Brewing Process

The Celt Experience combines modern brewing equipment with ancient Celtic brewing methods, creating flavoursome and holistic beers.

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Mashing

Unique varieties of germinated malt (known as Malted Barley) are mixed together in the brewstore to provide the ‘grist’. The resulting grist is then mixed with hot water in the ‘mash tun’ for a process known as "Mashing". During this process, natural enzymes within the malt break down much of the starch into sugars which play a vital part in the fermentation process. Mashing usually takes 1 to 2 hours and helps give beers a unique Celtic colour, body and flavour.

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Sparging

After the Mash, a process known as ‘Sparging’ is carried out. Hot water is trickled through the grain to extract sugars. A precise temperature and pH is used by The Celt Experience to achieve the best run-off rates. This is a delicate step, as the wrong temperature or pH will extract tannins from the chaff (grain husks) as well, resulting in a bitter brew. The run-off consists of the mash wort which is then transferred into the boiling vessel or ‘Copper’.

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Boiling

The Celt Experience used a direct fired gas kettle. The fire rate is completely controllable to adapt each brew controlling the vigorous nature of the boil and the rate of evaporation.

Boiling the wort ensures its sterility, and thus prevents a lot of infections. During the boil hops are added, which contribute bitterness, flavour, and aroma compounds to the beer, and, along with the heat of the boil, cause proteins in the wort to coagulate and the pH of the wort to fall. Finally, the vapours produced during the boil volatilise off flavours, including dimethyl sulfide which is then transferred into the boiling vessel or ‘Copper’. The boil must be conducted so that is it even and intense. In the Celt Experience Brewery the boil lasts between 50 and 100 minutes, depending on its intensity, the hop addition schedule, and the volume of wort the brewer expects to evaporate.

At the end of the boiling process the wort is set into a whirlpool. The so-called teacup effect forces the more dense solids (coagulated proteins, vegetable matter from hops) into a cone in the center of the whirlpool tank The wort is then ready for transfer.

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Wort Cooling

After the whirlpool, the wort must be brought down to fermentation temperatures before yeast is added. This is achieved through a plate heat exchanger, where the temperature is taken down to 20°C ready for fermentation.

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Fermentation

Fermentation, as a step in the brewing process, starts as soon as yeast is added to the cooled wort. This is also the point at which the product is first called beer. It is during this stage that sugars won from the malt are metabolized into alcohol and carbon dioxide. After attenuation, where desired conversion of sugar to alcohol have been carried out, the beer is cooled and yeast drops to the bottom of the fermenters. In the Celt Experience the temperature is taken to between 6°C and 8°C.

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Racking & Storage

After the beer has matured and the microbial yeast count is at the correct level, the beer is ‘racked’ into stainless steel casks with the addition of isinglass finings to aid the later settlement of the beer after secondary fermentation.

The beer is then stored in the brewery cellar for the minimum of 7 days to give the beer a perfect maturity. The cellar is maintained with a ambient temperature between 12 °C and 14°C, ideal for a controlled secondary fermentation.

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Bottling & Kegging

The Celt Experience has a fully automated bottling and kegging plant. The brewery uses bright beer tanks to aid the removal of solids before it filters and then packages its range of products.