Let's take a tour of the Olde Burnside Brewery located in East Hartford, Connecticut. Come on inside to see how we brew our ale...

This is the beginning... our head brewer, Joe Lushing, is taking a fifty-five pound bag of grain and pouring the whole kernels into the hopper of our grain mill. The mill cracks open the kernels to get them ready for the mash tun.

After Joe crushes the grain, our brewer, Chris, stands below the mill at the mash tun. Chris opens the shoot and the grain drops into the mash water. Chris stirs all of the grain into the water to ensure a nice even grain bed for maximum extraction of the grain sugars.

After the mash, Joe and Chris pump the wort (grain sugars) over from the mash tun into the boiler (photo to the left). The wort gets boiled for two hours which allows the flavors to form and the impurities to drop out.

After the boil, another feature we have in making our beers is being able to "crash cool" the wort from boiling to 70° because our brewery is hooked up to the Burnside Icehouse. Since our beers are all natural with no pasteurization and no filtering, being able to crash cool the wort contributes to our beer's clarity. The wort travels from the boiler through this heat exchanger.
	Joe is opening the valve on the fermenter and we start pumping the wort into the tank. This is the last stage in the brewing process. Now the yeast will eat the sugars.

After many weeks of fermenting in these tanks, we eventually add CO2 into the tank and carbonate the beer. Then it gets put into the kegs and bottles. That ale is then available in package stores, bars, and restaurants throughout CT, MA, & RI. Where can you get some of this fine ale? Click here for a list of area restaurants, bars, and package stores. Brewery tours are available by appointment. Please call (860) 528-2200 for arrangements.