Fermentation Lab

(Beer Making 101) Lab Groups A & B Spring 2012

Safety First!
Appropriate lab safety equipment

Hard Hat Eye protection Long Pants Closed toed shoes

Cleaning chemicals (P.B.W.) Sanitation chemicals (StarSan) Fire Safety (Propane burner) Hot Liquids (Hot wort) Breakable Glassware and Instruments (hydrometer) Electricity and liquids (GFCI)

Additional precautions

Importance of Sanitation
Cleaning
Fermentation is a biological process involving growth and life of a microorganism called yeast In order to avoid competition with other micro organisms, all equipment used in the brewing process must be thoroughly cleaned prior to use in the brewing process Anything which contacts the wort after the boiling process must be sanitized after thoroughly being cleaned

Fermentation
C12H22O11 + 12 O2 12 CO2 + 11 H2O + ATP C12H22O11 + 4 H2O 3 C2H5OH + 6 CO2 + ATP C12H22O6 + a O2 + b H2O YX CH1.74O0.45N0.12 + c C2H5OH + d CO2 + ATP YX = 0.25-0.45

 Don appropriate safety equipment. Clean and sterilize one graduated cylinder, fermenter, oxygen injection equipment, yeast packet, and air lock with stopper with Powdered Brewery Wash and StarSan. Attach propane tank to burner. Measure 5.5 gallons of tap water and pour into boiling pot and place pot on burner. Light burner and bring water to a boil.

Procedure

Procedure
After water is boiling turn off heat and add in malt extract. Stir malt extract until it is well blended with the water i.e. there are no traces of extract on stirring spoon. After malt extract is stirred in bring water back to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Reduce and increase heat as necessary to avoid boil over. After 5 minutes of boiling add in pelletized hops package KCG100. Boil for an additional 50 minutes. During boil pump P.B.W. through heat exchanger to clean, then pump StarSan through to sanitize. After 50 minutes of boiling add in pelletized hops package KCG050. Boil for 5 minutes.

Procedure
After 5 minutes of boiling (60 minutes total) turn off propane burner and connect heat exchanger to bulkhead and boil kettle. Cool wort using heat exchanger. During cooling process take temperature and flow rate measurements. Must measure water temperature in and water temperature out as well as wort temperature in and wort temperature out as well as flow rates for both the hot and cold streams. Take specific gravity reading before pitching yeast. Oxygenate wort using oxygen injection equipment. Pitch yeast in wort. Top off fermenter with tap water to 5 gallons. Install air lock and stopper in fermenter and fill with water. Clean boiling equipment and heat exchanger with hot water.

Procedure
Take specific gravity reading on 3/28/2012. Starting 4/2/2012 take specific gravity reading daily. Once specific gravity is steady , take sample for GC reading. Run 2 gallons of beer through membrane separation filter to remove ethanol. Take care to filter solids prior to fluid entering the separation membrane to avoid clogging. Apply vacuum to shell side of membrane to remove ethanol. Record flow rate through membrane for calculation purposes. Take sample of alcohol-stripped beer for GC reading.

Procedure
Prepare remaining three gallons of beer for bottling Rack from fermenter to bottling bucket Stir in prepared sugar solution at a ratio of 0.8 oz corn sugar per gallon of beer. Utilizing bottling wand and gravity, fill and cap cleaned and sanitized bottles. Clean and put away all equipment.

Recommendations
A device known as a hop spider should be employed in order to ensure that bits of hop pellets remain in the boiling kettle and do not get pumped through the heat exchanger. Hop addition packets are simply added to the apparatus where they are boiled in a strainer bag.

Recommendations
Due to the fact that the final specific gravity was a higher than expected(final alcohol content lower than expected), one can conclude that the yeast failed to complete its job. In order to increase the ability of the yeast to convert the sugars into alcohol, a higher quantity of yeast should have been pitched.
This could have easily be achieved at little or no additional cost with the creation of a yeast starter the day prior to use. This will effectively reduce the lag phase and increase the ability of the yeast to complete the fermentation.