Brewery Tours

FREE Full-Guided Tours every Saturday at 1:30, 2:00, and 2:30 pm. Click here to check availability and reserve a space.

Tours are limited to 45 people. Reservations are highly recommended. We will accommodate walk-ins IF space is available.

• To reserve your space please call the Giftshop at (717) 232-1297 or click here. We take reservations beginning four weeks before a tour date.
• Tours start and end in the Giftshop/Tasting Room. Arrive at least 10 minutes before your assigned tour time and enjoy a few tasty samples.
• Children are welcome with adult supervision.
• Tours usually take about 30-40 minutes—unless you ask a lot of questions.

BREWHOUSE

The brewing process begins in the brewhouse, after the malted barley has been "cracked" in the mill room, it's mixed into the mash tun with hot water and steaped for 45 minutes. The enzymes in the malted barley naturally breakdown the starches to fermentable sugars producing a sweet sugar water called "wort". The wort is then slowly rinsed from the mash bed and transferred to the Brew Kettle and vigorously boiled for 1 1/2 hours. This boiling ensures absolute purity of the wort and isomerizes the essential hop oils. The Hops are added at several stages of the boil so the maximum flavors and aromas of these oils are retained; in the beginning of the boil for bittering and "late hops" for flavoring and aromas toward the end.

CELLARING FERMENTATION

The wort is quickly chilled to fermentation temperature and live yeast is added as it's transferred to a fermenter. During fermentation the yeast converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The ales begin fermentation at 68 degrees with a top-fermenting yeast and the lagers at 48 degrees Fahrenheit with a bottom fermenting yeast. After fermentation is complete the temperature is dropped down to 30 degrees fahrenheit and the beer undergoes a cold conditioning or "lagering" period from 2 weeks to as long as 6 weeks for our lager.

FILTRATION

Next the fully fermented and conditioned beer is now gently cold filtered to remove the yeast to clarify the beer before packaging.

BOTTLING

Finally, the finished beer is packaged for consumption. The beer is either "racked" into kegs or prepared for bottling. During bottling we want to be very careful and eliminate oxygen pick up in the bottle. So, as the bottles come into the filler each bottle is purged of oxygen, filled with CO2 and then filled with beer ensuring a fresh and stable bottle. Now the beer is ready to be delivered to your local watering hole and enjoyed with friends.