(upbeat string music) - Hi, my name is Dan Frantz.

I am the marketing manager and graphics designer for Silver City Brewery in Bremerton, Washington.

So Bremerton, Washington is like your quintessential American town.

We're a very blue collar town.

We've got the Navy shipyard which is really the backbone of our economy here.

We're located west of Seattle We're between the city and the Olympic mountains.

So you get really that suburban-urban experience.

Silver City Brewery was founded back in 1996 by our owner Scott Houmes and his brother, Steve Houmes.

And they wanted to have a nice brew pub where people in the community could come together, party, have a great time, engage in conversations, have some great food while doing so.

Yeah, we've been going for 26 years and we've been here ever since.

(high energy music) Beer is comprised of four main ingredients.

You got your malt, you got your hops, you got your yeast.

And then obviously you have your water.

Yeast is important because it's responsible for fermentation which is the creation of both alcohol and CO2.

What makes beer, beer?

The mash is where the barley is milled and then steeped in hot water which allows the starches to break down into sugars.

The next step is the boil.

The unfermented beer, known as wort, is sent over to the boil kettle, where it's brought up to temperature.

And we add our hops.

After this, the wort is sent over to the fermenters which is where it's placed on the yeast, and the fermentation process begins to occur.

The fermentation takes about two to five weeks depending on the style of the beer.

Once the fermentation is done, we send it over across the street to where our conditioning tanks are.

The beer is chilled, the particulates allowed to fall out and we fine tune our CO2 levels.

From that point, it's either piped into kegs or it's sent to our canning line.

We recently started our Silver Lining series of beers.

Those are limited batches of beers where we partner with organizations in our area and the proceeds of those beers go to those organizations to support community causes.

Some of the causes that our Silver Lining series beers have benefited have included: salmon protection, wilderness protection for Washington State, social programs like getting more women into beer, and we've even done some beers that focus on our local food banks, especially right now when that's a big need in our community.

Personally, as an artist I'm a big fan of big, bold, loud colors.

We're surrounded by a lot of earth tones here and that's great.

It is a gorgeous part of the country but especially during the winter, you know we like to liven things up a little bit.

So if somebody cracks into a Tropic Haze they're just getting this bright magenta and cyan can and six pack box that really just makes you feel like you're at the party.

(guitar music playing) So we've talked about how hops are critical to making beer but what you might not know is that there are hundreds of varietals of different kinds of hops on the market and they all have their own unique flavor and aroma components.

Here I'm gonna share a few of 'em and which beers we use them in.

So right here, I have Strata hops.

These are the main hop that are used in our Tropic Haze IPA that are known for their tropical pineapple, mango type character.

Some people get a little bit of bubble gum out of the aroma.

These are Sterling and Saaz hops.

I've got two of them in here.

These are used our party beer.

These are a German style hop that give you lots of spice and character, which goes great in lagers especially when you're having backyard barbecue type foods.

These are Cascade hops, which are one of the most famous hops in the craft beer scene.

And they're known for their floral, pine, and light citrus characters that are used in lots of different IPAs.

So if you're out in the grocery store and you're having foods that might go with tropical type flavors, reach for a beer that's got Strata hops in them.

If you are going with more American backyard, barbecue type flavors go with beer that might have Sterling or Saaz hops in 'em like Ziggy, Zaggy party beer.

And if you're going with some bold zesty flavors, maybe tacos or something like that, go with a beer that's got Cascade hops in there because those piney, floral citrus notes really will punch up those flavors.

Another key factor that impacts the flavor and style of the beer is the type of malt that's used.

And a lot of that comes down to the roast.

So a lighter roasted malt will give you more bready character.

Hail ales, lagers all use very light malts.

Medium roasted malts, like caramel malts, those give you more nutty, caramel aromas and flavors.

And you'll also have kind of a medium amber, copper colored beer, if you make heavy use of those.

Your darker malts that are really the backbone of your porters and stouts are very, very heavily roasted.

Similar to coffee, those bold dark roasts will give you chocolatey flavors, coffee flavors, smokey flavors.

So these are really good if you like those big, bold, deep rich beers.

(upbeat music playing) We grew up with our community around here.

Every day the people that come in our doors are the people that are providing feedback on our beers, voting with their dollars, showing what they like, making requests.

Come down here and we get to share a pint with them.

So we get to hear their stories.

We get to hear what their needs are and really try to provide reprieve from the busy world and give them something to look forward to at the end of the day.

And that's super rewarding (upbeat music playing) - Made There is made possible by the generous support of viewers like you and Visit Kitsap Peninsula.

Thank you to Made There supporting sponsor: the Greater Kitsap Chamber.