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As the sweet wort is gradually being drawn off from the Mash Tun it is
collected in the Copper. This vessel - sometimes called the Kettle
in American breweries - is where the sweet wort is boiled.
Like all the other vessels at Atlas Brewery, our Copper is primarily made
from stainless steel with brass and wood cladding (to keep the heat in!).
However, our Copper does have a polished copper dome on it, which helps
to direct the steam up the chimney whilst keeping the hop and malt aromas
in the wort. And it looks great!
Three things are happening to the sweet wort during the boil. First,
it is being sterilised. Whilst the water and malt we use are both
very clean, it does no harm to sterilise once more before reaching fermentation.
Secondly, we get some shift in colour and flavour because of the way we
boil. At Atlas Brewery, our Copper has a direct-fired gas arrangement
- a 1900-degree gas flame is shot through a stainless steel tube that
coils inside the Copper, submerged in the hot sweet wort. This gets
the 3300 litres in the Copper up to a boil in around three hours.
During this time, some of the sugars in the sweet wort that come into
contact with the very hot submerged tube caramelise - moving from washed-out
malt colours to sharper, more yellow "beer colours". Similarly,
the flavours sharpen up from malty, grainy flavours to a cleaner flavour
with more "attack". This is all perfect for the style
of beer we like best at Atlas.
The third thing that's going on during the boil is the addition of hops.
Hops are wonderful flowers. In evolutionary terms, they sit between
stinging nettles and marijuana. But that's of no interest to serious
brewers. Oh no.
The important thing for us is that they contain a bitter, resinous oil
with a huge variety of flavours and aromas - and they also have a variety
of herby, floral aromas.
Hops are the brewer's equivalent of different grape varieties in wine-making.
They can vary from the heady, grapefruit aromas of Cascade to the darker,
musky aroma of Fuggles. In keeping with our international name,
Atlas, we use hops from six different countries.
In the same way as we only use whole grains for our grist, we only use
whole leaf hops in the boil at Atlas Brewery. No hop pellets.
No artificial hop oils. No "isomerised hop extract".
Just whole leaf hops.
Depending on how sweet or bitter, malty or fruity we want a particular
brew to be, we add between 8kg and 24kg of whole leaf hops to the boil.
These are added through a hatch in the dome of the Copper, as you can
see in the bottom photo.
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