90% is water.
Beer is about 90% water. Obviously, water is a very important ingredient. Different water sources have different mineral components, and water will affect the quality and taste of beer. Usually soft water is suitable for brewing light beer, and hard water with high carbonate content is suitable for brewing strong beer. The requirements of light beer for water are: colorless, tasteless, transparent, free from floating objects, pure in taste and free from biological pollution; Low hardness; The content of iron and manganese is low, and its high content is harmful to the color and taste of beer, which can cause spewing phenomenon; No nitrite.
Water is the "blood" of beer, and the contents of inorganic matter, organic matter and microorganism in water will directly affect the quality of beer. General breweries need to establish a set of treatment system for brewing water. There are also some breweries that use natural high-quality water sources and even brew beer with glacier snow water.
Grains are the soul.
Grain is the center and soul of beer, which will affect the taste, color and taste. Generally speaking, the deeper the grain, the heavier the taste of beer. Some large breweries will use rice or other cheap grains, but they must be of high quality, and only wheat, barley and other grains will be used with malt. A good brewer will often extract the most sugar from the grain deftly and slowly, which is the food of yeast, and the brewer will often balance the sweetness of the grain with the bitterness of hops.
Beer is mainly extracted from germinated grains such as barley. Hops give beer flavor and antiseptic effect, and then yeast is added. Yeast converts sugar in grains into alcohol. This process needs to be carried out in a sealed container to avoid damaging the beer. This fermentation process takes about one to two weeks, and then beer needs to be stored for one to eight weeks before drinking.
Barley is the main raw material for brewing beer, but it must be made into malt before it can be used for brewing wine. The process of barley germination and drying under artificial control and external conditions is called malt manufacturing. Barley is called green malt after germination and malt after drying.
Barley suitable for brewing beer is two-rowed or six-rowed barley. Two-rowed barley has high leaching rate and good solubility; Six-rowed barley has high agricultural yield and strong enzyme activity, but the leaching rate is low and the solubility of malt is unstable. The quality requirements of beer barley are: less hull components, high starch content and moderate protein content, generally 9% ~12%; Pale yellow and shiny; The moisture content is lower than13%; The germination rate is above 95%. The properties of corn and corn starch are roughly the same as those of barley starch. However, corn germ contains more oil, which affects the foam retention and flavor of beer. Most corn oil can be removed by removing germ. The fat content of degerminated corn should not exceed 65438 0%. Beer brewed with corn as auxiliary raw material tastes mellow. Corn is the most used auxiliary raw material in the world.
Mature hops
As the raw material of beer industry, hops have been used in Germany.
Hop is the English name of hops, and the Latin name is hops. China hops, commonly known as hops, are perennial twining herbs belonging to Euphorbia of Moraceae. Some plants can grow for up to 50 years, and their leaves are heart-shaped and oval, often with three to five lobes. The leaves are rough and the main branches climb clockwise. Only female plants can bloom, and flowers begin to bloom in June and July every year. When they are in full bloom, the fragrance floats to miles.
The main producing areas of hops in the world are Europe, the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom, and there are also a few plants in China and Japan. China has cultivated hops artificially for half a century, starting from the northeast. At present, large hops raw material bases have been established in Xinjiang, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Liaoning and other places. Mature fresh hops are dried and pressed to be used as whole hops, or crushed and pressed into granules and then sealed and packaged, or made into hops extract and stored in a low-temperature warehouse. Its effective components are hops resin and hops oil. Hop consumption per 1000 liter of beer is about 1? 4~2? Four kilograms.
Hops have a great influence on the quality of beer, and beer can't be brewed without hops. The main components of hops are A acid and B acid, as well as hop oil and polyphenols. It makes beer have unique bitterness and aroma, and has the ability to preserve and clarify wort, and at the same time provides the unique flavor of beer.
Hops usually appear in three forms: whole, embolism and granule. Take the whole flower off the impeller and pack it. The plug is similar to a ball, but larger. This ball is made of flowers that have been ground into powder. All three forms can be used to brew beer, mainly depending on personal taste and regional supply. Hops should be stored in sealed containers and frozen storage to avoid exposure to sunlight.
Fermented yeast
Yeast is the main component of beer fermentation, but it is actually an organic microorganism. There are many kinds of yeasts, and the yeast used in beer production is called beer yeast. According to the fermentation mode, it can be divided into yeast fermented above and yeast fermented below. The main function of yeast in beer brewing is to convert sugar in wort into alcohol.
Yeast is nature's best gift to human beings.
Brewer's yeast is a kind of yeast, which is a single-celled low-level plant that can't move. Its cells can only be seen with the help of a microscope, and the milky and moist yeast mud seen by the naked eye is a collection of countless yeast cells. There are many yeasts in nature, but not all of them can be used to brew beer. Scientists call the yeast beneficial to beer fermentation beer yeast, which needs to be obtained by pure culture in beer production. Both alcohol and carbon dioxide in beer are produced by beer yeast fermentation.
In order to ensure the purity of yeast, the brewery starts with single cell culture for pure culture. In order to avoid the pollution of wild yeast and bacteria, it is necessary to clean and disinfect the brewery strictly.