La Fábrica de Cruzcampo en Málaga
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The Making of Our Beers

Our local craft beers follow the same production process used by Cruzcampo in their traditional beer since 1904: precise, almost scientific, but with plenty of artistry. As is the case in all the arts, great masters follow rules that they know inside out, and then provide their own personal touch, in this case to create specialty beers. Good MBs will make you resonate with their creations. Like an urban artist, they start from a traditional foundation and then break with that tradition to create a local craft beer full of unique aromas, flavours and sensations: an #explosion_of_flavour in every mouthful.

The process we follow at La Fábrica for our local craft beers is no different to that of traditional beer, but our Soho specialty beers have been inspired by the artistic wave that surrounds La Fábrica to create alternative combinations of flavours and aromas – the local craft beer that suits you best! Do you want to know how we take water, grain, hops and yeast and transform them into a local craft beer that ensures that an evening with your mates will go on into the night?

We must be clear about one thing: the fact that the steps are traditional does not mean that we are simply offering more of the same. The master brewer is responsible for choosing the combination of malted grains that will be ground (milling stage). On this decision will depend the colour, taste and aroma of the specialty beer. Once the mixture and the proportion of grains has been decided, it is time to mash them. Mashing involves incorporating water so that the cereal starch turns into sugars, which, together with the yeast, is transformed into CO2 and alcohol. This process is critical, because the sugar that is generated now determines the alcohol content of the beer. It is important to get the right level. For all this to take place, the mixture must be heated, but no heated too much.

When the sugars have been completely transformed, the master filters the wort to separate it from the non-soluble remnants of the cereal. Then it is boiled to sterilise it, and the hops are added. It is this flower that gives beer its flavour and aroma. As with the grain, the combination and proportion of different hops is used to create a wide range of local craft beers.

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Before adding the yeast, the wort is filtered to remove impurities that appear during the boiling, after which it is cooled. The yeast, if kept at the appropriate temperature, will turn the sugar into alcohol and CO2 during fermentation. The type of yeast used will depend on the type of specialty beer that the master is creating; and each yeast likes to “work” at a specific temperature. It’s a whole science of temperatures, proportions, mixtures and times! Our beer is now ready to rest. The final stage of beer making is called conditioning. At this point the beer is stored to refine its flavours. Each beer needs a specific period of conditioning if we want it to take us on a journey with every mouthful.

Thought we were all done? Yes, this is usually the last phase, but some specialty beers are a bit “delicate” and want a little more attention to ensure that the brewing process results in pure liquid gold. In some of these local craft beers we may apply dry hopping, as in our IPA, or our Malagueta; this involves adding more hops during the conditioning to achieve a greater intensity of aromas and to balance the characteristics of the delicate beer. Others need filtering to remove the yeast in order to ensure that the beer is clear, to make sure #nothing_will_cloud_your_experience.

How do our MBs choose the grains, hops and everything else to create the perfect rhyme? Our masters find inspiration in the streets around La Fábrica, in the urban art and in the spirit of Malaga, for the production of these local beers unique to Malaga’s Soho: seven genuine specialty beers… What’s more, two of these are regularly changed to adapt to the times, like art, like the people of Malaga. So #beeresearch as if there were no tomorrow.

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