How the beer is made

The process of brewing Oak Pond beer begins at a 20-metric-ton silo filled with pale malted barley grown in Canada. From the silo, the barley is fed into a scale and hopper, where specialty malts are added. It could be eight different malts, depending on the type of beer desired.

“That’s where the color comes from, the different malts,” owner Don Chandler said. Chandler’s malts come from the U.S. and are also imported from England and Canada.

The grains are then milled – not to a powder, Chandler said, but rather into a chopped, chunky consistency. The milled grains are put into large vats with water, creating a product called mash tun. The mash tun steeps for about an hour, the liquid is strained and drained off. The spent grain is provided to a local dairy farmer to feed nonmilking cattle.

The liquid, now called sweet wort, is pumped into a boiling kettle powered by steam. Now the hops are added and the sweet wort is boiled for an hour to an a hour and a half. This is referred to as bitter wort, and it is slowly cooled from 210 degrees Fahrenheit to 70 degrees F.

The bitter wort is moved to the cone-shaped fermenters, which hold 14 barrels, or 400 gallons, and bubbled up through yeast. As the beer ferments, carbon dioxide is expelled – so the vat doesn’t blow up – and then reintroduced later for carbonation. The beer will ferment for five to 10 days and then will be chilled for one to three months. The temperature will affect the taste and, depending on the beer, could be as low as 33 degrees.

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