A Quick History of Beer Fermentation
The process of crafting beer has been around for hundreds of years. Today, there are roughly 9,500 breweries in the United States alone. These breweries consist of intricate equipment laid out to make the fermentation process as consistent and efficient as possible while ensuring the quality of the crafted beer.
Controlling the fermentation process is crucial to efficiently and consistently crafting desirably tasting beer, ales, or lagers. The inability to maintain constant temperatures could result in a bad-tasting beverage due to inactive yeast or excess yeast activity.
Therefore, to achieve consistent temperature control for a great-tasting beverage, put your trust in DOWFROST™. This inhibited propylene glycol from Dow is the industry-standard thermal fluid. It is a food-safe heat transfer fluid that can be easily maintained consistently. DOWFROST™ inhibited propylene glycol is an excellent choice for any brewery facility to have a brewing process that runs smoothly. Besides, beer should be cold and refreshing.
What is the Fermentation Process?
Fermentation is the metabolic process, classified as an anaerobic process, in which an organism can convert carbohydrates into chemical energy without the need for oxygen. Conversely, the need for oxygen to perform a similar process, like cellular respiration, is called an aerobic process. Anaerobic processes, such as fermentation, produce not only energy but also products such as methanol, ethanol, carbon dioxide, and butyric acid.
There are organisms that can carry out the fermentation process, such as fungi (typically yeast), animals, and certain bacteria. A simple overview of the fermentation process is that sucrose (sugar molecule) is broken down into two ethanol and two carbon dioxide molecules, as shown below.
C6H12O6 (Glucose) → 2C2H5OH (Ethanol) + 2CO2
During this process, specifically for brewing systems, CO2 is siphoned out of the tank while ensuring no oxygen enters the system. When a predetermined specific gravity is met, the CO2 release valve is capped, and the tank is cooled. This gives the beer its carbonation and allows the yeast to settle. When this is done, the beer is pumped out and filtered, and the yeast is then reused.