Commercial Breweries

[rodderz]

Gday fellas

I had a bout of curiosity the other day....the bigger commercial beer companies, eg. CUB, Fosters etc whoever they are now owned by, how do they brew their beers?

Do they start right from the raw ingredients and get the barleys, hops etc, or basically make up a huge supply of concentrate as per a brewing kit and add sugars, malts ect?

Should really go on a tour one day!

 

[AndrewQLD]

Hi Rodderz,

Don't expect your curiousity to be satisfied by a tour of the major breweries. I went on a tour of the CUB brewery in Brisbane last year and while it was interesting to see, the guide had no idea about the brewing process. he even went as far as to say that they use a lager yeast which is fermented at 22 c. When I queried him about the difference between a lager and ale yeast he had no idea what I was talking about.

If you really want to see and learn about a commercial brewery go to a couple of the botique breweries that are popping up all over the place now, you can usually get a hold of one of the brewers themselves and have a good nat. You tend to get a lot of good usable info.

Regards
Andrew

 

[Doc]

Rod,

The big breweries brew their beers by mashing grains just as the AG brewers do. They do however add an amount of sugar to a lot of the mainstream beers to keep the costs down.
A number also use hop extract rather than adding all hops in the boil. Some breweries even add the hop extract on the way to the bottling line.
The bigger the brewery (eg. Tooheys, CUB) the more closesly the brewing process is controlled by cost.

Beers,
Doc

Flamesuit on.

 

[Jethro]

Had a tour of swan brewery about a decade or so ago and they mashed malted barley and boiled their wort in bulk only they added sa liquid cane sugar to suppliment the malt. they used P.O.R and halletau in the boil (no lateradds for flavour and aroma. its all a constant process brewed efficiently with great temp control etc. just wish they used their gear to chase the pemium market chasing classic European styles Cheers Jethro

 

[ColdBeerLuke]

A number also use hop extract rather than adding all hops in the boil. Some breweries even add the hop extract on the way to the bottling line.
The bigger the brewery (eg. Tooheys, CUB) the more closesly the brewing process is controlled by cost.

...

Flamesuit on.

Unfortunately even some of the smaller breweries use hop extract...
James Squire for example...
Mind you, it is owned by Lion Nathan.

Moral...
You can only trust your own ingredients.
Home brew is king.

 

[Gough]

Is that right CBL? I guess I'm naive, but I thought that the MSB beers used real ingredients. What is your source?

Shawn.

 

[Duff]

I did the CUB brewery last year as well at Yatala in QLD. They are expanding it and will now supply all of the CUB brands to QLD, NT and NSW.

Anyway, the bird doing the tour could only mention that they use Talon (?) malt and POR as their hop choice. The CO2 given off during fermentation is reused for carbonation with their standard beers (Carlton Draught, etc) bottled and shipped 6 days after brewing, while their 'premium' beer (Crown) gets an extra 2 days.

Quite impressive to see the bottling setup though.

 

[thehipone]

Unfortunately the economic pressures of large scale brewing lead to some things that aren't exactly the best for the product. Corn, rice or sugar are just cheaper than malt and are almost universally used by the big boys. There's also some other tricks that they play, the "Beechwood aging" that the worlds best selling beer gets is just a matter of providing more surface area for yeast to settle on, it imparts no flavor (although they don't tell anyone that). Lagering times are typically shorter, since longer lagering times aren't deemed necessary to improve the product further.

Its been said before, but what these guys do well is turn out a very consistent product in very large amounts.

 

[Gough]

Guess I just expected a bit more from the James Squire/MSB range of beers. Given their premium price, using 'real' hops rather than isohop isn't too much to ask surely?

Shawn.

 

[Backlane Brewery]

Yeah I'm with you Gough.
Was keenly disappointed the first time I read a Squire label closely. Is this brew based on one of the original JS's brews- no. Is it bottled conditioned- no. Is there any detail of what is actually in it, other than advertising copy- no.
That said, I still rate the Golden Ale as a very good beer. Just...disappointed.

 

[Jino]

I wonder if you can tour the Blue Tongue Brewery Gough?

Would be interesting to look around.

 

[Gough]

G'day Jino,

They do run tours of the Blue Tongue brewery - I'm not sure exactly how frequent they are, but I think you can pretty much ring up/email and request one. I know a few people who went on one after the last 'Newcastle exotic beer club dinner' - I was working and couldn't make it but they were impressed with the setup, if not the beer. The brewers from Blue Tongue seem friendly enough. I'm not an enormous fan of their two main beers though

Shawn.

 

[Jino]

Thanks for the info.

I think i might enquire about it. I'm not a huge fan of their 2 main beers either but i have never been around a brewery and i would like to.

 

[Gough]

Let me know how you get on. I'm keen to get out there myself.

Shawn.

 

[Jino]

Will do. I can't seem to access the web site at them monent. When i can i will email them.

 

[Snow]

I did the XXXX tour last year and though the guide was quite knowledgable he did get pretty stroppy when I wouldn't stop asking questions , and he completely clammed up when I asked him what their mashing regime was and what the hopping ratios were <_< . From what I saw, they use all hop pellets (I know, because I kept shoving my hands in all the bags of POR!). Although they use standard lager malt, he announced with pride that they use generous quantities of Queensland sugar as well .

It's actually quite an interesting brewery with lots of history and a fantastic new bar that you drink at at the end of the tour. It was worth the tour just to check out that bar.

- Snow

 

[Bobby]

for the sydney guys a tour of malt shovel brewery would be good...

 

[kook]

Unfortunately even some of the smaller breweries use hop extract...
James Squire for example...
Mind you, it is owned by Lion Nathan.

Moral...
You can only trust your own ingredients.
Home brew is king.

Chimay use isohop extract, and liquid malt extract. They have done for several years now.

I'm suprised to hear MSB using isohops though, as they werent when we visited during the AHB Sydney meet in 2003.

Guess orders came down from the top.

 

[Murray]

So the XXXX brewery uses real hops and the Malt Shovel brewery uses isohop extract? It is a funny world we live in.

 

[Gough]

So the XXXX brewery uses real hops and the Malt Shovel brewery uses isohop extract? It is a funny world we live in.

I think we are still yet to get that 'evidence' I asked for though... It may well be so regarding MSB, but I would still like to know for sure...

Shawn.