Where does beer come from?

Brewers are just like chefs in the end...they take some great natural raw ingredients, blend them together and create a wonderful flavoursome experience! Our brewers go to great lengths to source the best ingredients to make the best beer possible, two of those ingredients that deliver the greatest flavour are hops and malt. Here's a bit of info on them...

Let us explain a little about hops...
Humulus Lupulus - "wolf of the woods"

Little Creatures uses whole hop flowers rather than pellets in Little Creatures Pale   Ale, Bright Ale and Rogers’ Beer to access the all important resins and oils. A whole range of specialty hops are used including Cascade and Chinook flowers are specially selected from Oregon in the U.S. for their high quality aromatic and bittering characters.

The Hops grow in valleys below the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, offering ideal climates to grow some of the best hop vines in the world. Little Creatures Brewery holds it’s own quarantine permit, allowing the hops to be brought straight to the brewery maintaining freshness.

We are also forming a close relationship with hop farmers closer to home and starting to source hops from Tasmania with a more varied planting of some great hops suited to our beers.

 A little something special...
The Little Creatures Hopback

A basket full of hop flowers that is submerged into the unfermented beer. The hopback acts like a giant "tea bag", infusing the full flavours and aromas from the hop flowers into the beer.

A little hop info...

• * Perennial flowering vine that grows up to 5-6m high
• * Hops were first used as a medicinal herb in Egypt
• * Hops are a member of the cannabis family
• * The flowers of the vine are picked and dried for the use in brewing
• * Hop flowers contain essential oils which contribute aroma and flavour in beer as well as natural acids for bittering qualities
• * Hops act as a natural preservative for beer
• * There are many varieties of hops grown all around the world, each one offering different characters to beer
• * Hops are quite often compacted into pellet form, for ease in handling and storage
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• * Saaz - Czech Republic, classic variety for Pilsener
• * Goldings - U.K., traditionally for English ales
• * Pride of Ringwood – Tasmania, commonly used in Australian lagers
• * Hersbrucker – Germany, spicy dry hop for lagers
• * Cascade – U.S.A., very floral aroma for US style pale ale
• * Chinook - for bittering character, gives a zesty grapefruit taste
• * Cascade - very aromatic hop, gives a unique floral aroma

Now something about Malt

Malting is the partial germination and kilning of a grain, most commonly barley. Malt gives varying flavour, colour and body to beer depending on the style of malt being used.

BARLEY: member of the Germineae family of Grass.

Barley is made up of around 65% starch, which after being malted is converted into soluble sugar during the brewing process. This sugar is used to fuel the fermentation process, giving malt its nickname; "the engine room of beer".

A little bit about the malting process...

STEEPING: The barley is immersed in water so that it can absorb moisture, kick starting the germination process.

GERMINATION: The malt is placed in humid, moist storage conditions activating enzymes in the moist barley, allowing the grain to begin to grow.

KILNING: Once the grains have reached a required level of biological change they are dried and partly "cooked", terminating further growth and curing the grain for storage. During the kilning process, malt develops its colour and flavour.

ROASTING: Some styles of beer, such as porters and stouts, use grains that are simply roasted in roasting drums, bypassing the malting process, allowing for a very rich dark colour and astringent flavour. Malt can also be roasted giving a slightly smoother flavour than that of the roasted barley.

A couple of malt facts...

• * Malt is a rich source of minerals, amino acids, protein and vitamins
• * Many different types of malt may be used when making one particular beer
• * The darker the malt the lower the percentage will be used due to its very distinct, rich flavour
• * Malt greatly contributes to the formation of the head when the beer is poured

• * Wheat Beers are generally made with at least 50% malted wheat and the balance being malted barley

Malt in the brewing process...

• * Malt is used in the beginning stage of the brewing process
• * The selected malts are put through a mill, slightly cracking open the grain, exposing the starch
• * The milled malt is mixed with hot water into a mash tun
• * The malt in the mash tun sits in the hot water forming a porridge like consistency as the enzymes in the malt degrade the starch, converting it into soluble sugars
• * The sugar rich water, now called wort, is drained off the malt and will go on to complete the brewing process, eventually being fermented into beer
• * The remaining spent malt is removed from the mash tun and is carted off and commonly used as cattle fodder