Buntingford Brewery Co Ltd

Ingredients Water Water is the largest single component of any beer, so it follows that it has a big impact on the finished product. Our water comes straight from our own borehole, so is devoid of any of the chemical treatments applied to tap water. These treatments are applied for a number of reasons, none of them are any good for brewing though! Our water is also very high in natural calcium, and this is a good thing for beer. Brewers like to be different (some would say odd), so we call our water 'Liquor'. Get a room full of brewers together, and they'll start talking about how good their liquor is... Aside from a simple, but highly critical, correction of the pH of the water (ie how acidic, or not, the water is) it goes straight into the process. To legally refer to our water as 'Spring' or 'Mineral' water requires use to register the borehole as a mineral water source. This we are currently looking into.
Malt Malt is basically partly germinated grain. It can be Wheat, Oats, Rye and even Rice. But mostly in brewing terms it describes Barley. Malting is a process that involves partly germinating the grain, then kilning. In reality of course it is a complex process, demanding a great degree of skill from the Maltster. Modern maltings use industrial machinery to speed up a process that traditionally took up to a week, and at the same time hand most of the judgment over to mechanical / electronic control. We however purchase our malt from a traditional, hand worked, maltings - Warminster Maltings - in Wiltshire. In the past, our area of Hertfordshire was renowned for it's maltings, but now we have a large number of expensive 'apartments' conversions instead... The brewery is on a farm that grows malting barley, and we will be moving over to using, in part, this barley in our beer - but of course still malted by Warminster, as we believe they are the best in the country. East Anglian maltings are now far too modern, and can only play at doing it properly in our view. The malting process improves the fermentable sugar extraction, and the kilning at the end defines the colour & flavour imparted by the malt. The main types available to us listed below:
Pale Ale:	Main component of all ales, gives a pale golden colour, and highest (fermentable) extract. Main variety is Maris Otter, but Halcyon, Golden Promise (organic) and Plumage Archer (an old breed now, and organic only)
Lager:	Paler version of above. Varieties include Perle & Optic.
Crystal:	Kilned for longer, used for colour, like all 'coloured' malts used in small volumes compared to pale / lager malts. Available in high, low & medium colour strengths.
Amber:	Lower colour than crystal, but adds a dry, biscuity flavour to the beer.
Black:	Dark colours, roasty flavours. Often used in milds, stouts etc.
Brown:	Slightly lighter version of above, can add a sweeter flavour
Chocolate:	Dark brown colours, adds an almost chocolate flavour, hence it's name.
There are other varieties as well, but the one's above are the more common types. In addition to malted grain, unmalted grains are also used:
Flaked Barley:	Rolled barley grains, used to soften flavours, and improve head retention. We add this to all our brews.
Roast Barley:	Heavily kilned for very strong colour and roasted flavours. Used in stouts etc, but also handy in small amounts in paler beers for a different flavour profile to the norm.
Torriefied Wheat:	Used to soften the flavour, and improve head retention. Described as being like crushed unsweetened/unsalted popcorn. Not used by us, but commonly used by breweries of all sizes
Flaked Maize:	Again used to soften flavours and improve the head on the beer. Not used by us, but commonly used by breweries of all sizes
We also have a range of wheat, oats & rye grains, in a range of levels of kilning, malted & unmalted, some wood or peat smoked, available to us if needed - a veritable palette of styles, colours & flavours indeed! Have a butchers at the extensive malt entry on Wikipedia.
Hops We all know what hops are... Or do we? Hops are put of the hemp family of plants (yes, that hemp...). As well as being good for brewing, the hop has been used as food (young shoots only), as well as many medicinal uses. Indeed the full beneficial nature of the hop is only now being realised scientifically. There are dozens of varieties available these days, from all across the world. We boil them in the beer to extract 'bitterness', flavour, and aroma. Different varieties have different uses, so a cocktail of hops is not uncommon. Hops also add other properties, not least a degree of anti-septic compounds that helps with the shelf life of the finished product. Many breweries these days use hop pellets, and the bigger breweries avoid hops altogether, using just extracted oils & resins. We use only whole cone hops as they give the best flavour. It's harder work come cleaning time, but it's worth it. we also 'dry-hop' most of our beers, which means we add hops to each cask we fill. This adds additional aroma and flavour, for this we use specially compressed blocks of whole hops (just compressed!). For a list of varieties, their ideal uses and flavour profiles, please visit the website of our hop merchants, Charles Faram & Co. And why not have a look the hop entry on Wikipedia?
Yeast The important stuff. Nearly all the effort up till the yeast is added is just to give the yeast the ideal conditions to live in. In return for giving the yeast a home for a few days, we get an alcoholic beverage. The sugars we extracted from the grain are eaten by the yeast, who in return leave behind alcohol and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is what gives the beer it's natural fizz. We use use a live strain of yeast, with a heritage stretching back possibly hundreds of years in the annals of brewing. We harvest yeast from each brew for the next. The ever-useful Wikipedia has a section on brewing yeasts... Finings As well as the above we also a family of products called Finings. When we boil the beer we add one that contains 'Irish Moss', which is a type of seaweed. This attracts unwanted proteins, and drops them out of solution, and so is left behind with the waste. We add a further dose after fermentation. In the cask we add 'Isinglass'. This product, like all the others, is commonly used in cask beers. It's job to is make the beer perfectly clear in the pub cellar. Beer will, if brewed properly, will clear by itself in time, but will often still have a slight haze. But today, landlords don't want beer sitting for two weeks undisturbed as they have other pressures on cellar space, and people often drink with their eyes. Isinglass is refined from the swim bladder of certain fish species, and will sink to the bottom of the cask, and not be passed to the glass. It is this item alone that prevents cask beer from being truly vegetarian. Of course if asked, we can supply beer unfined if required, for extended settling before dispense. This will be vegan, as no other animal products are involved. Very dark (ie truly black) beers of course do not need isinglass finings, for no better reason than it is impossible to see if the beer is clear or not. Our filtered bottled beers are free from isinglass. Wikipedia (as ever...) has a good entry on isinglass, however it is slightly inaccurate - Irish Moss is not truly an alternative to Isinglass. And the chemical alternatives often used aren't mentioned either....
Other Ingredients Sugars are commonly used in bigger breweries, in a variety of ways. We do not use sugar as an aid to brewing, but we do use it from time to time to add flavour and sweetness - such as in a mild. This includes the use of honey. In big modern breweries, there is a whole arsenal of chemical products, from starches and enzymes through to malt & hop extracts. All are designed to reduce work, time and therefore cost. And as they are not flavour giving ingredients, the result is often a blander product.