South River Brewing Co.
Staff Information & Five- Minute Brewery
Tour
Introduction to Facility and Services
Welcome to the South River Brewing Company, we are glad that you
could join us! South River Brewing represents a cooperative project with
the village of South River and the people of the Almaguin Highlands.
The village of South River designed and built the current building in
2016 to South River Brewing specifications and leases the building to
us; however, all of the brewing equipment is owned by the South River
Brewing Company.
The tasting room, retail store and gift shop are open 7 days a week with
the exception of Christmas and New Years day. We sell beer that we
make and package right here in South River. We also offer local artisans
a place where they are able to market their wares for a small
consignment fee of 20% of the sale and try to provide local products for
sale as much as possible. In our case, “local” can mean the whole of the
Almaguin Highlands, from Emsdale to Powasson. Any new additions to
the store should be given to Jacquie to add into the POS system.
Not only do we sell beer through our retail store, we also have an online
store @ www.southriverbrewing.ca for the public in Ontario to easily
purchase their beer and have it delivered cold to your home via courier.
Shipping is free is you spend $50 or more and $7 flat rate for under $50.
We also sell our beer to licenced franchisees to sell, this is done through
our GM Jacquie Booth-Lockhart.
Our event room is a multi-use space which can hold up to 100 people. It
has been used for local plays, string quartets, musicians, line dancing,
weddings, showers, meetings from government groups to local service
groups, arts and crafts shows, sales and training seminars. We offer the
event room for a modest rental fee of $100 per use and if you require it
to be staffed it is an extra charge of $16/hour per staff member required.
We have dish and cutlery service for 80 people with chafing dishes
available, although you will need to provide the fuel. For ease of clean
up we have a super dishwasher that cleans and sanitizes in 90 seconds.
You are responsible for clean up and putting the room back to the
original condition it was found in. For more information you can
contact our GM Jacquie Booth Lockhart either through email or by
brewery phone number ext. #2.
Beer Making Processes
If you look at our cans, you can see the ingredients listed are: Barley,
hops, yeast and water. These are the ingredients in naturally made beer,
no chemicals or man- made preservatives. This is craft beer (made the
traditional way).
We do use some specialized ingredients like dandelion, lemongrass, rice,
spruce tips, wheat and specialty malts.
Our water comes from the village of South River; however, we have a 3-
step filtration system on site that removes the chlorine and excess
sodium, using charcoal and coconut shells, leaving clean, clear, great
tasting water ready for the brewing process.
Brewing is a highly precise process which requires a series of steps to
make a good brew. That along with quality ingredients and great water
helps to make our beer stand out.
MALTING
Before the barley is delivered to the brewery it must be “malted”. Barley
is grown especially for beer making. Malting is the process by which the
barley is heated in a humid environment in order to make the barley
think it is spring, starting the germination process, and begins to sprout
inside the kernel. The germination process is stopped after a short time
as this has released the enzymes in the kernel that are needed to make
beer. 80% of the malted barley we use is Canadian Two Row from
Alberta, our Silo holds 10,000 metric tonnes. The rest are specialty malts
that come from UK, Germany, United States and are stored upstairs in
the loft.
MILLING
The next step is to grind the barley in the grist mill in order to make it
easier to extract the sugars when we “hot soak” it. The Two Row is
piped in from the Silo and any specialty grains/malts are added by hand.
Like fresh ground coffee.
MASHING
The milled malted barley is then added to the Mash Lautering Tun
(MLT) where it is soaked for about an hour at a specific temperature to
the recipe. This allows the enzymes of the malting process to become
active and converts the starches in the kernel of barley to fermentable
sugars. Like a sweet barley tea.
LAUTERING
The liquid (now called “Wort”) in the Mash Tun is then separated from
the grain is transferred to the Brew Kettle.
***The left -over grain mash is then stored in grain barrels to be picked
up by a local farmer who uses it to feed livestock. Grain mash is high in
protein and makes great feed for the animals, as it has been processed,
which makes it easier to digest and absorb the nutrients.***
BOILING AND HOPPING (BREW KETTLE)
Boiling the “wort” removes existing bacteria that would spoil the beer
and begins the chemical reactions that need to occur in order to give beer
its bitter taste. Typically boil time is 60 minutes but may be longer
depending on the beer recipe. Hops can be added at anytime in the
boiling process, the longer they are boiled the more bitter the beer. Later
insertion of the hops brings more aroma.
WHAT ARE HOPS?
A flower that looks like a young pine cone, which grows on long vines.
When harvested it is usually pressed into pellets for easier storage and
handling. It is a natural flavouring that is quite bitter. We add it to the
“wort” to reduce the sweetness and add special flavours. It is also a
natural preservative.
Hops are added to enhance flavour and aroma to the brew bringing
balance between the sweet wort and the bitter hops. This is why South
River Brewing Co. beer have their own following, well- balanced
flavours which make a smooth and delicious beer.
FERMENTATION
The “wort’ with hops added is cooled slightly using cold water and a
heat exchanger, which allows the excess heated water to be transferred
to the bottom of the Mash Lauter Tun which can be reheated and used in
the mashing process. The slightly cooled “wort” is then transferred to the
Fermentation tanks. Yeast is added to the “wort” and begins the
fermentation process, which means the yeast, a living organism, eats the
sugars and produces alcohol.
***Ales and Lagers are each made using different types of yeast.
Ales: are fermented with top-fermenting yeast that operates at warmer
temperatures, usually taking a couple of weeks or less to finish.
Lagers: are fermented with bottom-fermenting yeast which are held at
cooler temperatures and can take up to a month to ferment.***
CONDITIONING
The fermenting process produces some other alcohol related products
which the yeast helps to capture. The beer is crash cooled to 2 degrees C,
allowing the yeast and other products to sink to the bottom of the tank
and are removed. Sometimes the yeast can be reused for the next batch.
FILTERING
Filtration helps to remove excess yeast and any solids like hops or grain
particles remaining in the beer. This produces a clear, bright and stable
beer.
CARBONIZATION
We use forced carbonization to carbonize our beer in Bright Tanks,
although during the fermenting process natural carbonization occurs
most of it has been vented off to release pressure in the tanks. Each beer
has a different percentage of CO2 that is required and can be controlled
and measured at this stage.
CANNING
We run two canning lines, one does the 355mL tall slim cans and the
other fills the 473mL tall cans. One person places cans on the rack and
the other watches the automated process to make sure it runs smoothly,
fills and seals cans properly.
1. Rinsing
2. Lot coding
3. A short blast of CO2 added
4. Beer filled
5. Lid added and sealed to prevent oxygen from entering
6. Final rinse
7. Boxing up/quality control
LABELLING
All South River beer is hand labeled.
***We do offer Custom Brewing which allows you to choose your
favourite South River Brewing Co. beer and customize your own
personal labels. Please see the “Private Label Pricing, Dec. 8, 2022”
attached***
South River Brewing Line of Beer can be found on the website
which gives more in-depth descriptions and food pairings. Our
flagship beer is SCOTTISH ALE
Five Minute Brewery Tour
***Bring the “dinger” with you (let customers know that tour could be
stopped if customer comes into the store)***
1. Grain Silo: holds 10,000 metric tonnes of Canadian Two Row
malted barley sourced from Alberta
The grain runs from the Silo to the Grist Mill Room
2. Grist Mill Room: where the Two Row malted barley(from the silo)
and specialty malts/grains(added by hand), amounts determined by
recipe, are milled to make it easier for the enzymes to be release in
the Mash Lauter Tun (MLT) travels by pipe from the mill to the
MLT for “mash out”.
3. Mash Lauter Tun: soaks milled grain with hot water for
approximately an hour to release the sugars and the liquid “wort”
is then separated and transferred to the Brew Kettle.
4. Brew Kettle: where the “wort” is boiled and hops added. Once
boiled the liquid is cooled slightly using a heat exchanger and the
warmed water is stored in the Mash Tun for future soaking. Then
the liquid with hops added is transferred by hose to the
fermentation tanks.
5. Fermentation Tanks: We have a variety of tank sizes 6000 L,
2000L, 1000L and smaller depending on batch size. This is where
the yeast is added.
6. Filtration Press: Once fermentation is complete the yeast is
removed, called conditioning, and the brew is filtered with the
filtration press.
7. Bright Tanks: the filtered brew is then transferred to one of three
bright tanks where CO2 is added to percentages required for beer
recipe.
8. Canning assembly line
9. Hand labelling station
More in-depth explanation can be done back in the retail store, if
needed.
