The Great State of Beer
Welcomes you to our web store, we're located in North County San Diego and neighbors to some of finest microbreweries in the world. The Great State of Beer isn't about a state of residence. We refer to The Great State of Beer as drinkin' good beer with good friends and enjoying GREAT times. Here at The Great State of Beer we LOVE beer, not just any beer, GOOD beer!
We enjoy spreading the word about great beer. We wear the shirts, sweatshirts, and hats from our favorite breweries with pride. Don't see your favorite brewery here? Let us know who, where, and what have you. We'll give it a try and if we like it you will most likely see some gear in the near future. Show some love by sporting the shirts, sweatshirts, hats, and other fun items that your favorite brewery makes. They would if you had a beer.
We're also equipped to handle large volume orders for your bar or event. We have many resources that can handle custom orders and hard to find products. At your next event let us supply you with your bar stools, pub tables, beer pong tables, glassware, and beer paraphernalia needs.
We continuously update our products. If you discover that an item is not available please email us for an update and check back often (product status changes frequently). Shipping dates may vary due to output of individual breweries. We do our best to ship your purchase as quickly as possible.
Please read our privacy policy. If on-line shopping gives you nightmares or the willies or the heebie-jeebies or the creepy-crawlies call our Customer Service department to place an order. If you have any concerns about our policies call us or email us so we can answer all of your questions. We shop online too, so we do our best to make your shopping experience with us a safe one.
Cheers,
The Great State of Beer
The Brewing Process consists of nine key components: Malting, Milling, Mashing, Brewing, Cooling, Fermentation, Racking, and Finishing.
Malting is the process of getting the barley ready for brewing. Each step of the malting process unlocks the starches hidden in the barley.
Steeping The grain is added to a vat along with water and allowed to soak for about 40 hours.
Germination The grain is then spread out on the floor of the germination room for about five days where rootlets begin to form. The goal of germination is for the starches within the grain to breakdown into shorter lengths. At the end of this step, the grain is called green malt.
Kilning The green malt now goes through a high temperature drying in a kiln. It is important that temperature increases are gradual so that the enzymes in the grain are not damaged. After kilning, the result is finished malt.
There are different types of malts: pale malts are dried at a low temperature; mild ale malts are kilned to a slightly higher temperature and produce a deeper color in the final beer. The highest temperatures are used to produce very flavorful and aromatic malts.
Milling is the cracking of the grain which the brewer chooses for the particular batch of beer. Milling the grain allows it to absorb the water it will eventually be mixed with (in order for the water to extract sugars from the malt).
Mashing converts the starches, which were released during the malting stage, to sugars that can be fermented. The milled grain is dropped into warm water in a large cooking vessel called the mash tun. In this mash tun, the grain and water mix to create a cereal mash. Because water is such a vital part of the brewing process, the water itself is a key ingredient. This sugar rich water is then strained through the bottom of the mash and is now called wort.
Brewing The wort now goes to the brew kettle where it is brought to a boil. The boiling stage of brewing involves many technical and chemical reactions. During this stage, important decisions will be made affecting the flavor, color and aroma of the beer. Certain types of hops are added at different times during the boil for either bitterness or aroma.
Cooling The wort is transferred quickly from the brew kettle through a device to filter out the hops, and then onto a heat exchanger to be cooled. The heat exchanger basically consists of tubing inside of a tub of cold water. It is important to quickly cool the wort to a point where yeast can safely be added, because yeast does not grow in high heat.
Fermentation After passing through the heat exchanger, the cooled wort goes to the fermentation tank. The brewer now selects a type of yeast and adds it to the fermentation tank. This is where the "real magic" of brewing happens- where the yeast ferments the wort sugars into alcohol.
Racking During this phase, the brewer moves, or racks, the beer into a new tank called the conditioning tank. The brewer then waits for the beer to complete its aging process.
Finishing The last step in the brewing process is filtration, and then carbonation. Next the beer is moved to a holding tank where it stays until it is bottled or kegged.
