Steinecker Brewhall

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29265, 25 July 1960, Page 12

Steinecker Brewhall

These ultra-modem, gleaming, copper-domed brew kettles were built in Germany specially for New Zealand Breweries limited -

Nowhere is the modernity of the new Brewery more total'and more spectacular than in the Steinecker Brewhall. All the equipment in it has been specially made overseas to provide for the widest variety of brewing art and the highest standard of taste excellence.

The malted barley comes to the Brewhall via a malt mill where it has been crushed into a flat porridge-like form. It travels automatically from the floor above into the Mixer, one of the gleaming copper vessels shown above. Functionally it is the Brewery kitchen. Here

the liquor called “wort” is made from barley grain and flavoured with hops to be. later fermented into beer. The barley has, of course, been “malted” . . . germinated naturally, just enough to change the- hard com seed into tender, soluble food forms. In the Mixers, tempera-

This solution of malt then goes to another of the vessels which is called the Lauter Tun. This is a strainer, comparable to the colander in a household kitchen. In it the dissolving process is completed and the liquid wort runs away through a perforated plate leaving behind all husks, which have no value for brewing but which are sought after by farmers as

"brewer’s grains” for cattle food.

ture control” is exercised, permitting predetermined enzymic reactions to take place, concluding with full saccharification. In brief this means that water is added at just the right temperature to ensure the correct solution of the food substances of the barley malt.

From the Lauter tun the wort goes to the Kettle where the hops are added and the liquid is boiled to very precise requirements determined by the brewer. This boiling is vitally important in the brewing process. The design of the Kettle is a major item in the excellence of the Steinecker brewing plant. It ensures in the first place that very exact heat

range requirements can be followed with complete accuracy. Even the shape of the vessel is cleverly chosen to ensure that the action of the boil, and paths traced by the bubble streams will be correct. This is necessary because it is in the boiling that ■ changes in the composition of the wort take place. Substances which can affect the taste and quality of beer come to be precipi-

Either in the Mixer or in the Lauter vessel, depending on just what type of beer is being brewed, some cane sugar is added. The purpose is not for sweetening (as the wort itself is sweet before the hops are added) but to help the working of the yeast when the fermentation stage is reached later.

tated out. The process is known to the brewer as "kettle-break”. A good "kettle-break” is essential for producing good beer.

The ultra-modem Steinecker Brew Kettle takes guess-work out of the brewer's calculations for this vitally important process so that he can be sure of producing beer of consistently high quality.