They say: “Only those who know where they’re going will find the way.” So true. Our brewmasters know exactly where they’re going: Ultimately, this is the point when the best OeTTINGER beer refreshes the palate and delights the soul, and when the high-quality raw materials have reached peak brewing. This is where you can see exactly what happens during the OeTTINGER brewing process.
The brewing process in ten steps
1. Brewing malt, malt silo, grist mill, mashing
After being stored in malt silos, the brewing malt passes through the grist mill, where the malt grains are crushed (not ground). The malt prepared in this way is then mixed with water in a mash tun to form the mash.
2. Mash tun
The mash is then heated in stages to different temperatures in the mash tun. During this process, the natural enzymes contained in the malt grains convert the water-insoluble starch of the grain into soluble malt sugar. At this stage of the brewing process, the solid substances of the malt that are important for brewing are transferred into a liquid known as the “wort“.
3. Lauter tun
The solid components of the mash are separated from the liquid in the lauter tun – the traditional vessel, somewhat like a giant sieve, used for separating the malt lees (mainly the husks of the grain kernels) from the wort, which contains all the soluble substances of the malt. Only the wort flowing out of the lauter tun with its valuable ingredients now enters the wort kettle. The by-product of spent malt has a number of uses, for example, in agriculture as nutrient-rich, natural animal feedstock or to make spent grain bread or schnapps.
4. Wort kettle
In the wort kettle, hops are added to the liquid wort and then it is boiled for about one and a half hours. The more hops the brewer adds, the more hop-accentuated – i.e. the more bitter – the finished beer will taste. After boiling in the wort kettle, any remaining turbidity is removed from the solution in the whirlpool. Then the wort is cooled down in the wort cooler before the yeast is added – and fermentation can begin.
5. Fermentation tank
This is where it becomes clear that brewing is a very complex and energy-intensive process! Now, after cooling, oxygenation and transportation to the fermentation tank, yeast is added to the wort to start the fermentation process. The yeast converts the malt sugar dissolved in the wort into carbon dioxide and alcohol. When the yeast has finished its work, it is drawn off, leaving the young beer, which is sometimes known as “green beer“.
6. Storage tank
Before bottling, the brewer lets the beer “rest“ for a while. It is pumped into the storage tank, where fermentation continues until the beer is fully mature.
7. Filtration
After resting in the storage tank in the fermentation cellar, our beer really gets going again. During the final filtration, any yeast suspension left in the beer is removed, at least in the case of clear beers (for example, Original OeTTINGER Pils). Filtration is not required for naturally cloudy varieties (e.g. Original OeTTINGER Kellerbier).
8. Cleaning
Bottles and barrels are thoroughly cleaned each time before filling, so that they and can be used over and over again. The cleaning process takes about 20 minutes per bottle.
9. Bottling
The beer is then filled into more practical containers – bottles, cans or even kegs. This happens at incredible speed: modern bottling plants can handle up to 100,000 bottles per hour. Afterwards, the beer is stored in an FTL (full truck load) warehouse.
10. Delivery
Customer orders are assembled and the goods loaded. With our modern fleet of vehicles, we deliver nationwide and can always guarantee a fresh OeTTINGER.