The History Of The Brewery
Our adventure as Brewery started in 2013 as stage of a course undertaken few years ago. The union, between the passion for the artisanal beer and the desire to create a goods to put on the market, led me to detailed studies.
After two years of studies in beer’s world, in March 2013, we started working for the realization of our brewery in a small space in Cascine that’s a district of Buti In July the pruduction facility was installed; it was small-scale but technologically advanced, with a production potential of 6 hl month-to-month. At the end of July all was ready but the authorisation to product wasn’t given. All officially started in November. In the baby brewery the first beer is the “Palio”, a beer with cestnut flavour, in honor of the most important Buti’s manifestation: the “Palio delle contrade”.
Afterwards, the other beers was put on the market: Malamut Bionda, a Blond Ale with Belgian inspiration; Malamut Rossa, a Scotch Ale duble-malt; Cerere, a wheat beer in Weisse style. During the 2016, the old pruduction facility has been replaced with a bigger one and new beers borned: American Pale Ale, Indian Pale Ale and finally the 2017 Malamut Christmas.
The Francesco the brewer’s betting is to give to his territory an exclusive goods, that promotes short supply chain and, in our own small, contribues to the diffusion of the italian beer culture. The artisanal beer has important nutritional properties and, in ancient times, it was called “liquid bread”, it contains less ethanol than any other alcoholic beverage and it can be considered a real nourishment: A HEALTHY AND GENUINE NOURISHMENT THAT EVERYBODY SHOULD EAT.
Why Malamut?
History teaches that beer was invented by a woman. According to a legend, in fact, beer was born thanks to the mistake and carelessness of a woman, who forgot a plate of cereal outside the home; there was a storm, the seeds got wet…. And so beer was born ...
The (documented) history of beer was born around 4500 BC, in the then rich and flourishing Mesopotamia: The Sumerians were the first brewers, and every social stratum was entitled to a certain amount of beer per day. Then the Babylonians arrived, with the very famous "Code of Hammurabi" (1728-1686 BC), according to which whoever watered the beer was sentenced to death (that's right, that's right !!!). Even among the Egyptians it was a widespread drink, and Cleopatra also drank it and gave it to her gods. Beer reached Greece and the Jewish people (beer also appears in the Bible), and by many populations it was even considered the drink of some gods. Beer spread in the third millennium BC. also in China, where it was produced with other cereals in addition to barley (including, of course, rice ...).
A very important people in the history of beer, no doubt, was the Celtic people, who drank rivers of beer in Gaul, Britain and Ireland, before, after and during the wars.
For Ireland, there is even a legend in which it is said that the country conquered its freedom, only when the hero Mag Meld managed to wrest from the perfidious Fornorian monsters the secret of brewing beer, the drink that made them immortal ( they had to drink a lot of beer to make certain arguments !!!).
When the art of brewing also entered convents, rules were introduced on its production and hops began to be used as a flavoring instead of all the other various spices that were used up to that time.
In the year 1000, the figure of the brewmaster was born in Germany and in northern Europe beer began to be produced industrially. In 1516 the edict on purity was issued, which contained the definitive code on the production of beer: it could only be made with barley malt, hops and water. Although master brewers were very popular, priests and nuns certainly did not give up this pleasure and consumed large quantities of "fathers' beer" (for boys), and "convent beer" for girls). The first schools for master brewers also began to emerge: the most famous is that of Munich (natural, right?) Which is still in business today. In England, pubs and breweries spread a great deal, but it was still the only region where hops were not used (and it seemed to you that the English were not to be different from the others ... oh well ...). The beer was so widespread throughout Europe that it begins to be taxed (bad, bad !!!).
In 1620 beer crossed the ocean together with the Pilgrim Fathers and reached the American coasts, while in Europe a series of discoveries changed the way of producing it, making it possible to produce it all year round and to keep it longer.
As far as Italian history is concerned, the first to drink beer were the Etruscans: the drink was called “pevakh”, initially made with rye and spelled, then with wheat and honey. The Romans preferred wine, but did not disdain the "barbaric" beer. With the fall of the Romans and the barbarian invasion, beer spread more and more even in our beautiful Italian peninsula. Beer was mainly drunk by men, while women could only be given under medical supervision.
In 1494, Massimiliano I of Habsburg and Bianca Maria Visconti, nephew of the Duke of Milan Ludovico il Moro, got married who, to celebrate the wedding, offered all the Milanese a mug of the frothy drink (that's it! !!! Hurray !!).
In Italy, however, beer was not brewed, it was only imported; it was only in 1700 that we too began to be produced, especially in the North, thanks also to the proximity and Austrian domination. The first beers were very strong and top-fermented which, unfortunately, were watered down to make the taste more acceptable. With the help of the Austrians and Germans, the art of beer also improved in Italy, which gradually became more and more independent of foreigners, to the point of having its own factories; the first brewery in Italy was the “Le Malterie Italiane” in Avezzano (year 1890).
A craft beer must be unfiltered, unpasteurized, it must be raw. Only in this way is it possible to obtain a live product, in which the yeasts present at the bottom of the bottle continue their fermentation, characterizing the flavor and refining the taste of the beer, which evolves over time providing complex and different sensory sensations from time to time. The absence of pasteurization and filtration therefore allows all the nutritional and organoleptic characteristics of the beer to be kept unaltered, enhancing the qualitative potential of the materials used in the production process. All the beers produced are natural, obtained without the addition of preservatives, antioxidants or stabilizers. The entire production process is characterized by scrupulous attention to all stages and a careful selection of the raw materials used. Inside the brewery, every operation (from grinding the malt to labeling) is done by hand, therefore producing a batch of beer on the one hand means many hours of work but on the other hand allows the brewer to express the maximum own inspiration: FROM THIS THE WORD ARTISAN ARISES!
The malted barley is introduced into a milling machine which reduces it to a coarse flour (grist) and by gravity it mixes with the water (premasher) in the cooking / mashing vat.
The mashing ends when the starches contained in the barley malt have been completely transformed into more or less complex sugars. A vat with a double bottom is used and natural filtration is carried out through the bed of threshers in order to obtain a must rich in sugars, but free of impurities. The spent threshers are rinsed to extract all the sugar they are soaked in and accumulated in food containers to be used for first choice animal fodder.
At the end of boiling, the must contains various “impurities” due to hop residues and coagulated proteins; the procedure adopted for their elimination is the "whirlpool" system, that is a method of circular movement of the must that favors the decantation of the solid parts in a single central area of the vat where the must is temporarily placed
Fermentation takes place in two phases: an aerobic (in the presence of air) and serves the yeast to multiply exponentially and an anaerobic (in the absence of air) in which the yeast transforms the fermentable sugars present in the must mainly into ethyl alcohol and CO2. . In addition, the yeast produces other substances that will contribute to the taste of the finished beer. Fermentation temperatures can vary from 6-7 and up to 30 ° C, depending on the yeast strain used. When 90% of the sugar fermentation process has been completed, i.e. after 3/7 days (depending on the yeast strain and the fermentation temperature), the young beer passes to secondary fermentation and the temperature is lowered by decanting the components turbid.
The ground cereal is mixed with hot water to allow the activation of the enzymes contained in the malt which are responsible for the demolition of starch and proteins. These require particular temperature and pH conditions (the pH affects the enzymatic breakdown, determines the solubility of proteins, determines the solubility of bitter substances and the color of the finished beer).
The boiling of the wort takes place after filtration, its duration depends on the type of beer to be produced, as a rule it does not exceed 90 minutes. Boiling is necessary in order to: denature any enzymes still present, in order to permanently fix the composition of the must. sterilize the must. concentrate the must by evaporation to the desired ° Plato. favor the coagulation and precipitation of proteins and polyphenols. allow the transformation of alpha acids in hops into iso-alpha acids, responsible for the bitter component of beer.
The must is then transferred to the fermenters and cooled through a plate heat exchanger up to the temperature suitable for the type of fermentation chosen (high 18-25 ° C or low 7-15 ° C). However, the must after boiling is poor in oxygen, which is essential for proper fermentation. Pure oxygen (about 8 mg / l) or sterile air is blown into the must or more "homemade" methods are mechanical aeration (for example by dropping the must into the fermenter from a certain height or simply stirring the must in the fermenter) but hard. The must is now ready for the addition of the yeast and the fermentation phase.
Maturation indicates the entire transformation process from must to beer. Drums and bottles are brought into a temperature-controlled cell where the refermentation in the bottle and in the keg is reactivated by adding sugar or fresh must, naturally reaching the desired carbonation inside the container. Once the desired carbonation is reached, stabilization is carried out in a second cold room at a controlled temperature where the beer is refined for about 3-4 weeks before being put on the market.