Brewing Beer

History and introduction

Brewing is generally considered to have originated as a by-product of the development of

agriculture. Surviving historical artefacts allow us to trace brewing back to the
Mesopotamians around 6000 or 7000 years ago. The Ancient Egyptians were brewers, and
beer, brewed from the indigenous cereal sorghum, is still integral to the African tribal life.
The historical development of brewing and the brewing industry is, however, linked with
northern Europe where cold conditions inhibited the development of viticulture. From the
tenth century, the use of hops in brewing spread from Germany across Europe to replace or
supplement, the variety of plants, herbs, and spices popular at that time. The introduction of
hops was met with resistance, but the pleasing flavour and aroma they provided and
perhaps, more importantly, their action in protecting the beer from being spoiled by the then
unknown microbes, eventually led to their wide scale adoption. Brewers of un-hopped beer
depended upon high alcohol percentage to preserve their beers, but this was relatively
inefficient and such beers generally had short shelf life. Although brewing with hops was a
more complicated operation, requiring extra equipment, it did allow the brewer to produce a
weaker beer that was still resistant to spoilage and thus make a greater volume of product
from the same quantity of raw material.
The dominant cereal in use was barley, the easiest to malt, although it could be
supplemented or even replaced by other cereals, particularly oats and wheat. In some
regions, notably in parts of
Germany and Belgium, wheat beers became a speciality.
Industrialization, population growth, urbanization, and increased consumption are the linked
themes of 19th century brewing. In the leading European beer-drinking countries: the United
Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium, there was a two- to four-fold increase in output between
1830 and 1900.

Most beer is made from four essential ingredients:

(1) water
(2) fermentable carbohydrates such as barley malt, starch, and sugar adjuncts
(3) hops and
(4) yeast.
Not only can these ingredients differ, but they can also be used in numerous different
combinations. Ingredient variables help to differentiate one beer from another and to define
beer styles.

Water: The balance of minerals in brewing water will affect the flavour character and flavour
perception of malt, hops, and by-products of fermentation. It may also influence the
performance of yeast, which in turn influences the flavour, aroma, and mouthfeel of beer.

Fermentable carbohydrates: Each malt type has its own unique specifications, resulting in
unique contributions to the qualities of beer. The quality of malt is often unique to a given
region. Its availability has often influenced the origin of a particular beer style. Colour,
flavour, aroma, alcohol, and mouthfeel are a few parameters influenced by malt, other
fermentable carbohydrates, and sugar adjuncts. The choice, amount, and combination of
malt types will create an extraordinary variety of characters in beer.

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Hops: Hop types play an important and traditional role in recipe formulation. The choice,
timing, amount, and combination of hop types create a variety of characters in beer. When
identical hop varieties are grown in different areas of the world, the resulting hop varies in
character. Certain styles of beer derive their unique qualities from certain varieties of hops
grown in specific areas of the world.

Yeast: Most beer is made from one of two different yeast types: lager yeast or ale yeast.
There are hundreds of strains these two types of yeast. When used in a traditional manner, a
particular strain of yeast will behave somewhat predictably, producing distinctive characters
in beer.

Outline of the brewing steps

1. Malting — converting barley to malt

a. Barley drying and dressing — removing debris, dry to store
b. Barley storage — housing the barley to maintain its vitality
c. Steeping — thoroughly soaking the barley in water
d. Germination — allowing the barley to germinate naturally
e. Kilning — stopping germination by heating; also to develop colour and drying
for storage
f. Malt storage — housing the malt until required
2. Milling — grinding the malt (often with other cereals) to grist
3. Mashing — mixing grist with water (liquor), enzymic conversion
4. Wort separation—separating the liquid (wort) from the solids (draff) in lauter tun
5. Wort boiling — sterilization, coagulation, hop extraction and concentration
a. Trub removal — removing coagulated material and hop debris by using hop
strainer, centrifugation, sedimentation, filtration or whirlpool
6. Wort cooling/aeration — aerate and cool the wort
7. Yeast pitching — add the culture yeast to the wort
8. Fermentation — yeast growth; alcohol and CO2 production
9. Yeast removal — reduces yeast level in the immature beer
10. Aging — matures and stabilizes the beer at low temperature
11. Clarification — removes particles to produce bright beer
a. Fining — uses a coagulant (isinglass) to remove yeast, etc.
b. Centrifugation — particle removal by centrifugal force
c. Filtration — particles trapped on a filter bed or on sheets
12. Packaging — beer filled (racked) into its final container
13. Warehousing and distribution — storing and transporting the beer to final customer in
perfect condition.

Discussion of individual steps

Malting: the malting process converts the raw barley by controlled steeping, germination
and kilning into a product with increased enzyme levels and with altered chemical and
physical properties. The first part of the malting process mimics what would occur in nature if
the barleycorn is left to germinate in the field. The grain is first steeped in cool water, and
drained occasionally to ensure that the corns are not asphyxiated. Once thoroughly wet, they
are laid out as a shallow bed and the grains start to grow, producing roots and shoots. The
grain bed is kept moist and cool by passing chilled wet air through the bed. The grain
embryo produces and releases a plant hormone which activates the aleurone layer of the
grain to produce various enzymes. These enzymes, together with those already present in

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the grain, start to break down the food reserves of the grain. If allowed to continue, a new
barley plant would be formed, but the maltster stops the germination just before the shoot
emerges from inside the grain. This is achieved by heating (kilning) the grain with hot dry air.
As well as drying the malt to preserve it, kilning also develops colour and flavour. The roots
are removed mechanically and the malted corns are then stored ready for use. Although the
main malted cereal for brewing is barley, other cereals are malted for specific purposes,
mainly for the production of specialist beers: oats, rice, rye, sorghum, and wheat.

Milling and adjunct use: barley malt can be supplemented with other cereals, either malted
or raw, for specific purposes (provided local legislation permits their use). Malted cereals are
used as described in the previous section but raw cereals (barley, oats, maize, rice, rye,
sorghum, and wheat) are added as an adjunct for one or a number of the following reasons:
 To produce a more stable beer, as they contain less protein
 To produce a different flavour
 To produce a better beer foam
 To improve the ease of processing in the brewhouse
 To produce beer at lower cost
The malt itself needs to be milled first to produce a range of smaller particles called grist.
This makes the malt easier to wet at the mashing stage and aids faster extraction of the
soluble components from the malt during the enzymic conversion. The fineness of grind is
checked by analysis through a series of sieves.

Mashing: it is the process of mixing the grist, and cereal adjuncts if used, with hot water and
letting the mixture stand while the enzymes convert the proteins and starch to yield the
soluble malt extract, wort.

Wort separation: the mash is transferred to a second vessel (lauter tun) to separate the
liquid wort from the solids. The principal objectives are to produce bright wort and to collect
the maximum amount of sugars (extract) from the residual solid materials. These solids are
sold as animal feed, draff, or spent grains for milk and beef cattle herds.

Wort boiling: wort boiling is the process unique to beer production, as it is not required in the
distilling or vinegar production processes. Wort boiling satisfies a number of important
objectives:
 Sterilization of the wort to eliminate all bacteria, yeasts, and moulds that could
compete with the brewing yeast and possibly cause off-flavours
 Extraction of the bittering compounds from hops added early to the boil and oils and
aroma compounds from late additions
 Coagulation of excess proteins and tannins to form solid particles (trub) that can be
removed later. This is important for beer stability and foam
 Colour and flavour formation
 Removal of undesirable volatiles, such as dimethyl sulfide, by evaporation
 Concentration of the sugars by evaporation of water

Trub removal: The simplest and most elegant separation technique is the whirlpool, which
makes use of the centrifugal/centripetal force acting on the particles when the wort rotates
after tangential inlet into the cylindrical tank. The trub and hop debris are deposited as a
mound in the center of the vessel; the bright wort can be taken away from the periphery of
the vessel.

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Wort cooling: The wort is cooled from almost boiling point to fermentation temperature
through a heat exchanger using water as the main cooling medium. The temperature for
fermentation is typically 8 to 138C for lager and 14 to 178C for ale.

Adding yeast (yeast pitching): Yeast is pitched into the wort, either directly into the cooled
wort in the fermentation vessel, or in-line en route from the heat exchanger to the fermenter.

Fermentation: There are two main classifications of fermentations, ale and lager, but a wide
variety of different fermentation systems and equipment have been used over the years.
For both ale and lager, the basic process of fermentation is similar; yeast uses sugars and
proteins to produce alcohol, CO2, new yeast cells, and flavour compounds. Toward the end
of fermentation, as the sugars are depleted, the yeast begins to flocculate. This can also be
initiated by providing cooling to the fermentation system. A good separation of the yeast by
flocculation is important in obtaining a clean, good-tasting beer, and for ease of processing
through the subsequent stages. The fermentation also produces a range of flavour
compounds, esters, alcohols, etc., that give character to the beer. There are, however, some
flavour compounds that are unpleasant and need to be reduced or removed during the
fermentation or later in the lagering or cask-conditioning processes.

Yeast removal: It is important to remove the bulk of the excess yeast before maturation,
generally by removing the beer from the settled yeast.

Ageing: The maturation of the green beer to produce a stable, quality product suitable for
filtration and packaging is called aging or, alternatively, cold conditioning or cold storage.
The objectives of beer aging are:
 Chill haze formation
 Clarification
 Carbonation (to a limited extent)
 Flavour maturation (again to a limited extent)
 Stored capacity for demand smoothing

Clarification: Some clarification is required for most beers although there are exceptions
such as wiess beer, which is often served cloudy. Filtration will produce a bright, sparkling
beer that will remain clear throughout its shelf life, provided that the stabilization has been
correctly applied.

Packaging: The packaging of beer can be conveniently divided into two categories:
 Large pack that includes kegs, casks, and demountable bulk tanks
 Small pack that covers cans and bottles
For casks and kegs, stainless steel is the most widely used material for its cost, durability,
and hygiene, although there are some aluminium and wood casks still in use. Glass still
predominates the bottle market although Polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) is increasingly
being used for their weight and safety benefits, now that the major obstacles of
pasteurization and barrier properties to O2 pick-up and CO2 loss appear to be resolved.
Cans are manufactured from aluminium and tin-plate. Both materials are extensively
recycled. A recent development of a can with a bottle-shaped neck is an attempt to capture
the visual appeal and decorative opportunities that a bottle offers, but with a very low weight
and full recyclability.

Warehousing and distribution: Finally, it is important that the beer is distributed to the
consumer in top condition. Today, this is an increasingly complex operation and the supply

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chain is a key element of successful distribution. Nevertheless, we must remember that an
excellent product in the brewery does not necessarily mean that it will still be excellent when
it reaches the consumer. So careful attention to logistics and supply chain is essential to
both the large international and small craft brewer.

Source: Handbook of Brewing (2nd edition) 2006; Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton,
Florida.

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