How APPENZELL BEER is brewed

No two breweries are alike. However, the essential features of beer production are the same everywhere: brewing, fermentation and conditioning. Our unmistakeable APPENZELL BEER is produced from drinking water, best malt and noble hops under the expert gaze of our experienced master brewer.



Water

What would an APPENZELL BEER be without the appropriate water?

Crystal-clear, the water emerges at the end of its journey as a source, where it is put into barrels and used every day by the brewery for the brewing process. Good, clean water as an essential part of beer has always played an important role in the brewing industry. Good brewing water must have a low degree of hardness (little calcium), be low in minerals and be microbiologically perfect. Too much calcium lends the beer a lingering bitterness.


                  






                



Mash house

     



Malt silos

The special mixtures for our beers are produced from 10 malt silos.

                       



Crusher

The crusher is used to break down the malt mixture, which is then mixed with water in the mash house.




Hopping

The actual brewing process takes place in the mash house. The malt from the silo is crushed in the crusher and mashed with water. The resulting wort is boiled. The starch is largely crystallized by slowly heating the so-called mash to 76°C. The starch and proteins in the malted grain are converted into soluble extracts. Solid malt parts are turned into liquid form in the mash house.













         








         

     


Whirlpool (purification)

The hot wort is pumped into the whirlpool, where colourings and proteins sink to the bottom. The clear wort is ready for cooling.



Wort cooler

The wort is cooled from 98°C to around 6-8°C.


Yeast

       
Air

Yeast and oxygen are added to the cooled wort. Fermentation begins!
      


Primary fermentation

Primary fermentation, in which the yeast converts the malt sugar to carbon dioxide and alcohol, takes around 7 days.


Refermentation

The young beer enters the storage cellar, where it matures for months at 0°C in steel tanks or even wooden barrels, carbon dioxide accumulates and the beer is purified.







Filter cellar



Besides the naturally cloudy beer, which is unfiltered, like for example our "Quöllfrisch" in the flip-top bottle, we also produce filtered beer. This is purified using a celite filter (kieselguhr).







Bottle washing machine

                                  



Filling containers/kegs

During filling, the containers (20 litres) and kegs (50 litres) are washed thoroughly in several cycles and then filled immediately again with beer.

                        

 



Bottling

In the bottling plant, the beer is filled in bottles. The bottles are cleaned, checked, filled, labelled and put into crates.