Winery/Brewery visit

 For Saint Patrick's Day (3/16/2024), I toured the local Eastern Divide Brewery.

Saint Patricks' Day with classmates

 It was great to see all the steps that go into making a beer product, and I was glad I could draw some similarities between winemaking and brewing. 

The first step in brewing is "crushing," where the grains are crushed. Similarly, in winemaking, the grapes are crushed to free the juice in the grapes. In beer making, though, the grain is crushed to extract sugars in the form of starch. 

Fig. 1 The inside of the vessel that mixes the crushed grains and hot water.

The next step is called Lautering (mash conversion). Although in winemaking, the sugars are extracted by squeezing the juice out of the grapes, during the beer-mashing process, the milled grist is mixed with hot water to extract the starch in a sugar solution. A similarity I learned is that the time the mash is allowed to be in contact with water plays a significant role in the final product flavors and looks, as you would expect to be the case during maceration in the winemaking process. 

Fig.2 Vessel that houses the sugar concentrated solution before fermentation.

The most significant difference between the two alcohol-making processes was the boiling process, where the wort is heated in a kettle, and hops are added to add flavors to a beer. Although in winemaking, wine can be aged in oak or different elements can be added to balance the wine, this is not a required step. Whereas in beer, hops are the main ingredient for all desired beers. My take-home message was that great beer should add hops ( one of the four ingredients, including water, barley or grains, and water).

Fig. 3 Food and wine on the picnic tables outside the brewery

I ended the tour by ordering a Sean Minor Pinot noir from California and paired it with a Smash Burger. I could appreciate the light red color of the Pinot Noir on a nice sunny day out. The wine had a gentle silk finish and some hints of strawberries and blackberries.

Fig. 4 A picture of the light red colored Sean Minor Pinot Noir