Wort from the cooler on the top floor needs to be cooled from around 98c to 18c at which temperature the yeast can be introduced. The sugar solution is passed through a hop sieve to remove any hop material which may have bypassed the hopback, and then oxygenated prior to passing counter current to well water in the heat exchanger (above). Yeast need oxygen to make cell wall material and cannot therefore reproduce without it. During this cooling process the well water is heated from 11c to 55c and this water is stored for further use in the washing of casks.

Once the wort has been cooled to 18c the yeast can be added. before addition the yeast is acid washed, a process where phosphoric acid is added to liquid yeast or Barm to reduce the pH to 2.1 for a period of 1 hr. This acid washing kills any bacteria living alongside the yeast without harming the yeast itself. After the acid wash the yeast is added in-line utilising the venturi effect caused by wort rushing down into the fermenting vessel. This room also houses two liquid sugar tanks containing high maltose syrup, used on occasions to extend the brew length and CV7 which contains South Staffs liquor used for diluting wort ti its starting gravity or O.G.(Original Gravity)