Mashing and wort separation

The purpose of mashing is to provide the proper conditions for the production of brewers extract from the grist.
In mashing, malt or solid adjunct is converted in a liquid medium, in the presence of enzymes into a fermentable extract suitable for yeast growth and alcohol production.

In some circumstances because of the use of adjuncts such as barley, wheat , maize and rice or because of the environmental conditions leading to malts being more difficult to process in the brewery it is necessary to add exogenous enzymes to the process to maintain consistent  brewhouse perfomance, extract quality and yield.

These products will also ensure the brewer continues to produce high quality extract in the most cost efficient way.
Kerry Ingredients & Flavours offers a complete range of amylase, glucanase, cellulase, hemi-cellulase and protease enzymes to ensure consistent and cost effective brewhouse throughput.

The enzymes involved in the hydrolysis of starch are α-amylase (e.g. Bioferm, producing dextrins and maltose) and amyloglucosidase (e.g. Amylo for glucose and "low carb" beer production). The combined actions of these enzymes help to produce a wort sugar spectrum suitable for fermentation. For starch liquefaction and/or extract production from adjuncts Hitempase addition to the cereal cooker is recommended.

Beta-Glucan (a non-starch polysaccharide) is a major constituent of malt and barley cell walls. If malt is poorly modified or if the brewing process employs a significant proportion of unmalted barley the beta-glucan released during mashing is insufficiently hydrolysed. The resulting gums can increase wort viscosity and signifi cantly reduce the porosity of the grain bed resulting in poor lautering / mash filtration performance. Beta-glucan passing through the grain bed in the wort will survive into the beer and may subsequently cause filtration problems or lead to beta-glucan haze formation in the final product. Malt beta-glucanases are temperature labile (max. 60°C) and if not destroyed during the kilning process survive for a limited period during mashing depending on the mashing conditions. Kerry Ingredients & Flavours produces a range Bioglucanases, which can be used in both mashing vessels and fermentation/maturation tanks to hydrolyse malt/barley beta-glucans and remove large beta-glucans from wort and green beer.

In instances where there is a significant percentage of unmalted barley or other adjunct being used there is the danger that insufficient nitrogen will be available for yeast growth and fermentation may be sluggish as a result. The Kerry Ingredients & Flavours Bioprotease range is used to increase wort free amino nitrogen (FAN) levels.

Use of glucanases, proteases, amylases and xylanases can help to significantly reduce viscosity levels within the mash thereby standardising or controlling wort filtration rates. The Promalt range provides these enzymes in a single addition.