8 simple assorted questions to comprehend beer making

[perfection]

I am a student majoring in beverage management studies and do not have access to bewery visits where i stay. I have several questions (most of them elementary) to fully comprehend the post fermentation process especially conditioning

Sometimes it is the base level knowledge that needs to be in place before allelse so please excuse botht he number and idiocy levels of these questions

I must also confess that here in India we do not make ales (at all?!) so this style of beer is very alien to me in taste and manufacture

I would like answers from the large scale brewing industry practices wherever possible

Also please help me by answering with respect to ales and lagers seperately as that is the way i have structured my year end theoretical project as these two styles begin to differ a lot from fermentation onward

I know practices vary widely - if they is a variety of practices please let me know the most widespread and commonly used one

Question 01. Primary (first) fermentation occurs in closed tanks (except for lambics) - right? Is the beer adequately carbonated (by adequately i mean equivalent to consumer levels) after this fermentation and how does the CO2 dissolve in the green beer (in wine, at this same stage it all escapes and the wine is still)?

Question 02.
When ales are "racked" for say a short time ranging from a day to a week from primary to secondary fermentation tanks are they secondary fermenting yet with leftover transfererred yeast for this short period before cask or bottle conditioning? If they have sufficient carbonation from the primary why add primings into the cask (for real ale) or in the bottle for bottle conditiong -wouldn't this overdo the carbonation?

Question 03
If an ale is not sold cask conditioned or bottle conditioned how is it handled - in other words what is the handling of ales sold non-conditioned in bottles or kegs and in this case when is the carbonation added ?


Question 04
Is a secondary fermenter the same as a bright beer tank or are they sequential used or containers?

Question 05
Are finings use in commercial breweries on bulk beer (i am not talking about their use in cask and bottle conditioning) or is it always filtration with perlite or kieselguhr or ae both proceeses in place and if so in what order

Question 06
How is carbon di oxide dissolved in the beer in kegs and bottles - is it per bottle or per keg at the time of filling them on the machine line individually or it is carbonated in bulk (after filteration) and then filled into kegs and bottles
Is conditioning stage carbonation done to acquire a kind of top off maximum required level that will reach customers?
How come, in the case of lagers, the carbonation is still not enough after 4 odd months of lagering that it needs to be krausened?

Question 07
Is their something like keg conditioning or is it only cask and bottle conditioning?

Question 8
Is yeast ever added to a secondary tank or does it always occur with leftover re-activated yeast

Please help me with simple and lucid answers and i have joined this forum as i found it the most active one around - i hope it is the most friendly too!

Yes, i have googled but the information on conditioning and carbonation did not answer some of my questions while iothers helped but contradicted inter-se

Thank you
Thank you
Thank you

 

[Jdslep]

I am a pretty inexperienced homebrewer, and I have NEVER worked in a commercial brewery. That said, I'll get this started and bump your post up.

Answer 1: When we do primary fermentation in a bucket or carboy with an airlock or blowoff tube, there is nothing to hold in the buildup of pressure. Thus, the beer does not carbonate much in the fermenter. In bottle conditioning, the cap can withstand CO2 pressure.

Answer 2: Although there will be some yeast left in the bottom of the primary, there is generally enough yeast in suspension to perform the conditioning and carbonating (no yeast addition is needed).

Answer 3: I don't keg; someone else should answer this! I don't know how large breweries carbonate their bottles.

Answer 4: I don't understand perfectly the question, but the primary and secondary fermenters can look exactly the same. The only difference may be the size. They are two separate containters, though.

Answer 5 & 6: I don't know.

Answer 7: I have heard of keg conditioning being used by homebrewers.

Answer 8: I have heard of homebrewers adding yeast into the secondary if they find fermentation has stopped too early (at a very high specific gravity).

Sorry I can't help much. I am interested in these things, too. Good luck!

 

[BOBrob]

Search on line "John Palmer" How to brew;to find complete understanding to the fermentation process in different styles and types of beer making. You will also find a glossary of terms there; thus allowing us to better answer your questions. Fermentation is the process of the yeast converting sugar to alcohol, carbonation occurs when the yeast coverts the priming sugar to alcohol in the bottle or cask to create the gas (carbonation), and conditioning is when the ingredients blend together to create the desired flavor in different styles/ types of beer; each of the three are individual stages of the process. Also finings are what home brewers use to help "clear" the suspended sediment in homebrew, where as the brewing industry filters beer. You will get more detailed answers here on HBT, but this is a start. Cheers

 

[chunk1227]

Here is my take on it.

1. Primary fermentation does not necessarily need to take place in a closed tank. A large majority of breweries use closed tank due to lower risk of contamination among other things. One large brewery that uses open tanks is Anchor. For reference, all lambics are not fermented in open tanks. They can be done in closed vessels as well. In open vessels the beer will be relatively still after fermentation, a slight amount oc CO2 will remain due to atmospheric pressure. Many breweries from micro sized and up(if using closed tanks) will cap the fermenter at a time before fermentation is complete. This will increase the pressure in the tank as the yeast are still working. As the pressure increase CO2 will dissolve into the beer. A relief valve is on the tank which will release any excess CO2, not allowing dissolved CO2 to exceed a predetermined point. Other methods can be used to carbonate the beer, ie forced carbonation via a CO2 cylinder or priming with extra sugar post fermentation. These last two are used by homebrewers because it is easier to control on a small scale.

 

[chunk1227]

2. Secondary fermentation is a bad word used in homebrewing. Just because the beer is racked from one vessel to another it is still in the same fermentation cycle. The beer when rack is yes, still consuming the same sugar unless further sugar is added. Primings are added depending on the carbonation method, see #1.

3. See #1

4. This all depends on the set-up and process of the brewery. Most breweries will go from primary vessel to a secondary vessel. If you want to call this a "bright tank" or a "secondary" is up to you. Me personally, if I am calling it a secondary, I would be adding sugars from another source, ie fruit, thereby inducing a true "secondary" fermentation.

5. I believe most larger breweries will use filtration alone, but finings are not unheard of in the microbrewery scene. If both are used, finings would be added first. The beer would be allowed to clear further, then it would be filtered.

 

[chunk1227]

6. Large scale, it is carbonated first, then filled into bottles and kegs. In your lager scenario, the 4 months does nothing to increase carbonation if the CO2 during fermentation is allowed to escape to atmosphere. You very well could brew a lager and cap it at the end stage of fermentation, causing dissolved CO2 to rise to any level you like. Then lager the beer fully carbonated. The lagering stage is all about flavor development, not building CO2. FWIW very little CO2 is produced after the first week.

7. I will second Bobrob here. Read Palmer. "Conditioned" is more of a buzz word used by the big beer companies. Palmer will explain in depth, what is happening during each phase of fermentation.

8. Yes, yeast is sometimes added to the "secondary" This could be done either because the initial charge of yeast is tired and fermentation has not completed, different yeast is sometimes used for bottling, etc.

 

[Revvy]

If you're doing a paper on commercial breweries, I think you would best be served asking your questions at ProBrewer.com: An Online Resource Serving The Beer Industry it's the forum for professional brewers. Most all of us on here are soley homebrewers. And there's a lot we do differently on our smaller scale.

 

[perfection]

Thank you EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU
I appreciate and value this effort to help me
Merci

 

[nebben]

I am a student majoring in beverage management studies and do not have access to bewery visits where i stay. I have several questions (most of them elementary) to fully comprehend the post fermentation process especially conditioning

Sometimes it is the base level knowledge that needs to be in place before allelse so please excuse botht he number and idiocy levels of these questions

I must also confess that here in India we do not make ales (at all?!) so this style of beer is very alien to me in taste and manufacture

I would like answers from the large scale brewing industry practices wherever possible

Also please help me by answering with respect to ales and lagers seperately as that is the way i have structured my year end theoretical project as these two styles begin to differ a lot from fermentation onward

I know practices vary widely - if they is a variety of practices please let me know the most widespread and commonly used one

Question 01.....

With most of your questions, it could go either way. Different breweries use different procedures, and there are exceptions to a lot of the rules in your questions (how beers are carbonated, how they are fermented...etc.).

Unfortunately, I would answer everything with "it depends." .