The Brewing Process

Here is a general outline of the brewing process. We have toured several breweries up to this point so we all have a good idea of the process of making beer. The brewing process consists of three main phases: the mash, the boil and fermentation.

In order to start the mashing process, the brewer needs malted barley. Brewers typically receive barley that has already been malted from an outside source. Here in Germany almost every brewery receives their malted barley from a malting plant in Bamberg. The malting process begins by soaking barley in water, which initiates the process of germinating the barley grains. Once the germination gets to the necessary stage, the barley is heated via hot air, which stops the germination process. The malted barley is then kilned for a amount of time that is dependent on the type of malt being produced. Light malts (such as pilsner malts) are not kilned nearly as long or as hot as darker malts (such as roast malt).

So the brewer receives his malted and kilned barley from his outside source and proceeds to begin his/her part in brewing process. The first step is to grind the malted barley into a powder, which is called the grist. The purpose of this step is to expose the fermentable sugars that are in the malted barley. The grist is then put into water that has already been heated to a certain temperature and left in the water for a certain amount of time. This step can vary a lot depending on the style of beer being brewed or the equipment available to the brewer. The most common variation is changing the temperature of the water, which influences the type of fermentable sugars created. A lower number of fermentable sugars essentially results in a thicker bodied beer.

After the mashing stage is completed, the hot sugary liquid is somehow filtered in order to remove the husks from the grain. The brewer can use a lauter tun, which filters out the husks using a false bottom. He/she could also simply use a filter. The resulting liquid is then transferred to the brew kettle, and the boil begins. At this point, the brewer adds hops at previously determined times during the boil. The hop addition times depend on whether the brewer intends to add bitterness or hop aroma. For bitterness hops are added at the beginning of the boil. For hop aroma the hops are added towards the end of the boil.

After boiling, the liquid is cooled and transferred to a fermentation tank where it undergoes two stages of fermentation, which I will cover more in depth later.