Ingredients in Beer
Beer is made by combining a wheat ingredient with yeast and letting the solution sit for weeks at a time, which releases chemicals and allows beer to take on its color, taste, alcohol content and consistency. To begin the process, the general ingredients must first be gathered. Wort is a major liquid ingredient in beer and is gathered by mashing up malted barley. It contains sugars that produce the alcohol content in beer during fermentation. Yeast is combined with the wort to start the fermentation process. There are two types of yeast that can be used, each one creating a different type of beer. Top fermenting beers make fruitier tasting beers and ales. During the fermentation process they create a layer of foam that rises to the top of the wort. This yeast helps yield beer with higher alcohol content. Bottom fermenting beers are used to create lagers with a much crisper taste. They achieve this by fermenting longer with the sugar in wort, which creates the distinct flavor of lagers.
How Yeast and Wort Combine
At the start of the fermentation process, wort is added into large fermentation tanks. Then yeast is introduced and evenly distributed throughout the wort. It is a continual process that creates clumps that sink to the bottom of the fermentation tank after the yeast is finished fermenting. When yeast interacts with wort it encounters a high glucose content. The glucose in the wort enters the yeast, which then breaks it down in a process known as glycolysis. This process gives yeast energy, which forces it to multiply faster. In the end, the glucose is broken down into carbon dioxide and ethanol. The glucose continues to enter the yeast and get broken down until all of it has been turned into carbon dioxide and ethanol. Ethanol gives the beer its alcohol content, while carbon dioxide contributes to its carbonation.
Fermenting Process
Different beers are fermented for different lengths of time and at different temperatures. If the beer is being made into ale, it is held in a fermentation tank for 2 weeks at a temperature of 68 degrees F. If the beer is going to be made into a lager, it will be kept in longer, for 6 weeks, and also kept 20 degrees cooler. Someone must always look after these fermentation tanks because the process creates heat, so the tanks must constantly be cooled to keep them at a steady temperature. During much of the process, a tube lets excess carbon dioxide pump out from the top of the tank, but towards the end it is closed to allow the carbon dioxide mix with the beer to carbonate it. After fermentation, the clumps of yeast are filtered out and the beer is cooled, filtered some more, and then packaged.
Tags: carbon dioxide, alcohol content, fermentation process, broken down, carbon dioxide ethanol