BREWING: HEAT EXCHANGE 

This nifty number is a secret weapon when it comes to keeping energy expenditure down. Kicking the brew off in the mash tun and whirlpool needs plenty of heat, getting the malty water (known as “wort”) to temperatures above 100°C. And once that initial process is finished, it needs to be cooled again. This can take time and see thermal energy disappear into the ether. Enter Heat Exchange…

Cold water sitting at 6°C is fed through one plate and met halfway by warm wort flowing through another plate, referred to as a counterflow arrangement. This dynamic heats the cold water for use in the next brew, while the wort is rapidly cooled to the right temperature for fermentation. A win win! 

It might sound simple, but it’s a sophisticated piece of tech that is now an industry standard, helping make brewing drastically more sustainable.

COOLING: GLYCOL HIGHWAY AND FRIGID SYSTEM

Let’s stay on temperature control, now in the fermentation tanks, where stuff gets even more interesting. Fermentation produces heat, so we need to maintain the temperature to stop the yeast from working overtime and getting stressed out. That’d be fine for making Vegemite, but not Sydney’s finest ales and lagers. The temperature we ferment at can also have big flavour implications: the colder the beer during fermentation the 'cleaner' the result, and the warmer the 'fruitier'.

So, temperature regulation is incredibly important. We do this through a complex network of insulated pipes that feed into each fermenter across the brewery. This highway is full of glycol, a chemical added to water that lowers the freezing point. We dye the glycol nuclear green so that, if there’s a leak at any point, we’ll know. The liquid is pumped from a reservoir (essentially a massive esky with the temperature set to -4 °C) and sent around the brewery on a 24/7 loop.

More recently, we’ve connected the system to Frigid.Cloud, a platform that makes all of the fermenters talk to each other, giving the whole system a brain. It helps each tank know when they’re too hot or cold, sending glycol to different destinations accordingly, lowering the temperature as needed. Maximising energy efficiency, this smart technology can be controlled by anyone on our brew team from their phone. That means lower bills and less impact on the environment; everyone kicks a goal.

FERMENTING: AIRLOCK

OK, so now you’ve seen some of the big guns. Here’s something low tech as a palette cleanser. Yet it’s no less impressive!  

Fermentation creates gas – see bubbles in your sourdough and champagne – which creates a build up of pressure. That gas has to go somewhere, or we’d have exploding tanks or off-tasting beer on our hands, whichever one’s worse. To let the pesky gas out without letting anything else untoward in, you can use a fancy pressure-release contraption called a “spunding valve” attached to the gas outlet. OR you can fill a bucket up with water and hang it from the nozzle :) 

It works just as effectively as an airlock, costs next to nothing AND makes a pleasing “blip-blop, blip-blop” sound while the gas is released like a sci-fi lab experiment. MacGyver would be proud! 

FILTERING: CENTRIFUGE

Alright, now to outer space… This shiny, UFO-looking thing is a centrifugal spinner. And it’s just as exciting as it looks – all for the down-to-earth task of filtering your beer. It does this by spinning the liquid, under pressure 6x greater than the atmosphere, at speeds somewhere between 3,000 and 10,000 gs. Fun Fact: the g in “g-force” stands for gravity, so 3,000 gs is 3,000 times the force of the earth’s gravitational pull! 

Yep, the centrifuge is like that Rotor ride from Luna Park, but way more hectic and for beer. The process causes heavier particles to fly to the outside, where layers of plates catch and filter out sediment. 

That way, you can make the beer clear in a matter of minutes, rather than waiting for weeks for lagering to take place. And you don’t need any clearing agents, meaning there’s no flavour impact at all. You can even top the carbonation up on the futuristic martian machine. All hail our Alien Centrifuge Overlord!

CARBONATING: CARBONATION STONE

While we’re on carbonation, let us introduce the carb stone. It’s actually not a stone at all, but a porous stainless steel wand that’s inserted into the bottom of the tank. The name is a misnomer in both respects, as you can also nitrogenate beer with the “stone”. 

Tiny holes force out pressurised particles of gas, which dissolve into the liquid. Millions of miniature bubbles flow through the tank over the course of a few hours, remaining in the beer as the final step of the entire brewing process. 

While fermentation itself will carbonate beer to an extent, the carb stone allows us to land the correct form and level of gas, consistently. So your Lager is perfectly crisp and your Omen wonderfully creamy, every single time.  

PACKAGING: CAN SEAMER

We’ve gone all the way through the beers’ journey to the canning line: the last stop before it arrives in your hot little hand. And getting your favourite brew into the tin safe-and-sound is more complicated than you might think.

Pressurised beer is funnelled into the can, which starts as an aluminium cylinder missing the entire topside. This leaves a thick layer of foam on top, protecting the beer underneath from air exposure. You see, oxygen needs to be kept out of the beer so it doesn’t spoil, extending shelf life and deliciousness; we don’t pasteurise our beer, meaning every step needs to be taken to protect its quality. 

The lid is then attached to the can by spinning at speed, simultaneously knocking that foamy layer off, so no air enters the can. It’s then clasped on with a rolling machine like a reverse can opener.

Finally, the finished cans are ferried through the conveyor belt, getting a little rinse and blow dry like poodles at the salon, before being added to 4-packs and cases automatically. At this stage, to ensure the canning machine is working properly, we run a sweep of checks to see the cans are full and to know their CO₂ and O₂ levels are correct. 

One such test involves regularly emptying, cutting open and reviewing cans using a microscope camera. This allows us to check the integrity of the seal – meaning no risk of leaking, exploding or otherwise unsatisfactory canned beer!

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There you have it: the whole beer-making journey, by way of the gear that makes it all possible. Thank you to Ben for walking us through – our geeky yet charming tour guide. 

Don’t just read about how our beer is made... Taste it, direct from the source. You can order cases right to your door Australia-wide from the online store, with full or pick ‘n’ mix options.