The brewhouse (also known as a brew kitchen, brewhouse, or chaffron) is the set of equipment and the area of the brewery dedicated to the hot phase of production. It is where milled malt is mixed with hot water, converted into sugars, filtered, boiled with hops, and decanted, generating the beer wort ready for fermentation.
The most common way to classify a brewhouse is by the number of vessels (vessels or tanks) dedicated to the stages of the process:
- Monobloc / Single Vessel:
How it works: A single stainless steel vessel performs mashing, filtration (via an internal perforated basket), and boiling sequentially. Typical use: Pilot batches for testing, compact brewpubs, and craft/homebrewing.
- Dibloc:
How it works: Combines the stages in two vessels. The most common configuration is:
Vessel 1: Mash Tun / Clarification (Mash/Lauter Tun).
Vessel 2: Boiling Tun / Whirlpool (Kettle/Whirlpool Tun).
Typical use: Small and medium-sized microbreweries (e.g., batches of 250L to 1,000L).
- Triblock:
How it works: Separates the process into three dedicated vessels:
Vessel 1: Mash Tun.
Vessel 2: Lauter Tun.
Vessel 3: Boiling Tun and Whirlpool (Kettle/Whirlpool).
Typical use: Medium to large-sized commercial breweries (e.g., batches of 1,000L to 5,000L+).
- Tetrablock or higher:
How it works: Each stage has an individually dedicated vessel: Mashing, Clarification, Boiling, and Whirlpool (plus optional wort preheaters).
Typical Use: Large-scale, high-volume brewing industries.
Brewing Steps:
- Mashing: Mixing milled malt with hot water in temperature ramps (62°C to 72°C) to convert the starch in the grains into sugars.
- Clarification and Filtration: Separation of the sweet liquid wort from the solid malt husks by recirculating the liquid over the grain bed.
- Sparging: Injection of clean hot water (~75°C) over the spent grains to extract remaining residual sugars.
- Boiling: Intense boiling of the wort at 100°C for 60 to 90 minutes for sterilization, evaporation of undesirables, and addition of hops (bitterness and aroma).
- Whirlpool and Decantation: Circular movement of the wort to form a whirlpool and concentrate impurities (proteins and hop residue) in the center of the pot, draining only the clear liquid. |
