From the best raw materials to the finest-tasting beer Brewing requires craftsmanship Brewing beer is el craftsman's trade calling for great ca re and patience. It takes six to eight ■weeks before the mixture of the basic ingredients of mal ted barley, unmalted grains, water, hops and yeast can at last be called beer. Below, the World of Heineken lists the various stages of the brewing process for you. The barleycorns (top) start to germinate, which activates enzymes. This process lasts seven days, after which hot air is blown in (middle) to stop the germination and kilning begins. At this stage the sprouts are removed from the grains. Close-up of the hop cone. Of great importance in brewing beer are hop resin and lupulin, which are found between the leaflet-like flo wers of the hop cone. Tbgether with other sub stances from the hop, they help to provide the typically bitter taste and improve the keepabi- lity of the beer. Malting The first important raw material for beer is barley. Barley cannot be used as it is. It first has to be malted before the actual brewing process can begin. Malt ing comprises three phases: steeping, germination (sprouting) and kilning. In the first phase the grains of bar ley are tipped into big steeping tanks so that they can germinate. During ac tual germination (in the second phase) enzymes are activated in the bar leycorn. This is essential for a later stage in the brewing process, for these enzymes have to convert starch into maltose (malt sugars). In the final malt ing phase the germination process is stopped by blowing hot air through the barleycorns (kilning, or oasting). This is done after about one week's germina tion. The germinated and kilned barley is now known as malt. Ground malt The brewing process proper starts with the grinding of the malt. The malt is broken so that the inside of the grain is finely ground, whilst the chaff must remain as intact as possible. The chaff - known by the master brewer as 'husks' - must not break up too much as it has to serve as a natural filtering agent later on in the brewing process. The finer the husks, the less suitable they are for fil tering. The ground malt is known as 'grist'. In brewing Heineken beer not only malt is used but also 'unmalted' cereals such as maize. This promotes the clarity and easy digestibility of Heineken beer. Mash The ground malt - or 'grist' - is mixed with water at 50°C to make a 'mash'. This is done in the mash tun, one of the boilers in the brewhouse. To achieve saccharification (conversion into sugars) the temperature of the mash has to be 75°C. To attain that temp erature part of the mash is pumped twice into the brewing kettle, heated up to boiling point and then pumped back THE WORLD OF HEINEKEN

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World of Heineken | 1989 | | pagina 6