During germination, the enzymes which occur naturally in the barley cause the break-down of starches in the grain into sugars for use by the growing shoot - it is this sugar which is fermented to alcohol in the brewing process.

Malt is produced from barley by allowing it to germinate partially and killing it with heat. It is then kilned to impart flavour.

At the brewery, the malt is crushed in a mill and mashed with hot licuor (water) to produce the wort. The wort is then run off into a copper to be boiled with hops.

A barrel is a measure of beer which consists of 36 gallons. Other cask sizes are; Pin Firkin Kilderkin Hogshead   ...    ...    ...    ...  4.5 gallons 9 gallons 18 gallons 54 gallons

The hopped wort is cooled and run off into fermenting vessels where yeast is added. It is at this point that the original gravity (OG) is taken - this determines the amount of duty which is payable by the brewer.

After fermentation, the beer is processed for bottling or kegging or is racked off in casks.

A quarter is a measure of malt which is subdivided into 8 bushels of 42lbs each. The capacity of a brewery used to be measured in quarters. The mashtun of a 5-quarter brewery holds 1,780lbs of malt and, as each quarter of malt will produce about 270 gallons of beer of avarage strength, the brewery will produce about 1,350 gallons (37.5 barrels) of beer at each mashing.

The frequency of mashing depends on the volume of business. Before refrigeration and climatic control within the brewery, brewing would have been impossible if the weather was either too hot or too cold. In modern breweries the plant is highly utilised and some companies brew 24 hours a day.

Before the use of hops, the herb alehoof or ground ivy ( Glechoma hederacea ) was used to clear beer and to impart to it an improved flavour.