The Brewing of Beer
The main process of creating beer goes through about eight basic steps:
- Malting
- Mashing
- Lautering
- Boiling
- Fermenting
- Conditioning
- Filtering
- Packaging
- Malting starts off the process and it is where the barely broken down and made ready to be brewed.
- Mashing converts the starches that were released during malting into sugars.
- Lautering is the separation of the liquid with sugars in it from the rest of the grains.
- Boiling is when the liquid with the sugars, or “wort” is boiled with the hops or other flavorings if wanted.
- Fermenting is the process explained below where the glucose and yeast are converted into alcohol.
"Fermentation is the process in which yeast breaks down sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Yeast are tiny single-celled fungi that contain special enzymes responsible for this reaction. The word equation for this process is: Glucose + yeast -> alcohol + carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide gas bubbles out of the fermenting solution into the air leaving a mixture of ethanol and water. It's important that no air is present or the yeast will produce ethanoic acid - the chemical found in vinegar." [1]
- Conditioning is simply the aging of the beer to help improve its taste.
- Filtering is really the last step in creating the beer itself.
- Beer is filtered to get rid of any excess ingredients such as yeast in the beer and helps make the beer appear cleaner and more vibrant.
- Lastly, the beer is packaged into bottles and they are now ready to be sold worldwide