HOW TO BEER?

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THE SECRET TO BREWING TASTY NON-ALC BEER - LET ME SHOW YOU AROUND.

Like a metaphor of New Zealand's social culture this grand building can share lots of stories.

Once the Rothmans Tobacco HQ the boardroom it would of been like a scene from Madmen.? Smoke hanging to the ceiling,? A very big business in a booming industry.??

Until Craft beer took over the reigns, and now more and more it's about non-alc!

The brewery is called BStudio and a big asset to NZ's brewing community.? And the brewing home of State of Play.

I chose to partner with the team at B Studio because of their brewing credentials, the quality of the Krones Brewhouse and pasteuriser.? Come take a look with me to understand the brewing process and what makes a good non-alc beer.

Lets start the tour at the beginning.

QUALITY IN EQUALS QUALITY OUT

The whole process starts with getting the best ingredients.? There are only four - barley malt, hops, yeast and water.

Today we are brewing Sunbreaker Ale and we have a combination of malted barley to get milled in the hopper on the right, and then when ready to brew it is sent across the roof to the brew kettle.

The malted barley is in bulk or bags and is roasted (a bit like coffee) to different grades.? The darker the roast the darker the beer and more chocolate caramel character.? Other recipes can include oats, wheat, even rice.

THE HOT SIDE

The first stage of brewing takes half a day.? It's called the hot side, because - it's hot.

The freshly milled malt is mixed with hot water to make WORT.? it's like a sweet barley tea.? This is our fuel for making beer and the body.? This first stage is called MASHING.

This big 10,000 litre cup of malty tea is then lautered and the WORT and the SPENT GRAIN is separated (the grain is sent to the farm for feed)

The soon-to-become beer is then transferred to the brew kettle and the whirlpool.? State of Play beers have hops added across these two stages.? The hops can be added as an extract and as pellets.? Different varieties offer more bitterness and flavours - American hops are more dank and resinous, NZ hops more citrus, piney and fruity.? We use all NZ hops as they work wonderfully with non-alc.

Hops at this point add to the bitterness of the beer and are really picked up at the end of your sip.? As a basic rule when you taste beer the first taste comes what you do at the end of brewing and the finish of the beer comes from what you do at the beginning of the brew process.?

We add a lot of hops at the early stages of brewing as I believe zero-alc beer needs more at the finish.?

Without alcohol acting as a conduit of flavour zero beers reflect the recipe and timings of the additions really accurately.? An 8% beer will give a big hit of flavour carried from beginning to end.? With a good zero you will really get a beginning middle and end.

At the end of hot side brewing the 10000 litres is transferred to the fermenter, where the magic happens.

FERMENTATION - THIS PART IS SO COOL!

HERE IS THE BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CRAFTED ZEROS AND ALCOHOL REMOVED.

The international imported zeros (Heineken, Asahi, Peroni etc) take a different route at this point.? These beers will be brewed to full strength (5%) then by vacuum distillation the beer is boiled (a a vacuum boiling point of around 50 degrees) and the alcohol is removed via distillation.? This is a good way to make a lager - they add some sugar, flavour and aroma and you have a very nice lager zero.

State Of Play beers use a new yeast (that has low attenuation) that feeds on the simple sugars, fully ferments giving the full beer taste, esters and aromas with very little alcohol - 0.3% and very low residual sugar - 2%.? Plus the beer can be dry hopped, unfiltered/hazy and late stage additions can be made.

The fermentation takes a couple of days and then the beer is cooled and put into maturation tanks to mature.

THE COLD SIDE AND PACKING THE BEER

The beer remains in the cold side of the brewery for 3 weeks.?

The Nectaron unfiltered has had lots of Nectaron added (this is called dry-hopping) and the result is a real fruitbowl to the face aroma and upfront flavour.

The Sunbreaker gets the additions of ginger, lime and honey before packing and this is why when you taste a Sunbreaker Ale you will smell and taste a hint of ginger, then lime, then honey, then hops - because that is the recipe in reverse!

The beer is sampled and tested in the lab throughout the brewing process.? In full strength beer alcohol acts as a natural preservative so any micros/bugs don't stand a chance.? For non-alc beer cleanliness is paramount.

So now into cans and through the pasteuriser, packed into 6 packs and 24 can shippers and it's off to you direct or to the store.

And voila!? pallets and pallets of beer!

QUALITY ASSURANCE - THE BEER NEEDS TO TASTE GOOD, UNDER 0.5% AND STAY THAT WAY

In the lab we taste the beer, compare the beer to previous batches.

It is the place to test the beer is micro free, and analyse the finished beer specifications.

Also where we can play with new hops, additions and trial new brews.

So you can see there is a lot that goes into brewing the best quality beer. The process is the same as any other beer, with the exception being the new innovative yeast that gives us that brewtiful beerieness with the alcohol.

Cheers n Beers Grant

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Why reviews matter.? If you have a minute it would be great to hear from you

Here is the link to the review tab for? Nectaron Pale Ale

Here is the link to review Sunbreaker Ale

Here is the link to the review tab for IPA

And if you have a cool photo you can post on one of your favourite social channels and tag @stateofplaybeer? #stateofplaybeer If you want to contact State of Play flick me a note [email protected]

TOGETHER WE ARE BREWING A REBELLION!