Beer

There are 6 steps in the beer brewing process.

1. Malting

Source: How Products Are Made

Brewing usually starts with grains (barley, wheat, rye, etc).The grains are then soaked in cold water until they are fully saturated. The grain is then aerated and stirred, which will cause germination and release enzymes such as malt diastase. Malt diastase converts the starch into sugar for fermentation. Once the germination is complete, grain is roasted to stop the germination process. The roasting will produce a product which would be malt.

2. Mashing

Malt is then crushed and transfered to the mash tank or mash tun. This tank will mix the malt with warm water and produce a mixture called mash. After the mixing, the temperature of the mash is slowly increased for the reaction of enzymes. The enzymes will break down starch into sugar. Then the yeast will convert sugar into alcohol. Once everything is completed, the mash will be undistrubed for the solids to descend to the bottom of the tank.

3. Brewing

The liquid in the mash container is transferred into another tank called the lauter tun. This is done by taking the liquid out from the bottom layer of the mash solids which acts as a filter. Hot wated is added to the top of the mash tank to rinse the remaining liquid, which would be the wort. The solid remains are then dried and sold as animal feed.

The wort are then moved to the brew kettles to be boiled for sterilization. This is where hops are added to contribute the bitterness of the beer. After the brewing is comeplete, the finished wort is then filtered and pumped to the fermentation tanks.

Source: Popular Science

4. Fermentation

The yeast is added to the wort in the fermentation process. The yeast grows and consumes the sugar in the wort, which would then become beer. The beer is filtered and trasnferredinto aging casks where the temperature is controlled. The shorter storage time produces ale beer while the longer storage time produces lager.

The temperature for the fermentation would also be different for the different types of beer. Warm fementation method for ales and cold fermentation method for lagers.

Source: How Products Are Made

5. Pasteurizing

After aging the beer, pasteurization is done to kill the remaining yeast to prevent further alcohol production. The process is named after Louis Pasteur and is generally known for preserving milk. However, pasteurizaion is not used in the production of draft beers. Draft beers are also known as “ice” beer as they must be kept refrigerated to preserve their flavour and slow the yeast activity.

6. Packaging

The last step is packaging, either into kegs, bottles, or cans. The beer is moved through the maze of piping in the bottling area to perserve the natural carbonation. Additional carbon dioxide gas from the fermentation kettles is also used to improve the aroma of the beer. A pressure apparatus called a ‘tapper’ is used to dispense beer from the keg with light pressure of carbon dioxide applied at the head.

Sources : Popular Science, How Products Are Made, Martin’s