The Brewing
Process
Brewing is the
actual process of alcoholic beverages and alcohol through
fermentation. This method is used with beer production,
although the term can also be used for other
drinks as well. The term brewing is also used to
refer to any chemical mixing process as
well.
The
process of brewing has a long history indeed,
which
archeological evidence tells us that this technique was actually
used in ancient Egypt as well. Many
descriptions of various beer recipes can be found in
Sumerian writings, which are some of the oldest
writings of any type.
Even though the process of
brewing is complex and varies greatly, Below,
you'll find the basic stages relating to
brewing.
1. Mashing
- This is the first phase of brewing,
in which
the malted grains are crushed and soaked in warm water in order
to create an extract of the malt. The mash is then
held at constant temperature long
enough for the enzymes to convert starches into
fermentable sugar.
2. Sparging
- At this stage, water is filtered through the mash to
dissolve all of the sugars. The darker, sugar
heavy liquid is known as the wort.
3. Boiling
- The wort is boiled along with any remaining
ingredients to remove any excess water and kill any type of
microorganisms. The hops, either whole or
extract are added at some point during this
stage.
4. Fermentation
- The yeast is now added and the beer is left to
ferment. After it has fermented, the beer may be
allowed to ferment again, which will allow further
settling of the yeast and other particulate matter
which may have been introduced earlier in the
process.
5. Packaging
- At the final stage, the beer will contain alcohol,
but not too much carbon dioxide. The brewer will
have a few options to increase the levels of
carbon dioxide. The most common approach is force
carbonation, via the direct addition of CO2 gas to the
keg or bottle.
After it has been brewed,
the beer in normally a finished product. At this
point, the beer is kegged, casked, bottled, or
canned. Beers that are unfiltered may be stored
for further fermentation in conditioning tanks,
casks, or bottles to allow smoothing of harsh alcohol
or heavy hops.
There are some beer
enthusiasts that consider a long conditioning period
attractive for various strong beers such as Barley
and wines. Depending on the beer enthusiast and what
he likes to drink, it will vary.
Some big
brand brewing companies have a Video Website to
showcase their most recent new brews. While micro breweries
may shy away from glitzy marketing tacktics such methods have
proved very successful for the big global brands.
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