S Liebmann Sons

The sprouting time takes 6-7 days, the kilning 48 hours. The brew house construction consists of an adjunct cooker, the so called cooker or convertor, a mashtun, a thick mash kettle, two lautertuns, two copper kettles, each of over 300 barrels capaciy, and a hop strainer large enough to take an entire brew. To this is added also the "Karamelisator" which is described more closely later. This set up differs from the European through the presence of an adjunct cooker, from the general American set up it differs in that we here not only find both a separate mash and lauter tun, but also above all apart from these vessels find a thick mash kettle. The simultaneous presence of mash and lauter tun is, as is commonly known, in many American breweries seen as superfluous, almost nowhere however one finds on top of this another mash kettle.

The production of pale beers is carried out as follows: the adjuncts (either broken rice or corn grits) is mixed in the cooker with a certain amount of crushed barley, mashed in and by a weak pressure cooked. The adjunct mash is then transfered to the malt mash which is sitting at 28 reaumur, whereby the temperature is raised to 50 degrees reaumur. Hereupon two thick mashes are drawn, one after another, and mashed off at 58 degrees reaumur. The mash is then divided on the two lautertuns and then treated in the usual fashion. For the dark beer only malt - without addition of adjuncts - is used. To avoid an addition of color or caramel malt, a certain portion of the first wort is caramelised in a high pressure kettle - at 25 pounds pressure. This apparatus is similarly constructed to the adjunct cooker, it differs however that it is smaller and not constructed for direct steam, instead it contains a copper steam spiral.

When the wort is removed they allow the entire contents of the kettle through the hop strainer below. From here on out the wort goes through a system of 3 sets of 16 batteries each of Landeschen counter current coolers and is pumped directly into the pitching vats.

Since the brew due to the cooling process is not in contact with the outside air, artificial aeration is thusly carried out: the wort is firstly aired hot in the brewhouse, in that it on its way from the hop strainer to the pump passes through a box-like contraption, in which from a pressured air pipe via a particular tap a regulated amount of air is added to the wort. Aside from this the wort which has been cooled to 6 degrees reaumur is once more aired cold in the pitching vat. This cooling system is supposed to have large advantages over the regular open cooling systems due to its simplicity, the ease of use and easy cleaning. To this comes the removal of an infection-risk and the absolutely even aeration. For a wort quantity of over 300 barrels the entire cooling process doesn't take more than one hour.

The yeast is added via a copper container placed beneath the cooler, which is equipped with an agitator and sterile air supply, after it has been brought up with some cooled wort and is sufficiently aerated. The brewery only uses pure yeasts bred in their own laboratory, they refrain from putting up a propagation apparatus however, since in their experience the rational work methods, the strictly carried out cleanliness and the carefully monitored airation eliminates the risk of any degeneration or infection of the yeast. The once introduced yeasts supposedly last year long in perfect condition, without being renewed. The beer is transferred on the second day from the pitching vats to the large and airy fermentation rooms and the fermentation tuns, which hold circa 300 barrels each. It is pitched at 6 degrees reaumur, they let the temperature rise to 8 degrees reaumur, then it is cooled down to 3 degrees reaumur by hose coolers containing cold freshwater. The main fermentation lasts 11-12 days.

A specific curiosity of this brewery compared with most other American brewers consists of the fact, that in the lagering treatment so called ruh casks are not used. After the main fermentation the beer is put directly into chip casks, or chip vats. The latter are standing vats of oak, of mighty dimensions, of a capacity of more than 700 barrels. In order to withstand the considerable pressure they are crisscrossed from bottom to bottom with a number of rods, which are held by nuts in the ends. The rods are tinned, the vats are lacquered on the inside.

Concerning the treatment of the beers in the lager cellar is not a whole lot to be said, only the comparably long period of spunding seems noteworthy, since the vats are already sealed after 3 to 4 weeks, and the pressure in the same rises by the end of the secondary fermentation, that is after 10-12 weeks, to 6-7 pounds. This work method is necessary due to the high requirements which are placed on the carbonation level of the beer in America. The bottled beers are not kräusened, while the schank beers receive some kräusen when put into casks. They also don't filter the beers, which especially in America for a brewery of this size can be considered unique.