Wooden Legs Brewing Company

My friend decided that a tour for two non drinkers at a brewery seemed like a fitting idea for us. So she called and booked a tour with The Wooden Legs Brewery Company in Brookings, SD. What a great tour we had too!  We were greeted by Derek our tour guide who was a very pleasant young man, extremely personable and fun to talk too.  He told us a little about himself…schooling in graphics, how he changed and became a brewery master, and his intention to go to brewery school. Who even knew there was such a thing as a brewery school?

I think we must have asked about 100 questions between the two of us.  We asked about him personally and how he came to be a brewery master. His plans he has in the business.  I tell you the questions we did ask…about how beer is made, the ingredients, the equipment, the process and time involved.  You know curiosity killed the cat, but the satisfaction brought it back. It was very satisfying as well. Derek spent an hour with us, and didn’t bat an eye at any of our questions, nor did he stutter or falter at anything we asked.  Also, it was no problem for me to take pictures, which I love to do everywhere I go.

Tours for me are part of my wanderings.  I love to wander, travel, and learn, and I sure did learn a lot on this tour.   The brewery consists of one room. They happened to be making a beer during our tour, so that made it that much funner. In the hour spent with us, Derek explained the process, and all the time and work that goes into making the beer. I heard terms I had never heard before.

We discussed malts and yeast, and grains as I relate these things to baking, and making bread. He suggested for my home baking that I vacuum pack the malt to keep it from turning to a brick once it is opened. He suggested keeping it in the refrigerator or freezer as well. I had to threw out a whole container of liquid malt as it went moldy. He said maybe try keeping it in a sealed mason or ball canning jar. We got to sample some of the grains, which was a different experience for me.

They have their own milling machine. That room were the milling machine was felt like a refrigerated room. Not for the sake of the machine, but it is just how that particular room is. I got to go into the kitchen, which doesn’t always happen on tours. We saw them empty the grain from the vat. They put it in bins and put it outside for a local farmer who feeds it to his cattle. I thought that was pretty awesome that it is not wasted.

A small brewery like this is artisan, a craft, and pretty nifty that they make and sell their own brews. They take the artistry of making beer, and combine it with the science, then they bottle it, and sell it on their premises.

So what I got out of the tour is: first you start with the grains. Grains like barley, buckwheat, maize, millet, oats, rice, rye, wheat. Out of the grains there are three varieties: black malt, chocolate malt, and roasted barley. The four main ingredients in beer are grain, hops, yeast, and water.

The grain is going to be malted which starts the process as if it is going to be germinated. It has to be stopped at just the right point. This is then steeped in hot water which starts the process to starch the enzymes. This causes it to break down and release sugar. This is called mashing. The next step is the lauter which separates the wort from the used grain.

Once lautering is completed then the hops and spices are added. There are over 150 different varieties of hops. After the boiling of the hops is complete, it goes to a fermentation tank where yeast is added. The type of yeast used and the fermentation process will determine if it will be an ale or a lager. There are over 1,500 varieties of yeast, but two types are used in making beer. That is top cropping or bottom cropping. Ales are fermented with top cropping, and lagers are fermented with bottom cropping.

Can you guess what is next? It’s the bottling of the beer. ABV or ABW stands for Alcohol by volume or alcohol by weight. IBU is the International Bitterness Unit. This measures the levels of hop bitterness. SRM is the Standard Reference Method which is the color of the beer in a clear glass on a scale of one to 40. One will be the lightest.

So as you can see for a non drinker I learned a lot, I had a great time, I meet wonderful people, and I will definitely be going back to try some of the food with their non alcoholic root beer or ginger drink that they also make.