Malt

First you must start with quality malt. Here at Millstream all of our malt comes from Briess Malting. It comes in 50lb bags that we stack upstairs. Malt is Barley that has been germinated and then dried. This process loosens up the starches in the barley and makes available enzymes that we are going to use in the brewhouse. The whole process of making beer is about converting the starches in the barley into simple sugars, and then feeding those sugars to yeast who 'burn' them to create alcohol and CO2.

There are many different types of malt. Our 2-row malt is dried quickly and at low temperatures to provide a light base malt. We also use a Munich malt that is dried at higher temperatures. The high temperature drying process allows a better formation of melanoid flavor compounds. The higher the temperatures, the more intense the flavors. Very high temperatures can lead to burnt flavors, like many of the malts used in Stouts and Porters. Other malts are roasted wet. This causes various carmalizations (like Malliard reactions) to happen during the malting process. We use a dark caramel malt that is very important in the making of our Schild Brau Amber.

Hops

Hops are the flower of the hop vine. This vine is very closely related to the Cannabis, Nightshade, and Tomato family's of vine. The flowers are green and contain lupelin glands, that contain the essential oils that we need to flavor our beers. Hops provide the bitterness of beer. They also can provide various floral, spicy, and citrus notes to beer. Hops need to be boiled to let the bitter compound dissolve into the wort. Its no coincidence that hops help keep beer from spoiling, this is something that people figured out in ancient times through trial and error.

Water

Water is a very important ingredient in beer. However, its not something that a brewer can do much about. Here in Amana, we use rather hard well water. We treat our water by heating it up in our hot water tanks over night. This removes some of the temporary hardness (calcium and magnesium bicarbonates) and also evaporates out impurities like chlorine. When you have hard water, its best to make beer styles that go well with hard water. For that reason you probably won't see us making any light lagers any time soon (no big loss!). Hard water is a good match for bitter ales, stouts, and full bodies lagers like Bock and Marzen. Soft water tends to reduce the perceived bitterness in beer. Hard water emphasizes body and maltiness in beer.

Yeast

Yeast are the workhorses of beer production. These are little single celled animals (they are actually classified as fungi, though they really are more similar to animals) . They take the sugars in the wort and consume them in a way similar to how you and I do. They leave alcohol and Carbon Dioxide behind, though, because they are fermenting, not respiring, like we do (see your biology 101). The C02 bubbles away, and is our big clue to how vigorous the yeast are fermenting. They also produce plenty of by-products that add to the flavor of beer. These 'esters' are very unique to each different strain of yeast. There are literally hundreds of different strains of yeast, each with their own flavor profile. So the choice of yeast has big impact on the final flavor of a beer. We primarily use a specific lager strain (our own house strain) that is very clean and neutral in flavor. For special beers, like the Warsh Pale Ale, we will use a much more fruity Ale strain of yeast.