Swans Suite Hotel - Buckerfield's Brewery

Malt: Malt provides many things for beer. It contains enzyme systems that convert the starch within the malt in to sugars. These sugars will be extracted during the mash. In addition, these starches and proteins affect the body and mouth feel in the beer. As with coffee, malt can be roasted and there are many different styles, such as pale, crystal, chocolate and black. By blending these we can produce a wide range of colours and flavours in our beer. Malt from the Canadian prairies provides the basis for our beers, with the addition of specialty malts imported from the U.K.

Hops: The alpha acid content in hops act as a natural preservative. Most beer styles require the addition of several hop varieties - some are added for their bittering qualities and may also contribute spicy or floral flavours, others are used to add aroma. The bitterness of the beer varies widely, depending on the style and is used to balance the sweetness of the malt.

Yeast: Yeast is a microscopic, airborne member of the fungus family. The yeast "feeds" on the fermentable sugars in the malt, converting them into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. Fermentation by-products such as esters contribute to the complexity of the beer.

Beer yeast is divided into two families; we use both top-fermenting, for producing ales and bottom-fermenting, which produce lagers.

Water: Beer is 90% water! The water that we use comes from the Victoria water shed. It is filtered back to purity with a sand/gravel and activated carbon filter before we use it in the brewhouse.

The Brewhouse
This is the "Kitchen" of the brewery, where we blend the ingredients to create hopped malt extract. The vessels in our brew house were imported from Germany and have a capacity of 14,000 litres. From start to finish the process in the brew house takes about 9hrs.

Mash Tun: The malt is milled on site here at Swans. The milled malt or "grist" is then augered in to the mash mixer where hot water (about 50 degrees Celsius) is added, creating a porridge like mixture. The addition of heat activates the enzymes in the malt, which convert the starches in to sugars.

The Mash Tun has a false bottom of straining plates that separate the liquid from the husk. Jets sparge the grain with hot water (about 70 degrees Celsius) to extract all the sugars. The husks of the malt act as a natural filter, clarifying the liquid, which is now referred to as sweet wort.

Kettle: The sweet wort is transferred to the kettle for boiling. The first varieties of hops are added for flavour and bitterness. After about an hour, the wort is hopped again for aroma.

Once the boil is finished, the wort is whirl-pooled to separate out the spent hops and proteins, known as the trub. This is added to the spent grain from the lautertun and is used by a local dairy farmer for cattle feed.

The wort is pumped through a heat exchanger to be cooled and aerated on its way to a tank that contains the yeast.

Fermentation takes place under controlled conditions, dependent on the particular beer style required. The fermentation room houses 5 fermenters. The temperature and fermentation profile of each brew can be adjusted by running glycol coolant through jackets on the outside of the tanks.

Fermentation times vary depending on the yeast; ales take about 3-5 days and lagers take about 10-14 days. Upon completion of the fermentation, the beer is chilled. Yeast is cropped off at this time to be used in future fermentations.

Aging: Aging is necessary for flavour maturation. Ales generally have a shorter aging period, about 3-4 weeks, while lagers take 6-8 weeks. Some of our stronger beers may be aged up to 6 months !

After proper maturation, the fresh beer is ready for tapping. A tank of beer will be tapped and served fresh to you from Buckerfields storage tanks directly to our taps in Swans BrewPub.

These storage tanks will also provide fresh beer to our bottling and kegging operations. All of Swans brews are presented in distinctive 650 ml. Amber bottles. Kegs are also available in both 19.5 ltr as well as 50ltr. Sizes.

We sell Swans beers in our own Swans Cold Beer & Wine Shoppe located beside Swans Hotel & Brewpub.

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