Abstract
(1) Background: In the current highly competitive brewing industry, most breweries may benefit from a reduction in mashing time. In this study, a novel enzymatic assay format was used to investigate the activities of α-amylase and β-amylase during different mashing profiles, with the aim to use it as a tool for optimizing the production time of an existing industrial mashing process; (2) Methods: Lab-scale mashings with eight different time-temperature programs and two different pilot brews were analyzed in terms of enzymatic activity, sugar composition, alcohol by volume in the final beer, FAN and others; (3) Results: A 20-min reduction (out of an original 73-min mashing program) was achieved by selecting a temperature profile which maintained a higher enzymatic activity than the original, without affecting the wort sugar composition and fermentability, or the ethanol concentration and foam stability of the final beer. (4) Conclusions: A method is presented which can be used by breweries to optimize their mashing profiles based on monitoring α-amylase and β-amylase activities.
Highlights
Beer brewing is a consolidated industry with centuries of history, which was traditionally dominated by small-scale production
Grist analyses showed that the size distribution of the malt milled with Maltman® 75 from Sommer and the one usually obtained using a large capacity industrial mill at Bryghuset Møn gave a similar range of values (Table 2)
One reason could be that the malt supplier measured diastatic power using the EBC methods (4.12) and α-amylase is using the Ceralpha method, whereas Brewer’s DreamTM method is calibrated using MAPS and IFBM reference samples measured with EBC methods for both diastatic power and α-amylase (EBC methods 4.12.1 and 4.13)
Summary
Beer brewing is a consolidated industry with centuries of history, which was traditionally dominated by small-scale production. Sustainability goals are on the agenda of most breweries, regardless of size In this context, production efficiency and cost reduction become essential to adapt to a fast-changing competitive industry. One of the most important steps in brewing is mashing This process generally consists of mixing milled malted cereals, most commonly barley, with hot water to solubilize the grains’ starch and protein content. Because modern malts are generally well-modified, many breweries nowadays omit the first rests and mash in directly at the temperatures where the two amylases are more active [2,4,5]. Breweries often need to make small adaptations to the mashing time-temperature profile every year, due to seasonal changes in the barley crops and the resultant malt quality [4]
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