Who knows the science of what goes on?

I am a Microbiologist by trade....so I know what goes on with yeast and the needs of the yeast, and I know how to be sanitary and how to stay sanitary. What I don't know or understand circles around mainly the boil. What is happening to the sugars? What is happening to the Hops? How does time addition make an impact on the grain or hops? Also, the Mash/sparg is a chemical extraction of the sugars from the grain using temperature and inherent enzymes in the grain, correct?

I know that this understanding can help me in future batches. Also, I plan on going to all grain in the future, so understanding these things will benifit future batches.

Thanks guys!!

http://howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-4.html

You can take a look at that for the info on hops you're looking for.

I'm a Pharmacist and I too understand the with the yeast and also the others you ask about. I'm sure you have an extensive chemistry background as well so understanding what you ask about won't be a problem. I learned most of it from homebrew books that I have. Go out and buy some books or may be Google it and find out. Time and temp of mash is designed so that you extract mostly sugars and leave the compounds that cause off flavors with the mash grains. Google is your friend.

Go to your local library and ask for an interlibrary loan for Jean De Clerk's A Textbook of Brewing. I have a BS in Chemistry and found the book amazing. You can also visit the Siebel Institute website for the more chemistry intensive books on brewing. Here is the site http://www.siebelinstitute.com/e-store/

Starches/sugars are extracted/converted in the mash, not much happens to them in the boil. There a few styles where you caramelize sugars in the boil, but that's tricky. The boil is largely for isomerization of the alpha acids in the hops and the extraction of flavor/aroma oils.

If you get the pod casts for Brew strong, look up the mash and boil pod casts and they really do a reasonable job at explaining the reactions.