Once you have selected your recipe it will be uploaded to the server and checked. When the server has accepted your recipe then you will be taken to the Mash tun screen.
Drag and drop your ingredients in any order onto the image of the Mash tun. When all ingredients are loaded then you will be presented with a heat button and a thermometer. The brewing process begins when you click the heat button.
As you heat the mash you will see an optimal temperature line appear on the thermometer. Try to keep the mash temperature as near to that line as possible. Be aware that the equipment has a significant lag from when you apply heat until the entire mash temperature rises, so use the heat button sparingly or you will overshoot the required temperature. Also be aware that every time you press the heat button you will be charged a utility cost and the cost of your batch will rise.
The optimal temperature will rise in 3 steps. Each step represents a point in the brewing process where different enzymes come into play to extract sugar from the mash. Your beer quality and alcohol content will be directly affected by how close you stay to the optimal temperature.
Once you are close to the optimal temperature a hydrometer will appear on the screen. The hydrometer is used to measure the sugar content of the mash. The white bars on the hydrometer represent the minimum and maximum sugar that you can extract. The mashing process will be complete when you have reached the minimum at which point a recommended sugar content will be shown. Once you reach the recommend sugar level then you can choose to continue to heat the mash to try and get a higher alcohol content. Be careful at this point however because deviation from the optimal temperature could result in large decreases in the final beer quality.
The range of sugar contents on the hydrometer will be different for every style of beer and for some beer styles the range is so small that the minimum and maximum will be almost the same. The range will also change based on the number of bags of malt that you have chosen in the grain bill. Lastly, the range will constantly adjust itself based on how closely you maintain the optimal temperature.
To stop the mashing process and "lauter" or move the hot wort to the kettle you must click the image of a valve that will appear next to the heat button.
Once you have started moving the wort a second button will appear. Click this new button to 'sparge' the grain bed. Sparging is the process of passing additional water through the grain bed to extract all of the sugar into the liquid wort.
While the wort is being moved you will be given some information about the supplies used and the cost of the batch so far. Keep in mind that the cost rises significantly as the size of your brewery increases. When you are done reviewing the cost then click the valve button once more to go to the kettle.
Boiling...
In the kettle your goal is to boil the wort to kill any microorganisms that might be present. Once again you are presented with the heat button and a thermometer. This time raise the temperature until the temperature is above the boil point
and keep it there until the boiling process is complete. If you allow the temperature to fall below the boil point then your beer quality will suffer.
At any time during the boil you may drag and drop your bittering hops into the kettle. Depending on your beer style you may want to add the hops early or later to increase or decrease the hoppiness of the beer. If you selected finishing hops in your recipe then they will be made available for addition at a later step. Finishing hops will always increase the hop character of your beer, the hops that we add at this point can be made to increase that character or not depending on your choices. Larger breweries may have more than one bag of hops to add, each bag is added individually again either early or late in the process to further refine the amount of hop flavor in the final product.
Mashing...
Once you have selected your recipe it will be uploaded to the server and checked. When the server has accepted your recipe then you will be taken to the Mash tun screen.
Drag and drop your ingredients in any order onto the image of the Mash tun. When all ingredients are loaded then you will be presented with a heat button and a thermometer. The brewing process begins when you click the heat button.
As you heat the mash you will see an optimal temperature line appear on the thermometer. Try to keep the mash temperature as near to that line as possible. Be aware that the equipment has a significant lag from when you apply heat until the entire mash temperature rises, so use the heat button sparingly or you will overshoot the required temperature. Also be aware that every time you press the heat button you will be charged a utility cost and the cost of your batch will rise.
The optimal temperature will rise in 3 steps. Each step represents a point in the brewing process where different enzymes come into play to extract sugar from the mash. Your beer quality and alcohol content will be directly affected by how close you stay to the optimal temperature.
Once you are close to the optimal temperature a hydrometer will appear on the screen. The hydrometer is used to measure the sugar content of the mash. The white bars on the hydrometer represent the minimum and maximum sugar that you can extract. The mashing process will be complete when you have reached the minimum at which point a recommended sugar content will be shown. Once you reach the recommend sugar level then you can choose to continue to heat the mash to try and get a higher alcohol content. Be careful at this point however because deviation from the optimal temperature could result in large decreases in the final beer quality.
The range of sugar contents on the hydrometer will be different for every style of beer and for some beer styles the range is so small that the minimum and maximum will be almost the same. The range will also change based on the number of bags of malt that you have chosen in the grain bill. Lastly, the range will constantly adjust itself based on how closely you maintain the optimal temperature.
To stop the mashing process and "lauter" or move the hot wort to the kettle you must click the image of a valve that will appear next to the heat button. Once you have started moving the wort a second button will appear. Click this new button to 'sparge' the grain bed. Sparging is the process of passing additional water through the grain bed to extract all of the sugar into the liquid wort.
While the wort is being moved you will be given some information about the supplies used and the cost of the batch so far. Keep in mind that the cost rises significantly as the size of your brewery increases. When you are done reviewing the cost then click the valve button once more to go to the kettle.
Boiling...
Making & Selling Beer (Part 3)In the kettle your goal is to boil the wort to kill any microorganisms that might be present. Once again you are presented with the heat button and a thermometer. This time raise the temperature until the temperature is above the boil point and keep it there until the boiling process is complete. If you allow the temperature to fall below the boil point then your beer quality will suffer.
At any time during the boil you may drag and drop your bittering hops into the kettle. Depending on your beer style you may want to add the hops early or later to increase or decrease the hoppiness of the beer. If you selected finishing hops in your recipe then they will be made available for addition at a later step. Finishing hops will always increase the hop character of your beer, the hops that we add at this point can be made to increase that character or not depending on your choices. Larger breweries may have more than one bag of hops to add, each bag is added individually again either early or late in the process to further refine the amount of hop flavor in the final product.