How Beer is Brewed

Ever wondered how that child glass of beer, you devour after a hot and tiring day at work, is made? Well, we seldom find the time to get curious about such stuff, but it can be interesting to know such stuff. Not unlike coca cola bottling plants, beer bottles are also bottled and manufactured through a very systematic process, before they are ready for sale.

Basically, beer is made from barley plant; in fact most forms of alcohol are fermented versions of perfectly natural and edible products. There are many breweries in India that process beer and sell it in local and international markets. They process barley until the grain and sugar can be separated completely. Then the sugar malt is fermented with hot water and is distilled and bottled. A brief description of the process goes as below.

The grain is soaked in hot water for hours and then dried in hot ovens to convert it into malt so that sugar can be separated from it. Some breweries in India obtain malted barley and carry out further procedures while others malt their own grain.

Second step is to pass the malted grain through crushers and rollers. This is a carefully automated process as if the grain isn’t crushed properly it cannot be used as a strain to pass the liquid and sugar will be lost. On the other hand if it is mashed more than required then it will clog the thing stopping any liquid flow.

Next, this mashed grain is kept in an insulated container which has automatic temperature regulation mechanism and is sprayed with hot water. Malt has natural enzymes which can convert the starches in it to fermentable sugar; eased the work of breweries, well not at all. The problem is that these two enzymes work best in specific temperature ranges unique to each of them. This leaves a narrow margin feasible for operation. Hence the temperature control should be precise.

Finally the liquid is drained, filtered and taken for making Wort. This liquid is heated in huge kettles that are uniformly heated. Flavouring hops are added to the hop to add bitterness and the beer is boiled for 90 minutes. When last few minutes remain flavour hops are added and aroma hops are added even later. This is because they are highly volatile and not as difficult to extract as the bitterness hop.