Beer Identities: Brewing Process

In order to develop my initial ideas to treat the stock using beer or chemicals using the brewing process based on the personality, I've researched the brewing process to identify substance I could use to treat the stock. 

Barley:

Malted barely ned to be made from barley husk. Making the malt involves the barley is immersed in water where it germinates or sprouts. The sprouted barley is drained in a kiln, different malts can be achieved depending on the time and temperature of the kiln. 

Mill:

The mill cracks the barley kernels with steel rollers. This opens the kernels revealing the starch which is converted into sugar and later alcohol.

Mash Tun:

The broken kernels/grist are put through a mash tun where water is added to make a porridge-like consistency. The hot water acts as a catalyst to convert the starch to sugar, this mixture is called wort or sweet wort as bittering hops haven't been added yet. The temperature plays a key role at this point in the brewing process as 145 degree water creates a highly fermentable wort fro crisp, dry beers where as 155 degree water creates fewer fermentable sugars, creating sweeter, richer beers. Once the sugar is fermented the water is heated to 170 degrees to stop the fermentation process and making the wort less viscous and easier to separate rom the mash. 

Lauter Tun:

The Lauter tun separates the barley kernels from the liquid which will become beer. In order to increase the level of filtration the first wort t be separated may be put back through a second time, this is recirculation. Sparging maybe used to extract every last bit of sugar out of the mash by adding additional water, this is sometimes done continuously through the lautering process.

Brew Kettle:

The wort is boiled and hops added. Boiling the wort ensures a number of things, one that the wort is sterilised so that later when yeast is added there are no other microorganisms in the wort.  Additionally it extracts the bitterness from the hops, flavouring the beer. Finally it coagulates the malt proteins so they can be skimmed out along with the hops. 

Whirlpool:

This draws all solid matter to the centre of the tank whilst the wort is drained from the sides allowing the wort to be skimmed of malt proteins and hops. 

Heat Exchanger:

The wort need to be cooled, if cooled too slowly unwanted chemicals can be released causing microbial contamination. A heat exchanger is used to cool the wort quickly by running cool water separated by a plate whilst the wort is piped in the opposite direction. Once its sufficiently cooled its added to the fermentation tanks. 

Fermentation: 

Primary fermentation is the first time oxygen is freely introduced. Aerating the oxygen helps the yeast split into multiple cells. once the oxygen has depleted, yeast reacts to the glucose, maltose and maltotriose.  The reaction of the yeast causes the temperature to increase.

Filtration: 

Beer is full of yeast and matter, these are strained out rendering it a clear liquid. Some brewer surpass the sterilising filtration and pasteurise there beer, heating it just hot enough to kill the yeast and any bacteria.  

Conditioning/largering:

Considered the secondary fermentation, once the beer is at its desire gravity its cooled and conditioned in a bright beer tank, here the flavour is refined. Ales take less time than larger and are conditioned at lower temperatures close to freezing.  

Sterile filtration:

If the brewer chooses to add carbonation o the beer prior to bottling or casking, a second filtration is done. The brewer leaves a small amount of yeast and sugar n the final product to allow natural fermentation at produces carbonation in the bottle or barrel.  

Chemicals used in the brewing process: 

Chlorine: 

Chlorine based sanitisers are widely used in the brewing industry. Compounds are broad spectrum germicides which act as microbial membranes, inhibiting cellular enzymes involved in glucose metabolism.  

Hydrogen Peroxide:

HP has a broad spectrum with slightly higher activity against gram-negative than gram-positive organisms/bacteria. 

Peroxyacetic Acid:

One of the advantages of peroxyacetic acid is that, once it is dosed into water, there are no vapor issues as with chlorine-based compounds. Its other advantages include the absence of phosphates and foam, and its biodegradability

Anionic Acids:

Fastest growing sanitising groups in craft brewing industry. Chemicals composed of two functional groups, lipophilic and hydrophili, which results in a negative charge. The negative charge sanitizers react with positively charged bacteria.

However upon reflection I feel non of the chemicals or processes above could adapt to successfully treat paper in a way that would be clear and appropriate for my target audience. Therefor I plan to experiment with treating the paper stock with beer by soaking the paper for the number of hours the personality would be in the pub.