Mashing: first step of the craft brewing process
Education and Training Workshops
Now that we have seen all the ingredients necessary for a production of the 1500s we can get into the most intriguing aspect. After the theory, let's move on to practice.
I would like to remind you that we are analyzing a process for the production of craft beer, the methodologies to date are probably at the forefront and even the machinery is specialized and you could use each of these for each step of the production cycle where possible they will be named and we will refer to an industrial process .. no terracotta, copper pots, etc ..
So, here we are with lots of water, a little barley malt, several hops and a little yeast! ^ __ *
Let's assume everything in raw form to make it more interesting.
Preliminary preparation
Preparation begins with breaking the previously dried malt, generally with steel rollers. This mill will allow the exposure of the starches from the grains. These are called "Grists".
Mashing
The grist thus obtained will be moved to a container called "Mash Tun" where it will be mixed with hot water creating a pulp which, in about an hour, will start the reaction of transforming starches into sugars. This mixture called "wort" will result in a mix of barley and sweetish liquid. [Return to the head of the text] In this phase, the temperature of the water will facilitate the reactions that will convert the starches into sugars allowing for better fermentation and easier separation.
The must will be filtered at least once through a sieve to separate the liquid part from the must.
The excess part can be re-filtered or separated completely to create other variants of beer, through a process called clarification, and / or by subsequently combining it with the beer and / or adding further water (sparging).
It should be noted that in this process the water temperature plays a fundamental role: low temperature will extract few sugars, too high the must would become bitter.
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