Beer production

An alcoholic beverage produced by saccharification

of starch and fermentation of the resulting sugar
One of the oldest beverage (9500 B.C.)
Alcohol content 2%-12% (typically 4%-6%)
Different beer varieties are there- ale, stout, mild,
wheat, lager
Served as chilled or normal temperature based on
consumers choice
It contains various phenolic acids
Hops contain 8-prenylnaringenin
The process is called brewing process
Steeping a starch source in water and fermenting with
yeast
Ingredients of beer-
Water- > 90%
Malt- sugar to be fermented comes from the
germinated grain, barley is common source, sometimes
wheat
Sugar
Hops- give beer its bitter flavor and are also a natural
preservative, hop flowers contain lupulin, a resinous
substance that gives the typical bitter flavor, comes
from Humulus lupulus is a species of flowering plant in
the Cannabaceae family
Yeast- The dominant types of yeast used to make
beer are the top-fermenting Saccharomyces
cerevisiae and bottom-fermenting Saccharomyces
uvarum
Some other types of yeast based fermentation-
Brettanomyces ferments lambics, Torulaspora
delbrueckii ferments Bavarian weissbier (white beer)
Process
Malting
Mashing
Lautering
Boiling
Fermenting
Conditioning
Filtering
Packaging
Malting- barley grain is made ready for brewing
Three steps-
1. Steeping- grain is added to a vat with water and
allowed to soak for approximately 40 hours
2. Germination- the grain is spread out on the floor
of the germination room for around 5 days
3. Kilning- malt goes through a high temperature
drying in a kiln; with gradual temperature
increase over several hours
The dried product is known as malt
milled or crushed to break apart the kernels and
expose the cotyledon, which contains the majority
of the carbohydrates and sugars
Mashing- converts the starches released during the malting
stage into sugars that can be fermented
The milled grain is mixed with hot water in a large vessel
known as a mash tun
the grain and water are mixed together to create a cereal
mash
Naturally occurring enzymes present in the malt convert the
starches (long chain carbohydrates) in the grain into smaller
molecules or simple sugars (mono-, di-, and tri-saccharides)
This "conversion" is called saccharification
The result of the mashing process is a sugar rich liquid or
"wort
Diastatic power (DP), or "diastatic activity" is a property of
malts, grains that have begun to germinate, and is used to
measure the malt's ability to break down starches into
simpler fermentable sugars during the mashing process
The temp. raised to 80oC to deactivate the enzymes
The wort is strained through the bottom of the mash
tun in a process known as lautering
Additional water sprinkled on the grains to extract
additional sugars known as sparging
Boiling-
wort is moved into a large tank where it is boiled
with hops and sometimes other ingredients such as
herbs or sugars
flavour, colour, and aroma of the beer are made
The boiling process
terminate enzymatic processes
precipitate proteins
isomerize hop resins
concentrate and sterilize the wort
Hops add flavour, aroma and bitterness to the beer
This process stands for 45-90 min
solid particles in the hopped wort are separated
out, usually in a vessel called settling tank or
"whirlpool"
tank floors either flat, sloped, conical or with a cup
in the centre
The principle in all is that by swirling the wort the
centrifugal forces will push the trub into a cone at
the center of the bottom of the tank, where it can
be easily removed
hopback is a traditional additional chamber
acts as a sieve or filter by using whole hops to clear
debris from the green (or unfermented) wort, as
the whirlpool does, and also to increase hop aroma
in the finished beer
wort must be brought down to fermentation
temperatures (2026Celsius) before yeast is added-
known as wort cooling
this is achieved through a plate heat exchanger
The wort is pumped into the heat exchanger, and
goes through every other gap between the plates.
The cooling medium, usually water, goes through the
other gaps
Fermentation-
Fermentation happens in tanks which come in all sorts
of forms, from enormous cylindro-conical vessels,
through open stone vessels, to wooden vats
There are three main fermentation methods, warm,
cool and wild or spontaneous
Brewing yeasts are traditionally classed as top-
fermenting and bottom-fermenting
Saccharomyces cerevisiae in top-cropping at warmer
temperatures and Saccharomyces pastorianus in
bottom-cropping at cooler temperatures
both types of yeast equally flocculate (clump together
and precipitate to the bottom of the vessel) when
fermentation is finished
Saccharomyces cerevisiae are fermented at warm
temperatures between 15 and 20 C (59 and 68 F),
occasionally as high as 24 C (75 F)- warm
fermentation
Lager is beer that has been cool fermented at around
10 C (50 F), compared to typical warm fermentation
temperatures of 18 C (64 F)- cool fermentation
After an initial or primary fermentation, beer is
conditioned, matured or aged
2 to 4 weeks, several months, or several years
Secondary fermentation
Filtering
Bottling