The beer production process is mainly divided into four parts: malting, saccharification, fermentation and canning.
1. Barley must transform insoluble sediment into soluble sugar for brewing process through germination process. Before the malt is sent to the brewing workshop, it is sent to the crushing tower to make malt for brewing.
2. After boiling, the wort added with hops is pumped into the cyclone sedimentation tank to remove unwanted hops residue and insoluble protein. After the clean wort is pumped out of the cyclone sedimentation tank, it is sent to a heat exchanger for cooling.
3. Subsequently, yeast was added to the wort to start fermentation. After the yeast is removed, the product "tender beer" is pumped into the post-fermentation tank (or ripening tank). Here, the remaining yeast and insoluble protein are further precipitated, which makes the style of beer mature gradually.
4. Before packaging, each batch of beer will go through strict physical and chemical inspection and sommelier's sensory evaluation before being sent to the packaging line. There are several packaging forms of finished beer: bottled, canned and barreled.
Malt is made from barley Barley is a hard grain, which ripens faster than other grains. It is precisely because barley is faster than wheat, rye and oats in making malt that it is selected as the main raw material for brewing. Wheat without shell is difficult to malt and is not suitable for brewing. Barley must convert insoluble sediment into soluble sugar through malting process for brewing process. In addition to ordinary malt, crystallized malt or roasted malt can also be used as ingredients for various brewing types. Crystallized malt is steamed malt, stewed slowly and then dried. It's dark and tastes like coffee. The roasted malt is dried and roasted in a rotating drum with high heat, which can make the beer contain burnt flavor and black color. The quality of malt varies greatly in different producing areas. Generally speaking, there are three major beer and wheat producing areas in the world, Australia, North America and Europe. Among them, Australian beer malt is most favored by beer brewing experts because of its emphasis on nature, abundant light, no pollution and pure variety, so it is also called golden malt.
Hops belong to nettles or cannabis plants. Wine peanuts have the structure of cones, and it is these cones that inject bitterness and sweetness into beer, making it more refreshing and delicious and helpful for digestion. Hop type: cones: cones are collected in early autumn and need to be dried quickly, then put into barrels and sold to brewers. Granulation: Crush the crushed cone in a special mold and put it on a tray. The tray is placed in a vacuum or nitrogen-filled environment to reduce the possibility of oxidation. The shape of the particles is suitable for adding to the container. Extract: the extract of hops cones is now widely used in all beer varieties, and different extraction methods will produce very different flavors. The extract should be added at the last stage of the process, which is more conducive to controlling the final bitterness. Special extracts can be used to organize the photoreaction, so that beer can be produced in transparent containers.
Yeast is a fungal microorganism. In the process of beer brewing, yeast ferments the sugar in malt and rice into beer, producing trace fermentation products such as alcohol and carbon dioxide. These small and diverse fermentation products, together with other flavor substances directly from malt and hops, constitute the attractive and unique sensory characteristics of the finished beer. There are two main types of beer yeast: upper yeast and lower yeast. Under the microscope, the yeast on the top is slightly oval than the yeast on the bottom. The name "Top Yeast" comes from the fact that during fermentation, the yeast rises to the surface of beer and can be skimmed at the top. "Bottom yeast" always exists in beer, and finally precipitates at the bottom of fermentation barrel after fermentation. "Top Yeast" produces light beer, stout beer and bitter beer. "Bottom Yeast" produces lager beer and Bilson beer.
Refined sugar: Refined sugar is an important additive for some beers. It makes beer lighter in color, less in impurities and fresher in taste.
Water: Each bottle of beer is more than 90% water, and water plays a very important role in the process of beer brewing. In addition to the cleanliness of water quality, beer brewing must also remove the mineral salts contained in the water (some manufacturers claim that beer is brewed with mineral water for commercial purposes) before it can become soft water. The location of early breweries was very demanding, and it must be a place with clear water. With the development of science and technology and the maturity of water filtration treatment technology, the requirements of modern brewery for site selection are greatly reduced. Tap water and groundwater can be filtered and treated to make them almost pure water, and then used to brew beer.
The malt is sent to the crushing tower before being sent to the brewing workshop. Here, malt is crushed by light pressure and made into malt for brewing.
Gelatinization treatment: mixing malt/grain to be crushed with water in a gelatinization pot. Gelatinization pot is a huge rotating metal container, equipped with hot water and steam inlets, stirring devices such as stirring rods, blades or propellers, and a large number of temperature and control devices. In the gelatinization pot, malt and water are heated and boiled. This is a natural acid that converts insoluble starch and protein into soluble malt extract, which is called "wort". The wort is then sent to a filter container called a separation tower.
Before the wort is pumped into the boiling pot, the hull of the wort should be removed in the filter tank and hops and sugar should be added.
Boiling: in a boiling pot, boil the mixture to absorb the smell of hops and improve and disinfect it.
After boiling, the wort added with hops is pumped into a rotating sedimentation tank to remove unwanted hops residues and insoluble protein.
Cooling fermentation: after the clean wort is pumped out of the cyclone sedimentation tank, it is sent to a heat exchanger for cooling. Subsequently, yeast was added to the wort to start the fermentation process.
In the fermentation process, artificially cultivated yeast converts fermentable sugar in wort into alcohol and carbon dioxide to produce beer. Fermentation took place within eight hours and proceeded at an accelerated speed, accumulating a kind of high-density foam called "wrinkle foam". The foam reached its highest stage on the 3rd or 4th day. From the fifth day, the fermentation speed slowed down, and wrinkles and foams began to appear on the surface of wort, which must be skimmed. After yeast fermented all fermentable substances in wort, a thick layer of sediment began to form at the bottom of the container. Then the temperature gradually decreased, and the fermentation was completely finished after 8~ 10 days. In the whole process, it is necessary to strictly control the temperature and pressure. Of course, different beers and different production processes lead to different fermentation times. Usually, the fermentation process of stored beer takes about 6 days, and light beer takes about 5 days.
After fermentation, most of the yeast settled at the bottom of the pond. The brewer recycled this part of yeast for the next can. After the yeast is removed, the product "tender beer" is pumped into the post-fermentation tank (or maturation tank). Here, the remaining yeast and insoluble protein are further precipitated, which makes the style of beer mature gradually. The ripening time varies with beer varieties, and is usually 7~2 1 day.
After post-fermentation, all the residual yeast and insoluble protein were filtered out in the filter, which became sake to be packaged.
There are several packaging forms of finished beer: bottled, canned and barreled. Coupled with the different shapes and capacities of bottles, the different labels, neck caps and bottle caps, and the diversification of outer packaging, a wide variety of beer products have been formed in the market.
Bottled beer is the most popular packaging form, and there are also the most typical packaging processes, namely, bottle washing, wine filling, sealing, sterilization, labeling and packaging.