Process Essay

The brewing process

Beer production involves malting, milling, mashing, extract separation, hop addition and boiling, removal of hops and precipitates, cooling and aeration, fermentation, separation of yeast from young beer, aging, maturing, and packaging. The object of the entire process is to convert grain starches to sugar, extract the sugar with water, and then ferment it with yeast to produce the alcoholic, lightly carbonated beverage.
The brewing process » Malting
Malting modifies barley to green malt, which can then be preserved by drying. The process involves steeping and aerating the barley, allowing it to germinate, and drying and curing the malt.
In order to be fermented by yeast, the food reserve of barley, starch, must be converted by enzymes into simple sugars. Two enzymes, α- and β-amylases, carry out the conversion. The latter is present in barley, but the former is made only during germination of the grain. Specially bred strains of barley (generally low in nitrogen content) are used for malting. Other important characteristics are yield, even germination, ability to produce enzymes, and a highly extractable malt.