How to Brew Beer – Short Tutorial
The production process of beer can be called “brewing” and requires several stages of processing.
In the beginning of the process barley or other cereals, after they have been selected and cleaned, are placed in the tanks of maceration, where they receive water and oxygen needed for germination.
This process usually lasts three or four days during which water is kept at temperatures between 12 and 15 degrees, and it is constantly being changed. Once you have reached the sufficient degree, the barley is put to germinate for about a week in the chests of germination or otherwise in a well ventilated area.
The process is stopped when the sprout has reached about two-thirds of the length of the grain, by drying or roasting.
Barley malt is then ground to obtain a kind of flour, and then it is mixed with hot water (about 65-68 degrees). This phase is called brewing, as the malt becomes a must. Precisely this happens when the starch in malt is transformed into a sugar, maltose. The mass, kept in agitation, is brought together with suitable stops, the optimal temperature for enzyme activity, and degradation of starch and protein.
The next step is cooking the mash within designated boilers, traditional copper (because it is a good thermal conductor that does not degrade too). The cooking time is crucial to choosing the type of beer to be produced and also for its quality, because during this process takes place most of the biochemical reactions, usually varies between one and two hours and a half.
During boiling, following reaction between polyphenols of malt and hops and proteins of the malt, form insoluble complexes constitution.
The fermentation is divided into two phases: the first, the main fermentation, sees as the main protagonist, the yeast, whose function is to convert sugars and amino acids into alcohol, carbon dioxide and aromatics. The process is faster (it takes usually three or four days) than the low fermentation, as is held in higher temperatures and fermentation processes are favored by heat. This yeast also goes back to the surface and is recovered by skimming, and this is important economies.
The secondary fermentation (also called maturation) instead is to leave for about four or five weeks, the beer in huge vats of aging at a temperature between 0 and 2 degrees. This operation allows to fill carbonated beer and to deposit the residues of yeast, as well as to harmonize the various ingredients.
Finally there is the pasteurization, the process in which not all beers are, as it is to bring the beer to a temperature of 60 degrees to destroy microorganisms and thus preserve the product better.
There are some beers that are “fermented in the bottle.” In this case, before closing the cap, add the yeast which increases the rate of alcohol. Wheat beers are an exception that, although yeast in the bottle, maintain a normal gradation. At the end of the process, the beer is filtered to remove residuals of opacity and finally bottled or keg.
Author: Kristoffer Kilpinen
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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