The Birrificio San Quirico currently has a plant with a daily production capacity of approx 700 litres. The plant is run on electricity, with a computerized control system for the various phases of production. The process of making beer involves several different steps. The first of which is the preparation of the ‘wort’ where the malt is mashed with warm water and then heated to a higher temperature of 60-70 degrees.

During this process the starch in the malt is converted into sugar and a sugary liquid substance is produced – the wort – which is then drained off the grain, or rather separated from the insoluble residues from the blend during the filtration.

The filtered grains are then washed with hot water to gather as much of the last traces of flavour and sugars as possible.

The sweet wort is then put into a “copper” or “kettle” and brought to the boil. Boiling the liquid also serves to sterilize the wort and produce a higher concentration of the liquid.

During boiling another important step takes place: adding of the hops (and other natural flavours), which gives the characteristic slightly bitter taste to the beer, as well as the unmistakable aroma. The wort is then cooled, ready for the yeast to be added for the fermentation.

For a fermentation at 6 to 12 degrees, low fermentation yeast is used, whereas for a 15 to 20 degree fermentation process (as is the case at Birrificio San Quirico) high fermentation yeast is used. The fermentation takes place in special stainless steel fermenters and the yeast is the key element in this process, which transforms the sugars and amino acids present in the wort into alcochol, carbon dioxide and aromatic substances.

Towards the end of the fermenting process the yeast tends to divide into two parts; large flakes which rise to the surface, and exfoliating cells, which are deposited at the bottom. At the end of the process the beer is bottled or barrelled. In the case of industrial beers, the salubriousness of the product is guaranteed by pasteurization and filtration before the bottling process.

With home brewed beers however, an active system is used to preserve the organoleptic and nutritional characteristics of the beer, which is fermentation in the bottle. This involves adding a specific quantity of sugar and yeast to the finished beer before bottling so that the fermenting continues even inside the bottle, releasing carbon dioxide to counterbalance the oxygen in all the oxidization processes which would otherwise deteriorate the quality of the product.