You should know Your BEER

Beer is a potable alcoholic beverage fermented from cereals and malt, flavoured with hops.
The alcoholic content is in between 3% to 8% and is known to be a very refreshing drink all
seasons through out the year.

Raw Material Used in Making of Beer

Barley: Barley is preferred to other cereals as it can be more easily malted for
brewing and the soluble extracted from barley malt are more complete than
those of other grains.
When the grain has been steeped and dried, it is termed malt, and is ready
for grinding and stoning.
Actually any cereal containing starch or sugar may be used in the brewing of
beer, e.g. maize, rice, corn or wheat. But these grains lack essential enzymes
(chemicals which facilitate the extraction of sugar) and when used require
special treatment. If used alone, the final product would not be beer.

Hops: Hops belong to nettle family. The female plants used bear cone-shaped
formations, which impart a bitter flavor and pleasant aroma, increasing the
refreshing quality and stimulating digestion.
Sugar: Sugar is an important addition as it helps to produce a beer of pale colors
less filling and with a better taste and of course, increased stability.

Brewers’ Yeast: Brewer yeast is a microorganism belonging to the saccharomyces species and
is capable of reproducing at a fantastic rate. Its work is to propagate and split
up the sugar components into equal quantities of alcohol and carbon dioxide.
At this stage it may be well to mention that it is the carbon dioxide content of
the beer, which determines the amount of the foam formation.
A consistent carbon dioxide level means that he barman will not have any trouble
handling beer at normal temperatures.

The process of making beer can be broadly divided into three distinct
stages:
Malting:The crushed malt is mixed with water at a given temperature for the proper length of
time. The resultant solution “wort “ is then used to make beer and the residue
spent grain) is sold as stock fodder.
Brewing: The barley is steeped in water until it germinates. It is then kiln-dried up to
18 degree F to stop germination. The resultant product is termed malt and is
ready for grinding.
Fermentation: Fermentation is the next process where the yeast splits the sugar into alcohol
and carbon dioxide. This is the most decisive phase in the brewing for
attaining brews of fine taste and aroma.
 BEER PRODUCTION

Malt: Made from barley

Hops: Impart a special bitter falvour and aroma an have a preservative value
Sugar: Invert sugar is used- a produce of cane sugar.
Water: Mountain spring water is preferred
Yeast: As used in brewing known as Saccharomyces and Carevisiae.

DIFFERENT STAGES

Storage Bin: Malt received from the producer is weighed and stored in the “ Storage Bin”.
Screen: Foreign matter is removed.
Mill: Where malt is crushed and is known as ‘Grist’.
Grist Case: Storage for “Grist” above the mashing tun.
Mashing Tun: Mashing is the mixing of Grist and hot water. The liquid drawn- off is malt
extract known as “Wort”.

Grain: The husk of the malt left behind and used for cattle food.
Copper: Wort runs in copper kettles where hops and sugar are added. Boiling is
necessary to sterilize and concentrate – hops are afterwards extracted.

Hop Back: Hops are strained off in the hop back.

Spent Hops: Spent hops are used for cultivating gardens.
Wort Receiver: Wort pumped t other tank above the refrigerator.
Refrigerator: Where the product is cooled to 60degree F and run into a fermenting vessel.
Fermenting Vessel: Where yeast is added to start fermentation.
CO2: Yeast splits up sugar into alcohol and CO2 gas. The latter is used for bottled
beer.
Dropping Vessel: Wort is converted to beer, and fermentation is complete when the beer is sent
to the Dropping Vessel. Yeast reproduces by itself and is used for subsequent
fermentation.
Yeast: Used for cattle food and supplementary diets.
Cask: Cask beer is packed
Cellar: Beer is sent to cellar for the conditioning period.
Finings: Finings are made from isinglass and are used to help in clarification.
Conditioning Room: Bottled beer is sent here for a conditioning period and further for chilling
where excess CO2 gas is injected.
Cold Room: Bottled beer is sent here for a conditioning period and further for chilling
where excess co2 gas is injected.
Filter:Beer is passed through a filter to make it brilliant.
Bottling: Beer is filled into various size bottles.
Customer: Sold to the customer either directly or through retail wine shops.
 Note: Invert sugar is a product of cane sugar, which has been treated in the course of
refining with small amount of acids. The process of inversion has the effect of
converting the cane sugar into Dextrose and Laevulose. Both these sugars are
fermentable and thus more readily assimilable by yeast. Without inversion the
use o either raw or redefined sugar imposes a heavy strain upon the strengths
of yeast.
Finings are made from isinglass, which is manufactured from the swimming bladder
o the stureon fish. The choice -of isinglass is important since some brewers
find one type more effective than the other. It consists chiefly of proteins and
water, but it is no sense a constituent of beer and is used purely for the
purpose of clarification.

Lager Beer: Lager beer is distinguished by the fact that the wort is fermented by a bottom
fermentation type of yeast (i.e. yeast which is introduced at the bottom of the
fermenting tanks) and then is stored in refrigerated cellars (lager) at freezing
point for a period of three weeks. The process matures the beer. Lager is a
German word meaning ‘store’. Pilsener lager is stored in the limestone caves
of pilsen in Czechoslovakia.
Ale: Ale is synonymous with beer except that it is a term used for ordinary mild
beer while better beer is referred to as “beer”.
Porter: Porter is a black beer achieved by roasting malt. It is more malty in falvour,
with less flavouring of hops, but sweeter than stout. This name originated
from the fact that London porters used to drink this beer.
Stout: stout is similar to porter in as much as the malt is roasted. It has a strong
flavour and a sweet taste, but is heavier and has a strong hop character than
porter. This is a name given by the Irish and is almost similar to porter.
Beer Drinks: Most people like their beer as beer but there are some variations for drinks
using beer.
Red eye:Beer and Tomato juice
Boilermaker: I large jigger or Scotch whisky served straight with a glass of beer as a chaser
Shandy: Beer with lemonade.