We’ve been slow from start. From the very first step of the planning process to the pour of your beer in the taproom, quality is the focus of everything we do. And quality takes time. From conception, ingredient sourcing, brewing, and even pouring – everything produced at 22 Northmen Brewing is done carefully, with intention.
Conception
Every step of the brewing process, even the planning, is done with extra care.
“We think deeply about what we’re going to use and why we’re going to use it,” 22 Northmen Head Brewer Keith Hefley says.
We think hard about what we want the final beer to taste like. The planning process takes into account details big and small including:
- type of grain, hops, or yeast
- water chemistry
- mash temperature
- fermentation temperature
- step or decoction mashing
- carbonation method
- conditioning times and location
- serving method
- seasonality and time of release
Ingredient sourcing
Using unique, premium, worldly ingredients to achieve the perfect brew is what we strive for. We take time to find and source the best ingredients for each beer. Sometimes that means we need to wait a bit until those particular ingredients make it to our doorstep, or that we wait to produce a certain beer until we can find what we’re looking for.
This past December, Hefley was working on our Warchata brew when we decided to move the release date back to wait for another kind of cinnamon to add to the beer. Combining both Ceylon and Cassia cinnamon built more depth to the cinnamon presence making the final brew of our Warchata all the more delicious.
Brewing
“From start to finish, everything takes a lot longer than it might at a traditional craft brewery,” Hefley said.
Our lager process in particular takes quite a bit longer. Our fermentation start is slow. We keep it colder than a lot of breweries do and our lag time before fermentation starts is around 24-36 hours. After primary fermentation, the lager goes into a horizontal tank and spends four to five weeks there. While in horizontal tank, we brew another small batch of that beer to add it to the tank to naturally carbonate the brew (krausening). We slowly get it colder while in the tank, dropping one to two degrees per day over the course of ten days or so. All in all, our lagers require three turns through our brew house and then move through three tanks before they’re ready to be served.
Pouring
You can plan to spend a little extra time at the bar watching us pour your beer. And as much as we love hanging out with you, it’s not the reason we drag it out longer. We pour slower with the intention to create a denser head on our beer, preventing oxygen ingress and giving it a softer carbonation character which changes the overall texture and mouthfeel of the brew.
Slow beer
So now you know – we like to take our time. First and foremost we are committed to quality, and that means acting with intention to give you the best possible product.
Join us in the taproom soon and taste the difference for yourself. Slow beer is the best beer, pass it on.
