🌪WHIRLPOOL🌀

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In December we took delivery of a shiny new brewhouse . This has doubled our brewing capacity and created the opportunity to greatly improve the quality of our beers. We have been quietly beavering away improving our processes and figuring out what PLC Stands for 

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The biggest change and the most exciting piece of equipment is the whirlpool vessel.

Beautifully crafted stainless steel with a conical top and an aspect ratio of 1:1 this thing is a true work of art. 

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Originally invented to aid clarification, the whirlpool has been part of modern brewhouses for years. In recent decades, additions have been made to these vessels to help pack more aroma and flavour (obviously from hops) into the beers that are lucky enough to be made using one.

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Our whirlpool comes with the ability to chill the wort post boil to any temperature we like . We can fine tune this depending on the flavours we want from the hops. Cooler temperatures help minimise hop bitterness and emphasise fruity character from the hops. Whereas warmer temperatures will add gentle bitterness and a more robust flavour 

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The oils extracted from the hops at this stage will be carried through into fermentation where they will undergo a multitude of interactions with our house yeast to create more layers of complex and punchy flavours, depending on which hops we use .

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The main two reactions that arise from here are:

1. The breaking down of glycosidic bonds that bind hop oils to the cell wall, helping extract more flavour and aroma. 

2. The further biotransformation of hop oil compounds, drawing out flavours from the hops that are otherwise inaccessible .

Both of these reactions rely on the presence of specific enzymes in yeast and not all brewers yeast strains contain the right ones. Fortunately, our house yeast has a boatload of all the enzymes required .