thebrewingprocess

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Lagers and my Experience

What comes to your mind when you think about lagers? Some may think of tailgating in the back of their buddy’s truck or relaxing at the beach on a hot summer day, the list goes on. According to Winemag.com, Lagers accounts for roughly 87% of beer sales worldwide. Many macro-brews like Budweiser, Coors, Miller, and Busch, are all lagers. 

Lagers are often considered crisp, refreshing, and drinkable, with some exceptions. They are bottom fermented at lower temperatures around 4 to 9 degrees Celsius. According to “The Spruce Eats”, the lower temperature during fermentations results in less by-products and causes the beer to be crisper and cleaner, unlike a fruity, rich IPA. 

During the Summer of 2021, I got to brew a German-styled Pilsner, also known as a Czech lager. The beer was made in August and was being brewed for Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest is a festival celebrated in Germany at the end of September into October. Many breweries take part in this festival, which gives them the opportunity to brew some German beers.

I got to the brewery at 5 in the morning excited and eager to talk Jeff’s ear off (Jeff is the brewer). We worked until around 2 in the afternoon and by than a few batches were ready to be lagered for the next month. Lagering allows the brew to mature using refrigeration and cool temperatures. I learned a brewer must be flexible, efficient, and precise. Jeff made it clear to keep an eye on the temperatures, weigh the ingredients accurately, and be aware of time. Sanitation was also very important; the slightest contamination can destroy a beer. I was also told the importance of using your senses while brewing. Listen for gas leaks, smell for any sulfur/ foul odors, look for tanks mistakenly left open or overflowing vessels. 

 According to a study called “Chemical Characterization of Differences Between Ales and Lagers”, Lagers are higher in pH and lighter in color. Just because lagers are higher in pH doesn’t mean they aren’t acidic. Most lagers should have a pH of 4.2-4.4 and ales can often be as low as 3.8. The lager I got to help brew was aiming for a pH in this perfect lager range. I remember we could only get it down to a pH around 4.8-5. Over the next couple weeks, the brewers probably worked on lowering the pH through maturing the beer and fermentation. Sometimes while brewing you will run into some speed bumps, and that’s okay, the beer was still a great brew by the time Oktoberfest came around. I took some pictures of the vital steps during my experience... 

This was the mashing process. Hot water and barely grain were mixed together and spun around in the mash tun. This is where our base is made. (AKA wort)

The grain is scraped out of the mash tun, and the wort is transferred to the kettle to boil. This is the process where hops are added. 

This was the bucket of hops I got to pour into the kettle. 

This was the color of the wort after the hops were added. This little window allows us to check for contamination, turbidity, and to make sure we’re getting our desired color. (As you can see from the caption, I was having a blast)

The last step was to add the bottom-fermenting yeast. The brewer’s job is done when the wort is done, the yeast does the rest of the work. The barrel contained the yeast, and the vessel contained the wort. 

This is our finished product! It was crisp and cracker-like, finishing with a hint of spice and herb. The Oktoberfest lager had an ABV of 5.1%. If you are interested in getting a taste, come by Free Will’s taproom around Oktoberfest! 

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Oxygen: Beer’s Frenemy

Oxygen can get rather complicated when talking about the brewing process. Brewers have a love-hate relationship with this molecule. Oxygen is a key component for yeast growth and production, and also keeps the yeast cells healthy. On the other hand, Oxygen contamination in the end stages of the brewing process can lead to some undesired effects. The beer may taste off and the shelf life can be reduced exponentially.

My first article I found was from the “Rasayan Journal of Chemistry”, the article was written by Arsim Elshani, Kastriot Pehlivani, Bakir Kelmendi, and Nexhdet Shala. The title of the article was “The Role of Oxygen in The Main Fermentation of Beer in Concentration of 6, 8, and 10mg/L” In the article, an experiment is conducted in the brewery. The purpose of the lab is to evaluate the effect oxygen had in fermentation by varying the amount of oxygen per liter. 

Oxygen is added to wort before fermentation for two main reasons. The first reason is to separate the cold turbidity particles from the batch. Turbidity is another way of saying access particles, which could be bacteria and pathogens. If you compared water from a lake and from a purified water bottle, the murky/hazy aspect in the lake water would be considered turbidity. Oxygen causes bubbles to rise in the tank which pushes all of the undesired particles to the top of the vessel, the top layer is then removed. The wort has to be cooled before the oxygen is added because a reaction may happen in the beverage that causes off flavors and aromas, this is called oxygenation. The best temperature to avoid oxygenation of wort during this process is 8 degrees Celsius. 

The second reason Oxygen is important is to allow the yeast to “breathe”. This is called aerobic respiration and allows the yeast cells to grow and reproduce. The more oxygen that is added, the more yeast there will be made. Yeast produces carbon dioxide and water during this aerobic respiration. Once the yeast reacted with most of the oxygen, it must adapt and live another way. This is called fermentation and is a form of anerobic respiration.  Fermentation creates the alcohol in the beverage. Strangely enough, some yeasts are capable of open fermentation and may allow yeast floating around the vessel to get in. This is called wild yeast and the brewer doesn’t entirely know what to expect in the end product. 

If excessive oxygen contaminates the beer while transporting to other vessel or in general after fermentation, the beer will become oxidized, causing undesired aromas and taste. This can also reduce the shelf life of the beverage. The conclusion of the experiment was as follows. The wort that had 6mg of O2/L had a slow fermentation and caused undesirable compounds to be produced within the beer. The lack of oxygen didn’t allow the yeast to reach its potential. The wort with 8mg O2/L went smooth and had a successful fermentation. The end product had a shelf life of six months and tasted good. The 10mg O2/L wort had a faster fermentation due to the high oxygen content. This fermentation created an undesired product that tasted bad. 

In the references of this article, I found an interesting book. The book is by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff  and is called “Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation”. The book seems to have lots of valuable information, and I can see why this book was referenced. The pages referenced was pages 12-28, which covered how sugar reacts with yeast. The book seems to talk about a few general rules when brewing. One that I recognized was yeast would rather react with simple sugars like glucose, rather than some sugar with a long carbon chain like a polysaccharide. An interesting fact I’ve found was different sugars can affect fermentation flavors. More glucose concentrated beers will produce more esters. Mainly esters like ethyl acetate, and isoamyl acetate, which taste like bananas. A beer with more maltose concentration will produce less of these esters. 

The book also has a section about oxygen in fermentation and mentions how the amount of oxygen needed for a batch may differ depending on the desired product or yeast strains. 

(Alt Text: Beer during fermentation in tanks in a brewery) Picture link

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Malt, Hops, Yeast, and Water

I stumbled upon a very informative documentary on kanopy, the documentary is called “Malt, Hops, Yeast, Water: How Beer is Made”. The documentary was recently released in 2020 and features Charles W. Bamforth. According to Wikipedia, Charles is an English scientist who studies malting and brewing. The Documentary also features Scott Jennings, who is the brew master at Sierra Nevada’s Mill River Brewery. A brew master is in charge of supervising the fermentation process and also makes the recipes and chooses the ingredients for the beer. In my last post, I mentioned how Sierra Nevada’s pale ale positively impacted the craft brewery scene. The documentary goes very in-depth on the raw ingredients used in making beer. I would like to post about the function and science behind the four ingredients, malt, hops, yeast, and water. 

Malt- The most common choice for malt in the brewing industry is malting barley grain. Barley grain seeds all contain an embryo with a starchy endosperm. They will all be soaked in water for 1-2 days to allow germination. Following the steeping process, the seeds will be left out to germinate for about 4 days. The goal is to partially sprout the grain to produce enzymes, which will help break down the starch faster later in the brewing process. An enzyme is a chemical catalyst. After the grain is softened and partially sprouted, the kilning process begins. This stops germination by heating the malt up. If you heat gently, you can make a pilsner malt, which would give a light lemony color. The more you heat the grain, the darker the beer will be, leading to caramelly, chocolatey flavors you can find in stouts or porters. 

Hops- Hops or “Humulus lupulus” has both male and female plants. In brewing, the female plant is used because of its flowering body, or cone. The cones contain Lupulin glands, which are sticky yellow glands that contain resin and oils. Resins provide the bitterness in hops while oil provides the aromas. Hop profile flavors can be broken down into categories like, fruit, citrus, earth, floral, pine, spice, and herb. Hops are grown worldwide but the United States and Germany produce the most. 

Water- Water can influence the flavor and the brewing process. Water can be classified by hardness. Soft water contains very low levels of salts and hard waters contain a lot of calcium and other salts. Water can differ depending on the region and location. Soft water is necessarily better than hard water and vice versa. The most important aspect in terms of water for a brewer is to be consistent and have the same amount of salt in every beer you make. 

Most breweries use lots of water during production. They use water to cool and heat brewing vessels, cleaning, and for the beer itself. On average, breweries go through 3 barrels of water to make 1 barrel of beer. 

Yeast- Yeast is used to turn glucose into alcohol and carbon dioxide and is the key ingredient for fermentation. Without yeast, alcohol wouldn’t be present in the beers you know and love. Yeast is a unicellular microscopic fungus. There are two species of yeast that are essential to brewers, the ale yeast (”Saccharomyces cerevisiae”), and the lager yeast (”Saccharomyces pastorianus”). Lager yeast came into existence by mixing ale yeast and wine yeast together. This happened within the last 200 years. Yeast are known for asexual reproduction through a process called budding. Budding is when an organism grows another organism directly off of there body, once the “bud” matures enough, it falls off and becomes independent. There is normally three times the amount of yeast by the end of fermentation from what was originally put into the vessel. 

picture link (Alt Text- a picture of the four main ingredients used to make beer; water, grain, hops, and yeast)

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IPAs: The Face of the Micro-Brew Revolution

IPAs have been rising in popularity for quite some time in the craft brewing industry. It is a beverage with a rich history, complex ingredients and applications, and either loved or hated by beer drinkers across the world. From my experience bartending at a craft brewery, I always have folks asking about the latest flavorful hop filled beverage, on the other hand, some people often ask for the closest thing to Coors. 

IPAs originated from Britain, back in the 18th century. According to Mark Denny, the author of “Froth, The Science of Beer”, Britian had many important Army bases posted in India. The soldiers across the sea yearned for some beer, but sadly couldn’t obtain it due to the beverage spoiling during the voyage from Britain to India. Luckily, brewers discovered that hops act as a natural preservative and allowed the beer to last the whole trip, giving these soldiers access to alcohol. 

IPAs were made with unsmoked malts and a lot of hops which provided a natural preservative and a mouth full of flavor. The brewers used the top fermentation technique for this beer. This means the yeast and foam floats at the top of the fermentation vessel and is heated to around 17-21 degrees Celsius. 

Today, there is a huge variety of IPAs. West coast IPAs are more hoppy, piney, bitter, and normally float between 5-7% abv. You will often hear the word double or tripled hopped. This means the brewers at some point during the process added more hops into the beer, causing it to have more of that bitter taste. These double/triple/imperial IPAs are often going to be pretty high in percentage, easily going higher than 7%abv. You may also see East coast IPAs on the tap list at your local breweries. These beers are often darker in appearance due to a higher concentration of malts and more caramelized grain. These also will be around 5-7% abv like there West coast counterparts. East coast IPAs are sweeter and more lager-like than your average IPA. The IPA that is very popular at the moment is the New England style IPA. This is going to be hazy in appearance and will be more fruity, juicy, and citrusy in taste. The New England/hazy IPAs are definitely the most approachable IPAs for the folks that despise hops. 

This is the IPA that started it all for the craft brewery scene in 1980 (Alt Text- A bottle and a full glass of Sierra Nevade)

Picture link

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Controversies in the Brewing Industry

Most brewers and beerophiles around the world can agree that there isn’t one style of beer that takes the crown. The quality of the beverage is determined by ingredients, sanitation, precision, and timing. Each culture may have a style of beer that dominates the market due to climate, resources, and tradition but at the end of the day taste is subjective. 

The rich history of alcohol sparks controversy, especially in the United States. On January 17th, 1920, the 18th Amendment of the United States Constitution was put into effect. This Amendment was known as Prohibition. Prohibition banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages. This action caused a domino effect throughout the next decade. Even though alcohol was illegal, everyone still wanted to drink it. According to a Newspaper article, “Washington’s Prohibition Farce” from 1923, not even government officials were following these laws. The article mentions a congressman, Willaim Upshaw, who was a strong prohibitionist. He was shaming the congress for breaking these rules and how it is unpatriotic of them to break a constitutional amendment. According to History.com, bootlegging was the act of illegally manufacturing alcohol and selling it in speakeasies, which were secret bars and clubs scattered across America. This act spiked crime rates and gave power to mobsters and gangsters like Al Capone. Prohibition also caused income tax, due to alcohol no longer being taxed for the government. 

Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president to end prohibition. In 1933, congress proposed the 21st amendment which would repeal the 18th. In December of 1933 Utah provided the 36th vote which ratified prohibition for good. This helped create jobs to help the economy from the Great Depression. 

picture link (Alt Text- business owners pouring liquor onto the street)

To this day the industry still faces controversy regarding social issues rather than the legalization of alcohol.  Just from a little research I found a Washington Post news article, “The solution to the craft beer industry’s sexism and diversity problems”. In mid-May of 2021, hundreds of women in the industry collectively shared experiences of sexism and discrimination. Recent studies also show that only 7.5% of head brewers are women, which was a 2019 survey taken by the Brewers Association. 

Many breweries have started making beers to celebrate women in the industry on the annual International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day. Breweries have also been pledging to support racial equity organizations and have been coming out with “Black is Beautiful” brews to support the cause. It is important breweries in the industry are held accountable to support these endeavors and mold a safe, and diverse working environment. 

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Research Experience

Thus far, researching has been a blast. I found a book in the campus library that contains some of the science, history, and statistics about the brewing world. The book is called “Froth: The Science of Beer” by Mark Denny. 

Another source I’ve found was through WorldCat. The book is called “Brewing Microbiology: managing microbes, ensuring quality and valorising waste”, by Annie E. Hill. This source will dive deeper into the science of the brewing process on a molecular level. 

From my understanding, fermentation is where most of the science takes place in the brewing process. The study of fermentation is known as zymology.  There is top fermentation, which is used for ales, like IPAs and Stouts. Top fermentation is used to make more complex beverages. Bottom fermentation makes beverages like lagers and pilsners, which are the more common style of beer you will fine across the world. If you choose to research beer, fermentation is something you must cover because it is an essential part of creating alcohol. 

A basic level of thermodynamics and temperature control is also essential to brewery a good beer. This will also be an aspect I wish to dive into. 

I am super interested to research the differentiation in the brewery process for different styles of beer. One style may require more hops, more malt, a longer fermentation period or a different kind of yeast. Temperature, carbonation level, and minerals in the water can impact a beer as well. 

Picture link here (Alt Text- Five different colored frosty beers filled to the brim)

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What is Beer?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, beer is simply an alcoholic liquor obtained through fermentation of malt. The beverage is flavored using hops and other aromatic bitters. 

Beer is composed of four ingredients, water, grained malts, hops, and yeast. The combination and innovation of combining these four ingredients can greatly manipulate the flavor of the beverage. Other factors that may significantly impact a beer is the length of the carbonation chains, amount of alcohol, type of esters, residual Sulphur, and carbonation levels. Alcohol content can be manipulated by the mineral content, temperature, yeast pitch rate, aeration, and length of fermentation during the brewery process.

One of the brewers at the brewery I work at once told me, “Brewers make wort and yeast makes beer”. Wort is the beverage before the yeast is added, which is simply sugar water. Yeast is classified as a fungus and is a eukaryotic unicellular organism. Once the desired type of yeast is added to the tank, the liquid is left to ferment for the desired amount of time. The yeast chemically reacts with the glucose in the malted grain, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide as a biproduct. The longer the beer ferments, the higher the alcohol content will be in the beer.

Alcohol, according to the World Health Administration, is a “psychoactive drug with dependence producing properties. The drug can lead to disease and social and economic burdens in society.” Alcohol is a depressant drug, meaning alcohol slows down all the chemical reactions that go on within your body, which is known as your metabolism. Alcohol can be used in social gatherings to bring friends and family together, or to compliment a delicious meal, but it must be used responsibly. 

Beer varies in style culture to culture, but the craft brewery scene in America has never been more popular. In this blog we will discuss science, creation, and methods to make different styles of beer.

Beer tank image link (Alt Text- Tanks/vessels used during the brewing process)