There's Dave now! Maybe he can spare a few minutes and give us the tour. "Hey Dave, got a minute to show us around?" Dave is busy monitoring the boil in his four barrel custom kettle that he designed and built himself. "Dave, can you give a quick, once-around-the-block of the brewing process here at Climax?"

"Sure, follow me..."

"Here at Climax, we use only the freshest whole grains, crushed just before brewing. Lots of specialty grains go into our beers. We only use fresh, whole leaf hops -- no pellets here! Most commercial breweries use pellet hops, a compressed product that resembles hamster food, because of price. Whole leaf hops are much more expensive, and have a much shorter shelf life. But here at Climax, we believe that these hops impart a much nicer flavor into our beers."

"Let's take a closer look at our ingredients..."

"If you take a closer look, you'll see the hops I was referring to in the center. Can't you just smell the freshness? Around the outside are some of the grains we use in our beers.

Starting from the top, you see some Munich malt. This is a specialty grain that adds a nice, nutty flavor. Continuing around clockwise, the next grain is Caramel malt. As the name implies, this specialty grain imparts a caramel-like flavor, as well as adding body and mouth-feel, and aids in head-retention.

Next we have some Aromatic malt, another specialty grain.

The next type of grain is called 2-row. This is the staple of all beers, and constitutes most of the recipe.

Lastly, we see some Chocolate malt. Don't confuse this with the stuff you used to drink as a kid! This dark specialty grain is used in our Nutbrown Ale, as well as in porters and stouts."

"Let's talk a little about how beer is made..."

"The first step in making fine beer is to mill the malts. Milling cracks the husks of the grain to expose the starch inside, without crushing it. The milled grain is then mixed with warm water, which activates enzymes present in the malt. These enzymes are responsible for converting the starch to sugars, which will be food for the yeast. This process is called mashing. Mashing at different temperatures produces different types of sugars, which lead to different qualities in the final product."

"After conversion is complete, the next step is to rinse the sweet liquor from the spent grain, and collect it for boiling. This process is called lautering. A rotating sprinkler of warm water washes the sugars from the grains, and the result is pumped to the boiling kettle"

"Once all the sweet liquor is pumped into the boiling kettle, the wort (unfermented beer) is brought to a boil and various types of hops are added at different points during the boil. Additions early in the boil empart bitterness, later additions produce a hoppy flavor, and very late additions impart a hop aroma to the beer."

"After boiling, the wort is transferred to the fermentation tanks, cooled down to the right temperature, and the yeast is added. Ales typically spend a week or two in the primary fermenter, then are racked, or transferred to a secondary fermenter for aging. After fermentation is complete (usually another couple of weeks), the beer is tranferred to kegs or our 1/2 gallon growlers for distribution.

"Climax beers are available in 1/2 and 1/4 kegs, as well as in 1/2 gallon growlers at a retailer near you. Occasionally, we will make a draft-only style, such as our Red Ale."

"All this talk about beer has made me pretty thirsty! I see my dad, Kurt, over there. Hey Dad, how 'bout pouring us a few beers?"

"Cheers!"

"That just about wraps up our Virtual Tour. Thanks for stopping by. If you have any questions, or would like to stop by the brewery for a real tour, send us an email, or give us a call at (908) 620-9585.