Unlike the winegrower with his grapes, the brewer has no sugar in his basic ingredients.  To obtain fermentable sugar from barley, we carry out the process of malting the barley in a malt house.  It undergoes the beginning of germination, which creates an enzymatic complex and transforms starch into maltose and other complex sugars needed for balancing the alcohol and final sweetness of the beer.  After this germination, the cereal goes into an “oaster”, a kind of perforated cylinder in contact with a flame.  This heat  stops germination and gives more or less colour and taste to the barley seeds (hence the different colours of beers: light ale/lager, pale ale and brown ale).

At the brewery, the malt is crushed and mixed with lukewarm water in a mashing vat.  The paste obtained by this method is called “mash”.

To extract the various sugars we want, we raise the temperature.  We therefore obtain the “draff”: a must mixed with the insoluble parts of the malt; they will subsequently be removed by filtration.  The draff is then brought to boiling point for one or two hours, having added the hops at the start.  At the end of the boiling process, the must is cooled down and transferred to a fermentation vat.

This stage is decisive, because it will give the exact type of bitterness we wish to obtain.  Hops give beer its character, so selection is decisive, because such a wide variety of hops exists.

Having obtained a sweet juice with a certain amount of bitterness, we add yeasts, in the same way as with wine, to set off the alcoholic fermentation.  The yeasts produce alcohol, carbon dioxide and aromas.  The type of yeast and the length of time for the fermentation will hone the style of our beer.

After fermentation, we leave our beer to rest for a few days and to clarify in pressurized, stainless steel vats.  During this stage, its taste will mature.

Some brewers filter their beer to make it clearer, but we do not!  Because we consider that by leaving a few residual yeasts, we give Orbaie a greater quality of aromas and in addition, it’s good for health!

We bottle at cold temperature (0°C) in order to restrict the formation of froth during the stages of bottle filling.