Second step of craft beer brewing: the batch process
Education and Training Workshops
Batch Process :
Once the wort is "clean" and filtered of the "slag", or that the sugar level is the right one for the beer to be produced (original gravity), it will be transferred to the "brew kettle".
The wort will be boiled in the kettle! Lol
Boiling is a crucial phase, in fact, the ingredient that will forge the personality of the beer is added:
- It allows you to sterilize the must before adding the yeast to ensure that it is the only "microorganism" of the must;
- It allows to reach the ideal temperature for the introduction of hops and, as mentioned above, at certain temperatures they will extract aromas and fragrances [see hops ingredient];
- Helps coagulation of malt proteins in reaction with hops.
After this phase, the must will be called "bitter wort" due to the addition of hops.
NB: It should be noted that even in this phase a prolonged boiling could result in an excessively bitter must (more than desired).
Before proceeding to fermentation, the mixture obtained must be separated again, we will always be interested in the liquid part! The machine used for this passage is called Whirlpool, practically consists of a tank which with a "vortex" leaves the solid part in the center, draining the "bitter wort" from the edges. The liquid passes through a heat exchanger for cooling, if this phase is prolonged there is a high risk of microbiotic contamination.
The exchanger will guide our wort towards the fermentation tank… The infamous “Fermentation Tank”!
