Tettnang is a town near Lake Constance, counting almost 19,000 inhabitants. Its landscape is dominated by hop yards, visible from afar, hops being “the most veteran global player” in this town, to describe the Green Gold of the Montfort town in the words of Tettnang’s mayor Bruno Walter. Tettnang’s fame as a hop growing centre now reaches far beyond the regional borders. The fine aroma and the subtle bitterness give the beers an unmistakable character and each sip provides a taste of the unique landscape between the northern banks of Lake Constance and Allgäu.

The Hop Storage Index (HSI) is one of the parameters to evaluate freshness of hops and hop pellets. Our newsletter of January 2012 already informed about the varying HSI within hop varieties and crop years.

We describe the transfer of nitrate and the pesticides azoxystrobin, dimethomorph, myclobutanil and quinoxyfen from contaminated hops to the beer during wort production and dry hopping. The experiments reported comprise of two experiment series conducted in a 20 hL pilot plant. First, the substance transfer was investigated by dry hopping different base beers with different amounts of various hop varieties and products. Secondly, a beer was brewed and dry hopped exclusively with a hop that had a high load of the four

In the practice of flash pasteurization, the applied heat load is not exactly known. It is rather estimated by measuring the holding tube outlet temperature and the flow rate (theoretical mean holding time). Microbiological methods, such as the Count Reduction Test (CRT), include certain disadvantages and basic unavoidable inaccuracies. A chemical reaction, the acidic sucrose hydrolysis, was investigated as a Time-Temperature Integrator (TTI) for the determination of the heat load expressed as Pasteurization Units (PU). For this purpose, the reaction was already calibrated as reported in a prior article [1]. Here the application and verification in terms of a comparative plausibility test of the TTI in a semi-technical scale are presented.75 min and a z-value of 5.4 °C..

Once considered a fad, then a trend, U.S. Craft beer production has become a solid component of total U.S. beer production. According to the Brewers Association, Craft beer production in 2012 topped 13 million barrels (31 US gallons or 119 Liters per barrel). Total U.S. beer production for the same period was just slightly more than 200 million barrels.

Dry hopping influences the physico-chemical properties as well as the sensory attributes of beer. The hop aroma and flavor are very different from those present in beers which have been hopped exclusively on the hot side of production (wort boiling and whirlpool). Various factors such as hop variety, the type of hop product, timing of the additions, contact time and the beer matrix appear to affect the resulting flavor and aroma of the finished beer to differing degrees.

Brewing liquor: Quality and treatment – Part 1

Brewing liquor composition has a crucial influence on beer quality. Every beer, independent of the way it is brewed, comprises about 90 percent water. Based on the Bavarian Purity Law, water is one of the ingredients approved for beer production and plays a key role in beer quality and taste. Depending on beer type, chemical composition of brewing liquor has to be specified. As a function of water source or producer, requirements are always higher than those applying to drinking water. Appropriate water treatment forms the basis of quality and taste of beer being brewed. The following contribution describes the main parameters of brewing liquors as well as the influence of same on the beer being brewed. Different methods for conditioning raw waters for the brewing process are also described.

Single kernel analysis for fractionating cereal batches

Global population is growing. Climate changes and extreme weather conditions are on the increase. Speculation and rising energy costs contribute to dramatic price increases for cereals. Sweeping consequences are already evident, in particular for people living in developing countries. It is, thus, more important than ever to reduce or avoid crop losses. Grain grading could be one solution. Numerous possibilities are available for cleaning batches by means of grading in order to raise their average quality and optimise processability. The present contribution describes innovative technology for cereal grading and discusses selected results from process and equipment validation.

From wheat to wheat malt – changes in the protein fractions

Of the grains used in brewing, very extensive research on malting barley has been carried out the world over. By contrast, relatively little is known about “malting wheat”. Beer is comprised of more than 450 substances, all of which have an impact on flavor, aroma, color, stability and quality, thus ranking it among the world’s most complex foodstuffs. Since the raw materials have a significant influence on the composition of the finished beer, the need for research is compelling. For this reason, work is now being carried out with the support of the Wissenschaftliche Station für Brauerei in Munich, Germany, and the Chair of Brewing and Beverage Technology at the TU München in collaboration with University College Cork and the Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft (LfL) on wheat used as malt in beer production.

Simply Hops and White Labs announced a partnership aimed at providing the growing UK craft brew market with the very best live yeast cultures.

It is well known that alpha acids in hops are responsible for beers bitterness via their thermal isomerization into iso-alpha acids during the kettle boil. Alpha acids that don’t isomerize generally absorb onto the trub and yeast during fermentation, with little if any getting into the final beer.