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The brewing process starts with fresh, malted barley (stored in the silo). For any specific recipe, a variety of malts are carefully blended, then gently cracked in a malt mill.

The grist (milled malt) is then transferred to the grist case above the mash tun. A mash is created as the grist is dropped and mixed with hot water in the mash tun. In the mash, starches in the malt are naturally converted to sugars. This conversion process can take several hours.

Lautering occurs as the sweet liquid, or wort, is drawn off the bottom of the mash and sent to the brewkettle. When the brewkettle is full, the wort (pronounced"wert") is then brought to a rolling boil.

Hops are added to the beginning of the boil to balance the sweetness of the wort. Hops for flavor and aroma are added during the middle and end of the boil respectively.

The wort is boiled at least 1 hour depending on beer style. When the boil is complete, the wort is pumped through a heat exchanger and quickly cooled as it is being transferred to a fermenting vessel.

Our proprietary yeast is then added during the transfer to begin fermentation. For ales, fermentation requires about two weeks. Lager fermentation is colder and slower, lasting 4-6 weeks.

Most of our beers are then filtered and sent to the serving vessels. Filtering removes yeast to produce crystal clear beer. Some of our beers are stylistically unfiltered allowing yeast to remain in suspension.

From the serving vessels, the beer flows straight to our taps resulting in the freshest, most flavorful brews available anywhere. We at Big Dog's Brewing Company hope you'll enjoy our beers as much as we do.