Brewing Operations

During brewing operations, there are numerous factors affecting the growth of yeast cells and snbseqnent fermentation of wort. Therefore, when attanpting to model and explain this phenomenon, it is imperative to know which parameters affect fermentation and in what manner. A typical fermentation will be affected in many ways, such as the rate of fermentation, the degree to which the media fermented and the ratio of products (and by-products) that are formed. These are affected not only by extrinsic parameters such as temperature and headspace composition, but also by numerous... 

Pertinent steps of the major brewing operations follow. 

Wort separation by filtration is critically important in brewing operations since it is considered the bottleneck of the process. The efficiency of lautering is measured in terms of filtration time and wort turbidity. The recovered wort should be low in turbidity or haze (Gales 2002). The 3-glucans associated with barley and adjuncts increase wort viscosity and turbidity. The use of P-glucanases increases filtration rate and decreases turbidity (Barnes 2006). 

Fungi are microscopic nonphotosynthetic plants which include in their classification yeast and molds. Yeasts have a commercial value as they are used for fermentation operations in distilling and brewing. When anaerobic conditions exist, yeasts metabolize sugar, manufacturing alcohol from the synthesis of new cells. Alcohol... 

Until 1980 most of the extraction plants operated with organic solvents such as methylene chloride, although some operated with ethanol. The resulting extracts contained residual solvents, which were partly lost during the traditional brewing process, but the other parts remained in the beer. 

Brewing a cup of coffee. Hot liquid water and solid ground coffee beans are contacted. Soluble constituents of the beans are transferred from the solid phase to a liquid solution (coffee), and then the residual solids (grounds) are filtered from the solution. The operation of dissolving a component of a solid phase in a liquid solvent is referred to as leaching. 

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