Brewing Science: A Multidisciplinary Approach

by MOSHER

This text finally collects all the introductory aspects of beer brewing science into one place for undergraduate brewing science courses. This expansive and detailed work is written in conversational style, walking students through all the brewing basics from the origin and history of beer to the brewing process to post-brew packaging and quality control and assurance. As an introductory text, this book assumes the reader has no prior knowledge of brewing science and only limited experience with chemistry, biology and physics. The text provides students with all the necessary details of brewing science using a multidisciplinary approach, with a thorough and well-defined program of in-chapter and end-of-chapter problems. As students solve these problems, they will learn how scientists think about beer and brewing and develop a critical thinking approach to addressing concerns in brewing science.As a truly comprehensive introduction to brewing science, Brewing A Multidisciplinary Approach walks students through the entire spectrum of the brewing process. The different styles of beer, the molecular makeup and physical parameters, and how those are modified to provide different flavors are listed. All aspects of the brewery process, from the different setup styles to sterility to the presentation of the final product, are outlined in full. All the important brewing steps and techniques are covered in meticulous detail, including malting, mashing, boiling, fermenting and conditioning. Bringing the brewing process full circle, this text covers packaging aspects for the final product as well, focusing on everything from packaging technology to quality control. Students are also pointed to the future, with coverage of emerging flavor profiles, styles and brewing methods.Each chapter in this textbook includes a sample of related laboratory exercises designed to develop a student's capability to critically think about brewing science. These exercises assume that the student has limited or no previous experience in the laboratory. The tasks outlined explore key topics in each chapter based on typical analyses that may be performed in the brewery. Such exposure to the laboratory portion of a course of study will significantly aid those students interested in a career in brewing science.

421 pages, Hardcover

Published November 22, 2016

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK - I didn't read the entire thing, but it's a great up-to-date reference resource for a professional brewer. I checked this out from the library and will be asking work to pay for a copy to use at work.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is written using easy, everyday vocabulary. The specific words related to brewing are all explained and introduced gradually. The authors start with the early history of brewing and proceed with the basic units used in brewing and the overview of a workflow (both summarised below). Then a comprehensive introduction into styles of beer and is written. Unfortunately, the long introduction into basic chemistry is a bit too long and too easy. In my opinion, it covered all the topics which anyone who had finished high school should have known. After covering all of those topics, more emphasis is put on every step in the process of brewing. The authors provide with great details about barley development and morphology, excellent description of the enzymes which may be encountered while brewing, great practical considerations on how to move large volumes of fluids or how to organise work in the industrial settings.

Units used in brewing:
IBU – International Bitterness Units (numerical scale of bitterness). It is a quantitative spectrophotometric measurement of the amount of iso-alpha acids at λ = 275 nm.
ABV – Alcohol By Volume
OG – Original Gravity of the wort before it is fermented. Indicates the amount of sugars in the liquid and it is another name for the density of the sample.
SRM – Standard Reference Method. Measures colour of the beer sampler by absorbance.

Brewing overview:
(a) choosing barley
- barley grows in cooler climates
- there are 2-, 4-, and 6-row varieties of barley. 2-row is the wild type and has low protein content. The 6-row barley is used most often for brewing as its larger seeds contain more sugars
(b) malting
- the aim of malting is extraction of the sugar from the seeds
- soaking the seeds in the water --> induces the seeds to grow and start to break down starch
- drying and heating to stop the growth --> yields the pale malt
- diastatic power – a measure of the malt's ability to convert starch into sugar
(c) mashing
- most brewers start at this step
- adding water to the malt --> crushing the grains --> resting
- the mash has got a consistency of a fairly runny oatmeal
(d) separating sugar water from the malt
- lautering – draining the water out of the mash
- sparging – rinsing the mash in the lauter tun to wash out all the sugar without rising the pH and washing out the tannins
(e) boiling the sweet wort for 30-90 mins and adding hops
(f) fermentation
- cool oxygenated bitter wort is inoculated with yeasts (pitching yeasts)
- after fermentation green beer is obtained
- the most commonly used yeasts in brewing include Saccharomyces cerevisiae (aka ale yeast) and Saccharomyces pastoranus (aka lager yeast)
(g) conditioning and bottling
- the beer that went through the conditioning and is ready to serve is called bright beer
- conditioning lasts at least a month for ales and up to 6 months for lagers

Fun fact 1:
References to beer parlours were noted in the Code of Hammurabi written in 1772 BC, so the first beers were most likely to be made in Mesopotamia. Beer is mentioned there multiple times, so it was likely to be popular by that time. For example, the Code advises punishment by drowning of the beer parlour owners who overcharged for their beer.

Fun fact 2:
The Chinese were fermenting a beer-like drink from rice, honey, and fruits as early as 7000 BC.

Fun fact 3:
There is not many isomerization reactions in brewing. Regardless, the best example includes the conversion of humulone (α-acid) to isohumulone (iso-α-acid). Humulone is found in hop oil and during boiling it is converted into the molecule associated with the bitter flavour of beer.

Fun fact 4:
The radical reaction of isohumulone with cysteine forms the sulphur compound responsible for the skunk flavour in light-struck beer.

Fun fact 5:
It is technically incorrect to say that a pump sucks the fluid into the pump. The movement of the fluid is caused by a pressure difference. The pump lowers the pressure at its inlet, so that the atmospheric pressure can push the fluid in.

Fun fact 6:
Stainless steel is fairly corrosion-resistant, because it contains at least 11% of chromium in the alloy. The chromium reacts with the oxygen in the air and forms an impervious layer of chromium oxide on the surface of the metal. After being scratched off, the layer reforms by itself.

Fun fact 7:
The maximal size of the cylindroconical vessel (CCV) is limited by the pressure on the yeasts at the bottom of the fermenter.

Fun fact 8:
Crabtree effect – in the presence of high concentration of glucose, even under aerobic conditions, yeasts ferment producing ethanol and carbon dioxide. The main reason for that behaviour includes large number of glucose molecules leading to large amount of ATP from glycolysis, so proceeding through the TCA cycle and oxidative phosphorylation is not necessary.

Fun fact 9:
Pasteur effect – in the presence of oxygen, yeast growth is highly favoured and fermentation is slowed or stopped.

[Taraya · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief and comprehensive overview of the brewing steps. Lots of math and chemical formulas, may require supplemental material in order to understand the formulas if one is not predisposed to math. Generally an easy read for anyone interested in brewing.

[Jack Ogden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book on beer brewing, I do not understand chemistry well enough to fully utilize the knowledge