beer is chilled rapidly en route the the fermentor. Yeast is
pitched at this point into the stream of beer entering the fermentor.
FERMENTATION
(5-21 days)
The yeast added to the chilled, hopped wort will quickly increase
in population and the fermentation of wort sugars should be evident
within 12 hours of brewing. Over a period of 5-14 days (shorter
for ales, longer for lagers) the yeast will use the sugars produced
in the mash as a food source and in the process produce carbon dioxide
gas and alcohol.
MATURATION (14-28
days) AND SERVING
The "green" beer is transferred to a storage tank in a cold room
in our basement. Here the yeast will slowly drop out of suspension
leaving the beer bright and clear. The beer may or may not be filtered
at this point. Harsh flavors from the fermentation decrease and
carbonation is introduced until the mature beer is deemed ready
for serving (usually about 3 weeks for an ale, 6 weeks for a lager).
When a tap is available, the beer will be pushed with inert gases into
to a glass.
Glossary
Ale
A beer made with yeast that tend to prefer warmer fermentation temperatures (20'C). These yeast most often appear to work near the top of the fermenting vessel; hence the descriptor "top fermenting".
Barley Malt
The seeds of the barley plant that have been germinated and dried, freeing up the starch in the seed. This malt can then be roasted or stewed to produce different kinds of malts for the brewer to use.
Beer Engine
A hand pump used mainly in english style pubs to gently pull beer from the cellar kegs up to the bar. Used for beers served with a gentler carbonation and slightly warmer temperature.
Bitter
An english style of beer that is not always all that bitter. Typically, a copper coloured ale with a sweet flavour and a hoppy aroma
Bitterness
The perception of the degree of hop acids in a beer. These acids, known as alpha acids, are boiled out of the hops in the kettle and help to preserve the beer while also balancing the sweet malty flavour from the barley malt.
Body
A very subjective description of beer based on its "weight" in the mouth. Stout is usually described as heavy, while many domestic lagers seem to be light.
Brewing
The process of producing beer. Brewing can refer to the process of producing the hopped wort (the "brew day"), but also covers the entire process including fermentation, maturation, filtration and packaging.
Carbon Dioxide
C02. A common atmospheric gas that is released by most cells as a byproduct of energy formation. It is pumped back into beer after filtration (carbonation) to produce the liveliness and mouthfeel that is characteristic of beer.
Carbonation
The process where carbon dioxide is slowly added to the beer until a desired level is reached. Ales typically have lower carbonation than lagers, though our Blonde ale is carbonated like a lager.
Crystal Malt
A type of malt that leaves a copper color and sweet taste to beers. Used mainly in english style ales.
Esters
Aromatic chemical compounds produced by the yeast during fermentation. Cold temperature tends to reduce aromas in beer.
Ethanol
The alcohol that most of us have come to know and love. Two carbons in a chain, formula C2H50H. Amount in beer is shown as a percentage by volume.
Fermentation
The process by which a cell uses a carbon source (usually sugar) for energy in the absence of oxygen. Yeast ferment sugars to ethanol and carbon dioxide, muscle cells ferment sugars to lactic acid (ouch!) and carbon dioxide.
Fermentor
The container where the cool, sweet hopped wort is innoculated with fresh yeast cells. Here, the sugars in the wort are changed to ethanol and carbon dioxide by the yeast.
Filtration
The physical removal of particles in a liquid or a gas. Beer is passed through a mesh with holes smaller than the particles that are to be removed. Most yeast cells are removed by our filter.
Glucose
The most simple sugar broken off of the starch molecule during mashing. Glucose is a monosaccharide (mono="one" saccharide="sugar"), ie, a single sugar molecule.
Grinder
Breaks the barley malt down and separates its starchy inside from the fibrous husk.
Hops
The flower of a vine plant that resembles a pine cone. It is dried for use as a flavor enhancer and preservative in beer. Many different varieties with different aromas and bitterness levels. Eg, Fuggles (English), Cascade (Washington), Saaz (Czech Rep.), Hallertau (German).
Kettle
A steam heated container where the sweet wort from the mash is boiled with hops. This boiling sanitizes the wort, breaks up potentially haze forming proteins and liquefies the bitter acids from the hops.
Lager
A beer made with yeast that tend to work near the bottom of the fermenting vessel at colder temperatures than ale yeast (< lO?C). Lager is a german verb meaning "to store". These beers were stored in ice caves through the summer and benefited from the aging time, hence the name.
Maltose
The most numerous sugar broken off of the starch chain during mashing. Maltose is comprised of two glucose molecules and is therefore termed a disaccharide (di="two" saccharide="sugar")
Maltster
A production facility where the raw barley seed is changed to barley malt. We purchase from a few sources, but mostly from Gambrinus Malting in Armstrong, BC, and Crisp Malting in the UK.
Mash
The porridge-like mixture of barley malt and hot water that produces sweet unhopped wort. Different amounts and types of barley malt are used in different beers to produce beers with lighter or darker colors, more or less alcohol, and a drier or sweeter taste.
Mash tun
The container where the barley malt and hot water are mixed to form the mash. Insulated, and ours can hold up to about 350 kg of ground barley malt with approximately 600 1 of water.
Maturation
After fermentation, the remaining yeast in the beer slowly break down astringent or "green" tastes, smoothing out the final flavor.
Munich malt
A type of barley malt that adds a rich malty flavor and a reddish-copper color to the beer. Used in many continental beer styles.
Original Gravity
A measure of the amount of sugar in the wort before fermentation. The difference between original and final gravity relates to the amount of alcohol produced.
Pale Malt
The base malt for all recipes. Provides the majority of fermentable sugars for the wort.
Porter
A dark beer whose flavor and
color come from the use of darkly roasted barley malt such as chocolate or black malt. May also use some roasted barley.
Starch
Long chains of simple sugars found in all grains and vegetables. Starch is not fermentable by yeast while simpler sugars are, therefore the starch is broken down to sugars by the brewer in the mash.
Stout
A dark beer whose flavor and
color come from the judicious use of unmalted, roasted barley. The best known stout is
Guinness. Stout was originally just a descriptor for Porter, i.e. "Stout" Porter, which was the most common beer at the time.
Taxes
Provincial and Federal. The biggest cost involved in brewing.
Tower
The structure on the bar that the beer taps are attached to. It hides all of the tubing that carries the beer in a more attractive bundle. Beer is pushed from the cellar with
pressurized gas.
Tun
An old
English word meaning "vessel" or "container".
Vienna Malt
A light
colored malt used to add sweetness and body without darkening the final
color of the beer.
Wheat Malt
Wheat seeds that have undergone the same germination process as barley malt. Used to lighten the flavor and
color of beers while also adding simple proteins that will help produce a better head on the beer.
Wort
The unfermented beer. A sweet solution containing sugars, lots of protein and organic acids from the hops.
Yeast
A microscopic, single celled fungus used in brewing to ferment sugars to ethanol (the most popular alcohol) and carbon dioxide (released as a gas) as well as releasing many other compounds in the process that add to the final flavor of the beer.
1. Mash: Hot water is fed into the mash tun concurrently with the grain to form the thick mash. The mash is allowed to sit until the starch in the barley malt is converted to simple sugars.
2. Runoff 90: The wort runs into the Brew Kettle. As the level of liquid in the mash tun drops, hot water is sprayed on top of the mash bed to rinse any remaining extract (sugars, protein) from the grains. The spent grain is removed and fed to local dairy cattle - who love it!
3. Boil 90?: The wort iss brought to an active, rolling boil. Hops are added at different times to provide bitterness (balancing the sweetness of the malt), flavor and preservative qualities.
4. Kettle Strike 45?: The hot wort is passed through a heat exchanger, cooling the wort from 100?C to 20?C on the way to the fermentor.
5. Pitching: Fresh, active yeast is added to the fermentor.
6. Fermentation 5 days - the yeast multiply very quickly producing ethanol and carbon dioxide. The temperature of the fermentation vessels is controlled by a microprocessor.
7. Racking: Beer is transferred to a storage tank.
8. Maturation: The green beer is allowed to sit 7 - 14 days until the brewer deems it ready.
9. Filtration: The beer is passed through a coarse filter bed of diatomaceous earth to remove remaining yeast cells. The beer is now termed "bright" beer.
10. Carbonation: The bright beer is carbonated to a set level by pushing CO2 through a porous stone.
11. Serving: Pressure is applied to the top of the serving tank pushing the beer up to the taps at the bars, or 650 mL bottles or sale in our Beer & Wine store.