Beer Manufacturing

Beer Manufacturing

A brief description of the process

Beer is the world’s most generally consumed alcoholic beverage. The word beer originates from the Latin “bibere” meaning “to drink”. An alcoholic beverage usually made from malted Cereal grain (barley), flavored with hops, and brewed by slow fermentation. The chemical equation beneath sum up to form beer:

C6H12O6 → 2 CH3CH2OH + 2 CO2

Process of Brewing Beer

The first step in beer making is to acquire the raw materials. The main ingredient – Barley. So, harvesting Barley is the initial step in beer making. After acquiring Barley, Malting is done. Malting is a three stage process, wherein, Steeping, Germination and Kilning is done. Steeping is an action which involves soaking the grain in hot water for a specific period of time. This helps in the next stage which is called germination. Germination helps in producing the enzymes to convert starch into sugars that will be used later as food for yeast. The third stage of malting – kilning – is done, where the green malt is heated on metal shelves to remove unwanted moisture and stop the kernel’s growth without destroying the fragile enzyme system.

Next comes mashing, Malt and water are carefully measured and mixed in the mash tank (or tun), essentially a cooking pot. The next step in the brewing process involves separating the dissolved extract from the malt husks and other insoluble grain particles in the mash by straining, or “lautering.” A lauter tun, used for this straining process, contains many slotted openings to hold back the grain husks, forming a natural filter bed. The liquid draws through the grain bed into the brew kettle. This liquid, called wort, is clarified as it passes through the grain. The clarified wort moves from the lauter tun to a brew kettle and is heated to boiling. Next comes the hop addition, one of the most important parts of a boil. As the wort boils, a carefully measured amount of hops is added based on the specific beer recipe....